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

Two unsponsored content pieces caught my attention this week, ripe for sponsorship.

On ESPN's Get Up, there was a segment titled "Long Shots," where hosts picked an MLB player they believed would hit a home run that day. They paired each selection with ESPN BET odds.

This concept could translate well into the sportsbook category across various sports. Think long-distance home runs (baseball), three-pointers (basketball), and passes (football + soccer). You could also utilize the series name for late-game comebacks, possibly integrating live odds as your team approaches and secures the win.

Meanwhile, this post from the Indiana Pacers sparked an idea: "In The Lab" would be an ideal series name across sports for sponsored content featuring practice footage, particularly suited for brands in the medical & pharmaceutical or technology categories.

In Today’s Edition:

• Insights From The First U.S Digital Partnerships Manager 🧠 

• How The Bruins’ Branding Elevates Their Sponcon 🐻 

• A McLaren F1 Talk Show Turned LEGO 🏎️ 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
Lessons From The First U.S. Digital Partnerships Manager

If there's anyone who knows how to build a successful digital partnerships program from scratch, it's someone who did it with no road map.

In November 2016, Chris Jones became the Atlanta Falcons' inaugural digital partnerships manager, likely the first person to hold this role in the US sports industry.

For context that’s three years before the Carolina Panthers brought on Sam Baier, who we spoke with in February, and nearly five years before I broke into this space in April 2021.

During his tenure, Chris developed best-in-class sponsored content for both the Falcons and Atlanta United across social and digital platforms, while also managing Mercedes Benz Stadium's social accounts.

With previous roles in NASCAR, LEGOLAND Florida, and Orlando City SC, Chris currently serves as a content strategist for Publix Super Markets.

In our conversation, Chris shares invaluable insights gained from pioneering the role:

• The significance of fostering positive relationships between content and partnerships teams.

• The essential elements for successful collaboration with brands on sponsored content.

• Key strategies for establishing a winning digital partnerships program within your organization.

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

ALEX: How did you get started with the Falcons?

CHRIS: The job evolved rapidly over a few years. The basis of it was a chance to truly have a more connective tissue between our corporate sponsorship team and the content that goes out, and ultimately try to connect with people through our brand channels.

The opportunity was exciting because I had not done anything like that and I hadn't had any business-partner relationships so I looked at that as a way to grow myself and be able to have a better understanding of the business whereas my previous roles have all been your more traditional sort of digital, social roles.

ALEX: What were the first things you worked on when you joined the Falcons, especially having joined mid-season?

CHRIS: The first thing was relationship building.

You generally have a perception that there’s friction between your digital and sponsorship groups.

At that time we were on an eventual Super Bowl run, so there wasn't too much change that I knew that I was going to be either tasked with or developing at that moment.

It was a great opportunity for me to use that time to meet people and get a little bit more human understanding of why they're doing what they're doing, the approach from a sponsorship side, the philosophy of it, what we do and do not do with digital and content, and how we package it.

ALEX: Once you hit the offseason, where do you take it?

CHRIS: There was no blueprint for this, no league resource to use, and no case studies. It was genuinely exciting and very anxious to put together a larger strategy of how we want to approach this space and where we see value from a more content perspective.

Back in 2015-16, the attributable value and how people thought of digital was very much an add-on with an approach of we can do this and check that box.

What was fun about that process was that we had a chance to stand on two feet fundamentally to create a concrete strategy that says when we're approaching and working with partners, we want to have a common objective.

Over the next three years, we constantly reiterated and tried to keep getting better against that activity and understanding the ebbs and flows and evolution of the space in a very short time in terms of value.

ALEX: Were there any accomplishments or favorite moments that you had in building this program?

CHRIS: When you were working with your corporate partners you knew they're coming at it with their perspective, their own sets of goals and objectives, and what they're aiming to achieve.

Approaching it from the mentality of ‘I hear you Coca Cola’, but we're reiterating the fact that we're using the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United brand channels to communicate these things. We have to make sure in working against the strategy that we have a common goal to move an emotional needle with these audiences.

