NFL Partner FedEx Showcases Up-And-Coming TikTok Stars For Playoffs Halftime Show

January saw long-time league sponsor FedEx launch an integrated, digital-first campaign promoting its ‘FedEx NFL Playoffs Concert Series’: an initiative which aims to provide young artists an opportunity to perform for a huge audience.

It isn’t just the Super Bowl that attracts huge US TV audiences: Playoff excitement and interest is at an all-time high with many of the knock-out games notching up audiences bigger than anything other than the Big Game itself. Indeed, in 2022, more than 150m watched the NFL Playoffs: with 50m viewers alone tuning in to watch the thrilling AFC divisional game between the Chiefs and the Bills – making it the second biggest US TV audience of the year (after the Super Bowl itself).

For Fedex, the only thing missing was a ‘Playoff Halftime Show’ to mirror the success of the Super Bowl centrepiece.

So, to leverage these large audiences, 2023 saw FedEx team up with agency BBDO to activate its league tie-up to provide a platform for 12 up-and-coming TikTok artists – many of whom are unsigned – to perform during the ‘FedEx NFL Playoffs Concert Series.’

Initially, invitations to perform were sent via FedEx to each artist in an opening activation phase which highlighted Fedex’s new photo delivery feature called ‘Picture Proof of Delivery’.

Following the invites, the brand showcased the artists as they prepared for their upcoming performances which were held during halftime at each Playoff game from Saturday, 14 January.

The selected artists’ TikTok pages linked below with the timing of the performances for this weekend: the brand-backed stars included Henry Jacob Platt, Blake Rouse, New Haven, Sophie Truax, Keilam and Sheyna Gee.

@newhavenband Tune in Sunday! #FedEx #PictureProof #NFLPlayoffs #LiveConcertSeries #ad ♬ Notification sound & window pop-up sound(166907) – MOCHIXTONE

The linked promotional campaign was amplified by both the brand and the artists and included agency created and performer created content.

To ensure the campaign fitted with FedEx’s track record of supporting of small businesses, the agency team chose 12 up-and-coming unsigned artists and under-represented genres to feature in the concert series to provide them with a platform beyond their bedrooms and basements and yet remaining as authentic and ‘as TikTok-native’ as possible. Finding the right artists to represent the brand and perform digital shows that would capture as many eyeballs of second-screening social-scrollers as possible meant picking a mix of music genres (generally those not represented during the traditional Super Bowl Half Time Show) via a creator scoring system developed by the BBDO team (including influencer, marketing science and connections departments).

TikTok was chosen as the primary platform to capture the attention of a larger portion of the younger demographic – as, according to the agency and brand, ‘that is where young people are spending so much of their time in 2022/23’.

The whole idea was based on the insight that many fans would use a spare 10-minutes-or-so to check social media and so the campaign used paid targeting media so the campaign appeared naturally on people’s feeds – so it run only on TikTok and on the FedEx-run accounts that produce organic social content.

“There are so many talented artists on TikTok waiting to be discovered. This felt like the perfect marriage between highlighting up-and-comers and demonstrating the new picture proof of delivery offering from FedEx.” says BBDO EVP and Executive Creative Director Greg Ketchum. “It is so easy to get lost in the noise around the Super Bowl when the hype really starts a month beforehand on new platforms. That’s why we wanted to add value to our audience once the playoffs got going while giving up and coming artists their own half-time show.” says Enda Conway, SVP, head of connections strategy, BBDO.

The campaign was created for the global logistics and delivery giant by a team at creative agency BBDO New York which included Chief Creative Officer David Lubars, Creative Directors Greg Ketchum, Greg Gerstner, Matthew Low and Kristin Clark, Manager Lucy Bennett, Planner Enda Conway, Business Affairs Manager Kathleen Bannon, Account Director Josh Steinman, Account Manager Sarah Davies and Account Executive Macy Kissel. Music and sound was also handed by BBDO New York via Producer Julia Millison

Comment:

This latest campaign followed Fedex’s January 2022 ‘Business Surge’ Playoff activation with Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry.