The idea and goal was to be culturally relevant and in the space that our brand is able to play. We set out this past 2024 season, across our integrated marketing department, to hone in our tone of “Southern Swag”. For us, having complete brand voice clarity was new for the organization and frankly something that was needed. This nominated post was the culmination of all that work that was put in with the leaders and organization in the offseason. In the past, we likely wouldn’t have been able to get the concept off the ground. But having the brand voice and the goal of being culturally relevant drove us to a successful internet moment – The most interactions on a Twitter/X post by an NFL team in the 2024 season AND the highest interacted Twitter/X post all-time from the Atlanta Falcons
As the attention was amplifying on the 2024 Falcons season, the social team was able to capitalize on the internet-driven trend of the bandwagon Cowboys/Lakers/Yankees fan. Coming off a World Series defeat, Yankee fans were visible and meme’d all over the internet in the October month.
Each week the social team would come together with diverse ideas on how to lead into the week with cultural moments and then an eventual win. Our team had several versions of the post at the ready, depending on the tone of the win and saved away for Sunday.
In this business, you can’t control or manipulate the outcome of a game, so oftentimes this work can go into the trash, but in this instance the team was prepared for the moment and created virality and tapped into not only Falcons but all of sports fandom.
Two goals in our content is to drive emotional reaction and be culturally relevant. This specific post met the moment in a severe degree.
As mentioned earlier, we set out to clearly establish our Atlanta Falcons “brand voice” as “Southern Swag”. In the past, we oftentimes were playing in a space where we could be unsure of what we could and could not do as an organization. We clearly defined those rules for not only the social team, but every person who has visibility into content.
This post put our team on the map internally, that we were established and ready to make significant impacts online.
