Submitted by WhalarAgency IPI Score 83/100

NFL x Whalar: Transforming the Sidelines into a Launchpad

Influencer Marketing

Whalar embedded a new creator with a different NFL team each week across 23 weeks, producing YouTube Shorts to reach casual fans beyond the league's core football audience.

22nfl teams
24games covered
23campaign weeks
27creators activated

About the campaign

The NFL already commanded dedicated football fans but wanted to grow beyond that core, reaching casual viewers who engage with sports as entertainment, the people who come to a Super Bowl party for the snacks or stop scrolling when Taylor Swift appears at a game. Whalar's answer was Creator of the Week, built on the insight that Gen Z and Millennials are twice as likely as Boomers to trust influencers, embedding a new creator with a different NFL team each week for the entire season.

Over 23 weeks from the season opener through the February 2024 Super Bowl, 27 creators drawn from gaming, food, comedy and entertainment, including Alix Earle, Casey Neistat and Sean Evans, were given VIP sideline access to players and coaches across 24 games and 22 teams. They turned around game-day highlights, superfan interviews, team trends and challenges fast enough for fans to watch during or shortly after games, publishing to a dedicated NFL YouTube Shorts playlist and their own channels under #NFLCreatorOfTheWeek, with the format later extended to Snapchat.

The program earned Gold in YouTube Partnership and Silver Honors in Sports and Use of YouTube at the 16th Shorty Awards; reach and engagement figures were not publicly disclosed.

Case in 60 seconds

The NFL already held dedicated football fans but wanted to grow beyond that core, reaching casual viewers who engage with sports as entertainment rather than competition.

According to the Shorty Awards campaign entry, Gen Z and Millennials are two times more likely than Boomers to trust influencers, and 63% of US Gen Z and 58% of UK Gen Z audiences trust product recommendations from content creators, pointing to creators as the right bridge to an entertainment-first audience.

Whalar devised Creator of the Week: one creator embedded with a different NFL team each week for the entire season, producing YouTube Shorts that prioritised culture and behind-the-scenes access over traditional football coverage.

Over 23 weeks from the season opener through the Super Bowl, 27 creators drawn from gaming, food, comedy, and entertainment categories were given VIP sideline access to players and coaches and turned around game-day highlights, interviews, team trends, and challenges quickly enough for fans to watch during or shortly after games. Featured creators included Alix Earle, Casey Neistat, and Sean Evans. Content published to a dedicated NFL YouTube Shorts playlist and each creator's own channels; the program later extended to Snapchat.

The campaign covered 24 games across 22 NFL teams and won Gold Honor in YouTube Partnership, Silver Honors in Sports and Use of YouTube, and a Finalist placement in Short Form Video at the 16th Annual Shorty Awards. Reach, view, and engagement figures were not publicly disclosed.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

The primary target was casual fans who engage with the NFL as entertainment rather than sport, described in the Shorty Awards entry as people who attend a Super Bowl party for the snacks, who stop scrolling when they see Taylor Swift at a game, and who love the entertainment side of sports entertainment. Secondary targets were Gen Z and Millennial audiences identified as more likely to trust creator recommendations than traditional advertising.
The NFL sits at the intersection of sport and mainstream pop culture, but its content infrastructure historically served dedicated football fans. Casual viewers, who account for a large share of Super Bowl and event audiences, had no obvious content entry point that matched their existing habits on platforms like YouTube Shorts.
Sports marketing tends to lead with competition, statistics, and team loyalty, all of which are barriers for audiences whose primary relationship with the NFL is entertainment. The challenge was producing content that felt native to creator culture, not broadcast sports, while retaining enough NFL authenticity to serve the brand.
The NFL functioned as access-giver and platform, providing creators with sideline credentials, player and coach access, and distribution reach that individual creators could not replicate. Whalar framed its own approach as co-creation built around communities and creators, positioning the brand as an enabler rather than a broadcaster.
Fast-turnaround short-form video consumed during or immediately after live events maps to how casual fans actually engage with sports moments on social platforms. By giving creators genuine behind-the-scenes access, the program produced content that broadcast coverage does not offer, making the creator posts complementary to rather than duplicative of the live game.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • YouTube Shorts published to a dedicated NFL Creator of the Week playlist
  • Creator-owned YouTube and social channels for additional amplification
  • Snapchat (extended partnership, per Ads of the World)
  • Game-day highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, player and coach interviews, team trends, and challenges

Partners

  • Whalar (lead agency, per Ads of the World and Shorty Awards)
  • YouTube (described as a longtime NFL partner, per Shorty Awards entry)
  • Snapchat (extended distribution partner, per Ads of the World)

Participation mechanic

  • Weekly creator rotation: one creator per team per week across 22 teams
  • VIP sideline access granted to each creator for live game coverage
  • Fast-turnaround publishing timed to air during and immediately after games
  • Content entered under the hashtag #NFLCreatorOfTheWeek

Creator role

  • Embedded correspondent producing original short-form content from the sideline
  • Cultural translator connecting NFL moments to non-football audiences via gaming, food, comedy, and entertainment angles
  • Distribution node amplifying content to each creator's existing community alongside the NFL's owned playlist

Awards & Recognition

Award showYearCategoryResultSource
Shorty Awards2024YouTube PartnershipGold Honor—
Shorty Awards2024SportsSilver Honor—
Shorty Awards2024Use of YouTubeSilver Honor—
Shorty Awards2024Short Form VideoFinalist—
Shorty Awards2024Brand Awareness CampaignEntered (result not specified in source)—

Why Whalar's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Matching the medium to the audience: publishing YouTube Shorts through creators already followed by casual and entertainment-first fans placed NFL content inside existing viewing habits rather than asking audiences to change their behaviour.

  2. 2

    A weekly creator rotation sustained a full-season content cadence without depending on a single face or voice, keeping the program fresh across 23 weeks and 22 teams.

  3. 3

    Sideline access produced content distinct from broadcast coverage, giving creators genuinely exclusive material, behind-the-scenes footage, player and coach interactions, that casual audiences could not see elsewhere, as described in the Shorty Awards entry.

  4. 4

    Fast turnaround tied the content to live cultural moments: publishing during and immediately after games kept the program relevant to the news cycle of each match week, per Whalar.

  5. 5

    Selecting creators from categories such as gaming, food, comedy, and entertainment rather than sports media mapped each creator's existing community to the NFL's entertainment-first positioning, as outlined in the Shorty Awards strategy section.

  6. 6

    The format proved durable: the extension into a Snapchat partnership after the initial YouTube Shorts run suggests the weekly-embedded-creator model transferred across platforms.

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