What I'd Pitch DUDE Wipes For The Professional Fighters League

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

How often have we seen teams promise more fan access, only to fall short of delivering impactful benefits?

The Los Angeles Clippers broke that trend this week.

They announced that all Supporters Section members—fans seated in “The Wall”—could attend Monday’s media day. This isn’t something you see every day. Fans got an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the Clippers’ preseason content capture and media interviews.

I’m curious if players interacted with these fans or if they got a chance to ask questions during media availability.

This perk adds to other benefits like access to early jersey releases, discounted concessions, and free parking.

The Clippers didn’t just promote this perk on their own channels; they worked with Carlo Jimenez, their play-by-play announcer, and content creator (323K+ followers on Instagram and TikTok) to reach more fans.

Sure, it’s a ticket sales push, but they’re giving fans access to something truly unforgettable in the process.

In Today’s Edition:

• Partnership Ideas For DUDE Wipes 💩

• A Big Ticket Win For FOS 🎟️

• Michaels' Winning Jersey Move 🖼️

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
What I’d Pitch DUDE Wipes For The PFL

What I’d Pitch is back this week with a fresh edition—pun fully intended.

This time, I was asked to pitch DUDE Wipes as if I worked for the Professional Fighters League (PFL), aiming to drive engagement as well as traffic to their website.

If you haven’t checked out DUDE Wipes' sponsored content, you’re missing out—it’s some of the best in the business.

Cleveland Browns: Tying DUDE Wipes to the Browns practically writes itself. They’ve nailed this partnership, especially with highlights like wiping away the 49ers' undefeated streak. This season, they doubled down with the “Stop The Streak” trigger promo: if the Browns return a kickoff for a touchdown (first time since 2009), one lucky fan wins $100K.

Premier Lacrosse League: In 2023, the PLL announced its partnership with DUDE Wipes through the “Greatest Sh*t Talkers” video series, sparking some great mic’d up content throughout the season. That grew into “What’s Sh*ttier?”, a long-form, this-or-that style video series.

Chicago White Sox: The latest example came over the weekend, DUDE Wipes helped the White Sox turn the page to next season—in classic, on-brand fashion.

The formula? Time your content with peak fan interest, sprinkle in a brand-relevant pun, and voilà! Out drops Sponcon gold.

DUDE Wipes x PFL Partnership Overview

The PFL and DUDE Wipes are in the backend of a two-year partnership that wraps up in 2024. Poop references are prominent, but purposeful in this season’s digital partnership assets:

• Drop of The Night: Best knockdowns from each match.

• Talking Sh**: Longform videos featuring fighter smack talk leading up to fights.

• Fight Number 2: Graphics highlighting the second fight of the night.

• Dropping Deuces: Sweepstakes where DUDE Wipes gives away $2,000 every two weeks.

This pitch was just as fun as you’d expect. Now, let’s dive into 8 ideas for the PFL and DUDE Wipes.

Clean Finishes

DUDE Wipes will sponsor fight finish highlights (KO, submission, etc.).

The "Clean Finishes" concept ties directly to the action in the Smartcage and the product's core benefit.

To drive that connection home, a “Clean Finish provided by DUDE Wipes” lockup will appear on-screen during the video (or as an end slate) with a copy tag like, “@DUDEWipes | Clean Finish.”

This concept could also expand into compilation videos showcasing the best clean finishes.

This series is sure to drive engagement as it features the peak moment of a fight.

Below The Belt Line

In the PFL, the top four fighters from each weight class qualify for the playoffs.

The cutline (pictured above) will be rebranded as the “Below the Belt-line,” presented by DUDE Wipes, and featured whenever standings are shown—on social media, broadcast graphics, the website, and the mobile app.

“Below the Belt” ties both to DUDE Wipes' usage and the PFL Championship Belt. If you're below the beltline, you’re out of the running for the championship.

When standings updates are distributed via the website, mobile app, or email, it will be paired with banner ads driving to the brand’s website.

