The Best Partnerships Hire Is In Social

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry! 

This is a resource for sports organizations to generate more sponsorship revenue and for brands to get more from their sports partnerships by building sponsored content fans actually want to engage with.

In Today’s Edition:

• 🤝 Social’s overlooked path into partnerships

• 🏟️ Playing surface prep gets sponsored

• 🐔 DQ tells fans: Dip chicken, not mascots

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
Sports Social’s Most Overlooked Career Path

If you work in sports social and you're starting to wonder how much longer you want to live the 24/7 content grind, I have a career path for you.

Move to the other side of the table.

Partnerships.

I know these departments don't always have the warmest relationship. But I think some of the people best equipped to improve that relationship are already sitting on the social team.

And I don't mean moving into sales or activation. I mean taking everything you've learned about content, platforms, and fans and using it to lead digital partnerships.

I've done this myself, and I've fallen in love with the role.

I still get to be creative and spend a lot of time thinking about content. I work directly with brands and help sales teams with new business, upsells, and renewals without having to be the person hunting for the next deal.

I'm also not a prisoner to breaking news anymore.

And instead of being measured primarily by content performance, I can connect my work directly to revenue (which makes fighting for raises and promotions easier).

More people working in sports social should consider making the same move.

And sports organizations should give them the opportunity to do it.

The Person You Need May Already Work For You

A few years ago, I wrote that every sports organization should have a digital partnerships specialist.

I still believe that.

Most partnership teams need someone who can bridge the gap between what brands want to buy and what content teams know will work.

Without that person, problems tend to show up everywhere.

A seller gets a request for sponsored content and doesn't have a digital expert nearby to pressure-test it. Content gets involved after expectations have already been set. An idea gets sold that doesn't fit the platform or audience.

Then everyone wonders why digital is so difficult to activate.

As I wrote two weeks ago, the workflow itself can cost organizations meaningful sponsorship revenue.

I shared several ways to fix it, from building a centralized digital inventory to involving content earlier in the sales process. Ideally, someone focused on digital partnerships owns much of that process. I didn't make that a requirement because most organizations don't have someone in that role.

So hire a digital partnerships specialist, right?

Ideally.

But "hire another person" isn't a particularly useful solution if there isn't room in the budget.

Even when there is, finding someone who has actually done this job is hard. There simply aren't that many people with meaningful digital partnerships experience in sports.

That's why I'd start by looking a few desks over.

You may already have someone on your social team capable of doing the job.

Moving them obviously creates another opening. But depending on the size and structure of your content team, you may already have someone ready for more responsibility, an intern who can move up or enough depth to buy yourself some time before backfilling the position.

And when you eventually do hire, finding someone earlier in their social career is a much easier search than finding an experienced digital partnerships specialist.

Why Social?

If I had to choose between teaching a great content person partnerships and teaching a partnerships person years of hands-on digital experience, I'd take the former.

You can learn how a partnership department works.

It's much harder to recreate years spent behind the keys.

Someone who has worked in social understands what actually goes into making content. They know the difference between what looks easy in a pitch deck and what is easy to execute.

They've seen which formats work on which platforms. They understand how audiences behave. They know what access is realistic, where production gets complicated and when a brand integration is likely to hurt performance.

Most importantly, they've had to make the thing everyone else is talking about.

And when they move into partnerships, they'll have an entire department around them to learn the commercial side of the business.

The reverse is harder.

Most partnership teams aren't equipped to teach someone the nuances of digital media. You can pull in the content team for help, but they already support an entire organization. Teaching partnerships how digital works can't become another full-time responsibility.

That makes the expertise your social employee already has particularly valuable.

But This Isn't For Everyone

There's an important qualifier here.

I would not move any experienced social person into partnerships.

Think about how they've worked with the commercial team throughout their career.

When partnerships brings them an idea they don't like, is their response:

"Absolutely not. That won't work."

Or is it:

"I don't think that will work for our audience. What if we tried this instead?"

I want the second person.

Digital partnerships requires someone who understands why content teams push back while recognizing that partnerships has business objectives it needs to accomplish.

They're going to have to advocate for both sides.

