Each year, Navigate puts together a report focused on the top trends in sports marketing and innovation, and we think the 2024 edition is our best yet! For a brief look inside the report, we’re focusing this blog post on one of our favorites: a concept we are dubbing “Human Native Advertising”.

Already successful in breaking through the clutter of traditional signage and sponsorships, Human Native Advertising, a new wave of marketing, involves leveraging fans, actors, or even robots for promotional purposes. Our brains are designed to notice and remember people better than basic marketing elements, and now that the secret’s out brands and properties must decide how to leverage this new tactic, as well as how to protect existing sponsors from ambush marketing.

A standout example of this strategy is that of State Farm’s commercial star “Jake”, who has recently been spotted at several high-profile events including the WNBA Draft and an NFL game. The business impact for State Farm from those promotions was massive, as online searches for “Jake from State Farm” grew 335% after he was seen hugging superstar Caitlin Clark during the Draft. Additionally, searches increased 10X following his native TV appearance sitting next to Donna Kelce (mother of Travis and Jason) at the Eagles vs. Commanders game, a savvy ambush-marketing move for the brand considering the Eagles’ official sponsorship with GEICO.

Another buzz-worthy example of Human Native Advertising includes a Chargers vs. Dolphins NFL game during the 2023-2024 season, where actors dressed as robots were placed around Sofi Stadium to promote the upcoming movie, “The Creator”. Both fans and TV viewers noticed the “fans”, garnering for the promotion across TV and social media. After the game, the search volume for “The Creator Movie” went up by 171%, more than doubling interest in the movie. These types of creative marketing solutions and elements generate organic (unpaid) media buzz by offering a fresh and unique strategy.

BEST PRACTICES: What can you do to elevate your marketing strategy using Human Native Advertising?

BRANDS: It’s critical to figure out how to implement these tactics into contracts and partnership activations. These creative campaigns build an emotional connection with your consumers and create opportunities for organic conversation. Focus on new concepts that tie human experience into new channels, consider what goes viral on social media (understand the trends & what media patterns look like), and know your target consumer – to ensure the activation is hitting the mark. Monitor competitors’ activity in this realm, and develop strategies to avoid an ambush against your sponsorship portfolio.

PROPERTIES: Take a stance on Human Native Advertising. This can mean either working the strategy into sponsorship package offerings and becoming an ideation partner in the space or focusing on mitigating in-venue risk of ambush marketing for your existing sponsors.

Human-native advertising is one of Navigate’s Top 10 Trends of 2024. To learn more about it or for information on the other trends that made the list, reach out to Maya@NVGT.com.