The Easiest Asset You’re Not Selling

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

Most teams are terrible at selling tickets on social.

Scroll your feed during the season and you’ll see the same thing over and over: posts that read like ads, look like ads, and get treated like ads. Low reach. Low engagement. Easy to ignore. Teams are checking a box, but ignoring the data that says it’s not working.

And then they make it worse.

That same underperforming post gets budget behind it.

Paid social should be the engine for ticket sales, it targets the right audiences and drives action. But when the creative is already proven to be weak, you’re not scaling success…you’re paying a premium to force bad content into feeds.

That’s not to say ticket sales can’t work on organic. But the content has to deliver real value—entertainment, education, or emotion—just to earn attention in the first place.

(Quick aside) Shoutout to the Minnesota Twins—this $2 beer / $1 hot dog night post tied to the viral 9-9-9 challenge actually worked. It felt native to the platform, not forced into it.

The good news: if your organic approach isn’t working, the answer is probably already sitting in your mentions.

Your fans are constantly creating content that answers the question every team is trying to solve: why should I go to a game?

That’s where social listening becomes a cheat code.

I wrote earlier this year about using it for creator marketing, but it applies just as well to ticket sales. When a fan video is performing—especially compared to that creator’s typical content—it’s a signal.

Don’t just like it. Use it.

Two Boston Red Sox fan videos hit my TikTok feed recently that are perfect examples:

• One breaks down exactly why season tickets are worth it (20.3K views, 13.2% engagement)

• Another reviews the new dugout cooler drink (130K views, 9.8% engagement)

Neither was created by the team. Both sell the experience better than most branded posts.

If I’m the team, I’m reaching out immediately, offering an exclusive, money-can’t-buy Red Sox experience or paying for rights to whitelist the content so it runs through the creator’s handle, not the team’s.

Because this is how it should work:

Organic is your testing ground.
Paid is how you scale what’s working.

High-performing organic content is one of the clearest indicators of paid success. It’s more efficient, more native to the platform, and it strengthens your overall ad mix instead of dragging it down.

The content you need to sell tickets might already exist. You just have to go find it.

In Today’s Edition:

• Missed Revenue Story 💸

• Cruise Control Creative 🛳️

• Isles Wobble Watch 🔉

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
A Closer Look At The NFL’s Must-Steal Sponcon

There’s a sponsored content asset hiding in plain sight.

The NFL has been running it for years. Consistently. At scale. Across tentpole moments and quiet parts of the calendar.

And somehow… most leagues and teams still aren’t selling it.

The Asset

It’s simple: Instagram Story takeovers sold to a single partner.

Here’s how it works:

• The story opens and closes with a branded card
  “Gameday Story presented by [Brand]”

• Every frame in between includes:

  • “Paid Partnership with @brand” (via branded content tool)

  • Consistent tagging across the full story

• Early in the story:

  • One dedicated ad (100% share of voice)

  • Swipe-up link to drive traffic

• Total length:

  • ~20-40 frames per story (lower end for off-day content)

With ~32.9M followers, you’re looking at six figures of impressions per frame, and high seven to eight figures in aggregate.

You’re essentially packaging a media product inside social.

Why This Works

It won’t win creative awards. It will drive serious reach.

That’s exactly why it works.

• 100% share of voice
  No clutter. No competing logos. One brand owns the environment.

• Predictable reach
  You’re tapping into existing audience behavior at scale.

• Built-in traffic driver
  The swipe-up placement comes early, before drop-off kicks in.

• Operationally easy
  No heavy lift for content teams. No complex production.

This is one of the closest things to a paid media buy… on organic social.

And that changes who you can sell it to.

You’re no longer limited to sponsorship budgets—you can start pulling from media dollars.

Small Tweaks, Bigger Value

A lot of these executions are clean. Some are a little too passive.

Add a few native engagement stickers:

• Polls

• Sliders

• Quick taps

Now you’ve got:

• Higher engagement

• More value back to the partner

• A stronger story to sell in renewals

The Pushback

The haters will say: “No one wants to click through 40 frames. That’s an instant exit.”

Maybe.

But that’s easy to validate, just test it. If the data says completion drops off significantly, then you have your answer for your audience.

More often, though, it comes down to execution.

You can’t stretch a Story just to hit a frame count. Every frame needs to earn the next tap:

• Entertain

• Educate

• Build emotion connection

• Or give fans access they can’t get anywhere else

That’s the difference between something people skip… and something they stick with.

The Seattle Seahawks are a strong example here. Their Stories are highly interactive, thoughtfully paced, and built to keep fans engaged all the way through.