In a content meeting, they may be the person representing partnerships. In a partnership meeting, they may be the only person in the room who truly understands the content team's perspective.

That means being able to advocate for whichever group isn't sitting at the table.

They need to be curious about the business, comfortable talking to clients and willing to solve problems.

If they've spent their career treating partnerships like the enemy, putting them on the partnerships team probably isn't going to magically fix that relationship.

And Yes, Put Them On The Partnerships Team

I've done digital partnerships while sitting on both the content side and the partnerships side.

I strongly prefer the latter.

In fact, when possible, I'd physically sit this person with partnerships.

That proximity matters more than it sounds.

A seller walks over:

"The client just asked for this. Can we do it?"

Someone else has a pitch tomorrow:

"What would you recommend for this category?"

An activation manager needs to know whether an idea is realistic before taking it back to the brand.

Those little conversations happen all day.

You don't want every digital question to require a meeting, Slack thread, or formal request to another department. You want the expertise in the room when decisions are being made.

And if you've hired the right person, they already understand content.

They'll still attend content meetings, collaborate on ideas, and spend plenty of time with that team. Their digital background should also give them an immediate foundation for building trust because they understand the work and its challenges firsthand.

The area they need to learn is partnerships.

Sitting with that team means hearing how sellers pitch, understanding what clients are asking for, seeing how deals are built and learning the commercial side of the business every day.

Meanwhile, they become the person who can translate between the two departments.

Don't Get Hung Up On Their Title

When I first moved into digital partnerships, my title was Manager.

I'd held more senior positions before that. But I wanted an opportunity to work for a sports organization and was willing to take a step back in title to get it.

So I wouldn't make "Senior Manager" or "Director" a hard requirement.

I'd care much more about experience and credibility.

Can this person walk into a content meeting and have people trust their judgment?

Can they sit with a seller, explain why an idea needs to change, and do it without making them feel stupid for asking the question?

That's important.

You're asking someone to educate people about an area they may know very little about. They need patience and the ability to make complicated digital concepts approachable.

Can they eventually get on a call with a major partner and confidently recommend a better approach?

I say "eventually" intentionally.

Someone new to the role may not have everyone's trust on day one. I've had to earn that myself. Give them opportunities to prove their expertise, and the invitations to pitches and client meetings start coming more frequently.

You need someone people will listen to or someone you're confident can build that level of credibility.

Why Social Should Make The Move

This is where I think the move becomes particularly compelling.

Sports social is a grind.

Games happen at night. News breaks whenever it wants. The offseason isn't really an offseason. Your phone is never particularly far away.

That can be exciting early in your career.

It can also become exhausting.

Moving into digital partnerships gives experienced social professionals another option besides climbing higher within content or leaving the organization altogether.

You can remain close to the creative work without having to publish it.

You can use the expertise you've spent years developing while adding an entirely new commercial skill set.

You also get to support the revenue-generating process without necessarily becoming a traditional seller. You can help develop the idea that wins new business, identify the opportunity that creates an upsell or build the campaign that helps secure a renewal.

Your impact becomes easier to quantify, too.

If you help build a new digital franchise that generates $250,000 in sponsorship revenue, that's a pretty clear business result.

And depending on how your organization structures compensation, moving onto the partnerships team may also make you eligible for bonuses or other commercial incentives that aren't typically available to content employees.

For better or worse, that's another potential advantage of sitting closer to revenue.

And, it’s meaningful upside for someone wondering what the next ten years of their career should look like.

Help Content Prove Its Value

There's another benefit for the team you're leaving.

One of the frustrations I've seen throughout my career is that content's value to the business isn't always easy to communicate internally.

A digital partnerships lead with a content background can help change that.

If you're sitting within partnerships but understand content, you're in a unique position to connect what the team creates to the revenue it helps generate.

Need more headcount? Better equipment? More production budget?

It's easier to make those cases when you can point to the commercial impact of the work.

And you can help your former teammates get better at telling that story themselves by showing them which results resonate with leadership and how to communicate their contribution in a language the rest of the organization understands.

Give Partners Better Access

Brands benefit from the move, too.

