The NFL promotes YouTube partnership through influencer marketing (Score 36)

Sales lead: Reach out if you can offer influencer management services or help the league reach Gen-Zers. 

• The National Football League (NFL) partnered with Youtube last year by giving it the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. 
• The league is now working with influencers to promote the service to Gen-Zers. 
• The NFL is also working on offering more ways for fans to watch games as younger consumers do not have cable. 
• We told you about the NFL's new media AOR in April. 

Target demographic: Male Gen-Z sports fans

The league will likely:

• Partner with influencers
• Seek an influencer relations agency partner
• Ramp digital ad spend back up

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: The NFL spent approximately $99.2m on national TV ads YTD, a 34% increase from $74.3m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell by 22% from $128.3m in 2021 to $165.1m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, 2023 NFL Draft, and Super Bowl LVII Immediate Pregame. 

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: The NFL spent around $11m on digital display ads YTD, about 60% of the $18.2m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 1.4b impressions via Facebook (46%), Instagram (31%), desktop video (10%), desktop display (6%), Twitter (3%), YouTube (2%), and mobile display (2%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend equaled $58.2m in 2021 and $58.3m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 99% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, abcya.com, twitter.com, and amazon.com. It placed 1% of these ads indirectly through Google AdX+AdSense onto sites such as looper.com, yahoo.com, reviewjournal.com, buzzfeed.com, and telegraph.co.uk. 

Additional channel insights  

• Vivvix: The NFL also invests in OOH, print, radio, and local broadcast. 
• Top podcasts sponsored: NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Around the NFL. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews commonly follow one another, so keep reaching out to be top-of-mind.
  • Be sure to mention any influencer marketing experience you have. 
• Current roster:
  • Horizon Media, Inc.: media AOR
  • 72andSunny: creative AOR
  • GMR Marketing: experiential & digital
  • Tinuiti: digital & social