6 Marketing Plan Examples & Actionable Tips to Follow
Sports marketing isn't just about slapping logos on jerseys anymore.
It's now one of the most emotionally-driven, culturally-aware marketing disciplines that can boost your brand in spectacular fashion.
With the sports sponsorship market exploding from $105.47 billion in 2023 to a projected $189.54 billion by 2030, there's never been a better time to seal sponsorship deals with athletes, sports teams and sporting events.
So, to inspire you, I worked with our resident researcher to find 12 campaigns that generated billions in earned media, broke social media records and created cultural moments that transcended the sports industry.
Are you ready to discover what makes fans open their wallets, share content like crazy and become lifelong brand advocates?
Let's dive into the campaigns that didn't just play the game, but won it big.
Sports marketing is a specialized field within marketing that focuses on the sports industry. You can use sports marketing to promote all things sport-related: events, products, businesses, experiences and, of course, athletes.
According to Nick Sacks, Senior Partnership Sales Manager at Sportfive, “Sports Marketing is unique because there aren't that many companies in the world that have fanatical people who love their business that much.”
And with so many sports fans out there, the possibilities for sports marketing campaigns are vast. It goes way beyond Super Bowl ads and branded jerseys. Since sports marketing deals in emotions, excitement and fanaticism, there’s no limit to what you can think of when strategizing a sports marketing campaign.
So, what is an example of sports marketing?
All of these are potentially successful when they include a good dose of storytelling.
Storytelling moves the needle in several aspects of sports marketing, including advertisements, social media videos, activations and even in the proposals you create for new partnership opportunities.
That’s precisely what Bridget Sullivan, Director of Partnership Solutions at the Florida Panthers, does.
By combining Visme with their team’s skills and storytelling techniques, Bridget and her company have consistently improved their work, creating sponsorship decks that not only leave a lasting impression but also open the door to new partnerships.
"With Visme, we see that the quality of our proposals or presentations are so much better than before. Even in the simplest ways, it's helped us to elevate our content. It's been tremendously helpful."
Do you need more proof that storytelling in sports marketing is important? This video by NFL Films is a year in review for 2024, and it won the 2025 Sports Media Award for Brand Storytelling.
Sports marketing started with simple product placement and grew to be one of the most powerful marketing forces in the world.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.
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The difference between the best sports marketing campaigns and the ones that fail comes down to whether brands genuinely understand their audience's values, emotions and cultural context before launching campaigns.
before launching campaigns.
Putting it simply…
I had a conversation with sport brand strategist James Kirkham about this topic. These are the questions I asked him and the answers he gave me:
Orana: What’s a common misconception brands have when entering sports marketing?
James: That it’s just about visibility. Slapping a logo on a shirt or premier board doesn’t mean you’ve earned your place. Sport is emotional terrain, tribal, generational and even irrational. If you’re not contributing to the story, the fan experience or the culture around it, you’re just background noise. You’ll be ruthlessly filtered out. The best brands harness the tightrope of tribalism, add value to fans’ lives but not be too “try hard.”
Orana: What’s the biggest challenge facing sports marketing right now?
James: Relevance. In a world of fragmented attention and algorithmically curated feeds where toxicity repels millions, sport doesn’t have the same guaranteed reach it once did. You’re not just competing with rival teams but you’re up against Netflix, TikTok, Discord. The challenge is to tap into culture in real-time and tell stories that travel beyond the pitch.
Orana: How do you evaluate whether an athlete is the right fit for a brand partnership?
James: It’s not just about stats or silverware: it’s about story, values and vibe. Does their audience care? Do they stand for something? Do they speak in a way that feels real, not rehearsed? The athlete should amplify the brand’s message, not be a mismatch in tone or intention. Authenticity wins every time.
To nail this and other points, here’s an infographic with several reasons why sports marketing succeeds or fails.
