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

We’re dropping the newsletter a day early so you don’t have to focus on work during the holiday (in the U.S.). One thing I’m thankful for this year is the hundreds of sports industry professionals across the globe supporting Sponcon Sports.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! Let’s get into it.

In today’s edition:

• Free Partner Research Tools 🛠️

• Sponcon Alternatives for X 🤳

• 49ers Ride Along 🚘

🏊 DEEP DIVE
The Ultimate Guide To Digital Partnerships Research

A few weeks ago, we delved into the eight questions every sports team should ask their partners in 2023. However, more often than not, obtaining all the necessary information for a partner brief can be a challenge, leaving you to determine solutions that best suit a partner without ample data.

Fortunately, there's no need for guesswork. In fact, there are resources available to help you avoid this situation.

Here are seven FREE tools I'm thankful for, which I use for digital partnerships research.

These tools will assist you in navigating:

• Content Discovery

• Partner and Competitor Audits

• Sponcon Customization

Content Discovery
The following tools aid in proactive ideation, saving you time before the last-minute pitch request lands on your desk.

Both will be used as sources of sponcon inspiration as you discover content ideas, category and brand specific names, design elements (e.g. logo design and placement), and channel strategy.

This is what I use to fill this newsletter each week.

Secondary Social Accounts

• Create new, private accounts on Instagram, X, TikTok. I focus my time on these three, but this works for any social channel.

• Follow every professional sports team. While tedious, this is 100% worth your time.

• Spend an hour a day scrolling through these accounts and saving/screen shot what stands out to you.

  • Instagram - Scroll the feed for (10 minutes) then tap through every Instagram Story (20 minutes).

  • X - Scroll through the For You timeline (10 minutes) then the Following timeline (5 minutes).

  • TikTok - Scroll through the Following page (10 minutes) then scroll through the For You paqe (5 minutes).

• Every Friday add everything you’ve saved to your inventory list and begin to seek approval from your content team.

Sports TV Broadcasts

• This one is simpler. Watch live sports on tv. I use TV to discover great names for sponsored social media content. Some of my recent favorites have been:

  • Prop of the Order - saw it on MLB Network, used it for a sportsbook’s pregame poll.

  • Winning Ingredients - saw this during the NHL playoffs sponsored by Chipotle. Great fit for a post game box score, game recap, and or game highlights.

  • Safe at Home - saw this on ADT home plate rotational signage during a Mets - Marlins game. This is a good name for a content series utilizing in-game highlights featuring RBI.

Partner and Competitor Audits
These tools help you uncover what current partners, prospects, and their competitors have done in the sports market.

X Search

• This is my favorite of the seven tools! Remember when I said it would be worth your time to follow every professional sports team on your secondary accounts? This is where that comes in handy.

  • In the search bar of your secondary X account, type in a brand’s handle and press ‘enter’.

  • In the top-right of your screen in the ‘People’ section, tap ‘People you follow’.

• Now you’ll see every time a professional sports team tagged that brand in copy. This doesn’t show sponsored content where there’s no copy tag, but this will cover a lot of what’s in market.

Meta Branded Content Search

• As of this August, You can now search for sponsored content on Facebook or Instagram - specifically posts that utilize the branded content tool.

  • Go to facebook.com/ads/library

  • Scroll down to “search for branded content”.

  • All you do is type in a brand account and a time period, then let the tool work its magic.

• Note - given this is a new tool, it will only uncover sponsored content from no earlier than August 17th.

Sponcon Customization
These tools will help you better understand your partner/prospect’s holistic digital strategy. Use them to identify the keywords, taglines, and skews/products brands are featuring in-market through their channels that you may be able to repurpose for sponcon on your channels.

For example, let’s say you use these tools and find out a brand describes themselves as ‘Timeless’. You may want to recommend an On This Day in History content series, but call it “Timeless Moments”.

Facebook Ads Library

• You can see your partners/prospects active ads on Meta platforms right now. No costs. No catch.

  • Go to facebook.com/ads/library

  • In the “Ad category” drop-down menu, click “all ads”

  • Then in the search bar, type in your partner/prospect’s name.

Partner Website and Social Media Accounts

• Take five to 10 minutes and go on the brand’s website and social media channels.

• Pay specific attention to the copywriting as that will yield the best inspiration for sponcon.

• On brand’s social media channels, don’t skip looking at their bio. It’s a good way to see their current tagline.

