Top sports marketing campaigns of 2024

In yet another example of how 2024 is shaping up to be a landmark year in the world of sports, sports marketing was one of the leading trends at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. From the soaring rise of women’s sports to the hotly anticipated summer Olympics, there’s a lot to get excited about for sports fanatics and casual viewers alike. And where there’s fan interest, there’s good creative. The year has already seen a slew of impactful campaigns—like these five, for starters—tapping up-and-coming athletes gaining more momentum by the day, from Caitlin Clark to Anthony Edwards. With no shortage to choose from, we polled experts from the Amp community on the year’s best sports ads thus far. SKIMS, WNBA X SKIMS (IN-HOUSE) It’s been an incredible year for sports, and I’m not just saying that because my hometown Celtics just won the NBA Championship. More specifically, it’s been an incredible year for women’s sports, and as the owner of Newfangled Studios, a women-owned creative production agency, I’ve been keeping a close eye on how advertisers are responding to this surge in interest around women’s sports. I think one of my personal favorite sports campaigns of 2024 is the work Skims has been putting out as part of its unique partnership as the official underwear partner of the WNBA. The creative does a great job of authentically highlighting the Skims brand by connecting it to some of the WNBA’s most notable superstars in an empowering way. The potential for this partnership between Skims and the WNBA in the future is massive, and while I truly love the creative, I’d also love to see the work evolve to become even more inclusive by featuring a more diverse range of body types that are fully representative of all the talented athletes that play in the WNBA. —Macaela VanderMost, executive creative director, Newfangled Studios So far, 2024 has inarguably been the year of the WNBA, and the season is barely two months old. Building on years of growing fanbases and world-class basketball, the explosion of interest in college basketball and rising stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese joining the league have a huge amount of attention focused on the W. And if anyone has shown a consistent ability to predict where attention is going to be, it’s Kim Kardashian. Instead of jumping on the Clark and Reese bandwagon that so many brands are chasing, Skims partnered with the entire league, extending their “Fits Everybody” line and campaign with faces ranging from WNBA legend Candace Parker to superstar Kelsey Plum of the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces to rookie Cameron Brink of the Los Angeles Sparks. While the campaign took some flack for only featuring women who fit with conventional beauty standards, the idea of marketing nonathletic undergarments through an athlete-driven partnership defied expectations, and also underlined the point that women-oriented platform Togethxr has been making for a while now: Everybody watches women’s sports. —Jon Crowley, senior VP, head of strategy, Fuse Create ADIDAS AE1, ‘BELIEVE THAT’ (JOHANNES LEONARDO) The campaign that stands out most for me this year has been Adidas’ ongoing launch of Anthony Edwards’ signature shoe, the AE1. Despite Edwards’ fame as an up-and-comer, it’s obvious that Adidas recognized early on that mainstream audiences might not yet be familiar with the rising NBA star. And even those who knew his name didn’t really know him yet. And so the campaign felt as much like an introduction to Edwards himself—a promising talent on the brink of superstardom—as it was a shoe release. Before turning attention to the AE1’s style or performance, Adidas ensured first and foremost that their audience connected with Edwards. They showcased his confidence, humor, irreverence and dedication to the game through short, shareable videos on social that inevitably spread like wildfire. But as the NBA season unfolded and the campaign evolved, especially during the Timberwolves' dramatic playoff run, it adapted contextually to current events and Edwards' trajectory to stardom—even culminating in a video post-playoff exit where Edwards prints receipts, addressing his in-season critics with a simple message: “I’m just getting started.” The thing I loved most about this campaign, and why I think it’s been so successful, is that it’s about so much more than a product. It’s a motivational rallying cry for anyone betting on themselves. Adidas is marketing a mindset and a culture that just so happens to be embodied by one of the cooler-looking basketball shoes to debut in the last decade. —Casey Null, director of strategy, Wondersauce ADIDAS, ‘RUNNER 321’ (FCB CANADA) As a global community, we have the ability to