How WHOOP Changed The Ryder Cup

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

Lando Norris’ race helmet in the backseat of an Uber Exec? That’s the hook Uber UK used for its Lost & Found sweepstakes. Fans booking rides in London between October 3–7 had the chance to find it—and keep it.

The activation wasn’t just clever—it drove business. It got existing customers to sample a new product and pulled in new ones, especially the premium audience Uber wants to reach. The brand spotlighted its Uber Exec service with a sweepstakes built entirely around IP. And the impact came without even using a picture of Lando—just his name and helmet—meaning no custom photo shoot or extra talent time was required.

Once the sweepstakes wrapped, Lando shared (via Instagram Stories) a 25% off discount code for Uber Exec rides in London available through the 15th.

Duracell is taking a similar approach, offering fans a shot at a Williams Racing VIP experience at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The entry mechanic is simple: buy a pack of Duracell batteries at The Home Depot, upload the receipt to a co-branded site. Their paid social content stood out too, with creative use of the green screen effect (using imagery of the drivers in uniform) that feels native to feeds. It’s a tactic they’ve used before with Inter Miami CF.

What makes both sweepstakes smart:

• Low-lift: No extra demands on drivers or teams. Simplifies activation and reduces costs.

• Sales-driven: Entry required a purchase.

• Premium prizes: Big enough to inspire action from their target audiences.

Sometimes the simplest activations pack the biggest punch. You don’t always need access to players or venues to deliver impact—sometimes a sharp idea and the right piece of IP can do the job. And while brands should absolutely look to leverage player and venue access when possible, these kinds of creative (and often cheaper) alternatives prove there’s more than one path to big results.

In Today’s Edition:

• WHOOP! There It Is ❤️ 

• Must LAF-See Dash 🚚 

• Chargers’ Battle Tested BTS 🛫 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The 2025 Ryder Cup, Measured By WHOOP

The Ryder Cup is golf’s ultimate pressure cooker—and this year, WHOOP found a way to make fans feel every heartbeat.

In 2025, WHOOP added a Ryder Cup partnership to its portfolio and made the most of it with a clear strategy to stand out.

Through WHOOP Live on NBC, viewers saw real-time heart rate data from U.S. and European team members—showcasing the intensity, resilience, and mental fortitude required to perform on golf’s biggest stage.

And this concept didn’t come out of nowhere.

Flash back to the 2024 Summer Olympics. NBC and FIGS debuted a feature called Heart of the Moment, spotlighting the family and friends of select athletes—like Karen Hong, mom of U.S. gymnast Asher Hong (shown above). They wore heart monitors in the stands, with their data displayed live on NBC and Peacock.

As I mentioned last August (see Sponsored Content of the Week):

If the Olympics proved the concept, WHOOP took the next logical step—bringing it to athletes themselves.

Unlike the FIGS activation (likely due to rights restrictions), WHOOP Live content was also shared across social—via WHOOP’s channels and Team USA’s—and it crushed.

The Justin Thomas post on WHOOP’s page generated 3x more views and 2x more engagements than any other post from the event. Meanwhile, a collab post from @rydercupusa reeled in another 276K views.

This iteration also flipped the story. Instead of showing how fans/loved ones experience the nerves of competition, it showed how players handle it. That said, if I were on the WHOOP team, I’d still experiment with family and fan data in the future—it’s a natural way to diversify content, especially when access to players is limited.

But this activation also proves how smart it was for WHOOP to lean into golf as a category.

The pacing of the sport makes heart rate data far more digestible—and more dramatic—than in faster sports where athletes are constantly moving. One minute you’re calm, the next you’re standing over a must-make putt.

Athletes rarely show their nerves, so seeing how pressure affects the world’s best players makes them both relatable and superhuman in how they handle it.

WHOOP’s content success didn’t just hinge on WHOOP Live.

They also used data from both teams to tell the story of the Ryder Cup—before, during, and after the action wrapped up at Bethpage Black.

Across the weekend, WHOOP built a full content arc powered by its own data:

• Preview: A team-by-team comparison of sleep, strain, and recovery scores set the stage.

• Day 1 Recap: Brand partner Rory McIlroy’s recovery score, sleep data, and resting heart rate anchored a post highlighting Europe’s strong start.

• Day 2 Recap: A “What Does the Ryder Cup Demand?” carousel broke down average strain, steps taken, and stress levels for both teams.

• Day 3 Preview: WHOOP showed how recovery and sleep performance shaped the weekend ahead.

• Event Recap: They closed the loop with data supporting Captain Luke Donald’s quote about the final round being “the most stressful 12 hours” of his life.

What makes this approach work is how accessible it is. WHOOP didn’t just dump numbers—they gave the data context.

For existing WHOOP users, it reinforced how the metrics they track every day translate to elite performance. For potential customers, it made those same metrics meaningful by connecting them directly to the competition and the athletes themselves.

By pairing storytelling with live metrics, WHOOP turned raw data into emotion.

