I'm Jealous Of This Activation

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

Social shows were everywhere in 2025 and that momentum has carried into 2026.
Not just as series on your primary account, but as standalone accounts built entirely around episodic formats.

One I recently fell into on TikTok was Clash, a simple but sticky concept where one fan debates ten haters with the goal of convincing at least one of them to change their opinion.

After digging in, the interesting part clicked: Clash is powered by House of Highlights.

The format actually started on YouTube back on December 14, 2024. The early results were strong right out of the gate, averaging 476K views per video across the first seven uploads. Once the format proved it could travel, HoH expanded Clash into dedicated accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and X on June 5, 2025.

The channel has evolved beyond the original fan vs. hater setup, adding new debate-style formats while keeping the same core tension. Another smart move: rotating in recognizable sports creators as talent. That brings built-in audiences, keeps episodes feeling fresh, and helps the show scale without relying on a single face.

So what’s the takeaway for teams, leagues, and media publishers?

1. These formats are replicable. You don’t need a massive production budget to bring them to life.

2. This type of show is a natural fit for influential fans and alumni as talent. On the creator side, participation is an easier sell too. Tickets, merch, or access go a long way, and it doesn’t cannibalize what they already do on their own channels.

3. This is a sponsorship goldmine. These debate formats are natural fits for the legal category (Make Your Case), QSR (Settle the Beef), or Heat/Spice-related brand (Hot Take-down). Plus you could integrate branding on apparel, mic flags, or the table between talent.

The takeaway here is about discipline, not distribution.

House of Highlights didn’t rush to scale. They tested a format, watched how fans responded, and only expanded once the concept proved it could hold attention over multiple episodes. That’s the muscle most teams and leagues still need to build, rather than leaning on a built if sold model.

The opportunity is to study formats that already work, pressure-test whether they can be adapted to your audience without feeling forced, and run small experiments before committing real resources. When something shows signs of repeatability, it becomes monetizable inventory.

In Today’s Edition:

• Reward The Diehards ⚡️

• Super Team Store Sponcon 👕

• Break The Egg (Finally) 🥚 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The Smartest Late-Night Fan Play

Every once in a while, a campaign comes along that makes me wish I’d sold it first.

In late January, the New York Rangers and Monster Energy ran an in-app sweepstakes called the Midnight Monster Energy Toss, and it’s one of those ideas that makes you pause and think, why aren’t more teams doing this?

The timing was the entire point.

The Blueshirts were on a three-game West Coast swing, all with 10 p.m. ET puck drops. Brutal start times for East Coast fans. Instead of ignoring that reality, the Rangers leaned directly into it and built an activation specifically for the fans willing to stay up late.

During each late-night game window, the sweepstakes went live exclusively in the Rangers app. Fans who stayed up had a chance to win a Centennial jersey (a legitimately strong piece of prizing) and Monster Energy product.

The insight was simple and smart:
Reward the most committed fans, the ones proving their loyalty by watching when it’s inconvenient.

And Monster Energy was a natural fit. Staying up late. West Coast puck drops. Energy drinks. No mental gymnastics required.

The part I really liked: channel discipline

What stood out most wasn’t just the idea, it was how the Rangers brought it to life.

They didn’t rely on organic social alone and hope fans stumbled into the activation. Instead, they used channels that actually drive the behaviors they wanted.

Ahead of the road trip, the team sent a dedicated email promoting the sweepstakes. They paired that with paid social ads carrying a clear call to action: Download the Rangers app. Enable notifications. Enter to win.

That approach did a few things at once:

• Drove awareness of the promotion for Monster Energy

• Incentivized app downloads for the Rangers

• Encouraged fans to turn on push notifications

• Grew the team’s owned audience with future engagement value

Then, on game night, push notifications did the heavy lifting, driving fans directly into the app while the games were happening. Clean, direct, and behaviorally aligned.

This wasn’t about chasing impressions. It was about building infrastructure: app users, notification permissions, and repeatable engagement.

Why I’m jealous

I’ve wanted to sell and run a campaign like this for years.

Ever since the Buffalo Sabres leaned into their Sabres After Dark gameday graphics on West Coast trips, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of acknowledging fans who watch at weird hours. There’s something powerful about recognizing that level of commitment instead of pretending every game is watched under perfect conditions.

This Rangers execution shows how the concept works, and that it can be packaged cleanly for a sponsor.

More importantly, it shows how overlooked these windows still are.

This idea scales way beyond hockey

Late-night and early-morning viewing happens constantly across sports:

• East Coast teams playing out West

• West Coast teams playing early games back East

• NFL international games

• European soccer preseason tours

• Any global sport with cross-time-zone audiences (Olympics, World Cup, etc)

Any time fans are watching at unorthodox hours, there’s an opportunity to celebrate them, and monetize that behavior.

From a category standpoint, this is wide open:

• Energy drinks

• Coffee

• QSR

• Food delivery

These are moments when fans already need fuel. The brand fit writes itself.