| Success | Failure |
| Authentic Cultural Awareness Campaigns that genuinely understand and respect cultural sensitivities. |
Cultural Tone-Deafness Failing to understand cultural implications and sensitivities. |
| Example: Nike's "Just Do It," featuring diverse real people like 80-year-old Walt Stack. | Example: Adidas' "Trophy Hunting" imagery during 2018 World Cup. |
| Emotional Intelligence & Timing Reading the emotional climate and responding appropriately. |
Poor Emotional Timing Misreading fan mood and posting conflicting content. |
| Example: New Balance's "social media bomb" campaign during Coco Gauff's US Open victory. | Example: NY Mets posting laughing players during a losing streak. |
| Genuine Social Purpose Supporting causes aligned with brand values and audience beliefs. |
Appropriating Social Issues Using social movements as marketing tools without real commitment. |
| Example: Sport England's "This Girl Can" addressing barriers women face in sports. | Example: Pepsi's Kendall Jenner ad trivializing Black Lives Matter protests. |
| Respectful & Inclusive Messaging Content that respects all audiences and reflects positive brand values. |
Inappropriate Content Content that feels tone-deaf or offensive to current social climates. |
| Example: Paris 2024 Olympics "Games Wide Open" celebrating diversity. | Example: NFL's "Super Bowl Babies" campaign during the #MeToo movement. |
| Transparent Communication Honest, clear communication addressing issues head-on. |
Poor Crisis Management Dismissive or inadequate responses during controversies. |
| Example: Norwich City & Samaritans' Mental Health Day campaign. | Example: USA Gymnastics' dismissive response to Larry Nassar allegations. |
| Fan-Centric Approach Putting fan interests first and showing genuine care for the community. |
Ignoring Fan Sentiment Prioritizing profit over fan loyalty and values. |
| Example: Apple TV's simple pink GOAT emoji billboard for Messi's Miami move. | Example: Major European football clubs' 2021 Super League breakaway attempt. |
| Consistent Brand Alignment Ensuring actions and messaging align with established brand values. |
Brand-Action Misalignment Campaigns that contradict the brand's identity or values. |
| Example: Nike's "Just Do It" campaign, maintaining core message for 35+ years. | Example: Manchester United's bizarre movie trailer mashups with 20th Century Fox. |
The best way to gain actionable insights for your own winning sports marketing strategies is to learn from successful campaigns. I met up with Visme’s in-house researcher, and we found some great examples.
But why are these sports marketing campaigns successful? To answer that question, I've included practical takeaways for you to implement into your own strategies.
I separated them into the following categories:
Let’s dive in and check out each category. You’ll discover proven approaches from the past and recent sports marketing campaigns.
Endorsing an athlete with your brand can be a winning sports marketing strategy that benefits both your company and the athlete you choose to endorse. The examples I chose for this category are the collaborations of Lionel Messi with Adidas and Caitlin Clark with Gatorade.
Lionel Messi signed his first deal with Adidas in 2006, which then evolved into a lifetime contract in 2017. This deal earns him around 20 million dollars annually and is one of the most lucrative endorsements in sports history.
Part of the deal is an exclusive line of Adidas apparel of Messi game shirts from both Miami Inter and Argentina. Likewise, there are also soccer cleats and player kits for adults and kids alike.
This lifetime deal has brought major success for Adidas, mainly for its growth in popularity in the United States. In 2024, just ahead of the soccer season, Adidas saw significant interest growth in North America. The brand had a 60% increase in visits to Messi’s microsite at adidas.com in the U.S. and a 40% increase in visits to the kids’ soccer apparel pages.
The reason it works so well is because of Messi’s excellence in sports and humility in life. These follow Adidas' brand values of commitment to quality and high performance in sports.
What can you learn from Adidas and Messi? Invest in long-term relationships rather than one-off campaigns. By doing so, the growth and notoriety are extended over time as the athlete (hopefully) improves in their career.
Look for athletes whose personal brand naturally compliments your company values and be prepared to commit significant resources to partnerships that can grow over time.
This short commercial features Adidas in the Inter Miami kit, but it shares the spotlight with Apple TV, the NFL and MLC. In this short clip, you can see how even combining two different sports can make an impact on fans. People love Messi, even American Football fans.
Speaking of American Football, did you know that the Denver Broncos, three-time Super Bowl winners, use Visme for their partnership marketing?
The first feature that caught their eye was Visme’s ability to help them design and publish interactive content without the need for coding. The second feature that appealed to them was the flexibility in customization compared to other tools they had used in the past.
Matt Swiren, Manager of Partnership Marketing, shared, “We utilize Visme a lot. We’re using it from the beginning to even after the end of the season. We're creating presentations to show our plans for season planning and just recaps, and Visme provides a great way to do it.”
Basketball player Caitlin Clark landed several NIL endorsements while she was still a student at the University of Iowa. One of those deals is with the sports drink, Gatorade.
In exchange for Caitlin representing the Gatorade brand, the company donated $22,000 to the Caitlin Clark Foundation, which supports youth sports. They chose that amount because of her player number, 22.
The collaborative efforts included social media campaigns, television commercials and limited-edition products. All the Gatorade activations, events and support accompanied Caitlin’s journey from student-athlete to WNBA stardom.
All the Gatorade campaigns she has been involved in, “You Can Too,” “Is It in You?” and “Is Only Getting Started,” align perfectly with Caitlin Clark’s Dream Big mentality and inspirational values.