The reason that you sign a deal with sports teams is that there's an inherent passion and a built-in fan base that is cognizant of how they’re spending their time, money, and energy, so we should do the same when it comes to approaching your sponsorship in terms of our content.

That in and of itself was a massive win for us because we got a really good chance to authentically have conversations with our brands and start at the same baseline whereas in the years prior it had just been friction points and no education of the power of what this type of content ends up meaning to people.

ALEX: Where did you sit within the organization and is that something you would recommend to others?

CHRIS: I'm just a big believer that if you're at all thinking that you want to leverage your organic platforms to ultimately have a message to your audience that includes a sponsor, then the education, the business knowledge, and just quite frankly, the finger on the pulse is much more so someone who's active within the space.

You can probably take it or leave it where it sits, but it's just genuinely approaching it as a business partner. I think at the time, I didn't have as much of an understanding of that as I do now, that you are operating as a business partner to a group of sales folks internally.

It is a very high-stress thing to constantly be working through a sales metric, so I tried to be with the sales team equally, if not more so than my digital social team.

I feel like I made more of an impact and was able to answer questions and educate because I was more present with that team and coherently trying to be that.

ALEX: Through that education what did you align on across departments?

CHRIS: I very quickly learned that a lot of what I was doing especially with my corporate partnership and then extended team was educating and that was a good thing because we always had to go back to our ‘why’.

We went back to our fundamental whys and our objectives so often because the sales and partnership team is getting asked a variety of different things by the hour and it was a chance to instill ourselves and add value in that regard as well.

ALEX: What advice would you give other teams and organizations on setting up a digital partnerships program?

CHRIS: It goes to a true understanding from a leadership and C-suite level of when we're working with our partners, understanding where are our overlaps of areas that we can work together and have a common objective, but also where are our non-negotiables?

Where are we going to put out that AT&T's selling phones for 50% off on Black Friday? On the Atlanta Falcons Facebook page?

Unless you have that coherent buy-in, then what I've seen, unfortunately, is that you end up having more of your junior-level roles get overtaken by the fact that you just have the money-making revenue side driving decisions.

That is not the right way to look at it and that is completely backwards.

It’s more important than ever to make sure that any content you're putting in front of your audience, organic or paid, is so well thought out and is so on-point to the message you're trying to get out. That key strategic foundation of the role is crucial.

ALEX: Can you talk me through your team’s process of how sponsored content comes to life?

CHRIS: We found a process that worked for us and our timelines which is obviously a challenge that I experienced now on the Publix side which is, we have brands coming to us whose timelines are seven, eight months ahead whereas my team is creating this content and not even in the headspace to ideate new content for the upcoming season.

It was input from our partnership team to have a good understanding of what those partners were looking to generally achieve for the next year.

We would take that information and then I'd be able to really workshop with my digital team and my content team both with the Falcons and United to then, as much as we could, create a runway to brainstorm what could be forecastable pieces of content that we see as sponsorable, makes sense, and adds value.

Then it became almost like a pairing exercise which is dizzying because you're getting to the space of having to land all this during preseason.

Then there's the whole other element which is your unplanned content.

For example, the ask got called in from Microsoft earlier today that they have additional dollars to spend against their new Xbox and they want to promote it in some way.

It became a very condensed version of the exercise.

Note - THIS was the excellent content that came from that Microsoft request

ALEX: How did you handle those quick pitches?

CHRIS: It goes back to having a good understanding of the ‘why’ behind it.

If you get a few layers into what that partner is trying to achieve, then you end up finding out a different or better answer to the question.

In having that due diligence conversation, even in a quick-moving capacity, we all benefit from it because in all those exercises, we ended up having either a clear understanding of how we were going to be able to quick turn or, going back to the strategy and the leadership element, felt empowered to also say no and say, look, we are already beyond capacity, or I don't see the value of this content from a digital capacity.

It really is more of trying to have a genuine understanding of the business element.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

Creative design can truly elevate sponsored content, and the Boston Bruins' centennial branding this season stands out as a prime example, even earning them a Shorty Awards nomination.

During the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the impact of these assets was undeniable.