The Hidden Flex

This is far from a gameday staple for the NFL. You’ll see it activated most of the week during the regular season:

• Gamedays (Thursday, Sunday, Monday)

• Weekly pick’em (poll sticker-based predictions)

• Player of the Week voting

• And even tentpole events like the Draft

Different context. Same structure. That’s the unlock.

This works whether you have one game, a full slate, or no games at all.

Who Else Is Doing It

A few rightsholders have started to catch on.

On the media side, House of Highlights has built strong takeover executions. Check out the HoH case studies with Google Pixel, Disney+, and Coca-Cola.

On the team side, BYU Football tested launched this strategy during the 2025 season. Check out their complete Select Health Gameday Story, here.

Some learnings from the Cougars’ activation:

• Other content can show up before or after the takeover

• Great spot to highlight a partner’s experiential activation

• Other brands can show up, but keep it minimal

Nevertheless, while the strategy is not widespread yet, the playbook is there.

How Teams Should Think About It

If you’re on a team, this becomes a lot more interesting when you bundle it.

Pair it with your in-venue game or event presenter. Now it’s not just a digital add-on.
It’s an extension of an existing partnership.

That said, the friction point is real.

Most teams already have:

• Story integrations sold

• Conflicting partner commitments

• Limited flexibility mid-contract

So the Instagram Stories route may take time to unlock, waiting for renewals.

How to Replicate It Elsewhere

Even if Instagram inventory is tight, the strategy travels.

X (Twitter)

If you have the ability to post in-game highlights in real time (and monetize them)—especially in basketball—this is already within reach.

Sell a highlight takeover:

• Brand logo on every broadcast clip

• High-frequency exposure during live moments

We rolled this out with the New York Knicks during the 2023 Playoffs with Chase. It’s a natural fit for a Playoffs presenting partner.

And it didn’t stop there. They’ve since extended the strategy into the regular season through their Friday Night Knicks platform with Insomnia Cookies.

Snapchat

This one’s underutilized.

If you turn off monetization, you can control the ads in your Story.

Now apply the same takeover model, just make sure you’re hitting at least 16 frames.

Why? Ads on Snapchat typically appear once every 8 frames. That means you can deliver two guaranteed placements for your partner—double what you’d get on Instagram—without disrupting the user experience.

On top of that, you’re likely reaching a younger audience here than on your other channels.

The Takeaway

This isn’t just about Instagram Story takeovers. It’s about recognizing when you already have:

• Consistent audience behavior

• Predictable distribution

• Repeatable formats

…and turning that into something packaged and sellable.

The NFL didn’t invent something new. They just kept leaning into something that works.

It drives value for partners. It’s easy to execute. And it shows up consistently.

That’s not always the case in sponsored content. Which is why this is worth adding to your inventory.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

AC Milan nailed this matchup graphic for their game against SSC Napoli. The creative featured an MSC Cruises ship, geographic coordinates, and the line “All Routes Lead To Tonight,” seamlessly tying the brand into the moment. Even better, both clubs have partnerships with MSC Cruises, which makes the idea feel intentional, not forced.

United Airlines put its Chicago White Sox IP to work in this video. It highlighted their high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi while giving a subtle nod to fellow Sox sponsor Vienna Beef.

FC Bayern’s Alphonso Davies announced a new partnership with Red Bull last week, and they wasted no time getting content live - an accuracy challenge in an expertly branded environment.

This isn’t a late April Fool’s bit. The New York Islanders are measuring crowd noise with Jell-O as part of their Kraft Heinz partnership. The JELL-O-METER debuted on April 3 at UBS Arena—equal parts ridiculous and memorable, which is kind of the point.

Former Indiana University QB Fernando Mendoza announced a partnership with US Bank, stepping in as their “Chief Financial Playmaker.” The post pulled 40K+ engagements on LinkedIn, proof that the right title and framing can carry real impact even on LinkedIn.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Revenue Without Borders: JohnWallStreet explains why Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s retail media network, built with Deloitte and Yieldmo, could blur the line between big and small markets by turning fan data into scalable, performance-driven sponsorship revenue.

Wrapped In Strategy: Kim Hobson broke down how Formula 1 liveries come together, walking through the design, sponsor integration, and strategy behind each look.

Rx For ROI: Zoomph dropped a new report on what’s actually working in healthcare sponsorships right now.

NFL Subreddit Surge: American football chatter in r/NFLCorner was one of the fastest-growing subreddits by views from March 30 to April 5. If you’re with an NFL team, it’s worth monitoring for content ideas and fan engagement [via Reddit Trends US Newsletter].

Niners App Update: The San Francisco 49ers launched an updated mobile app with PwC. I really liked how the signup flow shows how many fans have joined, and how many are nearby.