Webinar Summary: Maximizing and Measuring Earned Channels During Major Sporting Events
Featuring Dylan Boehm Diesko (Trajektory), Ned Luke (New Jersey Devils), and Michelle Rosar (San Francisco 49ers)
In this webinar, Trajektory, the New Jersey Devils, and the San Francisco 49ers explored how Earned Media has become one of the most powerful — and most under-measured — drivers of sponsorship value in sports.
The discussion focused on how major sporting moments generate organic exposure across broadcast and social media, why some sponsorship assets naturally outperform in earned environments, and how organizations can intentionally position themselves to capture outsized value from both planned and unplanned moments.
Using real-world examples from the Olympics and the Super Bowl, the speakers demonstrated how the right asset strategy can transform a single sports moment into millions of dollars in measurable partner value.
What Is Earned Media in Sports?
The webinar opened by defining earned media as:
“Earned media is the measurable organic exposure created when major sports moments are amplified across television and social platforms.” — Dylan Boehm Diesko
The session broke sponsorship exposure into three categories:
Paid Media — Contracted sponsorship assets with guaranteed delivery
Owned Media — Team-controlled channels such as social, email, and websites
Earned Media — Organic pickup generated through highlights, broadcasts, reposts, creators, and fan conversations
Unlike paid sponsorship inventory, earned media cannot be fully controlled — but it can be optimized, amplified, and measured.
Takeaway:
Earned media is no longer just a bonus layer on top of sponsorships. It is a measurable component of total partnership value.
Why Earned Media Is Becoming a Game-Changer
A major theme throughout the webinar was the two-sided value earned media creates for both teams and brands.
For Teams
Earned media helps organizations:
Justify partnership pricing and renewals
Increase the value of marquee assets
Attract new sponsors through proven visibility
Compete regardless of market size
For Brands
Earned media creates:
Incremental ROI beyond contracted inventory
Massive organic visibility during cultural moments
Additional value from both planned and unexpected events
A more complete understanding of sponsorship performance
The panel emphasized that the organizations seeing the greatest success are those actively preparing for earned moments instead of simply reacting to them.
Optimizing for Earned Media Starts with Asset Strategy
One of the clearest messages from the webinar was that earned media is heavily influenced by asset placement and design.
As Dylan Boehm Diesko explained:
“Activate intentionally, activate well, and ensure your assets are primed to capture high-reach moments.”
Highlight-Friendly Assets Drive Pickup
Playing surface and surface-adjacent placements often generate the strongest earned results because they naturally appear in:
Highlight clips
Broadcast replays
Viral social content
Athlete celebration moments
The speakers highlighted Sidney Crosby’s 600th career goal, where the FedEx corner ice logo generated:
$102.3K in partner value
248.1K engagements
Takeaway:
The best Earned assets are not always the most expensive — they are the assets most likely to appear during emotionally significant moments.
Media-Adjacent Assets Often Outperform Expectations
The webinar also explored how earned value extends beyond traditional in-game signage.
High-performing earned assets included:
Press conference backdrops
Mic flags
Studio sets
Player attire and interview environments
These placements continue generating exposure long after gameplay ends, especially when tied to player personalities and cultural conversations.
Takeaway:
Some of the most valuable earned inventory exists outside the field of play.
Earned Media Requires an Organizational Mindset
Another major discussion centered around treating earned media as a venue-wide and organizational strategy — not simply a marketing initiative.
The panel encouraged teams and venues to evaluate:
Event Hosting Potential
Can the venue host marquee events?
Does it meet attendance and broadcast requirements?
Is the environment optimized for national coverage?
Market Competition
How many tenants share the venue?
How often is the building active annually?
Is the organization competing for attention within the market?
Takeaway:
Organizations that strategically design venues and operations around visibility create substantially more long-term sponsorship value.
Case Study #1: New Jersey Devils & The Olympic Moment
Presented by Ned Luke, the Devils case study focused on how the organization capitalized on the organic attention surrounding Jack Hughes’ return from the Olympics.
The result was a single-event earned media surge that generated:
$355.7K in Earned Broadcast Value
10M impressions
$60.5K in Prudential partner value
As highlighted during the presentation:
“A single broadcast moment, properly tracked, can justify a partner’s entire annual value commitment.” — Ned Luke
The Earned Social Echo
The broadcast moment extended far beyond television.
Social amplification across accounts including:
SportsCenter
B/R Open Ice
Influencer accounts
Athlete accounts
generated:
$2.6M in total partner value
6.5M engagements
$393K in Prudential social value
Takeaway:
The largest earned value multiplier often comes after the live moment itself.
Case Study #2: San Francisco 49ers & Hosting the Super Bowl
Michelle Rosar walked through how the Super Bowl transformed Levi’s Stadium itself into an earned media engine.
As she explained:
“When the venue itself becomes the media entity, the entire stadium turns into Earned exposure.” — Michelle Rosar
Unlike traditional sponsorship moments centered around gameplay, the venue itself became the focal point of national and social coverage.
The highest-performing earned social assets included:
Levi’s Naming Rights — $25.5M in brand value
Bud Light Static Signage — $12.5M in brand value
Pepsi Bottle Cap Feature — $2.1M in brand value
From Asset to Icon
A major insight from the session was how certain sponsorship assets evolve beyond placements and become part of the event’s identity.
Levi’s Naming Rights
The stadium identity became inseparable from the broadcast itself, appearing in nearly every venue reference.
Bud Light Static Signage
Permanent placements consistently appeared in ambient venue shots and fan-generated content.
Pepsi Bottle Cap
Architectural features became recurring camera magnets and highly shareable visuals.
Takeaway:
The highest-performing earned assets become embedded in the storytelling of the event itself.
The Scale of the Super Bowl Earned Media Effect
During the week following the Super Bowl, the 49ers generated:
$44.7M in partner value
127.7M partner engagements
$255.1K average partner value per post
The case study reinforced how major events can exponentially amplify sponsorship value when organizations are strategically positioned to capture earned pickup.
Final Takeaways
The webinar closed with three core lessons:
1. Earned Media Is Measurable
Earned exposure is not abstract awareness — it is a trackable and reportable component of sponsorship value.
2. Asset Design Drives Pickup
Placement, visibility, and environmental context directly impact how much organic value assets generate.
3. Major Events Multiply Value
Both planned moments (Super Bowl hosting) and unexpected moments (Olympic returns, viral highlights) create outsized sponsorship ROI.
As the session made clear:
“The biggest sponsorship moments are no longer confined to the game itself — they live across every replay, repost, highlight, and cultural conversation that follows.”
Want to learn how your organization can better measure and maximize earned media value? Learn more at trajektory.com.