EPR Editorial Team8 min read
The 10 best sports PR campaigns of 2026 tied a fixed sports moment to a number a finance team can check. IHOP drove a 117% incremental lift in restaurant visits, Dr Pepper lifted dollar sales 7.5%, Adidas grew revenue 14% around the World Cup, and Netflix streamed the most-watched regular season NFL game ever to 30.5 million viewers, according to Adweek's October 6, 2026 Sports Marketing MVPs list.
Originally published April 2025. Updated November 2, 2026.
These 10 campaigns were chosen because each has a named, dated result from a source that can be checked. Nearly all come from Adweek's Sports Marketing MVPs list, which profiles the executives behind the year's most effective sports work. The order is by strength of reported result: business outcomes first, then reach, then fan demand. Every figure below names its source, and none of the numbers has been audited independently by EPR.
The strongest campaigns reported either a sales or visit lift, or a reach figure in the billions. This table lines up all 10 so the results can be compared before the detail.
| Campaign | Moment | Reported result (source) |
|---|---|---|
| IHOP, Sweetest Punishment | Fantasy football | 117% incremental lift in restaurant visits (Adweek) |
| Dr Pepper, Fansville | College football, season nine | 7.5% dollar sales lift (Adweek) |
| Sprite, Obey Your Thirst | NBA, NFL, Unrivaled | 1.6 billion impressions, 6% sales lift (Adweek) |
| Adidas, Where It All Kicks Off | World Cup 2026 | $242 million extra Q2 spend, revenue up 14% (Adweek) |
| Fanatics Betting, Bet on Kendall | Super Bowl LX | 27 billion earned media impressions (Adweek) |
| Netflix, NFL Christmas Gameday | NFL 2025 season | 30.5 million viewers worldwide (Adweek) |
| ESPN, Sports Forever and BracketBrain | Streaming launch, March Madness | 3 million sign-ups, 26.6 million brackets (Adweek) |
| Portland Fire, Did You Hear? | WNBA relaunch | 17,000 season-ticket deposits before a game (Adweek) |
| Chime, Ball on a Budget | Original sports content | 123.6 million views, 43% unaided awareness (Adweek) |
| New York Knicks, Always Knicks | 2026 NBA title | More than two million at the parade (ABC7 New York) |
Four campaigns reported money-adjacent results: visits, dollar sales or revenue. They are the easiest to defend to a client's finance lead.
IHOP offered bottomless pancakes to fantasy football players after New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers suffered a season-ending injury. Adweek reports the offer drove a 117% incremental lift in restaurant visits. The idea turned a fan's bad news into a reason to visit within days, and it needed no league rights deal.
Dr Pepper's college football series Fansville reached its ninth season in 2026. Adweek reports it lifted dollar sales by 7.5% and returned about 30% more incremental return on ad spend than the national campaign average. Dr Pepper also passed Pepsi to rank as the No. 2 soda brand in the United States for the second year running. A recurring satirical series gave the brand a fixed place in the college football calendar.
The Coca-Cola Company revived Sprite's "Obey Your Thirst" platform and, per Adweek, generated 1.6 billion impressions and a 6% sales lift. Sprite signed Sha'Carri Richardson as its first female athlete partner, signed Jalen Hurts as its first NFL athlete, and sponsored the first season of the women's league Unrivaled. Signing partners before a trend peaked gave Sprite early credit with fans.
Adidas North America put $242 million of additional marketing spend into the second quarter of 2026, a 30% increase over 2025, and Adweek reports revenue rose 14% year over year. The spend covered Official Match Ball rights, a Dick's Sporting Goods campaign starring Lionel Messi and Patrick Mahomes, and a 25,000-square-foot Home of Soccer hub in Brooklyn. Pairing a soccer star with an American football star gave NFL fans a reason to watch the tournament. For the tournament's earlier advertising history, see FIFA World Cup commercials.
Three campaigns reported audiences in the tens of millions or earned impressions in the billions. Reach figures need the most context, because impressions are not sales.
