Obscure Youth Football Property Produces More Value Than Some Major Pro Sports

How Dante Carnevale put Yolked in position to drive awareness and 3x sales

The Property

Championship 7v7: https://championship7v7.com/

Championship7v7 is a no pads or tackling football competition, and part of the TruXposur family that holds dozens of events throughout the country. It was founded in 2017 and quickly established itself as a premier 7on7 national circuit covering 8u-18u age divisions. The competitions attract aspiring football players who seek to compete against the best players in their areas while also serving as a platform to promote their skills to college recruiters. Thousands of youngsters have participated in its events that are highly respected in the youth football world.

The Sponsor

Yolked: https://yolked.com/

YOLKED® is powered by the novel ingredient Fortetropin, which is clinically shown to naturally reduce myostatin levels, accelerate muscle protein synthesis, and build 3x more muscle in test subjects. There is nothing like it in the sports nutrition industry.

Overview of the partnership

When first presented the opportunity to write about Championship 7v7 as a featured property on Sponsorship Stories, I was a bit skeptical. A youth football tournament with no traditional media exposure, basically only attended by participants, their families, and maybe coaches? How is this a sponsorship property my audience will believe it can get value from learning about? But remember, I said in the intro post of this Substack there will be seemingly smaller sponsorships that even those who work for fancy Major League sports properties will find instructive. How many who sell sponsorship rights - for even the highest profile properties - have ever had a sponsor say “twenty-five million views” and “we saw a 3x sales increase,” when sharing the results they achieved from buying sponsorship rights? Now think about an event with a bunch of teenagers playing 7on7 football that isn’t televised, and limited spectators, having that impact, all for about $20,000 over just three years.

What did Yolked do to achieve such staggering results? It seems fair to say not much. All it did was provide its nutrition product samples to managers of the Championship 7v7 events, ask them to video participants sampling the products, and provide it to Yolked to use on TikTok. Multiple videos received over a million views, some in the high six-figures, and then dozens of lesser viewed ones, that once totaled, added up to around 25 million over a three year period.

View on TikTok

Most consumers these days put a great premium on authenticity. If something looks staged or contrived, it doesn’t resonate. Organic and authentic - so it doesn’t seem like advertising - is more appealing. The boys who appear in the TikTok videos are not actors, they are “regular kids” authentically trying out and reacting to eating a product sample.

When thinking of an analog to this kind of authenticity yielding such eye watering results, I was reminded of The Blair Witch Project, a movie famous for achieving a staggering ROI because it was presented as if it was a home movie. The Yolked product sampling TikTok videos were so effective because they were so authentic. There was no fancy advertising video by Yolked, just “word of mouth on steroids” promoting the brand to millions of people.

The property was so pleased with these results that it really didn’t get bothered by the fact it might have left money on the table in terms of what it charged and the value Yolked received for what it paid for its rights of association. The property owners were just happy to have Yolked as a great case study to prove the potential value their property has to offer sponsors.

The question of course, is can other brands that sponsor Championship 7v7 have similar kinds of success? Is there something unique about Yolked as a brand or product that makes it able to have those 25M views and convert them into such significant sales activity, that other sponsors might not be able to realize? What drives desired outcomes and are they repeatable? Is there a “cookie cutter” sponsorship activation strategy for all sponsors to use with a given property that will work for all of them? While learning about this story, it turns out there is evidence that suggests the same content doesn’t even perform as well on one social media platform as another very similar one, let alone the same content working for others.

The partnership between Championship 7v7 and Yolked demonstrates how sometimes a sponsor can get a much greater impact from a deal than it was really expecting. And it really drives home how a sponsorship property without big traditional media coverage can produce a great deal of sponsor value. Of course, this deal didn’t get done by itself. Something brought the parties together. Someone made the initial outreach to the other in some way. Something was discussed that both parties seized on. And ultimately they agreed to terms. What were those things? How long did it take to go from intro to contract? Did the partnership get renewed?

Find out the answers to these questions and more by reading on! But before you do, if not a SponsorPitch subscriber, you should be! You can get started for Free, but I recommended upgrading for full access to unlimited deal data, brand contacts, and CRM tools. The platform also now has a “Pitch Marketplace” to connect Brands and Properties, plus more cool new features coming soon. All paying SponsorPitch customers will also get complimentary access to future Sponsorship Stories premium content. Make sure to check it out after you read and comment on this story!