This sports marketing collaboration is a success because it resonates with Caitlin’s fans. Just on social media, the content generates massive engagement because audiences see her as both aspirational and relatable, embodying the perseverance message.
This is one of the first Gatorade commercials featuring Caitlin. The message in this video is that Caitlin’s career is just beginning, and Gatorade is there to support her along the way.
Aside from partnering with athletes that align with your brand messaging, consider creating products with the athlete's likeness (photo and/or name). Promote the product with social media storytelling to help fans feel connected and purchase the products as collectibles.
When you’re ready to create promotional content for your campaign, open your Visme editor and upload images and videos of your endorsed athlete into the media library.
If you need to edit those images, take advantage of the AI Edit Tools to remove backgrounds, create cutouts and improve the quality of the photos. Then, use AI Writer to generate catchy headlines and slogans.
Many sports marketing campaigns use social media as part of their strategy. But some concentrate solely on social media as the main communication platform. Here are two examples of campaigns that made it big on socials.
In 2024, clothing retailer Hollister launched a 67-piece Collegiate Graphics Shop collection featuring 30+ universities, collaborating with more than 150 student-athletes. In one day, they posted over 500 social media photos and videos of themselves wearing their university’s version of the vintage design sweatshirts and t-shirts.
This massive-scale social media campaign set the record for the largest number of single-day social media posts in NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) history.
So, why did the campaign succeed?
Instead of focusing solely on top-tier athletes, Hollister strategically combined some of the top college sports players with hundreds of regionally relevant athletes. This combination was instrumental in flooding social media channels like Instagram and TikTok.
@hollister gear up with our fully stacked roster of college football graphics 🏈 featuring: •officially licensed graphic tees •comfortable fabric •the game-winning fit product details here ⤵️ college football graphics: 323-609-00178-100 #cfb25 #easportscollegefootball #ncaafootball #footballseason #collegefootball #ohiostate #notredame #miamihurricanes #oregonducks #georgiafootball #floridastate #newhollister #gamedayoutfit ♬ Next Please - Mardyny
What can you learn from Hollister’s social media strategy? Don’t just chase the biggest names. Mix high-profile athletes with local and regional figures who have strong communities of followers. Additionally, scale your campaign across multiple touchpoints simultaneously to achieve maximum market saturation.
England’s football team captain Harry Kane’s platform Cleats Club partnered with food delivery service Just Eat for a social-first campaign where fans asked Kane food-related questions through the app, with responses used to create content across Just Eat’s social channels.
Brand strategist James Kirkham posted about it on LinkedIn, perfectly explaining the power of this direct-to-fan campaign:
Just Eat naturally coheres with football culture through its existing food delivery associations with game-watching, making the partnership feel organic rather than forced. Here’s one of the posts created from a question, posted on the Just Eat Instagram profile.
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What can you learn from this campaign, and how can you implement its tactics? As a sports company, look for brands that already fit naturally into your ecosystem.
As a brand, look for sports communities and groups that provide fans with direct access to athletes, generating authentic content that can be repurposed across multiple social platforms.
And as James says in his LI post, “Find where you legitimately belong, then add value that enhances what people already care about.”
If you find that your brand legitimately belongs on a social media channel where you can run your sports marketing campaign, use Visme’s editor to create the content and the Social Media Scheduler to post the graphics online.
While writing this article and researching the best examples of sports marketing to show you, I came across this gold nugget.
Instagram posted a reel in collaboration with athletic influencer Eli Ellis as he analyzed the players’ fits as they walked into the stadium tunnel for one of the NBA Finals games.
No brands in particular were mentioned, but I’m confident that each player was rocking at least one piece of clothing from their sponsor brands, especially the one holding the pink sneakers in his hands.
This is a perfect example of how sports marketing doesn’t always concentrate on the sport itself, but rather the environment it inspires. As Eli Ellis mentioned in the reel’s caption
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When experiential and event marketing campaigns are successful, they are widely popular and memorable. Our examples are from the Fifa World Cup and the NFL.
In Zurich, during the 2018 Fifa World Cup, Grand Visual Agency created an augmented reality experience for Coca-Cola. Their goal was to invite passersby to interact with an AR setting that allowed them to play alongside Switzerland star Xherdan Shaqiri. This AR setup brought tournament excitement to audiences commuting to work or school.
During the two days the experience was available at Zurich Central Train Station, 1,000 people engaged with the activation. After “playing” with Shaqiri, fans were offered the opportunity to take a photo as a memento or to share on social media. Of course, participants were also gifted Coca-Cola as part of the experience.