The Exclamation Point

Speaking of emotion, WHOOP nailed it with their win asset featuring Rory McIlroy.

After McIlroy and Team Europe took home the Ryder Cup, WHOOP shared a post showing him holding the trophy—next to a visual of his red, 1% recovery score. The caption read: “Greatness isn’t always green.”

It’s a perfect line.

The post works on multiple levels. First, it underscores how hard it is to win the Ryder Cup—aligning WHOOP with peak performance at the highest level of sport. But it also makes the brand feel relatable. Fitness tech often preaches optimization and perfection; this message flips that on its head.

Sometimes, even the best athletes win in spite of the numbers.

By leaning into imperfection, WHOOP turns a “bad” score into a badge of effort and resilience. It’s a reminder that greatness isn’t defined by data alone—it’s about how you push through when your metrics say you shouldn’t.

Plus, the creative choice to build the message around the color system of WHOOP’s own app makes it unmistakably theirs. The brand literally owns the color palette of recovery, and they used it to make an emotional statement only they could make.

The Takeaway

WHOOP’s Ryder Cup activation shows what happens when a brand doesn’t just sponsor an event—it adds meaning to it.

They didn’t rely on flashy production or constant athlete access. Instead, they used what makes WHOOP unique—data—to elevate the drama, deepen the story, and humanize elite performance.

From the live broadcast integration to the daily data storytelling and that perfect “Greatness isn’t always green” finale, WHOOP proved that when a brand’s product and purpose are aligned, every piece of content feels authentic.

It’s also proof consistency pays off. The Ryder Cup activation reinforces WHOOP’s long-term positioning around the human side of performance data—a theme that connects everything from the PGA Tour to CrossFit and Formula 1.

And while it strengthened that identity for existing users, it also served as top-of-funnel fuel—turning product data into entertainment that attracts new customers.

Don’t just chase visibility. Build value into the viewing experience. If your product can make the story richer, you’ll earn attention without ever asking for it.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

DoorDash teamed up with LAFC legend Carlos Vela for a live Celebrity Cam takeover at BMO Stadium. Every time he appeared on the stadium screen, he was doing something new with items he’d just ordered on DoorDash—showing off the variety of products, beyond food, available on the platform. As we’ve covered before, in-venue activations can make great sponsored content, and this is the latest proof.

If your team is playing in a rare format—international games, outdoor games, you name it—you should be documenting the step-by-step for YouTube. Case in point: as part of American Airlines’ presenting sponsorship of the Los Angeles Chargers’ season opener in São Paulo, the team shared Everything It Takes for an NFL Team to Play Internationally.

The branded celebration trend keeps rolling. At the Ryder Cup, Team Europe sprayed Moët & Chandon. In MLB, New Era put their logo on players’ goggles for Postseason champagne showers. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ spin on the celebration was especially fun to watch—and the slo-mo made sure the branding was crystal clear for New Era and Budweiser.

When it comes to FC 26, many soccer teams will show players reacting to their ratings. I really liked Manchester City’s take on it rating players reaction to winning on FC 26.

On the analytics side, @sportsball_, arguably the best data viz creator out there, teamed up with AWS to break down Coverage Responsibility, a new stat from NFL Next Gen Stats.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons found an clever way to weave Snickers into their content as the team headed into a well-deserved bye week.

Speaking of the Falcons, Mitchell & Ness sat down with Michael Vick to highlight his influence on both football and fashion in Atlanta. There’s an even bigger play here: expand the format into a long-form YouTube series, similar to the Chicago White Sox’s Fitted in Black with New Era.

And finally, three new YouTube series launched last week: Speed Goes Pro (presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods, featuring iShowSpeed and Tom Brady), The Main Thing (presented by Indeed, featuring LeBron James and Tony Hawk), and One More Round (presented by Bulleit, featuring Sean Evans and Breanna Stewart)

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Feedback Fuels Funding: Nirupam Singh sat down with IRONMAN’s Global Partnerships Manager, Manuel Bassiere, to unpack how IRONMAN turns simple athlete surveys into multi-million-dollar partnerships [via The Commercial Table Newsletter].

Must Listen: You need to check out The Pitch with Andy Marston and Drew Rauso. It feels like listening in on a live brainstorm—and it’s already sparked new ideas for me [via Sports Pundit Podcast Network].

Player Partnership Plays: Jordan Rodgers broke down how Cracker Barrel and Ford scored big with unexpected player partnerships this football season.

Lighting Up LA: Spotted! You need to check out the LED flags the Los Angeles Kings rolled out on Opening Night [h/t Neil Horowitz].

Racing Reality Check: Aston Martin F1 and BOSS teamed up on an Apple Vision Pro experience that lets fans virtually hop in the cockpit with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. It basically brings the thrill of F1 to BOSS stores in seven major cities through October 15.

Stat Of The Week: A Wakefield study of 2,400+ partnerships shows it takes a decade to build a 14–16 point edge in brand equity over competitors. Long-term deals, not quick hits, drive lasting gains in both equity and market share.