Turning Fan Attention Into Fan Action

The Opportunity: Give Fans a Voice

College basketball fans don’t just follow their favorite players. They want to be part of their success.

The Naismith Awards recognize the most outstanding players and coaches in college basketball. Through the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Fan Vote, fans have an opportunity to influence the selection process, with their votes contributing to the final award decisions.

What began as an idea from our social media team evolved into an annual, sponsor-backed campaign connecting passionate basketball audiences with the sport’s most prestigious individual honors.

Having been involved since its creation, I led the campaign’s social marketing strategy across three seasons, with two primary objectives: generate widespread awareness and convert that attention into meaningful fan participation.

The challenge wasn’t simply getting people to see the campaign. It was giving them a compelling reason to leave their social feeds and cast a vote.

The Strategy: Make Every Fan Base Matter

The most effective way to reach college basketball fans is to speak directly to what they care about.

Rather than relying on broad promotional messaging, I developed a strategy centered on the individual players, coaches and communities competing for Naismith honors.

Geographic targeting became a key component of our paid media approach. By developing campaigns around the markets associated with each finalist, we could reach audiences with a stronger connection to the candidates while evaluating participation across different regions.

Our creative emphasized one important message: your vote matters.

Fans weren’t simply expressing their opinions. They had an opportunity to contribute to the selection of the award winners.

That message became the foundation of a coordinated paid and organic strategy, combining immediate calls to action with more engaging storytelling around the finalists.

The Execution: One Campaign, Two Creative Approaches

Paid Media: Capture Attention and Drive Action

Paid campaigns were built around short-form video, compelling opening hooks and clear messaging that communicated the voting opportunity immediately.

I developed geographically targeted creative approaches designed to connect individual finalists with their most relevant audiences.

The objective was to reduce the distance between discovering the campaign and participating in it.

Capture attention. Communicate the value. Drive the vote.

Organic Social: Build Excitement Around the Finalists

Organic social provided an opportunity to go beyond the immediate call to action.

Through player- and coach-specific creative, high-quality visuals and video content, we built excitement around the finalists while encouraging fans to support their preferred candidates.

Video consistently emerged as our strongest-performing format, reinforcing the importance of creative that could stop the scroll while maintaining a clear connection to the campaign’s objective.

I also collaborated with the brand marketing team to ensure consistent messaging across campaign touchpoints and contributed feedback on the custom voting landing page developed by our web team.

The Optimization: Let Performance Shape the Campaign

A campaign strategy should provide direction, not prevent adaptation.

Throughout each voting period, I monitored performance, analyzed participation across geographic markets and evaluated the response to individual finalists.

When a player or coach wasn’t generating the attention we anticipated, I adjusted promotional messaging and creative priorities to increase visibility.

These decisions helped us respond to audience behavior in real time rather than relying entirely on a predetermined content schedule.

While the campaign’s underlying strategy remained consistent across three seasons, ongoing refinements allowed us to improve how we reached audiences, communicated the voting opportunity and supported individual candidates.

The Impact: From Social Concept to Established Campaign

Across three seasons, the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Fan Vote generated 892,000 votes, demonstrating the ability to turn college basketball fandom into measurable participation.

Beyond the numbers, one of the campaign’s most meaningful achievements was its evolution from an idea developed by our social media team into an established annual activation.

Jersey Mike’s continued investing attention in the initiative, reinforcing its value as a recurring sponsorship campaign that connects the brand with passionate college basketball audiences.

What began as a strategy to generate awareness became a repeatable marketing program combining paid media, organic storytelling, geographic targeting and performance optimization.

The result wasn’t just a successful campaign. It was a lasting platform for fan participation and sponsor engagement.

The Takeaway: Attention Is Only the Beginning

A million views can create awareness. A successful campaign gives that attention somewhere meaningful to go.

This project reinforced a principle that continues to shape my approach to marketing: creative content is most valuable when it supports a clear objective.

By connecting geographically targeted paid media, engaging organic storytelling and ongoing performance analysis, I helped develop a repeatable campaign that translated audience interest into measurable action.

What I’m most proud of isn’t a single post, creative asset or performance metric.

It’s helping turn an idea from our social team into a trusted annual campaign that continues to bring fans, athletes, coaches and a national brand together.

The strongest campaigns don’t just capture attention. They turn it into participation.