Inside the NFL’s campaign to win the attention of next-gen football fans

Goals Included:

• NFL: Engage next-gen NFL fans by leveraging Nickelodeon’s legendary characters & Gamefam’s massive player base on Roblox. Familiarize players with NFL teams, players and storylines.
• NFL/Nickelodeon: Drive buzz for Nickelodeon’s Nickmas and Super Bowl broadcasts by tapping into avid fanbases.
• Gamefam: Delight players across its top Roblox games and drive the partners to achieve long-term marketing objectives.

Strategy & Insight

In today’s fast-paced world, capturing the attention of Gen Z and Alpha is a daunting task for any company. Breaking down those barriers, we went directly to the platform where they hang out. The partners seamlessly integrated endless Nickelodeon & NFL-themed content into 6 top Roblox games including TMNT Battle Tycoon, SpongeBob Simulator, and more – the biggest cross-game quest ever on Roblox (at the time of launch).

Ingesting 13+ total years of player data across the 6 games, we chose popular gameplay elements/genres that work best for quirky virtual worlds:

• Creative was inspired by the holiday/TMNT thematic for Nickmas (snowballs, yetis, etc.) and SpongeBob thematic for Super Bowl LVIII.
• Activated across Gamefam’s Roblox network of games to drive amplification and reach a broad player base.
• Created limited-time exclusive digital wearables/rewards we knew players would covet.
• Developed entertaining football education moments with interactive gameday trivia and football fun facts.

The Creative Idea

Introducing the NFL to a new generation of fans meant reshaping it into something they could truly connect with. To achieve this, the league partnered with Gamefam and Nickelodeon to drop players globally into the immersive Nickmas and Super Bowl experiences:

• Immersive Gameplay: NFL & Nickelodeon branded experience across 6 top Gamefam games: TMNT Battle Tycoon, SpongeBob Simulator, Easy Obby, Super NFL Tycoon, Twilight Daycare & Car Dealership Tycoon.
• Quests: Entertaining cross-game quests where players defeated obstacles for exclusive in-game rewards.
• Trivia: Players predict game outcomes and show off their NFL knowledge. It was all delivered with clear branding and messaging to promote the broadcasts – deepening players’ connections with football and making both Nickmas and Super Bowl LVIII a must-watch.

On top of all the limited merchandise items rewarded during the program, there were 2 grand prize awards: a gold SpongeBob-themed football helmet for Super Bowl and a Santa jetpack for Nickmas.

Craft & Execution

We aimed to engage the next generation of NFL fans by leveraging the appeal of Nickelodeon’s legendary characters & Gamefam’s massive player base on Roblox. With only 4 weeks to develop the program (from ideation to launch) and limited time to engage fans during the activation (12 days for Nickmas & 17 days for Super Bowl LVIII), our teams focused their efforts on delivering immersive gaming and community experiences, ensuring the event attracted fans ahead of both broadcasts.

We crafted in-game activities that immersed players in the excitement of Nickmas & Super Bowl LVIII, featuring characters from TMNT and SpongeBob SquarePants, while enhancing the gameplay across all involved games. The vast player base across the six games have amassed a total of 5.3 billion lifetime visits and boasted an average player rating over 86%. Tapping into this scale, we stirred up significant anticipation for both game broadcasts.

Results

Engagement with the program crushed records:

• Topping Charts: The Nickmas & Super Bowl LVIII Roblox campaigns combined offered a 29-day branded experience and became the #1 brand event* on Roblox with 75M+ total visits. If it were a persistent game, it would rank as a top 10 branded game of all time on Roblox.
• Immersive Brand Engagement: Seamlessly integrating NFL & Nickelodeon IP into Nickmas & Super Bowl LVIII Roblox activations, organic engagement delivered over 985M total gameplay minutes & 343M total brand engagements.
• Massive Player Participation: 5.4 million quests completed, 210K virtual merch items redeemed and 228K trivia questions answered.
• IRL Impact: The campaigns helped deliver kids and family audiences as the Nickmas broadcast became the most-watched NFL Christmas Day game since 1989 (29M+ viewers) & Nickelodeon’s most-watched Christmas Day program in an early afternoon time slot in 10 years. Super Bowl LVIII became the most-watched program ever (123.4M average viewers).

(* Limited-time, multi-game brand event)

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