Kick-off isn’t just a game at the start of a season, it sets the tone for the year to come; the stronger the hype and buzz, the more momentum there is to carry fans through the season. It’s a crucial time to maximize engagement, especially with young, casual fans. This year, we decided to go all in on this audience. But to win with them, we had to infiltrate the conversations they were a part of.

To earn the viewership and fandom of a younger, casual, more online-driven audience, the NFL needed to take some risks – we had to behave in a way that was completely unexpected for the No Fun League.

So, we “wrote” the season’s storylines and brought the world behind the scenes, alongside this year’s visionary director Keegan-Michael Key and our players as world class actors, rather than athletes. Almost as soon as the rehearsal begins, everyone from the writers to the players and their moms start trying to get their own ideas added to the script. Romance arcs. Bengal tigers. Doinkage. The sexy Dexy. This campaign was completely unexpected for the “No Fun League”. With Patrick Mahomes, the Kelce family, and a shirtless Kirk Cousins brainstorming outrageous ideas, the NFL showed up differently for its 104th season. The league played with its mythos and moved at the speed of culture, all while proving: you can’t make this stuff up, no matter how hard you try.

We had to meet our audience where they are and have some fun ourselves. Instead of ignoring or denying the conspiracy, we decided to lean into it to drive tune in all season long. Because the truth of the matter is, football is the most unpredictable sport - you can’t make this stuff up, no matter how hard you try. Using a mockumentary style approach, we’d create an integrated campaign that harnessed the entire league ecosystem but specifically leveraged our social channels, enlisting players, household names and pop culture icons to script the 104th season.

We utilized a social-first approach and activated the NFL ecosystem at scale to be unmissable in culture. Launching just before kickoff and carrying through the regular season: August 24, 2023 - October 2, 2023.

First, we fueled the flames and ensured the conspiracy was top-of-mind with a pre-launch film posted across NFL owned channels: X, Instagram and TikTok that leveraged conspiracy tropes to tease the campaign, involving players like Jalen Ramsey and Ja’Marr Chase. After ensuring the conspiracy was top of mind, we launched our suite of films across social (X, Instagram and TikTok), broadcast and streaming partners. We then drove further impact and conversation by amplifying the message with 51 pieces of unique content from players, teams, and pop culture icons: NFL legend Tom Brady, Lil Wayne, Post Malone, Quavo, Cole Bennett, Anitta, Kid Cudi and Cuco who posted to their Instagram accounts with their own personal ‘Season 104’

‘You Can’t Make This Stuff Up’ was the most talked about NFL Kick-Off campaign in recent history, with 97.2K mentions on social, a 17x YoY increase in conversation and an earned reach of 1.8B - despite no paid media support, unlike previous years. It also garnered a 72% YoY increase in press coverage. Amounting to 60M earned media impressions with 169 articles across pop culture outlets commenting on how new and fresh this take was from such a long established League.

Finally, the campaign contributed to a 27% YoY increase in Kick-Off viewership to 27.5M - an increase of 6.6M. And it helped shift perceptions among young, casual fans age 13-34;

49% of them now consider NFL games “Can’t Miss” viewing. This work kicked off the NFL’s 104th season with a bang and spiked viewership among a fickle audience whose engagement is critical to the sustained growth of the NFL.