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5 Sports Marketing Campaigns That We Love

With the rise of digital and social media, brands are developing smarter and more effective marketing campaigns.

83% of sports fans use social media when watching sports, and 63% use it while attending live matches, so it clearly makes sense for brands to take advantage of the available social platforms to engage fans in creative ways.

Here's just a view of the amazing sports marketing campaigns that got our attention in the last couple of years.

Pickstar can help you find an athlete to create your next great marketing campaign. It's quick, easy and works with any budget. Browse our stars here.

1. You Can't Stop Us - Nike

With a global pandemic and racial equality issues in the spotlight in 2020, Nike released one of the most poetic and beautiful sporting ads ever produced.

You Can't Stop Us tells the story of resilience and passion through the lens of its athlete ambassadors using thousands of hours of footage that have been painstakingly spliced together. LeBron James, Megan Rapinoe, Naomi Osaka, Colin Kaepernick and dozens others feature in a celebration of sport as an inspiration.

The ad resonates with the everyday athlete with the way it tells the story of how the world, and sport in particular, won't be stopped by the current issues.

The final piece - a split-screen with two concurrent bits of vision syncing up to perfection - is a masterpiece in visual storytelling.

The ad follows Nike's piece earlier in 2020 focused on speaking up about racial equality - "For once, just don't do it".

2. Chase the Gear Campaign - SportChek

Using the power of Facebook Live, Former NHL player Gary Roberts teamed up with Canada’s women’s national hockey team to create a marketing campaign called ‘Chase the Gear’.

It involved the athletes running through Toronto’s High Park and people chasing them for free gear, as a part of Sport Check’s campaign to showcase Adidas’ High Performance Olympic collection. It was broadcast on Facebook Live, where viewers also had the chance to win prizes as well as unlocking power-ups for the runner by reacting and sharing the video. In the end, the livestream saw 1.5M unique viewers and had more than 3000 reactions.

3. NAB & AFL - Mini Legends

In 2016, NAB partnered with the AFL to launch their Mini Legends campaign which highlighted NAB’s support of footballers - starting at Auskick all the way through to the big league. It celebrates the love Aussies have for footy and the support they have at every stage of their AFL journey.

Along with significant television coverage (which continues today), NAB’s online video series of the mini-legends has hundreds of thousands of views and continues to produce quality, heart-warming content like when Mini-Tippa met Tippa.

You can book Tippa for your next campaign or event! See his profile here

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NAB launched another campaign in 2017, the NAB Mini Legends Draft. It launches with a national call out through TV, digital, social and print media for Aussie kids to enter the draft. Creative Director Rich Williams said one of the definite insights from last year’s campaign was how many children (and adults!) wished they could become a Mini Legend.

4. #DareToZlatan

Football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic is known for his big ego, his popular post matches interviews or scuffles with the opposition .. along with his on-field exploits. Nike decided to take a risk with the controversial Zlatan to promote their Zlatan-themed clothing line over Twitter with a Q&A, and it paid off.

Looks at the success of his viral responses below.

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5. 'This Girl Can' Campaign

The English Sports Council launched the #ThisGirlCan campaign with the goal to inspire women to participate more in sports. They didn’t use any athletes or high profiles to promote their video, but used women that don’t typically fit the “athlete” mould to encourage others to get fit. So far the original video has over eight millions views and the hashtag #ThisGirlCan has been shared millions of times.

Pickstar is the best place to book a sports star for your next marketing campaign, social activation or ambassador deal. With Pickstar, agencies and brands choose from 1700+ elite athletes past and present, with ANY budget. Find out more HERE.

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Originally published June 13, 2017