Dissecting the NFL’s Latest Digital Phenomenon: Schedule Release Day
Social media has evolved so much over the years that it's changed how people receive and consume their news, and sports fans are no different. A great example of this can be found when looking one specific digital phenomenon that has become increasingly popular over the years - the NFL Schedule Release.
It sounds simple. After months of waiting, all 32 NFL teams are finally allowed to announce their schedules for the upcoming season. Thanks to the existance of social media though, something that used to be so elementary - a schedule announcement - has become an annual tradition that many football fans eagerly look forward to for many reasons.
Personally, I love that the annual NFL Schedule Release has essentially become a competition to determine whose social media and marketing teams can produce the most creative ways to drop their schedules. There have been some really inventive ones in the past, but to me, the Indianapolis Colts take the cake this year.
At the root of it, what the Colts marketing team has done is both simple and masterful. In their release video, Pat McAfee and Adam Vinatieri sit down to preview - in a comedic way - the upcoming schedule for the Indianapolis Colts. Yet, as McAfee alludes to in the above video, the Colts social media team took a different approach this year by filming their schedule release video before actually knowing the details of the team’s schedule.
It’s a brilliant spin on what has become a digital battle amongst all 32 NFL franchises and their social media teams to create good-humoured and creative ways to announce their team’s schedules. Another release video that I particularly enjoyed was the one put together by the Chicago Bears, who decided to capitalize one of the newest internet crazes: paint mixing.
There are many other release videos that hit the mark this year as well, and it’s worth taking some time to scour YouTube to find what else is out there if you’re interested.
It’s great to see so many teams putting the extra effort into this sort of marketing project. What was once a simple press release has now become something that stirs up fan engagement and social media attention that teams couldn’t have dreamed of in the past. So what has your favourite NFL schedule announcement been?