understand, learn and benefit from every individual playing a part in our rich tapestry of culture. Adidas "Runner 321" celebrates the positives and dovetails perfectly with its global positioning, while leveraging one of the most iconic marathons to support its message. Bringing Chris Nikic’s story to the table provides a powerful testament to the importance of sport and its inclusive, democratic nature. Along with the rise in understanding of neurodiverse athletes, in this case, our ability to participate and consume sports from every corner of the planet is also at a hedonic all-time high. Whether Chris chose to be a long-distance runner, golfer or football player, this campaign reminds us that there are more entry points than ever before for people to participate and celebrate sport. There’s always more work to be done, but Adidas’ work, alongside other sports brands, is shining a spotlight on what's possible. Drawing a parallel with the experiential marketing world, this inclusivity and message transfer is something equally crucial to our industry. With its openness, sports invites in people from all walks of life. Physical touchpoints that champion the individual are fast becoming a commercial imperative. —Edd Hood, senior director, sports activation, GPJ UK GATORADE, ‘TURF FINDER’ (LEO BURNETT INDIA) The Gatorade Turf Finder is a brilliant example of merging creativity, data and tech to solve a real-world challenge: the lack of open spaces to play sports in the densely populated urban environment of Mumbai, India. By tapping into two decades of Google Maps’ location data, Turf Finder could predict which roads and spaces would be empty at which time of day. Roads, city squares, traffic crossings—all became places to play soccer or basketball or cricket. As anyone who has lived in a large city knows, space to play is hard to come by, and those space constraints can quickly limit who can access a particular sport. This work is a clever use of predictive data to provide that access. Heading into the Euro soccer tournament and the Olympics, the sports world’s focus will be on the highest tier of elite athletes. But at their best, sports can build up communities and connect anyone who’s willing to give it a go, and this work is a fun reminder of that. —Lucy Cross, director of marketing and communications, Critical Mass GATORADE, ‘CAITLIN CLARK IS JUST GETTING STARTED’ (TBWA/CHIAT/DAY LA) Gatorade’s spot that celebrated Caitlin Clark’s history-shattering senior year at Iowa and her transition into the WNBA doesn’t rely on edit techniques or the track of the moment. That wouldn’t really feel like Clark anyway. Instead, it’s a locked-off shot in a dark gym that shines a light on the work ethic that earned her the top spot in every record book. It’s so good that I can’t decide what I love more: sounds of Clark sinking monster 3’s over and over and over, or the end line: “And that was just the warmup.” —Whitney Schneden, creative director, Arts & Letters Creative Co. OREO, ‘OREO CALLS’ (VML) March Madness encapsulates the thrill of the game—teams, players, plays, referee calls, beers, chicken wings and more beers. Amid this frenzy, how does a brand without a partnership engage an audience and be remembered? Oreo found a brilliant way. By drawing a simple yet powerful connection between their iconic cookie and the referee's striped jersey, they engaged their audience in real-time. This perfect second-screen experience allowed fans to follow the game's calls while discovering new ways to enjoy their Oreos. Such simplicity not only entertains but also creates lasting brand associations. Now, whenever I see a referee in a basketball game, I will be reminded of Oreo's creative genius and might just crave a cookie. —Harsh Kapadia, chief creative officer, MRM New York XBOX, ‘THE EVERYDAY TACTICIAN’ (MCCANN LONDON) “The Everyday Tactician” was a game-changer, blurring the lines between e-sports and traditional sports in a fresh and compelling way. Showing that digital skill can score big in the real world, Xbox helped Bromley FC, a small soccer team with a shoestring budget, discover an exceptional tactician. This went beyond ads; it sparked real change in the soccer world and shattered expectations. With their unconventional tactician, the Bromley FC team ended up getting promoted to a higher league for the first time in their 132-year history. Additionally, I’m partial to our work for the Disney Bundle, which just ran during game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup and features a less-traditional, more multidimensional look at what it means to be a heroine in the world of sports and entertainment. —Caroline Kline, associate strategy director, Preacher TITO’S, ‘SUB-PAR SPONSORSHIP’ (BANDOLIER MEDIA) Tito’s Sub-Par Sponsorship was so good. Aligning themselves naturally with golfers who drink lots of vodka on the course and rewarding those who are terrible at it is a perfect strategy with an equally brilliant execution. I don’t typically engage in a lot of sweeps, but even I punched my friend’s ticket on this one. —Robbie Cobb, creative director, FerebeeLane NIKE, ‘YOU BREAK IT, YOU OWN IT’ (WIEDEN+KENNEDY) You break it, you own it. Congratulations to @CaitlinClark22 for claiming what's hers.Here's to the All-Time Women's NCAA Scoring Record leader. 