Branded entertainment has exploded in popularity, appeal and ultimately business sense in the past couple years. It is one of, if not the most powerful way to engage an audience in the U.S.

Numerous brands want to answer this call, but very few are able to uncover the intersection of marketing and culture. Branded Entertainment is based on the passion points of consumers (sports, music, etc.), so finding that overlapping truth is what separates content people want to spend time with from that of traditional advertising.

Any restrictions and regulations that fall outside the standard practice of advertising (gaining approvals, rights, etc.) relate to age and/or health sensitive brands – like alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals – and wouldn’t apply to this submission.

We implemented a teaser approach in order to activate the established audience.

So we had Tim Howard tweet out a selfie of himself and Ted Lasso. This instantly ignited conversation and anticipation within our following.

Then we released a faux press release on Facebook, outlining that NBC hired Coach Lasso, to further fuel the anticipation.

The final step before the film went live was engaging key media influencers across sports, culture and entertainment, in order to efficiently gain reach and maximize exposure of the sequel.

Then on the day the sequel went live, it took off like wildfire.

The effort was incredibly successful, as we delivered on the daunting challenge of establishing Coach Lasso as a content franchise and further building NBC’s Premier League audience.

Being able to expand into an army-like following that continues to travel and advocate not only for this character, but more importantly the way NBC is building the Premier League in America, produced record-setting success.

• Delivered the most watched Premier League game in U.S. history (1.3M audience) for the Manchester Derby on April 12, 2015

• Record setting opening weekend, with a 15% increase in viewership from the initial ‘13/’14 season

• Continued double digit viewership growth continues for ‘14/’15 season: +14% for the coveted age range of 25-54

• Within a single day, we had surpassed 1.5M views