By Noah Ziegler
Fragmentation isn’t only indicative for viewing experiences—it applies to platforms, networks and brands looking to capture the attention of viewers in a highly competitive environment. However, gone are the days where dedicating a high number of dollars for ad buys translates to resonation among fans. Instead, attention is earned by partnerships and cultural moments that dominate conversations.
Earned media firm Gray Wolf and digital measurement platform Zoomph released its “Amplified 25 report,” highlighting a data-driven ranking of sports sponsors that garner the most fan attention from the past year. The report utilized 8 billion data points from more than 600 sponsorship investments across professional sports, with a focus on brands that earned attention through discussions on social media and exposure first, and earned media impact afterward.
We chatted with Gray Wolf Co-Founder Shaun Clair about what success looks like nowadays for sports sponsorships, as well as what will bring ROI in an evolving media landscape. View the report here.
What does the report reveal about how sponsorship success is being redefined in today’s sports media ecosystem?
Being savvy now outweighs spend. We call it “amplified” because sponsors need their rights to work harder than ever. Prices to acquire sponsorships are rising sharply, and larger budgets no longer guarantee enough fan exposure.
The Amplified 25 shows that the landscape is changing: brands must truly show up, and the audience now decides which brands are worth talking about.
It doesn’t matter how much a brand spends, it matters what they do and how they do it.
Did any brands surprise you by overperforming?
Blue-chip marketers like FanDuel, Google, and State Farm led the “Amplified 25,” followed by Michelob Ultra, Kia, Gatorade, Chase, Toyota, and AT&T. (Editor note: Toyota is a Gray Wolf client.)
The bigger surprise was how brands—large and small—overperformed by making full use of their sponsorships. Jersey patches were among the most efficient placements, simply because they stood out in social clips. But the brands that truly stood out treated sponsorship not just as media, but as intellectual property to build ongoing fan-first programs around.
FanDuel, the No. 1 brand, exemplified this with its “Kick of Destiny” campaign featuring the Manning brothers. The months-long storyline built toward a single kicking moment during the Super Bowl, rather than a one-off activation.
How should leagues/teams interpret “stickiness” as fan behavior continues to become more fragmented? Is that interpretation the same for the brands themselves?
“Stickiness” is memorable impact, not just exposure. The stickiest sponsors create stories, experiences, and content that resonate culturally. In our report, we measured this through organic social and earned media—conversations fans share themselves, which you cannot buy.
We analyzed 600 brand sponsors to identify the Amplified 25, highlighting just how intense the battle for fan attention has become. A fan can face as many as 3,000 branded touchpoints in a single trip to an arena, according to a Sqwad report. With that much noise, it’s impossible to remember everything. Stickiness isn’t about quantity—it’s about cutting through the clutter in a way that’s memorable, shareable, and meaningful.
The takeaway for brands is clear: a logo in front of fans isn’t enough—and hasn’t been for a while. Storytelling around your sponsorship is essential, or you risk falling further behind on the stickiness scoreboard.
Social media accounts for 75% of the weighted score. What does that say about where sponsorship ROI is truly being generated today?
Sponsors follow fan behavior, and fans are on social media. That’s why 75% of our formula weighted that impact while earned media (25%) adds credibility, feeds AI recommendations, and keeps content pumped into social feeds in ways that paid media cannot.
Are we seeing a shift away from passive exposure toward assets designed specifically for social sharing?
Absolutely. That social-first shift has happened already. The brands that took notice of that years ago are the ones that landed in top rankings of “The Amplified 25.”
How do you expect stickiness to evolve as leagues push further into direct-to-consumer, streaming and creator-driven content?
Across all mediums, the path forward is clear: treat sponsorships as creative IP to build campaigns around. One of the top performers Zoomph and Gray Wolf measured—Michelob Ultra’s NBA Courtside Experiences—was built on a single insight: give everyday fans a taste of an exclusive courtside moment.
Breakthrough ideas like this aren’t more common because sponsorship marketing isn’t easy. It can be limiting, complex, and even deflating for newcomers. The winners know the rights, embrace the partnership aspect, and align with the right agencies to create buzz that sticks.
Those who do will see big lifts in their business, because cultural relevance is king—and sports remains one of the most powerful ways to achieve it.
