Fans Remember: The Power of Callback Posts
The posts that land aren't the ones that tell fans what happened. They're the ones that make fans feel like they're part of the joke.
Too often, sport teams post what just happened. The best ones post what still matters. That means understanding fan memory, timing, and tone, not just your content calendar.
The Brisbane Broncos nailed this. After beating the One NZ Warriors at Suncorp last night (😭), they posted a shot of Shaun Johnson in a Broncos jersey with the score overlay. Caption: 1–1. No explanation. Just a visual callback, and trust that fans would remember. And they did.
Back in April, Johnson lost a bet on his podcast: he’d wear a Broncos jersey to Mt Smart. The content that followed, via the podcast and Warriors, did big numbers: trying it on, nerves, Reece Walsh teasing, and the reveal (spoiler: he didn't pull through but the Warriors won😉). The Broncos didn’t overthink it. 2 months later, no one had forgotten. They posted the memory at the perfect moment, and it landed.
It was the most engaged post across all 17 Broncos game day uploads on Instagram. More comments & reshares than any other post. Higher stickiness and it wasn’t just fun, it was strategically smart.
Here’s why:
✨ Reshares are the most important metric you're not prioritising
Meta's benchmarks are clear: “posts with a high reshare-to-reaction ratio are 2.4x more likely to receive organic feed distribution.” Likes are passive. Shares are active, relational, and algorithmically valuable. Most sport orgs still track reactions. They shouldn’t.
✨ Callback content drives longer dwell time
Sprout Social, Inc. reports posts built on narrative recall or fan context produce 34% higher average viewing time, even when static. Fans take a second look. They pause. They explain it to someone else. That’s engaged attention, not just reach.
✨ Familiarity drives shareability
Rival IQ reports sport accounts post 31x/week on average, the highest of any industry, but the top-performing posts overwhelmingly feature emotionally familiar or insider content. This wasn’t a highlight. It was an in-joke. And in-jokes get shared.
✨ Tone builds trust across fanbases
Fans are more likely to engage with content that sounds like a person, not a platform. Yes, it was a bit of a mock, but it felt like a shared joke, not a cheap shot. The moment started in Warriors fan culture, and Broncos played it back with just the right amount of cheek. It let both sets of fans laugh, comment, and share. That kind of tone isn’t accidental. It’s audience fluency.
So what should sport orgs take from this?
🌶️ ‘Admin’ should have a personality
🌶️ If fans are tagging mates and players are jumping in, you’re doing it right
🌶️Don’t fear the rogue post, that’s where culture lives
🌶️The best content doesn’t play safe. It plays with the fans and sometimes, with the other team too
🌶️ Callbacks beat cringe. Fans remember more than you think. Post like you remember, too!