Augmented reality is a novel way to gather attention for your brand’s sports-related activations. However, for this type of campaign to be effective, you need to set up the experience in a location with high foot traffic.
In this case, it was a train station, but it could also be inside a music festival, outside a stadium before and after games, inside malls or other places of that caliber.
In February 2024, the NFL (National Football League) collaborated with GameFam to launch the first-of-its-kind SpongeBob-themed Roblox Super Bowl multi-event, merging sports with gaming culture to reach younger audiences.
The award-winning quest-driven event took users across a variety of popular Roblox experiences, including the SpongeBob Simulator, Super NFL Tycoon, TMNT Battle Tycoon, Twilight Daycare and Easy Obby. It was the biggest Super Bowl event Roblox players had ever seen.
This partnership successfully bridged traditional sports with gaming culture, reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha where they spend their time.
What can you learn from this experiential crossover?
Look for unexpected but logical connections with entertainment properties that share your target audience or have the potential to do so. Gaming platforms, for example, offer huge sponsorship opportunities to reach younger demographics in their preferred environment.
When Lionel Messi broke Pelé's 46-year record by scoring his 644th goal for Barcelona, Budweiser created a genius campaign that sent 644 personalized bottles of beer to the 160 goalkeepers Messi had scored against throughout his career with the team.
Each bottle was uniquely numbered (1-644) and featured an image of Messi celebrating, accompanied by the message: “This feat is made even more extraordinary given they were scored against the best keepers in the world. We know of no other competitors more worthy of celebrating. Kings aren't made overnight."
The campaign succeeded because it flipped the traditional narrative from individual achievement to collective celebration. Instead of just honoring Messi, Budweiser honored his "victims" - the goalkeepers who helped make history possible.
Gianluigi Buffon tweeted his thanks,
Joe Hart called it "a privilege to be a part of his history," and Jan Oblak acknowledged that "the challenge of stopping you brings the best out of goalkeepers too."
The collaboration, created by advertising creative director Heather English, also brought unprecedented results:
This unique sports marketing campaign was also a multiple award winner, including three categories at The Drum Awards for Social Media in 2021: 'Travel, Leisure or Sports',’ 'Best Influencer Campaign' and 'Best Viral Campaign.’ It also got a Silver Lion at Cannes and a Shorty Award.
To use this technique in your own strategies, transform individual achievements into collective celebrations.
This approach created authentic user-generated content as recipients naturally shared their experiences, extending the campaign's reach organically while building goodwill across the entire football community.
This is the video that launched the campaign:
Brand partnerships and sponsorships are long-standing strategies for successful sports marketing initiatives.
Most, if not all, athletic teams rely on sponsorships to fund their kits and travel expenses. It’s a system that works for teams of all ages and brands or companies of all sizes.
Here are two examples of large scale brand partnerships between a non-sports brand and a sport entity.
Formula 1 and Lego Group started a partnership in 2025 that combines Lego’s creative building experience with F1’s high-speed excitement. The deal includes several Formula 1 inspired Lego sets featuring F1 teams and vehicles (in all Lego types, DUPLO, standard and 18+), plus several digital experiences inside the Lego app.
Aside from F1-themed Lego products, there will be in-person activities at races with a focus on bringing fans closer to the world of innovation, technology and engineering through the fun of Lego building. Lego branding will also be present at the race locations.
One of the latest activations of this partnership was a fun race before the Miami Grand Prix, where each F1 team raced a life-sized Lego car.
On the surface, this partnership might seem far-fetched. But it makes sense because of how the two brands complement each other. Formula 1 provides excitement and speed, while Lego offers creativity and innovation.
This is a successful partnership because Lego is ageless, and therefore appeals to Formula 1 fans of every generation.
What insights can you gather from this example?
For example, not every partnership is necessarily obvious at first. The idea is to connect two brands that offer each other something that the other lacks.
Skincare brand Paula's Choice named rugby star Ilona Maher as their first-ever brand ambassador. The partnership involves collaborating on product launches, including the brand's Pro-Collagen Peptide Plumping Moisturizer, with Maher serving as a 'skincare coach' sharing tips with her 3.4 million TikTok followers.
This campaign is relevant and successful because Maher is one of the world's 50 Most Marketable Athletes, making her the only rugby player to feature in the ranking. Her authentic approach to both athletics and beauty resonates with audiences who see her as relatable rather than unattainable.
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The partnership feels natural, since Maher co-launched her own skincare line called Medalist in 2024. The timing also capitalizes on Maher's breakout year following her Olympic bronze win and appearance on Dancing with the Stars.
