Second-Hand Media

Most sponsorship conversations still assume value ends when the game ends.

As if attention clocks out with the broadcast.

But attention doesn’t behave like a schedule anymore. It moves when people move it — through reposts, reactions, stitches, and screenshots.

The broadcast is the spark.

The reposts are what bring it home.

What the Pop-Tarts Bowl actually did

The Pop-Tarts Bowl leaned fully into spectacle.

Edible mascots. Absurd rituals. Visuals that felt native to internet culture rather than traditional advertising.

Nothing was over-explained. Nothing was framed as a campaign. The brand wasn’t asking for attention — it was already embedded inside the moment.

That mattered, because the moments didn’t require context to travel. A clip made sense on its own. A screenshot carried the idea without explanation.

The property didn’t try to control attention.

It made attention easy to carry.

Where the value showed up

Using AVI, we tracked second-hand media — content posted by accounts outside of Pop-Tarts’ owned channels that still delivered brand exposure.

Across social, those redistributed moments generated:

• 192 total posts

• 17+ million views

• Over 1 million engagements

• More than $700,000 in Earned Media Value

This exposure was unpaid.

It was unplanned.

And it only shows up if you know where to look.

What teams can actually charge for

This sponsorship wasn’t about impressions or logo placement.

It was about the network effect.

The moment didn’t stop at the team’s account. It moved through media, publishers, creators, and fans — each layer expanding reach without additional cost. That distribution can’t be contracted or guaranteed, but the value it creates is real.

Teams that can demonstrate this effect can charge more.

Not because they “own” the distribution, but because they consistently trigger it.

When a team shows how moments spread beyond its own channels — who picked them up, how far they traveled, and what value emerged — sponsorship pricing shifts from gut feel to evidence.

You may not be able to price the network into the contract line by line.

But you can price the outcomes it produces.

Ready to make 2026 your best year yet?

What teams don’t measure, they don’t fix.

AVI provides the infrastructure to measure, benchmark, and operationalize moments like the best at scale:

Keep doing great things,

Athletiverse

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