Inside The Chicago Bulls @LosBulls Launch

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

If you're aiming to boost tune-ins, check out what the Los Angeles Chargers are doing on social media ahead of game day.

On the bottom right of their videos, there's a slim bar displaying all the key info:

“NEXT GAME: AT STEELERS | SEP. 22 | 10:00 AM | CBS”

Here are a few examples:

• Spanish Radio Call - Instagram

• Defensive Highlight - X

• Postgame Player Reaction - Facebook

What really caught my attention was the design.

The color contrast makes the bar easy to read, and it's slim enough not to block the content or clash with platform icons. Plus, it fits user behavior—viewers see the creative first without sifting through a cluttered caption for tune-in details.

This tactic works beyond the feed too. The Arizona Cardinals recently highlighted their inclusion in the NFL’s X cover photo. The NFL could adopt the Chargers' Tune-In bar for their prime-time games on X and Facebook—especially for Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night games.

Overall, it's a smart, sleek way to share game details without overwhelming the audience - a tactic worth adding to your team’s marketing strategy.

In Today’s Edition:

• How @LosBulls Was Made 🐂 

• An Epic McLaren x LEGO Build 🏎️ 

• Bayern’s Beer Glass Challenge 🍺 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
How @LosBulls Was Made

One of the key benefits of digital media is that it allows rights holders and their brand partners to connect with fans not just domestically but globally. European football teams have led the way in this area, and U.S. sports teams are catching up, focusing on international audiences in recent years.

• In 2022, the NFL launched its Global Markets Program, giving teams international marketing rights.

• That same year, the NBA expanded its International Team Marketing Plan, allowing up to 10 international sponsors or partners outside the U.S. and Canada.

• MLB followed by letting teams submit proposals for up to three international markets to secure sponsorships or host fan events.

With these rights, teams often create social media accounts tailored to local fanbases in their language. These accounts better engage fans and offer a more cost-effective marketing strategy compared to paid media, also providing new inventory for digital partnerships.

However, launching social media accounts in different locations and languages takes more than just securing a handle and posting. It requires careful planning, staffing, strategy, and a long-term commitment.

This week, the Chicago Bulls launched their Spanish-language Instagram account, @LosBulls, and gave me an inside look into the process.

They've already seen success with their French-language account, @LesChicagoBulls, which has more than 108,000 followers. The Bulls have also expanded into China's social media ecosystem, with accounts on Weibo, Douyin, and KuaiShou, collectively reaching over 4.4 million followers.

As they continue growing internationally, I spoke with Luka Dukich, the Bulls' VP of Content, about the launch of @LosBulls.

Luka shared the long process behind starting an account, the staff needed to maintain the Bulls brand globally, how they work with a third-party agency, @LosBulls’ increased monetization potential, and their plans for culturally relevant content tailored to their Spanish-speaking audience.

Note: Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ALEX: Why a Spanish language account?

LUKA: A quarter of the league's players are now born outside the US. But even among a very international league, the Bulls are unique.

The Bulls are a top five most followed U.S. sports team with 45 million followers. For context, that's more than all the other Chicago professional sports teams combined and the reason for that is the international audience.

Seventy percent of that following comes from outside of the U.S. Over the last couple of years, we've decided to launch a strategy to be more purposeful in reaching these fans. We wanted to build that deeper connection and meet them where they are.

We started with a French account because we had a game in Paris in January 2022. We thought that was a good opportunity to launch something that was both a digital experience as well as a physical one.

We wanted to make this meaningful and a permanent fixture. We launched the account, ran it for about a year, saw the results, and we continue to be happy with it.

About 12% of our 45 million current followers speak Spanish as their first language. After the success of the French account, we decided Spanish was the natural next step. It reaches a lot of our audience, not just internationally in Latin America and, Europe, but also in the U.S.

There's a lot of Spanish-speaking households in Chicago itself. It goes along with our strategic priorities. We felt it was the right time to engage this fan base.

ALEX: What strategy are you taking for @LosBulls and what goals come along with it?

LUKA: The strategy is really one of our pillars as an organization, which is to cultivate our fan base. We want to engage and connect and make sure that the Bulls are speaking to fans in their language within their culture.

We want to give them meaningful experiences. We’ve done things like street art murals painted by four Latiné audience artists last year. We host a Los Bulls game each year.

This is our way to reach into their backyards across the globe. It starts with building an authentic experience on social.

There's a lot of companies around the world where we can establish relationships and build a business relationship through these audiences, too. That's the next step of the evolution. But first, we want to establish a two-way communication with these fans.