Dante Carnevale (Sponsor)

LinkedIn

Roughly how many employees does Yolked or its parent company have?

Fifteen.

Roughly how many unsolicited sponsorship requests does it get per month?

Five.

Do you prefer to seek out properties for sponsorship, or do you trust property sales people to bring you opportunities that fit the Yolked strategy and objectives?

I manage all sponsorship related duties for Yolked.

What was your best sponsorship experience?

Our partnership with Championship 7v7 produced excellent results e.g. strong content creation, web visits, and sales increase.

Wow, that’s quite a statement considering you’ve sold sponsorship rights for major college sports properties and brokered endorsement deals for athletes like Kevin Durant. Now you’re making sponsorship spending decisions for the Yolked brand. What do you consider in the position of buying sponsorship rights that you didn’t when selling them?

That’s true, I sold college sponsorships, and had some experience pitching athlete deals (like Novak Djokovic, Kevin Durant, etc.)... When I was selling I always tried to practice “empathy” for the buyer. In other words, I tried to put myself in their shoes and only pitch deals that I could rationalize as making sense for both sides. I think that approach helped me build strong trust and strong relationships when on the sell side. Today, as a buyer I have a much better understanding of just how important it is for sponsorship deals to have a real, tangible return. And what type of assets/activation are best positioned to net that return. 

If you’ve had a bad sponsorship experience, what was it? Or, is there something you would change about how the medium is sold or implemented in general?

I think there are times when sales entities can be short-sighted and push a deal that will help them reach their budget in the short term, but has little chance of working well for the sponsor and little chance of being renewed. I think a smarter way to approach it is to “leave some meat on the bone” on the front end, work  hard to make sure the deal works for all parties, and then grow with the sponsor over time. 

Before doing the Championship 7v7 deal, what kind of sponsorship activities did Yolked engage in?

We did a lot of athlete deals, with talent ranging from star professionals to college NIL to high school. We also sponsored several events. 

In general, what does Yolked seek in a sponsorship rights deal, and why does it allocate funds to sponsorship marketing?

At this stage we are looking for partnerships that will help us create content that performs well on TikTok and Instagram. That can be anything from an event platform like Championship 7v7 where we can go get the kind of content we want, or partnering with a talented content creator who gets strong engagement on social. 

How do you feel about buying fixed asset packages like “Gold, Silver, Bronze,” that give you assets whether you want them or not?

I think it’s an OK place to start, but ultimately deals are always going to be customized.

Do you remember how Championship 7v7 got Yolked’s attention? What made you talk with Championship 7v7 about possible Yolked sponsorship?

We were partnered with another 7v7 league, and Championship 7v7 reached out to see if we wanted to work with them as well. 

Were there other properties that offered a similar audience to Championship 7v7? If so, what made Yolked choose Championship 7v7 versus alternatives?

Yes, there are several companies that produce tournaments/events in the 7v7 space, and we’ve worked with a few of them. Championship 7v7 stands out due to the personal touch and commitment from their ownership to provide value for Yolked.

Did you reply to them believing you were going to do a deal, or were you just open to being a sponsor, but not really sure and needed to learn more?

They reached out to me, and I was open to learning more about the opportunity. We were already active in the space and open to doing more.

The Deal

When you had the initial meeting with them and they asked what your biggest priority for Yolked was, what did you say? Was it something you knew Championship 7v7 could deliver, or were you not sure?

We were focused on content capture/creation that could be leveraged online. I knew that based on the number of events the series featured, there would be plenty of opportunity for the content capture. 

When you were presented with the available assets Yolked could have from Championship 7v7, did you know how to accomplish the Yolked objective with those assets, or did you need something different than what was offered?

We worked together to put an activation plan in place that would accomplish our goals. It wasn’t a pre-set package that we bought.

Did Yolked receive any assets or rights that turned out being more valuable than expected? Like, did you not want to pay for your logo on their website, but found out there was in fact value having the Yolked brand on it?

The taste test videos that we got - featuring the athletes trying Yolked and giving their opinion on the taste - performed exceedingly well and were ultimately the main driver of value for the partnership. 

How did Yolked measure the success of its partnership with Championship 7v7? Did it create any purchase incentives tied to benefits with the property? What specific metrics were used, and were you happy with the results?

We had a special purchasing code that we could track, but mostly the performance of the social media posts that featured C7v7 content was the most obvious metric. We achieved tens of millions of views, tremendous engagement, and as a result huge uptick in web traffic and sales.