Google Search

• I literally will search, “words and phrases associated with [insert partner product/category].

• From that list, I’ll cross reference those words to see if any of them are relevant to the specific sports I’m working in and use it for a content series name.

• Example - If you’re working with a brand in the tire category, you would find the word “rotation” on the list from your Google search. Let’s say you work in baseball. Why not pitch that partner something called, Rotation Spotlight - a graphic showing the starting pitching matchups and stats prior to the start of each series.

By leveraging these tools, you can enhance your digital partnerships research and streamline the process of building effective pitches.

🕙 TIMELY TIPS
How Moneyball Can Help You Plan For a Potential X Collapse [REPOST]

In case you missed it, Apple, Disney, and other major brands have suspended advertising on X following Elon Musk's endorsement of antisemitic tweets.

If you're concerned about partners possibly requesting the removal of their sponsored content from that platform, check out the newsletter from earlier this month for some of my recommended solutions.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

This San Francisco 49ers x Toyota content piece exemplifies effective use of sponsored content to familiarize fans with players and showcase the connections these players share with their teammates.

In this episode of 1-on-1, quarterback Brock Purdy and offensive lineman Nick Zakelj delve into their fast friendship, challenging each other's knowledge about their teammate. The entire 13-minute video shows Purdy, who has a Toyota endorsement deal, driving his Sequoia TRD Pro.

Beyond being teammates, Purdy and Zakelj are roommates, and Zakelj is a groomsman in Purdy’s upcoming wedding. Their camaraderie reveals interesting moments in the conversation, such as their shared love for seasonally-themed candles, a team holiday card they created, and the humorous revelation about the challenge of trash day.

Key To Success

Many teams create similar content, and the key to success lies in choosing the right player pairings. Teammates with a history together result in captivating stories during interviews. The intrigue is not just in their knowledge of each other but also when they unintentionally forget something about their teammate.

I previously worked on a similar project last season for the New York Knicks and Delta, called Wingmen, a Knicks version of the Newlywed game. The episode featuring Jalen Brunson and Ryan Arcidiacano was my favorite, given their shared history at Villanova, which led to fun, off the cuff moments shared in the video.

The Results

This edition of 1-on-1 proved highly successful from both a team and partner perspective.

• The video garnered 65K views, 2.3K engagements, and an impressive 3.5% engagement rate.

• Partner branding was prevalent but maintained a balanced presence. While the Toyota Sequoia's interior was showcased throughout the interview, including an initial mention, there were no forced questions about driving habits or travel preferences.

However, in this case, the true measure of success lies in the comments.

• Out of the 165 comments, 160 expressed positive or neutral sentiments.

• Several comments celebrated the interview (see image above).

• Fans, especially those who owned or were considering Toyota purchases, were excited to see their starting quarterback affiliated with the brand.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

The Orlando Magic are including a Papa John’s promo code on their final score graphics after wins this season. A great way to drive awareness of the trigger offer without posting standalone content (typically low-performing).

I’m a huge fan of this Liverpool FC x Kodansha #InspiRED content series using a mix of photos, videos, and quotes to tell players’ stories.

This is such a creative sweeps concept from the Ottawa Senators and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

In the lead up to the NHL’s Global Series in Sweden, the Detroit Red Wings launched, ‘How Swede It Is’ presented by J.P. Wiser’s Whisky highlighting top Swedish players in the team’s history.

Is this not the perfect name-partner pairing? SoCalGas sponsors In The Pipeline, an all-access video series from the Los Angeles Kings focused on their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

50 Piece Celebration: Chick-Fil-A dropped off 50 Nuggets for Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey after he scored a career-high 50 points against the Indiana Pacers.

Instant Impact: New F1 Partner, American Express, gave out FM radios and headphones so fans could listen to the Sky Sports broadcast during the Las Vegas and Austin Grands Prix.

Improved Reels Insights: Reels have a new metric in Replays (the number of times a Reel starts playing again after its initial play). Plus, the definition of Plays has been updated to include Initial Plays. An interactive Retention Chart will soon be added.

Must Read: You need to check out the 2024 social media predictions laid out in Lia Haberman’s ICYMI newsletter where Lia crowdsourced the tech and social trends for the upcoming year.

Stat of the Week: Roughly one-third of adults under age 30 regularly scroll TikTok for news, a 255% increase since 2020.