Fanatics Betting and Gaming ran a Super Bowl LX ad called "Bet on Kendall" that, according to Adweek, generated 27 billion earned media impressions. Fanatics Sportsbook also grew total active users 32% year over year during the March college basketball tournaments. Sports betting is regulated, so the work relied on humor and celebrity culture and ran under review from marketing, legal, product and analytics teams. See also gambling public relations.
Netflix's NFL Christmas Gameday in 2025 was the most-streamed regular season football game in history, with 30.5 million viewers worldwide, Adweek reports. The result secured the holiday game through 2029 and led to a three-year MLB partnership that includes an Opening Night game. A halftime party with Snoop Dogg gave a streamer a live-event identity. The league side of the story is in NFL public relations.
ESPN's "Sports Forever" campaign supported its move to a direct-to-consumer product and helped drive 3 million sign-ups between August and October 2025, Adweek reports. The "BracketBrain" spoof of a pharmaceutical ad helped ESPN Tournament Challenge reach a fourth straight record of 26.6 million brackets in 2026. The spoof worked because it made a product reminder funny enough to share. See also how ESPN serves sports fans.
Three campaigns tied a brand to a city or a fan habit and reported tickets, views or turnout instead of sales.
The relaunched Portland Fire released its schedule with a video featuring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, and Adweek reports it became the most-viewed schedule release in WNBA history. More than 17,000 fans put down season-ticket deposits before the team played a game, and the home opener drew a record 19,335. Local humor tied to the city's identity made a routine announcement worth sharing.
Chime built original content instead of buying only sponsorships. Its series "Ball on a Budget" earned 123.6 million views and more than 630,000 social engagements, Adweek reports. The in-house studio raised output 377% year over year, and Chime reached 43% unaided awareness. Owning the content meant Chime did not depend on a league's schedule to reach fans.
The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the 2026 NBA Finals for the franchise's first title since 1973, and ABC7 New York estimated that more than two million people attended the June 18 championship parade. Adweek reports the "Always Knicks" campaign used watch parties, street activations and a Stephon Marbury "Schedule Cart" for the schedule release. Deutsch also made a commemorative Snapple bottle within two days of the title, which shows how a brand partner can ride a team's moment at speed.
All 10 campaigns share four habits, and each one shows up in more than a single case.
A PR team can report four kinds of results from these campaigns. Business results give a finance lead the clearest case, and reach figures need the most context.
| Result type | Campaigns | What the figure shows |
|---|---|---|
| Business result | IHOP, Dr Pepper, Sprite, Adidas | 117% visit lift, 7.5% dollar sales lift, 6% sales lift, 14% revenue growth |
| Reach | Fanatics Betting, Netflix, Sprite | 27 billion earned impressions, 30.5 million viewers, 1.6 billion impressions |
| Audience growth | ESPN, Chime | 3 million sign-ups, 123.6 million views |
| Demand | Portland Fire, ESPN, Knicks | 17,000 deposits, 26.6 million brackets, more than two million at a parade |
Only the first row ties a campaign to money the company earned. Report the business number first and the impressions second, as Dr Pepper did with its sales lift, and ask every partner for a named source and a date on each figure. The weaker side of the category is covered in sports PR failures, and the wider structure in sports PR for leagues, teams and athletes.
Ten stand out on reported results: IHOP, Dr Pepper, Sprite, Adidas, Fanatics Betting, Netflix, ESPN, Portland Fire, Chime and the New York Knicks. IHOP's 117% visit lift and Dr Pepper's 7.5% sales lift are the clearest business results.
Measure it by result type: business results such as sales or visits, reach such as earned impressions, audience growth such as sign-ups, and demand such as deposits or viewers. Business results are the easiest to defend to a finance team.
Fanatics Betting's "Bet on Kendall" Super Bowl LX ad generated 27 billion earned media impressions, according to Adweek.
Most come from Adweek's October 6, 2026 Sports Marketing MVPs list. The Knicks parade estimate comes from ABC7 New York. EPR has not audited any of the numbers independently.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
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