AMBITION
Win fans for the Opening Ceremony and beyond
Modern sports content has crossed into mainstream culture from traditional ESPN and SportsCenter outlets to social platforms like WaveTV and TikTok, where more behind-the-scenes and sports-meets-real-life content is beloved. Team USA is uniquely positioned to draw broader viewership and inspire passion for its athletes and events, as it’s made up of the greatest athletes from almost every sport in the world, from surfing and curling, to rock climbing and gymnastics.
And yet, fan interest doesn’t last beyond a few weeks, every two years. How do we keep audiences engaged before the opening ceremony and after the games? Our task was to identify who Team USA could better engage with and what role the brand should play to be a distinct and additive driver of sports culture for fans.
ACTION
Develop a new brand platform and social strategy
Deloitte Digital helped Team USA identify a new growth audience to expand interest and viewership. We quantitatively studied existing fans’ behaviors and attitudes and then created a lookalike audience from people who share those characteristics. We identified this growth audience as Boundary Breakers. From this growth audience data, we used our proprietary Values Compass tool to identify what motivates them, and made sure to ground all Team USA brand fundamentals, social strategy, and content pillars in those insights.
Next, we evaluated the global sports universe where fans most engage—on social media—to identify a unique whitespace for Team USA to own. No other team, league, broadcast channel, or social platform can provide the sheer breadth and depth of athletic discovery that Team USA can. We identified Team USA’s specific role within athletic discovery that motivates our Boundary Breakers: to push the boundaries of human potential through sport. Doing this will propel Team USA to become a driving force of sport culture.
ACHIEVEMENT
A new audience identified through data
We developed an entire brand platform and social strategy for Team USA to become an active driver of sports culture, engage the next generation of fans in LA2028, and ultimately push the the boundaries of human potential through sports. Under the “We Are Team USA” umbrella, we enabled the launch of the “100 Days Out” campaign, which celebrates the humans behind the athletes and shows the multidimensional identities that reflect the diversity of the team—and the country.
