From Brand Slap to Story: Rethinking Digital Partnership Content
Scrolling Notice this morning and seeing the surge of new partnership announcements reminded me just how interesting this window is for digital teams. It's pre-season in a lot of Australian codes. Feeds are quieter. It’s a perfect window for partner work to shine… but also the easiest time for it to fall flat.
Clubs have such strong digital identities that fans instantly know when something isn’t “in-world.” They know the tone, the humour, the pace. They know what feels like their club. So the second a partner post drops in that doesn’t match that tone, even if the partnership itself is great, it reads as an ad.
That has consequences. When something feels like an ad, it doesn’t just underperform, it breaks the emotional rhythm of the feed. The next few posts take the hit. The coherence digital teams work so hard to build wobbles, because fans can instantly feel when something wasn’t made for them. Digital teams are effectively running creative studios now. They’re shaping the emotional logic of the club’s world while juggling partner expectations, brand guidelines, last-minute approvals, and deliverables that don’t always align with the club’s tone. The load sits with the club, but the creative control doesn’t always follow.
That’s why the partnerships that land well stand out so clearly. They don’t just show up, they show up naturally in the feed, inside the club’s world. They feel like part of the scroll, not a disruption to it.
A few examples:
✨Moana Pasifika x JBL Professional [https://lnkd.in/g2h7qwM5]
Music sits at the heart of Moana’s brand, so JBL speakers feel completely natural in the feed, part of their world, not product placement. It fits what fans expect, and the comments summed it up: “JBL is for the people.”
✨Brisbane Broncos× National Storage [https://lnkd.in/gAf_xpZp]
“Make Space” aligned perfectly with the Broncos’ identity shift, a club asking fans to make room for a new era. National Storage didn’t just appear in the moment; they reinforced it. The animated rollout felt like part of the rebrand narrative itself, and in the feed it read as story, not sponsorship
✨ Chelsea Football Club × Cadbury UK [https://lnkd.in/gcGN7u3d]
Cadbury supported Chelsea’s initiative to introduce British Sign Language interpretation at home games, a fan-first move centred on access and inclusion. The content is high-res, human, and community-driven, and in the feed it looks like a Chelsea story that Cadbury enabled, not a sponsor obligation
They work because the partner sits inside the digital rhythm, tone, and visual logic fans already know. The real opportunity isn’t in adding more brand assets, it’s in creating work that fits the emotional logic of the feed. When partners collaborate early, respect the tone, and give creative teams space, the content performs better for everyone. It moves beyond the brand slap or the scripted player line and becomes partnership storytelling that feels lived-in and trusted.