10 Creative Ways NFLPI Partners Welcomed the New Rookie Class
Last night the lives of 32 young men changed as they secured a spot playing football in the NFL. Anticipation, excitement and emotions ran high as teams made their picks for round one of the 2015 NFL Draft.
Social media was exploding with the sentiments of family, friends and fans throughout the first round—and they weren’t the only ones helping celebrate the new rookies. Many NFL Players Inc. (NFLPI) partners expressed their enthusiasm for the newly professional players through personalized messages, images and campaigns, congratulating the rookies in creative, real-time ways as the event unfolded.
Here are 10 ways partners created custom welcome posts for new rookies:
1. Fanatics shared each rookie’s new jersey on Twitter within 15 minutes of being drafted along with a link to purchase the jersey online. Fanatics also engaged with players through Activate so players, like first overall draft pick Jameis Winston, could directly promote their new jersey to their followers.
2. EA Sports posted high-quality game captures and videos of select rookies to Twitter and Facebook immediately after they were drafted. The images gave a realistic preview of what the rookies look like in their professional uniforms for the very first time.
3. Tide empowered the rookies to share a custom #ourcolors post on Twitter which featured an image with each rookie’s new team colors.
4. New NFLPI licensee NeonMob created cool artwork of each rookie and shared the images on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as players were drafted.
5. Panini revealed each newly drafted player’s #scorerookie first card image on Twitter.
6. Topps Huddle posted a teaser on Twitter prior to the draft to let fans know about the action shot draft series that the new rookies would become available in the Huddle mobile game throughout the draft.
7. Bose gave players new #hathugheadphones in their team colors and the ability to tweet an image in the headphones shortly after being drafted.
8. Oyo posted images of select rookies’ mini-figurines to Twitter and Facebook during the Draft.
9. Verizon produced Journey to The Call YouTube videos of a small group of rookies. Melvin Gordon was one of the rookies who tweeted his video after being drafted.
10. FedEx highlighted the first quarterback and running back selected in the Draft, Jameis Winston and Todd Gurley and donated $2,500 to American Red Cross chapters in their name in Tampa Bay and St. Louis, respectively. FedEx tweeted both honors immediately following the selection.