If I were packaging this for a sponsor, here’s what I’d sell

Organic Social
Each gameday, I’d run a branded “After Dark” style graphic with logo inclusion and tagging. I’d also add a roll call on Instagram Stories and X asking fans where they’re watching from, then reshare select responses (IGS only). It reinforces community while giving the brand social proof.

Pregame and Postgame Offers

This is where QSR and delivery partners shine. A pregame discount window to fuel fans before puck drop, followed by a postgame or next-morning offer for breakfast or coffee. You’re rewarding the behavior twice.

In-Game Mobile App Sweepstakes
This is the anchor. App-exclusive. Premium prizing. Strong enough to motivate action. The result: CRM growth for the team, lead generation for the brand, and increased likelihood fans actually stay tuned during the game.

Paid Social

Replicate the Rangers’ approach. Promote the sweepstakes ahead of time with a clear CTA tied to the app. This proactive promotion for in-app activations is a tactic that is showing up more frequently across the industry.

Mobile App Push Notifications
Timed pushes during each gameday to activate the sweepstakes. Direct. Effective. Hard to beat when the goal is immediate participation.

Email
A dedicated email announcing the activation, followed by smart segmentation. Exclude known app users in a follow-up to drive incremental downloads and data capture. Supplement with newsletter placements so the message stays visible without overwhelming fans.

Broadcast Integration
If live reads are available, use them. Promote the sweepstakes during the game or pregame show. You can even introduce a secret code during the broadcast for bonus entries. At a minimum, include QR codes driving fans to the app.

[NHL Only] Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED)
Work with the rights holder to deploy sweepstakes-focused DED creative during the first period of the game. This is a smart way to repurpose existing broadcast inventory (where applicable) to build awareness for the activation, reinforce the call to action in real time, and reach fans who may not be engaging on second-screen channels.

Experiential
Take a page from Heineken’s late-night UEFA Champions League activations. Identify unexpected venues that are open during odd hours and turn them into viewing hubs. Laundromats, diners, late-night cafes, anywhere fans already are.

How I’d measure success

For the brand:

• Leads generated through the sweepstakes

• Lead rate (brand leads/total entries)

• Offer redemptions and redemption rate

• Total impressions and engagement across channels

For the rights holder:

• New fans captured via the sweepstakes

• App downloads generated

• Total entries compared to prior benchmarks

• Viewership impact versus the same games last season

This campaign works because it respects fan behavior instead of fighting it. It rewards loyalty, builds owned channels, and gives sponsors a role that actually makes sense in the moment.

I’m jealous, but mostly because it’s such a clean reminder that some of the best sponsorship ideas are hiding in plain sight, right there in the schedule.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

The New England Patriots continue to surface strong sponcon moments during their Super Bowl run. This one stood out: a behind-the-scenes look at the team store prepping to sell newly released AFC Champions merch, with Visa seamlessly integrated into the checkout experience.

Dirt Is Good nailed National Girls and Women in Sports Day by leaning into team and player IP. The brand shared childhood photos of Arsenal players playing outside, tying it back to a simple, emotional message: “Every journey begins somewhere—ours began outside.”

Basketball creator Jesser partnered with O’Keeffe’s Working Hands for a “100 Mystery Hoops” YouTube video. About halfway through, he naturally introduced the brand as “the green jar you see on the scorer’s table during NBA games,” then demonstrated the product benefits during a dribble knockout challenge.

Staying in skincare, Aquaphor fittingly sponsored UConn Women’s Basketball’s whiteout game. The activation included Aquaphor-branded white shirts given to the first 10,000 fans.

F1 teams are doing a nice job positioning AI brands as intelligence partners. Cadillac’s partnership announcement with TWG AI was especially sharp, with copy that matched the moment: “When you are building something entirely new, intelligence matters.”

Last March, I pointed out that MLB teams should be replicating RobertAnthony Cruz’s “Break the Egg” challenge as sponcon. Nearly a year later, the Savannah Bananas player brought it back with Under Armour, and it worked: 270K Instagram views, 14.5K engagements, and a 5.4% engagement rate.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

u/Arsenal: Arsenal launched a new Reddit account promising fans exclusive content, breaking news, and behind-the-scenes access, including Reddit AMAs with players and key club figures.

Sticking With Reddit: New research from Jan Boehmer and Brendan O’Hallarn found that higher Reddit use intensity among United Football League fans strongly predicts deeper team identification, even after controlling for demographics and overall fandom.

NFL Social Media Report: STN Digital and Zoomph teamed up to analyze how NFL teams performed across social media during the 2025 season, ranking all 32 teams by Social Value.

Physical To Digital: Benjamin Brostian broke down how teams can turn every “unknown fan” in the building into a measurable relationship by treating the stadium like a data platform, not just a venue to watch the game.

Gen Alpha Fandom: Jo Redfern explored how Roblox is quietly becoming Gen Alpha’s front door to sports fandom, and why the window for rights holders to turn micro-communities into real-world fans is closing faster than many realize [via Fanshift Newsletter].