The marketing for ESPN’s forthcoming streaming service begins by asking people to stop thinking of ESPN as a cable TV channel—and consider it a digital sports ecosystem instead.

A new ad invites fans to “tap in” to ESPN’s breadth of digital offerings, including highlights, breaking news, documentaries, sports betting, fantasy games, social feeds and other on-demand content. The campaign from BSSP is the first step toward what’s being referred to as Flagship, ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming sports offering launching in the fall of 2025. (A spokesperson said Flagship would not be the name of the offering).

“You could just watch ESPN, but why not tap in?” the voice of “NBA Countdown” host Malika Andrews says, as a fan taps the ESPN app and is transported from a couch to front row at a game. The same fan is back on the couch watching sports at the end of the ad, only now with a big group of friends.

“The modern sports fan has expectations and requirements that only we can deliver with personalization, with interactivity, with immersive content, news and alerts,” Seth Ader, VP of brand marketing for ESPN, said in an interview. “We’re moving from a world of tuning into ESPN to a world of tapping into ESPN. It’s a more active experience. It’s more engaging, it’s a little more leaned-in.”

TV news: Nielsen increases pressure on Paramount

Flagship launch

The new marketing is meant to reinvigorate the ESPN brand and establish the benefits of a seamless digital sports diet as a first step toward the Flagship launch. The service—which would give viewers access to ESPN programming without having to pay for cable TV—represents the Worldwide Leader’s biggest bet yet on streaming sports, which multiple media companies now see as a key to future growth.

Flagship will bring together linear ESPN programming and the pay tier ESPN+ as well as services like Fantasy and ESPN Bet. Executives said it would be customizable through AI, allowing fans to get a personalized version of “Sportscenter,” for example.

Bob Iger, the CEO of ESPN parent Walt Disney Co., hasn’t held back his regard for its potential. During a November conference call, he said that Flagship would be “designed to serve the consumer in the most compelling way ESPN has ever served the consumer,” and called it “the best product the consumer has ever seen in sports.”

ESPN executives said they would share more specifics about the service, including its name and what it would cost, in the months ahead.

Future phases of BSSP's campaign are planned for March, when ESPN will demonstrate its leadership in women’s sports coverage. BSSP will then tease the launch in the summer, and encourage fans to sign up post-launch.

TV news: ‘Squid Game’ Season 2’s marketing onslaught

Tap in

BSSP won the project in a review held earlier this year. The agency has done work for ESPN dating back to a fantasy football assignment in 2019; BSSP has since handled marketing of ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, its NCAA bracket contest. It also created the “One App, One Tap” campaign for ESPN+ in 2021, which was revived last year. Arts & Letters remains the agency behind ESPN’s live sports campaigns including college football, the NFL and the NBA.

While ESPN has near-universal brand awareness, 53% of consumers still view the entity as a TV network, said Sinan Dagli, executive creative director of BSSP. Raising ESPN’s digital profile frames the first phase of BSSP’s work.

The campaign uses the phrase “Tap In” as a call to action, stitching together ESPN’s digital offerings and the fan experience, using the word “tap” in different ways.

“We really had to think about what people associate digital with, and the word tap has multiple meanings,” Dagli said in an interview.

“Tap in” can mean drilling down for expertise or information, for example, or users can physically tap their phone screens to choose their experience. “On tap” describes what ESPN offers—freely available and streaming sports content, Dagli said.

The work does not cover Venu Sports, the embattled sports streaming joint venture from Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN parent Disney. That venture, which was to have launched last year, remains sidelined in a legal challenge from Fubu.

Recent news: MLB names new CMO

A new design coming with BSSP’s work pivots ESPN’s existing look for a digital world, Dagli said. Elements include a refreshed black, red and white color scheme, a stylized ESPN logo, a dedicated social logo, a new app button, new fonts and, most notably, a library of chunky custom emoji such as a crown and a bolt of lightning that bring fun and energy to the phone screens on which the action plays out.

ESPN will give the campaign a push on Christmas Day—when five NBA games will air on ESPN and related platforms—and continue to put the creative in front of large audiences, Ader said. End-of-season and postseason NFL games and college basketball programming will follow.

“There’s a lot of reach and a lot of eyeballs coming to ESPN over the next two months, so we especially chose this window to launch this effort,” Ader said. “We want the widest possible megaphone.”

Outside of Disney properties, ads will run on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.