Sponsored Content Case Studies

There’s a difference between selling branded content and selling ad space on your owned digital channels. 

It can be a difficult distinction to achieve. But over the course of five years, I shifted the Rangers’ sponsored content strategy from one that solely served our partners to one that served both parties - and much more successfully - without alienating our owned audiences.

My Role

I evangelized a new approach to partnerships that prioritized providing value-additive content to the Rangers’ audiences while bringing awareness + exposure to partners and their core values.

In collaboration with partner success teams, I pitched, executed and delivered on sponsored solutions for 20+ brand partners.

In the example here, our "Kickstart" series presented by Mucinex allowed us to tell stories about traditions that fascinated our audiences while seamlessly incorporating Mucinex's tagline and branding.

Content Approach

Delta, the Rangers’ marquee partner, has two objectives in mind when it comes to branded content: highlighting their brand credo of “creating meaningful connections,” and incorporating travel in some way.

Enter the Dad's Trip, an annual tradition in which players invite their fathers on a two-game road trip.

This partnership offered us a seamless way to check all the boxes for ourselves - and for Delta. A win-win.

The social + content team was able to do what our audiences most enjoy: use our exclusive access to showcase the rarely-seen human side of our players. Doing it while driving revenue, aligning with the partner's tagline and somehow naturally integrating a literal airplane?

Jackpot.

Through a content mix that featured everything from a Newlywed Game between father + son to behind-the-scenes footage of a father reading the starting lineup for his son’s 700th game (shown here), we delivered on Delta’s key objectives while providing our owned audiences with the type of content they cherish most. We also targeted prospective audiences with the type of content that organically tugs at the heartstrings - whether you're a hockey fan or not.

My Role: I developed and pitched Delta on the concept, achieved buy-in and led creative concepting and on-the-ground coverage.