👏 https://t.co/d56wGNE97S pic.twitter.com/6yeWkXHNpJ— Nike.com (@nikestore) February 16, 2024 Contingent upon Caitlin Clark’s breaking the all-time NCAA scoring record, this hyperspecific T-shirt campaign is a model of efficiency and the power of simply rethinking the familiar. In six words we’ve all heard before, it captures both the moment it was designed for and speaks to larger thematics. It takes an idiom that carries negative connotations and imbues it with triumph, reminding us that sports are like nothing else. It speaks to Clark not only as a great player but as a symbol of the hope in women’s sports to one day break through the glass ceiling and create earning potential on par with their male counterparts. More tangibly, this is a great campaign because, as with all of Nike’s best work, it is one that anyone, customer or not, can carry with them in spirit. You see this image and text once, whether on a billboard, a TV screen or a T-shirt, and it stays with you. For my money, this is their greatest verbal coup since 2012’s “Find Your Greatness.” —Raf Carillo, creative strategist, Kingsland MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, ‘MLB AT RICKWOOD FIELD’ All eyes were on our agency’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, this week as Major League Baseball took over the historic Rickwood Field, the nation’s oldest professional ballpark and former home of the Birmingham Black Barons. From the “Road to Rickwood” podcast on NPR with comedian (and notable Birmingham native) Roy Wood Jr., to brand partnerships with celebrity-backed Uninterrupted, every activation led by MLB felt both inspirational and intentional. The week’s events, coinciding with the passing of Hall of Famer Willie Mays, felt both poignant and divine, making it all the more powerful. MLB successfully accomplished paying tribute to the Negro Leagues, and they reminded us all to respect the soul of the sport along the way. —John Montgomery, founder and CEO, Big Communications META, ‘XTADIUM’ I’m really excited about sports campaigns that bring interactivity to the fore. The number of NBA games Meta broadcast in VR [on Xtadium] is at an all-time high this year. Even more interesting is the fact that last year, Meta made the decision to broadcast WNBA games in this same interactive medium for the first time ever and prior to the height of the Caitlin Clark hype. This is the type of intelligence that marketers need to start tapping into in order to win the consumer in the era of AI. I’m excited to see sports marketers tap into consumer insights with data and AI to engage fans in new and interactive ways. —Lewis Smithingham, executive VP, strategic industries, Media.Monks MORGAN & MORGAN X PITTSBURGH PENGUINS My top pick for the best sports campaign of 2024 goes to Morgan & Morgan, teaming up with the Pittsburgh Penguins. They really nailed it by joining forces to boost their local presence and connect with the community in fresh, exciting ways. They spread their message far via billboards, TV, radio, online and even inside the arena with smart signage placements. The “Mic’d Up Moments” series on social media stood out the most. It was a huge hit, pulling in millions of views and getting fans really engaged. Their contests like the Penguins Bench Experience Sweepstakes were a big hit, drawing in over 5,000 entries and creating lasting memories for fans. The numbers tell the story of their success: Recall of Morgan & Morgan as the Penguins’ go-to injury attorneys shot up to 71%, from just 51% before the campaign. There’s been a reported increase of 350% in Morgan & Morgan becoming fans’ first choice of injury attorneys and a 300% increase in fans’ likely use of M&M services. They achieved the balance of community engagement, smart media strategies and fan-centered activities that really elevated their brand in the local scene. —Nickey Rautenberg, director of content performance, HireInfluence About Amp Amp is a platform that’s integrated with Ad Age and Ad Age Creativity, allowing you to leverage our editorial credibility while showcasing your expertise, accolades and campaigns. For more information visit our FAQ page. Not an Ad Age Amp member? Find your page and claim it today.

Top sports marketing campaigns of 2024

Featured Stories