ALEX: What has it taken to get to this point? What indicators did you see in making this addition to the team’s social media mix?

LUKA: A few years ago, the NBA told teams they’re no longer restricted to their geographic area internationally.

As we've seen in the Olympics, you can see how close the rest of the world has come to the U.S. in basketball. The success of our French account is another signal of this change and caused us to bounce off of that and develop a Spanish strategy.

But it's a long process. It's a lot of planning. It's a lot of being purposeful.

A lot of times people think starting a social platform is just signing up for a handle and posting, but it really requires a thoughtful strategy. And I think you're going to see that, as we start publishing, these are purposeful posts to reach this audience.

One of our first posts is a message from Andrés Nocioni, he was a cult hero for Bulls fans during his time here, but fans don’t often see him much anymore since he moved back to Argentina upon retirement. So, we’re excited to have him welcome fans to the page.

That’s a cool opportunity we have to naturally make it different from the core Bulls account. It's going to provide value, it's going to provide context, and that takes a lot of planning.

We work with an agency partner to help us activate. So, we went through the process of finding the right one, deciding how we're going to engage these markets.

It’s not a simple one, two, three process, but we’re excited to take this next step and finally go live.

ALEX: When did the process of building @LosBulls begin? What steps has the team taken since then to be ready to launch?

LUKA: We started seriously working to launch the Spanish account after we hired a full-time staffer, Eunbee Kim, who is our international content manager, who we hired in December of last year.

Now, we have someone who's full-time on the Bulls staff in the Chicago office who's responsible for managing these agencies and making sure that we are building this the right way.

And she's been great. She, along with Serena Yeh, our senior manager of digital partnerships, helped lead the RFP search, helped lead the strategy and planning process, making sure that we have our KPIs and plan in place before we even jumped off the ground.

Then we really hit the ground running in January to make our plan, locked in the agency partner in the summertime, and now we're ready to go. It's almost a full year of planning before we launch.

ALEX: Outside of hiring an International Content Manager, what else have you done to ensure the Bulls’ brand is successfully pulled through via a third party?

LUKA: I view Serena and Eunbee as the real conduits. [The account] should be in its own voice and the reason we have people who are based in Latin America who are helping us run this account is so that we're natural, not just language-wise.

We're not just translating posts, right? It's being part of cultural trends, but at the same time we want it to be authentic. So, that person is tied into our photographers, our video team, everything, so that the content is still being seen by the core Bulls content team. It's coming out in a way that's directly reaching a specific audience.

It's going to be different than our core account but it's still going to feel like the Bulls and that was very important to us when we sketched out what this might look like.

ALEX: How did you choose the agency you’re working with to run @LosBulls and what is their role in content strategy, production, and publishing?

LUKA: We’re working with SPORTFIVE, which is the same agency that launch and sustain our French account.

When we were in Paris, there was some French internet trend, and they asked if Benny could just hold the sign that says this thing in French. He [Benny] did it and the French audience loved it! So, it gives us a chance to participate in trending topics within these places.

They advise on trends, they help us with the [social] schedule and publishing. It's a two-way street. Our design team works with them to steer what the look is so that it still feels authentically like the Bulls.

They're ultimately responsible for a lot of content creation. Then they work with our team on how we are distributing and what makes sense. It's a balance of both.

We want our stuff to be culturally relevant, and not just us deciding what we think is culturally relevant. They're helping us with that, but at the same time, it's the Bulls’ voice.

The French account is primarily targeted towards French speakers all across the globe, but the core of that audience is actually in France itself. Spanish is not that way. Spanish is all across the globe, including Latin America.

What's unique about that is they're in a similar time zone to us, which allow for more game coverage than the French account, which is limited by the fact that a lot of our games are in the middle of the night. That's going to be an interesting difference between the two accounts.

SPORTFIVE will be working with our international content manager on game nights to make sure that we're putting out the right kind of content in the right voice. It’s a real partnership and the agency is going to be very helpful.

ALEX: Will game days look the same on @ChicagoBulls and @LosBulls?

LUKA: It will be interesting to see what it is because right now, we cover a lot of the individual plays on Instagram stories during games and then you don't do quarter-score-type updates on Instagram [feed] because of how the algorithm works.

Your big highlights or big moments will be what's on the feed and then the rest is on stories. It will be similar because it's the same platform, even if it's a different cultural market.

We plan to experiment and see what people are responding to, what people want to see. How can we incorporate a different flavor to what we're doing?

