👋 Hey, it’s Alex. Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, my weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

Organic social media is, and should be, primarily used to drive awareness for partners. That being said, with the right creative solution, it is possible to drive lower-funnel objectives, such as user acquisition.

Take this example from BDGE, a fantasy football lifestyle brand. Before each week of the NFL season, their hosts give their best bets. Each video ends with a “guaranteed” bet their followers get access to by using the new-user promo code “BDGE” on Underdog Fantasy - which doubles your first deposit.

I love how the guaranteed bet is tied to the hosts’ picks and isn’t generic across each content piece. Plus, it gives you that added incentive to give Underdog a try.

The lower-funnel tactic works in this case because the content aligns with what fans expect from the BDGE account.

In Today’s Edition:

• The Easiest Way To Find New Sponcon Ideas 🔍️ 

• Stewart-Haas Racing Serves Up an A+ Partner Launch 🍊 

• A Boston Celtics Experiment Gone Right 🍀 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The Sponcon Hack That Always Produces New Ideas

There are a few keys to success within digital partnerships that I’ll never get tired of sharing.

• Sponsored content is no different than unsponsored content.

• All details of sponsored content should be provided to partners in a pitch.

• The start of a new season and playoffs are the best times to discover new ideas for sponsored content.

On the last point, the NFL Playoffs kicked off last week. Here’s what I’ve been keeping my eyes on.

• Content series names

• Partner integration (tagging, logos, product, etc)

• Gamedays versus off-day approach

• Trigger offer execution

• How current partners and their competitors are activating with other teams

• Content series concepts that can fit my team’s strategy

• Channel strategy and emerging platform activation

• How teams are leveraging owned channels (App, Website, SMS)

• Approach to presenting partners and or supporting partners

Rather than get preachy about my philosophy, I’m showing my work this week. Here are my favorite content pieces from the Super Wild Card round that I saved for future partnerships.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs launched a cookbook in their mobile app, featuring recipes from players, staff, and their families.

Recipes include Mahomes' Family Favorite Green Turkey Chili, Kelce Family Magic Marshmallow Rolls, and much more. Plus, there’s even a form for fans to submit their favorite recipes.

The partner integration is my favorite part. Each recipe includes a 'buy ingredients' button where fans can shop for what’s needed at Hyvee.

Food, like sports, is one of the few things that can bring people together, especially through memories. This is such a cool way to make a connection between the team, their fans, and their playoffs presenting partner, Hyvee.

Hat tip to Rover who helped KC bring this to life in the app!

Bonus - the creative juices must have been flowing in Kansas City. The Chiefs also dropped a made-for-TV movie trailer, Falling For Football, to help get fans in the postseason spirit. A candle from the Kingdom Keepsakes store in the trailer is available for purchase at Hyvee.

Buffalo Bills

This is a content piece I was hoping would make a return in the 2024 playoffs.

For the third season in a row, the Buffalo Bills attached Zippo to their Playoff Hype Video - an asset that consistently generates millions of impressions.

Each time you can expect Zippo to be tagged in the post, the lighter appearing in the hype video, and a threaded post with a CTA to buy the Bills-branded lighter.

What stands out to me is that the Bills always find a creative and natural way to integrate the lighter into the video - like having former Bills wide receiver Steve Tasker using the product to light his cigar.

Based on performance, fans are not bothered by it.

This isn’t just a one-off either. Zippo sponsors the Bills’ regular season hype videos as well with the same activation plan.

Each hype video is worth the watch all the way through. This content team nails it every time.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles published a special edition of their monthly ‘Eagles React’ YouTube series.

This episode featured comedian, actor, and Eagles fan, Kevin Hart and was presented by Gran Coramino (Hart’s tequila brand).

Hart watches through some of the top moments in the team’s history and gives his thoughts on each highlight and memory. He even takes fans through his viral Super Bowl LII moment.

Yes, it’s great if you can collaborate with one of your team’s celebrity fans, especially if it’s to promote their product, but there’s much more I’m taking away from this sponcon.

• This series is a concept native to YouTube and worked well with the Eagles audience - 193.3K average views per video.

• The brand integration from the sticker on the back of the laptop (covering the other branding) and the bottle alongside is a good option for a partner seeking product integration.

Houston Texans

Simple and effective. These two concepts from the Houston Texans are low-lift and are perfect for partner integration.

One More Sleep presented by Mattress Firm is a no-brainer, but I have rarely seen it done in sports with a partner connected to sleep.

It’s perfect brand-content alignment. I love how it leans into fans’ excitement around the biggest game of their season (to date).

I’ve always wanted to extend this idea to other use cases (which could be used in the regular season as well) such as when teams post, “Good Night or Good Morning [insert your team name here] Fans!'“

The Texans also utilized the lead-up to the game to let their fans play “Name That Playoff Game”. It’s another option that could be used any time of year or even on the anniversary of a great game in your team’s history.