Earlier this year, I wrote about why partners should have more direct access to content experts.

If a brand is investing significant money into your digital channels, it should be able to hear from someone who understands those platforms, your audience and the creative process firsthand.

A digital partnerships specialist with a content background gives them that access without requiring someone from social to join every client conversation.

Instead of constantly hearing:

"Let me check with our social team."

Your partnerships team has someone in the room who can explain what's working, why an idea may need to change and what they'd recommend instead.

That gives the client stronger guidance while removing another layer between the question and the person qualified to answer it.

And when you do need the content team directly involved, your digital partnerships lead should know exactly when to bring them in.

Don't Rob Content To Fix Partnerships

There's one big organizational caveat.

This works best when you've built a strong enough content team that someone else is ready to step up.

You don't want to move your social leader into partnerships and leave content scrambling to replace everything they did.

The ideal situation is succession.

An experienced social employee moves into digital partnerships. Someone underneath them is ready for more responsibility and moves up. The organization can then backfill further down the team.

That creates career growth for multiple people while retaining the institutional knowledge of the person who might otherwise eventually leave.

It also makes recruiting easier.

Finding an experienced digital partnerships specialist with the exact background you want can be incredibly difficult.

Finding talented people earlier in their social careers gives you a much larger candidate pool.

Develop the specialized expertise internally. Hire externally where the talent is more plentiful.

A Better Career Path

Sports organizations spend a lot of time talking about breaking down the wall between content and partnerships.

Sometimes the answer is literally moving someone across it.

Your social team has spent years developing people who understand your fans, platforms and content better than almost anyone else in the organization.

Some of them eventually won't want to hit publish anymore.

Don't lose that expertise.

Give them somewhere else to use it.

And if you're the person on social wondering what comes next, take a look at the partnerships team.

There might be a seat over there with your name on it.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Behind-the-scenes playing surface prep makes for great sponsor content. Gillette Stadium showed its BRUNT Workwear-clad crew transforming the field for Banana Ball, while the Brisbane Broncos partnered with TAFE Queensland to show what goes into preparing a footy field.

Josh Allen is bringing back his New Era hat program, using Buffalo Bills player arrivals to showcase designs by patients at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. After auctioning the hats last season, this year fans can buy them, with proceeds benefiting the Patricia Allen Fund.

Dairy Queen brought together The Duck from Oregon, Big Jay from Kansas, and Reggie Redbird from Illinois State to promote its Chicken Strip Basket and MVP Dip Lineup. The idea: DQ fans love chicken and dips so much that no bird is safe.

Liverpool used Google Gemini to help fans get to know new signing Bradley Barcola through a carousel of career facts and stats. From the opening prompt to bolded keywords, the creative mirrored Gemini and made AI a natural part of the content.

I liked this concept from EA Sports’ NHL account, where San Jose Sharks players played Heads Up using past NHL covers. European football clubs could borrow the format to mix up the EA SPORTS FC content we typically see.

🚨 ICYMI
Industry News & Insights

Building Basketball Culture: Andrew Perlmutter joined Mike Shields on the Next in Media podcast to discuss how NBA 2K Media is building interactive, platform-native content that brings younger fans deeper into basketball culture.

Premier League Innovation Playbook: Joe Farren broke down the biggest innovation trends shaping the 2026/27 Premier League season, from ref cams and AI-powered partnerships to fan co-creation and clubs building their own gaming experiences [via FutureSport Joe].

Top Sponsors In Sport: YouGov dropped its 2026 U.S. Sports Sponsorship Impact Rankings, measuring which brands drove the biggest gains in awareness, impression and consideration across eight major sports leagues.

Game, Set, Collect: Mike Metzler explored Coco Gauff’s growing interest in collectibles and how her casual unboxing videos are already performing alongside some of the hobby’s biggest full-time creators [via Yahoo Sports].

HOKA Takes Over Chamonix: People Brands and Things broke down how HOKA turned its UTMB Mont-Blanc sponsorship into a full-scale brand takeover of Chamonix, combining experiential activations, athlete support, and the launch of its new Tecton X 4 shoe.