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

You need to check out @gainorsports on Instagram, run by Brian Gainor.

If you don’t know Brian, he’s the founder and CEO of Gainor Sports, a sports marketing and advisory practice, and the OG of sports partnerships newsletters.

The Instagram account shares best-in-class fan experiences, innovations, and activations from the sports world every day.

It’s been my new go-to source of inspiration for the past month. Definitely a must-follow.

In Today’s Edition:

• How To Upgrade Sponcon Reporting 📈 

• A Look At #ODRWeek, The NHL’s UGC Campaign 🏒 

• How The Buffalo Sabres Monetize West Coast Games 🌕️ 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The Ultimate Guide To Sponcon Reporting

As we shift from winter to spring, we're right in the thick of reporting season for the NBA, NHL, and European football.

This reporting is key for off-season planning, laying the groundwork for next season's success.

Reflecting on my conversation with Sam Baier last month, it's evident that brands are craving reports that dig deeper into the qualitative impact of sponsored content.

Effective reporting goes beyond numbers. It should offer three types of insights to genuinely help your team and your partners:

• Contextual: Explaining what the results actually mean.

• Educational: Guiding partners on interpreting performance.

• Actionable: Advising on next steps to reach their goals.

Let's jump into it!

Contextual Insights

Great reporting starts during the pitch phase of a partnership.

The answers to the questions you ask before building proposals for brands should shape your report narratives. Align these reports with the season's goals and KPIs set at the outset.

If your partner is zeroing in on website traffic, tailor your report to spotlight metrics like total clicks and click-through rates. While it's okay to mention impressions and engagement, they shouldn't steal the spotlight.

Context is king when it comes to digital goals, and benchmarking plays a crucial role in that realm. Benchmarks clarify whether strategies have hit or missed their marks.

Consider this: telling a partner that quote graphics earned a 2% engagement rate leaves them wondering if that's impressive. If those graphics were posted on X, where a 1% rate is average, it's a win. But on Instagram, where expectations hover between 5-10%, it's not so hot.

I lean on three benchmarks for context:

1. Comparison to per-post averages of all content.

2. Comparison to per-post averages of only sponsored content.

3. Year-over-year performance comparison.

No need to use all three in every report—just choose the benchmarks that best craft your story.

Educational Insights

Sponcon reporting needs to dive deeper than just high-level totals.

A solid report covers in-depth metrics, channel and post analyses, along with key learnings.

In-Depth Metrics: Let's go beyond impressions and engagements. Here are some metrics I love:

• Average View Duration or Percent Watched: Crucial for sponsored videos, these metrics show how long viewers stay engaged with your content. It helps determine if your audience prefers long or short content. Spotting a viewership drop at the 10-second mark? Make sure to introduce partner branding early on.

• Comment Sentiment: Vital for assessing campaign impact, especially for middle-of-funnel objectives. Although analyzing every comment for sentiment can be labor-intensive, it's incredibly insightful. Review each comment on a post and mark them as positive, negative, or neutral. Also, keep tabs on the percentage of on-topic comments versus irrelevant comments. Including screenshots of great, on-topic comments (especially if they show brand affinity or purchase intent) is a great addition to a report. We walked through an example of this November 22nd’s Sponsored Content of the Week.

• Opt-In and Conversion Rates: Essential for sweepstakes campaigns. Opt-In Rate shows the percentage of fans opting into communication from a sponsor. It’s a great indicator of lead generation effectiveness. Submission Rate reflects the ease of the sweepstakes entry process and the willingness of fans to share personal information.

Channel and Post Breakdowns: Since sponsored content typically spans multiple channels, mention how well sponcon performed against benchmarks for each channel where the content was published.

You should make note of which channels were top or bottom performing and layer in context around what that means.

For example, post-win highlight reels were top-performing in terms of total views on X, but YouTube was the top-performing channel in terms of audience retention.

Reports should also identify which post(s) from a series were the best and the worst based on KPIs for the campaign. This is especially helpful for custom content where posts are less templated (vs starting lineup, score updates, etc) and you can uncover the elements that connect with your audience.

Key Learnings: Offer at least three takeaways from the sponcon campaign to guide future strategies. This isn’t just about performance metrics.

Include partner feedback (e.g. partner worked best with a three-day review timeline) and any logistical insights from the team (e.g. content that was shot before the All-Star Break provided more time in the second half of the season to align content posting when fans were excited after wins).

This approach not only paints a comprehensive picture of campaign performance but also lays the groundwork for improved strategies and stronger partnerships in the future.