Fans had to make a guess based on where players went to college and stats from that game - a great fit for the education or tech categories.

Green Bay Packers

The weather can be a huge content opportunity (fall leaves, snow, sunrises, etc).

The Green Bay Packers not only utilized the weather for sponcon, they also paired it with the perfect partner.

The Pack shared Snow Moments presented by Campbell’s Chunky. It’s a seamless tie to the brand, especially during soup season.

Earlier in the week, the Packers posted submissions from their "Letters to Lambeau" program, presented by Cenex. The emotional connection from the kids’ letters resonated with fans and the players - packers running back AJ Dillon shared it with his audience as well.

Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams and Verizon gave fans the chance to vote for their Ram of the Game during the two-minute warning on Instagram Stories.

I haven’t seen many, if any, teams activate content around the two-minute warning but it’s a great idea to engage with your audience knowing there’s a guaranteed break in the action. It’s giving “Entering the Toyota Rav4th Quarter” from the Eagles.

I’m not positive about what approach I would take as of now. My immediate thought went to offering this to the watch category, like a Tissot or Rolex. What I do know, is I’d want to utilize one of the engagement stickers offered on the platform.

It’s important to not the Rams lost this game. That said, the two-minute warning does present an opportunity to have a Player of the Game without it being linked to the loss and the subsequent fan backlash assuming it’s limited to Stories (Instagram, Facebook, and or TikTok).

Looking Ahead
Watch out for the San Francisco 49ers content this week. They had a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

The Niners have a playoffs presenting partner in United Airlines as well as three supporting playoffs partners: Cisco, SAP, and Zenni. I’ll be looking to see how they make the distinction between presenting and supporting partners as well as what they are included in versus what they’re not included in.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

You love to see when sports organizations can have fun with a partnership announcement.

On January 12th Stewart-Haas Racing announced Sunny Delight was joining Josh Berry as a primary partner - outfitting his car in a Sunny D design for multiple races, including the Clash at the Coliseum and the Daytona 500.

SHR went deeper than simply posting a hype graphic with the car’s new look - they tapped into ‘90s nostalgia.

Less than an hour after sharing the news, they posted a picture of Berry reenacting a classic Sunny D commercial. The copy which read, “No purple stuff. ONLY SUNNYD.” was a play on a line from the original series of ads that said, “got soda, OJ, purple stuff, SunnyD!”.

But that’s not all.

Later that morning, the Stewart-Haas team posted a behind-the-scenes video of how they snapped that picture from inside a refrigerator.

That BTS post generated over one million views across channels, with Facebook leading the way at over 929K views.

The Takeaway
File away this activation! Stewart-Haas Racing demonstrated that partnership announcements can be both entertaining and memorable for fans while also being enjoyable for the team creating these moments.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Consider leaning into your promotions schedule more, like the Baltimore Orioles, where you can truly highlight your team’s unique offering to your fans - instead of a purely sales-focused approach.

You’ve got to check out this new concept the Boston Celtics experimented with for their All-Star Campaign presented by Vistaprint.

The McLaren F1 Team turned the page to the 2024 season with a new slogan, Whatever It Takes, archiving all content on their Instagram account before January 15th. They’ve since surprised fans by unveiling their new livery early and highlighted things you may have missed about the launch. 30M+ views in three days, sheesh!

Here’s a new way to utilize player arrivals. The content the Miami Heat captured of their rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. in a post supporting Miami Dade Animal Services is too real - and it popped off on Instagram.

You’ve seen Tiny Desk by NPR. This week the Chicago Bulls celebrated 50 Years of Hip Hop with the Sugar Hill Gang in Locker Room Live presented by Ciroc.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

State Farm x Kelce Collab: How State Farm pulled off one of fall football’s most memorable campaigns. Marketing Brew spoke to the brand’s Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin about how the activation came to life.

Collab Tool ROI: Instagram now notifies accounts when they gain followers from posts using the Collab tool. This is a great feature to reach new audiences and now you’ll be able to further understand the impact of the tactic [h/t Ahmed Ghanem].

Must Listen: Jason Lavine, VP of Content and Production for the Los Angeles Chargers, joined Neil Horowitz on the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast for a conversation about content strategy, building and leading a team, and developing generational fandom.

Youth Sports Sponsorships: Davis Filippell, President of TeamWorkOnline, shared seven innovative youth sports sponsorships, each of which “highlights the multi-directional value of reaching elite brand ambassadors/influencers early”.

TikTok SEO Updates: TikTok is now reporting on traffic sources to your videos, breaking it down by FYP page or search. It also shows the average position of video as well as CTR [h/t Carrie Rose].