There’s a lot of Spanish influence throughout our history. So how can we incorporate your Pau Gasol’s or Andrés Nocioni’s through the feed in general? We have some stuff up our sleeve that we're going to try out.

We definitely don't want to just copy the same thing we're doing in the other account because it's meant to feel different.

ALEX: Is there a bigger monetization opportunity for @LosBulls versus @LesChicagoBulls by adding live game coverage?

LUKA: You’re absolutely right about that.

There's a big sponsor opportunity that this is going to be a different demographic than our core audience. That gives brands who are looking to partner with us an opportunity to reach that audience.

ALEX: Any key learnings from @LesChicagoBulls as you tip things off on @LosBulls?

LUKA: It needs to have its own voice, especially on Instagram. You can't just translate content. People want to feel like you're speaking directly to them. So, anything that's been completely shaped for that audience specifically, people will respond to.

Fortunately, we have a lot of players with a lot of connections. Joakim Noah speaking French. [Nikola] Vucevic speaks French. Whenever we've done things where we're speaking in their language, it's natural.

You can tell that it's created specifically for this account. It's not just something we're reusing. That's the stuff that really performs.

It's still the Bulls’ voice, but it can't just feel like this satellite thing that you're dumping content or just pressing Google Translate on. It has to feel unique and bespoke. And that's what has been the strongest thing of our French account.

We want it to be the same with the Spanish account.

You have to be authentic. You have to be meaningfully making different content and giving people a reason to also follow this account. Because if 70% of our followers on our @ChicagoBulls account are already coming from outside the US, they're already following there.

If you're just putting the same content on with Spanish captions, there's only so much that you can do there. Then, we'd love to give people actual physical experiences, too, that go along with the digital ones.

ALEX: Do any of the current players speak Spanish that you'll be utilizing for @LosBulls content?

LUKA: Chris Duarte is a new Bull. He's from the Dominican Republic. He's already recorded some videos for us. The Nocioni thing is big for us.

We want to incorporate those guys. Pau Gasol is a former player. The beginning is going to be a celebration of culture and the Bulls.

One of the most-liked Bulls posts of all time is when we sent Lionel Messi a Bulls jersey, he held it up, and it was just such a coup. But he's so genuinely excited. And then he posted on his own a picture of himself walking his dog, and he was wearing a Bulls jersey on his own.

ALEX: Are you planning to use any tools to dub content into Spanish?

LUKA: Not at the moment. You'll see subtitles instead of dub. Just makes it feel more natural.

People are ok with that on social. It might be different if something's animated down the line. But for the moment, you'll see more subtitles than you will dub.

ALEX: Is there a plan to use Instagram broadcast channels off the top?

LUKA: First, we'll build the audience and then we'll play with those features, but we have not yet discussed that.

ALEX: Is sponsored content a priority as you launch? Or do you need to focus on audience building and gathering data first?

LUKA: We first want to build that audience. We're having concurrent conversations.

Our focus is building this audience and launching it. We did an announcement with a great graphic that celebrates some of the past and present Spanish influences and main players, both current and former that you would expect.

The first week is going to be a celebratory welcome, and strategic collabs with the main account when we start filtering people to this account.

Then we're getting right into, hey, we're the Bulls. This is your new Los Bulls.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
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🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

MrBeast Strategy Leak: This week, a 36-page document titled “How To Succeed In MrBeast Production” leaked. Jack Appleby wrote a quick breakdown in his Future Social newsletter, providing 10 key takeaways you can apply to your own content.

Grimace Magic: The New York Mets installed a commemorative purple seat for Grimace at Citi Field after the McDonald's character threw out the first pitch on 6/12, kicking off a seven-game winning streak. Grimace also appeared in a videoboard feature as the team's playoff race intensifies.

TrEverbank Stadium: EverBank kicked off the Jacksonville Jaguars' regular season by temporarily renaming EverBank Stadium to "TrEverBank Stadium" in honor of QB Trevor Lawrence. The campaign was also featured across the Jaguars' digital and social channels [h/t Brian Gainor].

YouTube Monetization Tips: Rob Kelly, Head of Content Strategy at Little Dot Studios, spotlights the Premier League clubs maximizing YouTube monetization, and those that could benefit from a strategic shift to increase social revenues [via Sport Industry Group].

Old But Gold: Speaking of YouTube, Dawid Prokopowicz lays out why having an archive footage strategy is essential for creating new revenue streams and more!

Fantasy View: For teams that have or will have their own network, consider partnerships that boost engagement and personalization, like YouTube TV's new collaboration with Yahoo Sports [h/t Ed Abis].