From spectators to participants: How brands can earn attention in the fan economy

Few cultural campfires burn as brightly as live sports. Streaming has made that campfire even more dynamic. Fans aren't just watching anymore. They're reacting, sharing, shopping, and co-creating in the same moment. The old model of buying a spot and hoping for recall assumes a passivity that no longer exists.

Fans have already made live sports participatory. The brands earning attention are the ones designing for that—treating every touchpoint as an invitation to engage, not just a reason to watch. As media channels converge and consumers view content across every screen, advertisers are more willing to lean into innovative strategies—from interactive video ads to custom content integrations and remarketing strategies that extend the live moment. It’s also why brands are turning to interconnected channels like Amazon’s, where streaming, live sports, and shopping live side by side, to help audiences move through their fan journey in a more seamless way. Brands are moving beyond experimentation into committed, always-on sports strategies designed for this new fan economy. Here's how we approach it.

1. Lead with custom content that belongs in the broadcast

The most effective live sports campaigns don't look like traditional advertising. They look like content fans choose to engage with. This could include an in-broadcast feature for a brand that connects it to athlete fashion culture, which is already organically embedded in pre-game coverage. Or it could be custom creative featuring an athlete that runs across the season during key tentpole events and is extended into an athlete’s own social channels, where millions of followers can engage and share.

If looking across Amazon channels, a brand could secure a premier sponsorship position within a property like Thursday Night Football and build in crossover integrations that tie the brand to relevant Prime Video entertainment content, bridging sports and storytelling into a single viewer journey in which the brand is authentically integrated. Each of these approaches turns spectators into participants: audiences who are leaned in, engaged, and able to carry the brand beyond the broadcast. Brands who are able to connect the dots across the fan journey will be able to deliver meaningful content wherever fans choose to consume it.

2. Design for full-funnel outcomes from the start

What makes live sports on streaming genuinely different from linear television is the ability to connect awareness across an increasingly connected canvas of opportunities, allowing advertisers to not just invest in sports for reach alone, but also the multi-touchpoint presence it delivers for full-funnel outcomes.

There are so many ways to extend the excitement of a game beyond just the broadcast. Let’s say a brand wanted to sponsor a major game or experience. In addition to having an in-game presence, they could sponsor surrounding content, build social activations across relevant channels, and create branded content with on-air talent that deepens engagement between games. From there, streaming TV remarketing could be used to reconnect with those same audiences to drive action. If done well, the path from awareness to conversion isn't assumed but measured, with multi-touchpoint audiences converting at higher rates than those reached through live sports alone.

3. There is no off-season. Build for year-round cultural participation.

Sports culture now lives in tunnel walks, draft night fashion, podcasts, and athlete-creator crossovers. The cultural surface of live sports extends far beyond the broadcast window, and for brands that means the investment strategy has fundamentally shifted. There is no off-season in the fan economy.

The way Publicis Sports approaches this for clients is to build a cross-sport, always-on presence where your brand lives within sports culture regardless of which game is airing. A football strategy becomes a basketball strategy becomes a year-round cultural strategy.

Live sports on streaming isn't a media buy—it's a participation architecture. The brands earning attention in the fan economy are the ones building for it: custom content that belongs in the broadcast, multi-touchpoint strategies that deliver full-funnel outcomes, and a year-round cultural presence that never goes out of season.

About the author

Chloe Pastore is President of Strategic Alliances & Partnerships at Publicis Sports, where she leads innovative partnership strategies that drive client growth and industry impact. With a background spanning sports marketing, sports publishing, influencer marketing, investment strategy, and digital media leadership, she has played a key role in scaling transformative solutions across Publicis Groupe and the broader media landscape. A Chicago native, Pastore is also a passionate advocate for mentorship and advancing women in leadership through organizations like Chief.