Since you achieved an uptick in sales for every Nth number of TikTok views featuring Yolked products, would it follow that if a property could guarantee some number of TikTok or other social media views, you would feel comfortable committing Yolked to sponsoring that property? Or is it really not this simple? You mentioned the same content might not get the same traction on Instagram as TikTok and vice-versa, suggesting there is no way to predict what will resonate. Please share your thoughts on this.

Yes, if we could be “guaranteed” a certain number of views, we’d be fine sponsoring. In that sense, it’s like paying for impressions in a typical traditional media deal. But we’ve found it’s very difficult to make that kind of guarantee with organic social media. There are a ton of factors, often opaque, that contribute to how well the content performs. 

What do the results of this experience make you think Yolked should do in the future? Is there a cookie cutter activation that can scale, or do you just need to try a bunch of things, knowing you have no clue what will work and won’t, in terms of activation concepts and desired objectives?

We know what type of content works for us, so we’ll continue looking for opportunities to create that.

You’ve sold $100,000 traditional media-heavy deals that didn’t achieve desired results. The Championship 7v7 Yolked sponsorship seems to have been more successful than maybe you imagined it could be. Did this experience change your perception about properties? Like, that just because they don’t offer traditional media reach, that doesn’t preclude them from delivering value, and they can be more economical than large traditional media-heavy properties with larger price tags?

Absolutely, in sponsorship I’ve found bigger isn't always better. In fact, you can get much better impact working with a smaller platform with high engagement.

How do you feel about this deal in terms of knowing the rights holder probably should have charged Yolked more given its results, and the implications of this? Nobody wants to pay more, but the property deserves to be paid for the value it creates for sponsors. Please share your thoughts on this.

Not sure I agree with that. I think in a free marketplace, the buyer and seller will each work toward a deal that makes sense for them. As dynamics change on either side, the perspective on what makes sense for each side may change as well. 

It’s hard to say in hindsight that bc an activation maybe over performed expectations that the property should have charged more. Because more often than not, the opposite will be true - i.e. the deal may underperform.

If the property or sponsor is sensitive to this type of thing, they could look to do a performance-only deal where the property is paid solely off performance of certain metrics… in my experience, sponsors would be much, much more in favor of this than properties. 

Did/will Yolked renew its partnership with Championship 7v7, why/why not?

Yes, we continue to work with Championship 7v7. We have for four years. The details of the partnership may change from year to year, but the spirit of the deal remains the same.

Any final thoughts or things you learned from this sponsorship experience that others might benefit from knowing?

These things are important: 

• Brand / property fit 

• Strong personal relationships

• Flexibility to find win-win

• Organic social can really drive results 

• Bigger not always better 

“Sponsorship 101”

There are YouTubers who have no idea why some videos get more views than others. And one of the most oft asked questions from investors is “will the dog eat the dog food?” This means you can craft an offering you think the market will embrace, based on solid assumptions from history, logic, or even preliminary feedback, and there is no guarantee it will be a hit with the market. Sponsorship practitioners make it even worse for themselves because they don’t do a good job of sharing results in the industry, so all anyone pretty much ever knows is what they are doing, not what’s working for the next guy. It’s been this way forever. Maybe one of these days there will be the kind of transparency in sponsorship marketing needed to grow a market. Until then, I’ll try to suss out what I can for you here on Sponsorship Stories.

On a somewhat related note, ever since the 2000’s, sponsoring brands have reported wanting to spend more money on fewer deals, which essentially means concentrating more money into big media (sports) properties and abandoning properties like Championship 7v7 that don’t offer big traditional media. But what if - and I’m just thinking out loud here - it turns out the ROI on 10 small properties is actually higher than one large one? Are marketers literally going to say “I don’t care what is more profitable, I want to sponsor things that are easier to activate at scale even though they aren’t as effective as more smaller deals?” Probably not, but coming from an ad agency background - where there was no doubt the agency tail wagged the client dog - I can just about guarantee nobody in an agency wants to do more smaller deals. It takes too much effort, isn’t glamorous enough for those who work in them, and there are no commissions for media buyers (to get ads seen) with organic social media.

There are multiple potential value propositions from sponsorship. Every sponsor wants sales to increase as a result of their sponsorship investment at some point, but each type of proposition impacts different time horizons for purchase, and may also lead to other value that can’t be distilled into sales metrics anyway.