Let's dive into the highlights:

Round One Schedule

Let’s start simple. This round one schedule graphic sponsored by Rapid7 immediately caught my attention.

The POV from above the Bruins bench made me stop my scroll and take a longer look at the creative.

Bosch Partnership Assets

Bosch Power Tools is the force behind two key game assets.

They sponsor Power Play GIFs, a seamless fit. Plus, they sponsor “Hard Hat Highlights”, a series spotlighting the game's physicality (which I haven’t much of across the industry), perfectly echoing their brand slogan, "What Hard Workers Deserve."

Playoff Win GIF

When it comes to animated assets, the Bruins know how to nail it.

Take, for instance, their Warrior Sports Win GIF. The best part is the countdown element, with each win towards the Stanley Cup marked off.

Creative Diversity

In a sport like hockey where the team plays multiple times a week, 82 games a season, and now the playoffs, it’s crucial to keep sponsored content fresh.

The Bruins excel in this department, offering a diverse range of looks for their creative assets. Just check out their Power Play GIFs - they come in five different versions, ensuring variety and engagement.

• Power Play GIFS: Version 1 | Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4 | Version 5

That diversity is not limited to animated assets. They even have different looks for their New England Honda Dealers Keys of the Game.

• Keys of the Game: Version 1 | Version 2 

Logo Treatment

While logo size gets a lot of attention in sponsored content, clarity and time on screen are also vital.

The Bruins' creative team nails all three aspects.

• They keep the TD Bank logo static and centered amid the motion of their Goal GIFs.

• In their animations for Gameday Graphics and On This Day In History the TD Bank and Coca-Cola logos change positions but always remain on screen.

• My personal favorite is the push and pull of the Rapid7 logo in the team’s Starting Goalie Announcements.

The Takeaway

Creative design plays a huge role in sponsored content, and the Boston Bruins are really setting the bar high.

But it's not just about looking good; you also need to be thoughtful about it.

From mixing up assets to placing logos just right, it's all about making sure fans notice the branding without hindering creeping into ad-like territory.

The Bruins' Centennial Branding is a great example of how to keep things fresh and captivating.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

A+ design work from the Tampa Bay Lightning for their player arrivals post on X presented by Raymond James.

The McLaren Racing x LEGO partnership continues to raise the bar with its creativity. You gotta check out the latest episode of the Lando & Oscar Show. This video and episode one have produced 3M total views on Instagram with a 7.3% average engagement rate per post.

Love the idea of having a brand in the financial category sponsor a content bank similar to the NBA’s SoFi photo bank. Could be a highlight bank, wallpaper bank, loyalty points bank, and much more.

I’m sitting at the edge of my seat waiting to find out the kind of content that will come from the Los Angeles Rams’ Zillow Draft House for this weekend’s NFL Draft.

The Philadelphia 76ers showed some love to their partner Amtrak as they headed to NYC for a matchup with the New York Knicks and reeled in nearly 5M impressions.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Hat Trick: The Chicago Bulls gave away these hats (part of a series w/ BMO) during their Play-In Tournament Game against the Atlanta Hawks. Each hat came with an insert introducing the designer, @WalkerTKL. This insert is a prime opportunity for a sponsorship asset, boosting awareness of a message or linking to a shop/promo offer.

Instagram Highlights: Instagram is testing a redesign for Story Highlights that features larger, vertical rectangles with rounded edges instead of smaller circular covers [h/t Lindsey Gamble]. This could be a great opportunity to include a partner logo, especially if they sponsor a series such as Wallpaper Wednesday

Hammer Time: A great reminder from FC Barcelona’s Digital Activations Team Leader, Sara Rodríguez García, that perfect brand integration doesn’t have to be overcomplicated or highly produced.

Leave A Message: Very clever playoff activation from the New York Knicks. They unveiled the playoff hotline presented by Verizon, where fans can leave a message for the team all postseason long. Smart of the team to place it outside KITH’s SoHo location where Kith CEO and Knicks Creative Director Ronnie Fieg could help promote it.

Lucky Bounce: That moment when Chevron’s LPGA event signage turned into an incredible, earned social post.