Sport remains one of the most powerful environments for brands to connect with audiences. Traditional assets such as shirt branding, stadium displays and broadcast continue to play an important role in building awareness and association at scale.
But as media habits evolve and audience attention becomes increasingly fragmented, brands are also looking beyond visibility alone. The challenge is no longer simply being seen. It is creating something audiences actively choose to engage with.
That is where branded content has become increasingly important.
Tell the right story and people will listen
According to the IPA touchpoints study in 2025, media fragmentation is at its highest in 10 years, up 60% during this period ... more platforms, more devices, more channels competing for our mental real estate.
At the same time, consumers have become increasingly adept at avoiding advertising altogether. We pay subscription platforms in our millions for the privilege of not seeing ads, ad-blockers strip them from digital environments, and we all know where the skip button is on YouTube!
This is the backdrop that rights holders and brands are operating against; there is a lot of distraction! The combination of innovation, quality creative and power of fandom to cut through the clutter — this trifecta is our client’s unfair advantage. This holds true across offline and online sponsorship assets, and view should be taken holistically at the campaign level.
Fans today consume sport differently than they did even five years ago. They move fluidly between live broadcasts, social platforms, streaming services, creator content and second-screen experiences.
In this environment, effective branded content succeeds because it feels like an extension of the fan experience rather than interruptive. The strongest work understands the audience first and builds creative ideas around how supporters already consume, share and participate in sport.
For brands, this creates an opportunity to move beyond transactional messaging to become part of the culture and conversations that fans genuinely care about.
Lenovo and Formula 1 did this brilliantly in 2025 with “Race to Create.” Lenovo let fans use AI tools to design custom F1 liveries, unlock AR experiences, and generate personalised race videos. Winning fan designs were projected onto London landmarks. This activation brought fans into the experience, installing them as co-creators. It brought the fans into the world of Formula 1 through the brand.
Increasing value for fans and brands
The most effective branded content is rarely the loudest. It is the work that feels authentic to both the audience and the platform it lives on.
Importantly, this evolution is not about replacing traditional advertising. Strong partnerships are still built on meaningful visibility. Branded content simply gives brands additional ways to deepen engagement and create more memorable audience experiences around those partnerships.
When done right, fandom marketing can strengthen feedback loops in the brain and create exponential gains in brand affinity. However, communicating with fans is like a delicate vase. Do it authentically and with a true value exchange — the rewards are great. Get it wrong, it can break easily, causing long-term damage to a brand — fans remember for longer about the thing they love! So it’s a balance.
There is also a changing expectation around value exchange. Fans increasingly expect content to entertain, inform or reward them in some way. The days of simply placing a brand alongside a sport and expecting engagement to follow are over. One example is Lucozade with its “Bring the energy” platform. The campaign has roots in local sports clubs and the content consistently reflects this message. By showing the work done at the grassroots level, the brand is displaying its values to help sporting communities across the country.
The brands seeing the greatest success are the ones investing in ideas that feel culturally relevant and audience-first. They understand that attention is earned through authenticity and consistency.
Success should be measured in behaviour
Advances in digital distribution and measurement have also transformed how branded content is evaluated. Success is no longer measured solely through reach or impressions, but through deeper indicators such as engagement, sentiment, audience retention and behavioural impact.
Fandom marketing isn’t always about the biggest reach; a smaller but highly involved community can do more for a brand against the crunchy business metrics that really matter.
In general, advances in measurement provide brands a far clearer understanding of how content contributes to wider commercial objectives, from brand affinity to consideration, purchase intent and long-term growth.
For clubs, rights holders and media teams, this creates an opportunity to think differently about the role content can play within partnerships. The focus increasingly shifts towards shared storytelling and creating formats that supporters genuinely want to spend time with.
We’re already seeing examples of this in practice. Football clubs are beginning to use player-tracking data to turn match moments into immersive branded experiences that extend well beyond the final whistle. By re-creating iconic goals through skeletal tracking and 3D player models, destinations and tourism partners can become part of the story in a way that feels additive to the fan experience rather than interruptive. Fans see the content, but can also choose to engage with it, spend time with it and form a stronger connection with both the club and the partner brand.
In the current attention economy, where audiences have endless choice, the content that delivers will be the work that respects and understands the fan first, delivering genuine value.
Because ultimately, attention is not won by interruption alone. It is earned through relevance.
George Duncan is head of commercial media at City Studios, the in-house creative agency and media hub of City Football Group (CFG), the parent company of Manchester City.
