Rewriting The Script For Sports Brand Building

The global sporting economy is worth $2.3tn - and is projected to rise to $8.8tn by 2050. An astonishing number, but with the growth in audience numbers and fandom, it’s hardly surprising. Earlier this year the BBC achieved its largest overall audience consumption for the Winter Olympic Games, with over 83 million streams and 235 million views across socials.

Sport remains one of the most powerful cultural forces on the planet, but when AI is changing consumer expectations and fragmentation, its collective popularity doesn't shield it from the need to evolve.

“Brands are built through many voices,” explains Jessica Tamsedge, UK CEO, Dentsu Creative. “The athletes, the fans, the sports organisations, the creators. It is disparate, it’s complex, but it’s a massive space.”

But how do brands compete with the changing tides of sport while keeping it at the centre of culture? 

The National Football League (NFL) and Adobe are two brands that are trying to answer that question as sport, technology, and data continue to intertwine.

The Era Of Co-Created Fandom

More than ever — in sport — fandom is king. The traditional model of sports marketing across broadcast and sponsorship is no longer sustainable for audience growth and brand building alone.

In sport, audiences no longer want to be told what a brand is — they want to help shape it. 

“This notion of the brand being something that you protect, control or enforce is kind of out the window,” explains Simon Morris, Adobe International’s chief marketing officer. “It’s much more about how you co-create, how you collaborate, how you bring your community in and make them feel part of your brand.”

Dentsu research has found that over 60 per cent of fans believe emerging technology is making sport more engaging and personal; for Adobe a key part of achieving this is understanding audiences to begin with. 

“Brands like the NFL, the Premier League, and Real Madrid recognise that to deliver personalised experiences, they need a deep understanding of their data,” continues Morris. “Then comes the content challenge and bringing data and content together to deliver seamless, personalised journeys.

“For us, change is about how we go into markets where we are a challenger brand and create momentum behind fandom.”

In 2024, in the UK alone, sports fandom generated near $13bn for the economy; rising $3bn a year through to 2034.

“This is a space where attention is still hard, like any other brand playground,” details Tamsedge. “Algorithms are still dominating, and brands are built through many voices: the athletes, the fans, the sports organisations, the creators. It is disparate, it's complex, but it's a massive space.”

The Next Generation Of Culture

Culture is at the heart of sport, and for brands, showing up beyond the game is an effective measure of ensuring that’s maintained.

The NFL, as it continues to grow its audience internationally outside of the US, is a brand that is “very intentional” about its partnerships, according to Hodgson. 

“As a challenger brand, we look for partners with their own culture and fan base who can amplify our message. For example, Primark has helped us connect through fashion and creators, bringing them to events like the Super Bowl to share experiences.

“Gaming partners like EA Sports help us reach key audiences. And partnerships like Nike allow us to tell stories around British NFL athletes. These collaborations help us grow.” 

Connecting with culture isn’t always about collaborating with already established brands, but embedding into investing in the future. 

“We've focused particularly on the women's game, where many stories remain untold,” explains Morris. “We work with major global brands to create participatory experiences - co-creation, digital activations - so fans feel part of the story.

“At the grassroots level, we sponsor the Women’s FA Cup,” he continues. “Many clubs lack skills, time, and resources to create content, so we provided Adobe Express and training. Over 150 clubs now use it to stand out and attract more players.”

In September 2024 Adobe was named lead sponsor of Camden Town WFC in hopes of better connecting the club with its fans. The club utilised Adobe Express software to create quality content, and in the time since has doubled its Instagram following and has established one of the strongest social media channels at amateur football levels.

The Value of Showing Up

If participation and culture are changing how brands show up, a third shift is redefining why they show up at all. 

As highlighted by Tamsedge, fan expectations are rising fastest around: supporting emerging talent, investing in local communities, and delivering additive fan experiences.

For the NFL, the sport is already embedded throughout the US and is looking to continue that growth. 

“About 90 of the top 100 most-watched programs on television annually in the US are NFL games, with the Super Bowl being number one,” outlines Hogdson. “There was a period when the NFL was happy to continue there. But in the last five, 10, 15 years, there’s been growing momentum behind international expansion. We are now asking: ‘How do we become more popular outside the US? How do we gain more mindshare?’”

The brand is also continuing to support the women’s game in meaningful ways ahead of it featuring for the first time as an event at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games 

“There has been a huge initiative globally behind getting young women playing flag football,” explains Hodgson. “And what we’re seeing is that inspiring younger people to try the sport. It’s really exploding in terms of participation.”

Enabling growth in meaningful ways, however, doesn’t mean losing sight of the fundamentals that a brand has built itself. 

“You still need a very clear sense of who you are as a brand,” says Morris. “Our brand is still the North Star. It's still important that you understand who you are, who you are as a brand, and you build that design system into everything you create, whether your tone of voice, whether it be how you you know how you show up.”

As the NFL continues to adopt and introduce new fan engagement opportunities in stadium and for home audiences, there seems to be little holding back the emerging global interest in the sport.