Maher's genuine interest in skincare and ability to make rugby accessible to new audiences made this partnership feel organic rather than transactional, proving that the best endorsements happen when an athlete's interests genuinely align with a brand’s offerings.
The last category is traditional and broadcast, which includes the classic television commercial and broadcasts of the actual games. Sports marketing in this space is very competitive but also very lucrative.
The spots for commercials during the Super Bowl game are some of the most expensive, and brands work hard to make an impact.
Below, I share one of the best super bowl ads of 2025 and one of the most novel broadcast techniques in recent times.
Nike's "So Win" commercial features authentic stories of female athletes overcoming adversity in their sports and life. The striking black-and-white video uses powerful visual storytelling to connect with viewers on an emotional level.
It features a group of high-profile female athletes, including Sabrina Ionescu, Sha'Carri Richardson, A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Alexia Putellas, Aryna Sabalenka, Sophia Smith, Jordan Chiles and JuJu Watkins.
This campaign works because it creates an emotional connection with audiences (particularly women) by telling a relatable discourse of how women are told what they can’t or shouldn’t do.
“So Win” was aired during the 2025 Super Bowl and was considered one of the best ads by AdWeek. It was Nike’s first Super Bowl ad in 27 years, and they knocked it out of the park. To top it off, the Nike logo appeared 819 times across 521 frames, making it the most visible brand during Super Bowl LIX.
So, what can you learn from this powerful commercial?
Focus on emotional storytelling rather than product features. Share authentic stories of struggle and triumph that your audience can relate to, regardless of their athletic ability.
Tell stories that make your brand about empowerment and possibility. Look for ways to be inspiring while also reminding viewers what your brand is all about.
This is the ad. Watch it more than once; It’s worth it.
Winner of the Sports Media Award 2025 in the Broadcast category, this campaign is an epic example of what the future holds for sports marketing.
The broadcast transported viewers to SpongeBob’s Bikini Bottom with enhanced augmented reality graphics, slime cannons and appearances by characters from across Paramount's portfolio including Transformers, Hey Arnold, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This campaign demonstrates how sports marketing can successfully bridge generational gaps, making NFL content accessible to younger audiences while creating shareable moments that extend across social media platforms.
Don't just sponsor sports content, reimagine it entirely. Nickelodeon didn't just add their characters to a broadcast; they created a completely parallel universe that made football accessible to kids while entertaining adults, proving that the most successful sports marketing innovations come from bold creative risks that others might consider unconventional.
For a sports marketing campaign to be both memorable and effective, it must achieve several key objectives. Most importantly, it must be relatable to your target audience in a way that makes them feel connected fully.
Like marketing expert Zach Colman shares in a video on his channel, "Whether it's clothing they wear, phones they use, shoes they run in or food they eat, fans want to emulate the athletes they feel a connection with."
Aside from the tried-and-true “knowing your audience” strategy, there are other goals to aspire to:
There are two examples that compete for the best sports marketing campaign. These are Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign and the phenomenon that is the Super Bowl commercial.
The four principles of marketing are place, price, product and promotion.
Sponsorship is just one component of sports marketing, which is the broader umbrella that includes all marketing activities related to sports from athlete endorsements and event marketing to social media campaigns and merchandise sales.
Sponsorship specifically refers to the financial or in-kind support a company provides to a sports team, athlete or event in exchange for marketing benefits and brand association.
Absolutely! Many successful non-sports brands leverage sports marketing effectively. Major sporting events like the Olympics and Euro 2024 captivate a global audience, presenting a golden opportunity for non-sports brands to get in on the game.
Success measurement for sports marketing includes tracking key metrics across three categories. Each category has three actions:
Sales & Conversion Metrics:
Brand Awareness & Engagement:
Customer Value Metrics:
Sports marketing has come a long way from simple product placements and basic sponsorship deals. Today's most successful campaigns are cultural phenomena that create authentic emotional connections, generate massive social engagement and drive real business results.
The campaigns I shared in this guide prove that winning in sports marketing isn't about having the biggest budget. It's about understanding your audience's values, timing your message perfectly and having the courage to try something genuinely different.
But even the most brilliant strategy needs professional execution to make a real impact.
After the campaign is over, you'll have to create a report document or case study presentation to showcase your results, share learnings with stakeholders and build a foundation for future campaigns.
Visme helps you through every step of the process, from beginning to end. Our all-in-one design platform gives your marketing team everything necessary to create convincing sponsorship decks, interactive reports, social media content and branded materials that bring your sports marketing vision to life.
Open up an account for your marketing team today and use all the available tools to create the content you need for your sports marketing strategies.
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