Im often asked what it’s like to work with an NFL team and to be honest it’s pretty epic. Even at a distance, halfway across the world and  for a team and a sport I didn’t religiously follow 12 months ago. Even with all that, it’s absolutely incredible.

I probably should ‘play it cool’ and tell you in the most professional way how it’s a dream come true and it’s all just part and parcel of working in sport but to hell with that - I say it’s FREAKING AWESOME, it’s something my dreams never let me believe was possible and I still find myself fan girling over it at every chance I can get.

Working in sport for over a decade has a funny way of making you tone down your fandom, your passion and your reaction to situations you find yourselves in that would be absolutely mind blowing for the general punter. Fortunately we find ourselves lucky enough to be in these places on many occasions but again ‘play it cool’ and kind of take it for granted. Today, I reflect on a small but mighty milestone for us and our NFL client and it’s made me just sit back and think about what I actually get to call work and how it’s somewhat become very ‘normal’ very quickly.

This year alone, I’ve been able to:

• Head to Las Vegas with the NRL Dragons for a week - my childhood team who have given me more heartbreak than anything else in this world, but also some of my happiest childhood memories. Me, Cassie, in Vegas working in the inner sanctum of the St George Dragons.. like WHAT!?
• Lead the Sport Design Australia social team working across the Las Vegas Raiders (eeeeeeek, ill circle back to this later) - bringing this incredible team, through social, to our backyard and got to spend time in their Vegas facilities back in February. Like honestly…
• Lead the social team for Paramount + Football for the fifth year running, working on campaigns like the Asian Women’s World Cup, Winter Festival of Football and of course the latest inclusion to their portfolio the UFC. Sharing buses, change rooms, sidelines and football fields with some of the biggest names in the sport without even flinching (Are you for real?!)

I say this to share with you some amazing career highlights but also to demonstrate how these moments, even as stand alone circumstances would be enough to make sports fans go wild, and yet I call it “work” - I need to be more grateful and thankful for the life I am building.

Anyway, back to the NFL. How on earth do you get to work with an NFL Team?

Well, that the secret sauce - but doing it has been one crazy adventure.
What these teams do and the scale and speed they do it at is not for the weak thats for sure and being on the ‘inside’ of these operations (even though as I mentioned half a world away) has been such a blessing and a beautiful culmination of the last decade. Im so proud to be here, so proud of the Sport Design Australia team and so thankful for those at the Raiders who put their brand and accounts in our hands - we’ve never been more invested in a brand or doing a channel justice than this.

The Objective: Grow a fan base in Aus and NZ for the Las Vegas Raiders via social.

The Challenge: Do it in a market where the three competing teams have all been Superbowl Champions of recent times, two in the last two years - where they’ve all been in market longer than us and had a head start and where they’ve all got star Australian talent to build audience relevance.

Were we up for it? ABSOLUTELY!

The Results: 12 months in, starting from scratch, we’ve worked with the global team to find moments that resonate, to share and collaborate as much as possible and to amplify moments that we could use to win the audience and double down on them - all whilst being consistent with our volume, operating in a different timezone and telling the story of a team recognised but not well known.  

Side note: Anyone else noticed the brand of the Raiders long before they actually knew they were an NFL team? GUILTY! But how powerful does that make it as a brand, people in the street wear it all over the world and I bet half of them just like it for how cool it looks and have no affiliation with the team yet - thats true brand penetration, things teams would die for.

We’ve had growth of over 460% on platform and we’ve gone from the 4th most followed team in the region to the #1 followed team in Aus and NZ. This is out of the four teams with commercial licenses to operate in this market.

To make it clear, this team last season won only 3 games the entire season, finished right at the bottom of the NFL and we’re able to still turn that into win’s online.

This is not done alone. The trust, commitment and patience from our client has been instrumental. The willingness to invest in market, test and learn and allow us to ride the wave side by side has been pretty bloody cool. What we’re seeing now is the result of a partnership and a true alignment of two markets with one goal, to make the Las Vegas Raiders a household name, worldwide!

The goal remains and whilst we’re hitting mini milestones along the way this does truly feel pretty surreal.

So what’s it like working with an NFL team..

WILD, CRAZY, INSANE and F***ING AWESOME!

P.S. Follow @raidersaunz NOW if you aren’t already.