Pro Tip - Don’t PR bad news. I learned this when working on the McDonald’s account at Golin. Your partners want you to be honest and share any learnings about why something did not work. That said, those learnings should be paired with solutions - which is a great segue to actionable insights.

Actionable Insights

Based on the insights shared, your report should wrap up with clear recommendations and next steps.

This part should clue your partner in on what to keep doing, what to tweak, and what to swap out.

If you're suggesting adjustments or replacements for a partnership asset, make sure to include some initial solution ideas in the report. The aim of these solutions is to preserve, if not enhance, the asset's intended value.

Remember, when you present these recommendations, they'll serve as the launching pad for your next discussion about planning for the upcoming season.

Bonus Tips

I have three tricks to simplify the reporting process, all while keeping things light and easy to manage.

1. Tag Your Content - Get your tagging system in place before the season kicks off. It's a game changer for quickly pulling and analyzing results.

2. Manual Metric Collection - Unfortunately, some metrics just don't play nice with tagging software. I often find myself manually pulling stats like Instagram Story sticker interactions, YouTube impressions, and average view durations straight from the platforms.

3. Monthly Data Pulls - I make it a point to pull sponcon data at the end of each month. It's a real time-saver come season's end. Plus, for those manual metrics, monthly pulls mean a lot less backlog to deal with.

Trust me, these steps keep the reporting marathon from turning into a sprint.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

The National Hockey League’s #ODRWeek made its return in 2024 this month.

#ODRWeek presented by Discover is a user-generated content campaign that asks hockey fans across the world to submit photos and videos of their outdoor rinks to be featured on NHL social channels.

Fans could share that UGC via this landing page powered by Greenfly.

#ODRWeek content was shared across the NHL’s TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook pages.

It’s generated nearly 20M views and 550K+ engagements!

There are so many levels to the campaign that I love:

• Perfectly timed, before the league shifts its focus to in-game content in the lead-up to and through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

• Celebrates hockey fandom worldwide.

• The UGC, especially videos, is evergreen—tailor-made for this channel mix, ensuring future discoverability.

• Cleverly links Discover to the campaign, highlighting the discovery of the world's coolest outdoor rinks.

• The logo lockup works well within vertical video, avoiding any obstruction from each platform’s icons.

I’m impressed by how much quality UGC is submitted in such a short time (32 posts on NHL channels). This campaign is such a cool way to tap into hockey fandom in a way that’s unique to the sport.

Top-Performer (Views): TikTok #ODRWeek Announcement

Top-Performer (Engagement): Three-Year-Old Riding Mini Zamboni

Top-Performer (Static Content): ODR’s Around The World

The Takeaway
#ODRWeek brilliantly uses a user-generated content campaign to engage hockey fans globally, celebrating the sport's community while strategically boosting its online presence ahead of the playoffs.

It's a masterclass in timing, platform use, and brand partnership that has significantly amplified fan interaction and content discoverability.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Angel City FC is using its partnership with DoorDash to pass through rights to local restaurant, Joan’s On Third, on its game-day graphics.

Real Madrid freshened up the rapid-fire trivia game concept with the Nivea Men Balloon Challenge.

Shot Clock sponsor 🤝 Buzzer Beater content sponsor - a match made in heaven for the Dallas Mavericks and TISSOT.

I’ve always admired the Buffalo Sabres, Sabres After Dark platform to promote West Coast games. This week they celebrated late-night hockey with a chance to win autographed merchandise (email instant-win sweepstakes).

Apple TV teamed up with creators, Kevin Leonel and Jon-Paul Wheatley to make gifts for players from their local MLS teams and remind fans to watch matches with MLS Season Pass.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

TikTok Creator Search Insights: If you’re struggling to come up with TikTok ideas, the platform released the Creator Search Insights Tool allowing you to explore topics that are frequently searched for on TikTok.

Imperfect Bracket: Pepsi partnered with DraftKings to give fans a chance to win $100K if they get no games right in their bracket - the latest clever tie-in to Pepsi Zero Sugar. The campaign tipped off with some help from Allen Iverson [h/t Todd Kaplan].

Race Car Biz on TikTok: Did you know Joe Gibbs Racing has a TikTok account focused on the business of NASCAR? Another great example that could work for B2B partnership content. [h/t Neil Horowitz]

Wake Up Call: Take a page out of ESPN’s "Get Up" playbook and give "Wake Up Call" a try. It’s perfect for the phone, mattress, coffee, and breakfast food categories.

Longer Carousels: Instagram is testing the ability for users to post carousels of up to 15 cards - this could be a great storytelling opportunity [h/t Lia Haberman].