🏅 Alex Kopilow on How Top Athletes Make Smart Content Deals

Hey there,

In this week's expert interview, we're thrilled to have Alex Kopilow. Alex, who spent years building digital partnerships for Madison Square Garden properties, is now the creator of the widely-read Sponcon Sports newsletter. His expertise in the sports business, particularly in sponsorship trends and best practices, has made him a go-to source for organizations looking to craft effective and lucrative partnerships.

Alex's insights on sponsorship trends and best practices are invaluable for organizations aiming to create effective and profitable partnerships in the ever-evolving world of sports marketing.

In this exclusive Q&A, Alex shares his expert take on the sports business, offering a wealth of knowledge that marketers and athletes across the sports industry won't want to miss!

— Cole, Justin and Collin

As the founder of Sponcon Sports, you've become a leader in sponsorship activation on digital and social platforms. What emerging trends or technologies do you see shaping the future of sponsored content in sports, and how can organizations stay ahead of the curve?

I’ve been bullish on investing in the video podcast model. I don’t mean your organization needs a video podcast, but the distribution model has made investment in longform content much more worth your time and money.

The value for partners lies in the scale from short-form social clips.

For every longform video (10+ minutes), you can easily generate three to 10 social clips. There are even AI tools to help with editing automation.

In terms of channel distribution, there has never been a better time to activate these clips on social media. At minimum, they should live on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels where you can get high distribution regardless of follower count.

On these platforms, oversaturation concerns are minimal, as their primary feed is curated by the platform, not dependent on follower choices. Note: Instagram Reels operates slightly differently, but you can publish most clips directly to the Reels feed rather than the home feed to avoid oversaturation.

From a sponsor integration standpoint, try and integrate brands into the set (if possible) removing the need for a logo overlay and tag them in the post. Now you have content where there’s clear brand recognition without the signals of it being an ad. 

A second trend is bringing social media features to your organization’s mobile app.

The NBA popularized the Stories feature in app a few years ago and now you see it everywhere. Meanwhile, you’re also seeing vertical video feeds making their way into apps. My favorite right now is the “Bills Bits” section of the Buffalo Bills app. Bonus points to anyone layering interstitial ads into either of those experiences, especially if they’re tailored to your audience.

You focus on helping rights holders monetize digital channels with content fans actually enjoy. How do you strike the balance between creating engaging content and meeting sponsorship objectives without compromising the fan experience?

The key words there are fan experience. 

The biggest mistake rights holders make when it comes to sponsored content is that they treat it as if it's different from all the other content published on their digital channels. There are two key differences between unsponsored content and sponsored content.

• You need to find a creative way to integrate partners into the content without it feeling like an ad.

• The review process takes on an added layer.

But the approach should remain the same! You need to ask yourself one question to determine if sponsored content can work.

Does this content match the expectations of our fans when they hit the 'follow' or 'subscribe' button?

Think about it. When a fan hits 'follow' or 'subscribe,' that action comes with expectations. They want to hear the latest and greatest about players, and coaches, updates on how they're performing on the field, court, or ice, and get more access to the team than they can from TV. They don't want to hear about your partner's latest sale, their latest community initiative, or why you, as a fan, should use their product.

Successful sponsored content on any channel is all about ensuring that including a partner feels natural within the kind of content you're already sharing with your followers.

It should be an integration rather than an interruption. Integration makes it possible for sponsored content to help the team and its partner achieve their business goals throughout the marketing funnel.

It all boils down to how you can align the content with followers' expectations. If a partner wants to control more of the narrative with their messaging, seek channels outside organic social media (e.g. paid media, email, pre-roll, banners, etc).

Given your experience with NBA, NHL, and MLB teams, how do you approach creating 360-degree strategies that effectively integrate sponsorships across various digital platforms (social media, email, websites, apps)? Can you share a successful case study?

Don’t limit yourself to just digital channels. The gold standard in partnerships is integration across your entire suite of assets—both physical and digital.

Three key factors make this work:

Look at the big picture. Not every marketing asset needs to hit every goal. It’s about the total package—does everything together check all the boxes for your partner’s KPIs? If yes, you’re set. Misalignment can cause problems, like trying to generate leads with a sweepstakes on organic social.

Push your ideas further. I like to approach partnerships with a checklist of every channel I can tap into—mentally or on paper. When I land on a concept, I try to check off as many channels as possible. Does the content fit where it’s showing up? How does it need to be tweaked? The more departments you involve, the more impact you create.

Be the connector. Break down silos and collaborate across teams. Bring reps from different departments into weekly meetings, proactively share ideas, and make sure all teams have a seat at the table from the start. For example, too often, social teams get left out and have to pick up the pieces later.

One of my favorite examples of this is TA7: The Story of Tim Anderson, a YouTube docuseries we launched at the White Sox, presented by Nike. Social, video, design, marketing, partnerships, and PR all worked together from day one. We built a strategy to drive people to YouTube, resulting in 203K+ views and 24K+ hours watched—the most-viewed content series in White Sox YouTube history (at the time).

Oh, and we did all this while navigating an MLB lockout. We had to capture everything before it started, and once it hit, we couldn’t share any footage with player's likeness until it was over. Clear, consistent communication with Nike was critical, especially with a compressed review timeline.

In your newsletter, you teach about sponsored content strategy. What key metrics or KPIs do you recommend for measuring the success of digital sponsorships, and how have these evolved in recent years?

Make sure KPIs align with your partner’s goals. For example:

• Awareness: Impressions, views, unique reach

• Consideration: Engagement rate, avg. view duration, comment sentiment

• Conversion: Leads generated, offer redemptions, sign-ups

The key is aligning on goals and KPIs during the pitch phase. Ask partners what success looks like and how you’ll measure it—this guides the assets you recommend.

When reporting, restate those goals and KPIs in your recap. The story should always connect back to how your assets helped achieve them.

With your background in content development and digital strategy, how have you seen consumer behaviors change in sports content consumption, and how should sponsorship strategies adapt to these changes?

Things are coming full circle with this interview. Don’t be afraid to embrace long-form content.

People love to say each new generation has a shorter attention span—but that’s not true. We just have less patience for bad content. If it’s worth watching, people will stick around. You can see it in the rise of sports documentaries, all-access shows, and the way people are watching YouTube on TV.

The competition for attention has never been tougher. You’re not just up against other sports content—you’re competing with every content creator out there.

What I’d love to see more of in long-form content? The smart integrations we get from creators like Dude Perfect and MrBeast. Ad reads layered within the video, cutting between the action and the brand messaging, so if viewers skip ahead, they risk missing part of the story.