2021 SHORTLIST

hashtagsportsawards

THE BEST GOT BETTER: CHARGERS UNIFORM LAUNCH

Entrant Company: Los Angeles Chargers

FINALIST

Best Social Media Campaign

The Best Got Better- Chargers Uniform Launch

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

This jersey reveal was a campaign built for the internet and by the internet. We capitalized on the buzz from the very beginning and never let up.

How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

Rather than just teasing our new uniforms, we let others speak. We kept fans, and non-fans alike, enagaged without actually revealing anything. From Peter Schrager’s quick look in our first video tease to the players’ reactions to Ian Rappoport’s tweet it was all intentional.

The strategy: meet fans where they are and be so good, you draw in everyone else. The results: a uniform rollout that was widely acclaimed as the best in sports. In an area where many teams find themselves falling short of the hype, we lived up to it.

We hope our build-up, the unique ways we engaged (from familiar reminders to memes and the large audience we were able to reach is not only inspirational but that it can serve as a road map for future endeavors from teams and brands. A uniform (or any) launch doesn’t have to be one large event for it to be successful and the success shouldn’t be measured by one day or one post.

The initial video went live with a corresponding reveal on Good Morning Football and a culmination of everything we had built up to for the last month was out there for the world.

 

Objective: The Chargers have long been known for their uniforms so we knew we had high expectations to meet and that our campaign had to be just as good as we thought our new threads were. We wanted to set the tone for our new uniforms before anyone even saw them.

We were in a unique position, the world around us was shutting down due to COVID-19, we were a few months ahead of our fourth season in Los Angeles coming off a 5-11 campaign and our franchise quarterback of 16 years had just signed with another team.

We knew this couldn’t just be a one-and-done moment. It couldn’t be a singular event, we needed to keep our fans and the internet engaged. We had to build up the reveal, own the day of the launch and continue the conversation beyond it.

 

Strategy & Execution: Launching our new uniforms in the middle of a global pandemic was a unique challenge. We were never able to put a player in the uniform or even shoot the uniform in person. We had to get creative with showing off the jerseys while still maintaining our social tone and voice.

We brought our players in. We built up hype. We gave our fans, and quite frankly all NFL fans, something to look forward to in a difficult time. This campaign was about rewarding our loyal fans and showing the entire league who we are. We wanted our fans to feel heard and seen.

The build-up was just as important as the reveal itself, but it couldn’t just be us talking it up. In true 2020 style, we took to Zoom to give our players, alumni and select members of the media a sneak peek.

We continued to engage our fans and the online NFL community through memes, teases and and strategic sneak peeks to internet personalities, all building up to a virtual reveal.

 

Results:

We knew we needed to do two things really well:

  1. Engage our fan base at a high level
  2. Create highly shareable content

We were top four in the NFL in engagement rate across all major social platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) from the day we launched our first teaser to the day following the reveal.

Our initial reveal video has nearly two million views on Twitter alone and over six million organic impressions across all our social platforms. We view that success as a culmination of the efforts put in prior to 4/21/20 and it doesn’t end there. We wanted to position ourselves as not only the owners of the best uniforms in sports but the executors of the best uniform launch in sports.

We did this for our fans, to reach potential fans and to remind everyone who we are. This was more than a uniform launch for us, it was a relaunch of our entire brand. Coupled with our rebrand announcement a month prior and coming just days before the NFL Draft, this was our chance to be seen and heard and an opportunity for our fan base to feel seen and heard.

PRODUCTION

Los Angeles Chargers

 

CREDITS

CMO
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Vice President, Marketing
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Head of Production
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Social Media Manager
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Editor and Producer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Social Media Coordinator
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Senior Producer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Editor and Producer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Director of Design and Creative Services
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Graphic Designer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Graphic Designer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Graphic Designer
Los Angeles Chargers
 
VP of Communications
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications & Alumni Affairs
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Coordinator, Corporate Communications & Alumni Affairs
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Senior Manager, Communications
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Coordinator, Football Communications
Los Angeles Chargers
 
VP and EP of Fan Experience & Production
Los Angeles Chargers
 
Digital Content Coordinator
Los Angeles Chargers
 

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