Extra Coverage

One key benefit DUDE Wipes promotes is their 35% larger size compared to the average flushable wet wipe.

The word “coverage” naturally ties into sports—whether it’s pre-fight coverage, fight coverage, post-fight coverage, playoff coverage, or even extra coverage for extended highlights and commentary.

This platform could also be transformed into a newsletter sponsored by DUDE Wipes. The brand would get logo placement in the email banner, along with ad space above the fold to drive traffic back to their website. I’d recommend the ad copy lean into the coverage pun for that placement.

What I love about this idea is its flexibility. It can be scaled up or down depending on DUDE Wipes’ goals, whether for a single event or an entire season.

Fresh Meat Platform

This platform highlights the new faces of the PFL.

The concept of "fresh" ties perfectly to DUDE Wipes, and "Fresh Meat" (aka new talent) refers to rookies or new fighters in the league.

Inspired by MLB and Topps, where rookies wear an "MLB Debut" patch for their first game, we’d create a "Fresh Meat" patch with the DUDE Wipes logo for fighters making their PFL debut. The patch would be displayed on their trunks during their first fight.

This idea could also extend to content on fight nights, welcome to the league graphics, and a video series profiling the new faces of the PFL.

No. 2 Trigger Promotion Or Donation

DUDE Wipes donates $2,000 to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation for every successful two-point conversion in their partnership with the Cleveland Browns.

A similar approach could work for the PFL with every “Clean Finish” (see above) in round two.

On the flip side, we could turn it into a trigger promotion rather than a donation: for every clean finish in round two, fans get a free pack of DUDE Wipes with purchase (or another discount) on the brand’s website.

To gamify the promotion, fans could guess which fight will have a round two finish. If they guess correctly, they win the offer.

Amplification would include elements such as paid social, mobile app push notifications, email campaigns, and broadcast QR codes.

Bullsh*t

Inspired by football creators BDGE, we’d launch an episodic YouTube series called Bullsh*t.

Fighters would compete to name things in a category, with the catch being that if they’re caught lying or wrongly accused of lying, they lose—just like the card game. Categories would be PFL-themed.

Not only is there plenty of room for product integration on set, but social cutdowns would also add value across other channels.

The Official Number Two Broadcast

This idea came from my conversation with Dizplai CEO Ed Abis about monetizing live content.

We’d collaborate with a creator or influential talent (e.g., a former fighter) to host live YouTube watch-alongs, similar to what Mark Goldbridge does on The United Stand.

The show needs a name, but the tagline would be: "The Official Number Two Broadcast of the PFL."

Why a watch-along?

You don’t need to show the actual fights (avoiding broadcast rights issues), and it creates a second-screen experience (another nod to "number two") where the host interacts with fans in real-time.

Throughout the watch-along, a QR code can appear on the screen for fans to redeem a DUDE Wipes offer, with DUDE Wipes also engaging fans in the chat.

Fresh Takes

“Fresh Takes” is a clever nod to DUDE Wipes and can be executed in several ways:

• Question of the Day Series: Fighters pass by a whiteboard to share their opinions on a prompt.

• Fresh Take Hotline: This could be integrated into a live show (see above) or a podcast, where fans submit questions via call-ins or social. Subway did something similar with Mike and Mike in the Morning.

• Sponsored Segment: Feature a “Fresh Take” segment on a podcast where the host shares their strong opinion on a PFL topic before transitioning into a DUDE Wipes ad read with a promo code.

• Fresh Take Score Card: Similar to Sky Sports' "Viewer’s Verdict," (another Dizplai activation), give fans the chance to score each round and integrate their input into the PFL’s pay-per-views.

Have Your Pitch Brought To Life

Submit your request for the next edition of What I’d Pitch here. All submissions will remain anonymous.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
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Speaking of social-first content, Tom Brady partnered with Abbott and the Big Ten Conference to help launch “The We Give Blood Drive,” a conference-wide competition to boost blood donations.

🚨 ICYMI
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