A New Playbook for NFL Content
By 2017, NFL Media was expanding fan engagement beyond owned-and-operated platforms like NFL.com and NFL Network. Teams were programming content for YouTube, Instagram, and other social platforms, but much of the work was still repurposed from broadcast, editorial, or league content rather than created specifically for those platforms and audiences.
I led a two-season effort to reimagine how NFL content showed up across fan touchpoints. The work had to go beyond social programming. It needed to support sponsorship, licensing, and production requirements while creating meaningful growth in sellable inventory and revenue.
Working with the best storytellers in SPORTS
One of the things that makes sports great is the real drama that exists in every moment.
Will he catch the ball?
Can she get there in time?
Which team will win?
Who will be great?
Who will be forgotten?
Those questions only become stories in the hands of skilled producers, analysts, writers, and filmmakers. The NFL has some of the best storytellers in the world, so we started with them and two goals:
1. Learn from the people closest to the work where they saw opportunities, and what drove their passion.
2. Create a sense of shared authorship with the people who would be executing the strategy.
Content Audits and Fan Research
Following the workshops, we completed a content audit to understand how NFL Media’s current strategy compared with competitors across categories, platforms, and fan needs.
We also spoke with fans across teams, markets, and moments in the season. Their needs changed based on whether their team was winning, whether fantasy football was still relevant, and whether the season was in preseason, regular season, playoffs, or the Draft.
New Brands, New Platforms, New Audiences
By the start of the 2018 season, the strategy had been translated into a portfolio of new and evolved content brands, each designed around a clearer audience need, platform behavior, and production model.
The result was a broader NFL content portfolio built for distinct fan motivations: expertise, fantasy, nostalgia, player access, casual entertainment, and game-day utility.
