Dance Battle Challenge

Text your group chat, call them out, and let the battles begin. No setup, no excuses—just hit send and make them dance, wherever they are. It’s stupid fun and way too easy to not jump on.

How to Do It:

• Send a bold challenge in the group chat: “Dance battle go! 🕺💃”

• No excuses—wherever they are, they have to reply with a dance video.

• Keep the energy up by reacting, voting, or escalating the battle with new songs or themes.

• Compile the best (or worst) moves into a highlight reel.

Why It Works:

• Super easy—no setup, just text and dance.

• Feels spontaneous, fun, and highly shareable.

• Works for teams, brands, and businesses looking to engage their audience in a playful way.

Nostalgia builds emotional connections. It’s not just about selling products—it’s about selling memories, identity, and belonging. When brands tap into these emotions, they become more than just a product; they’re a tradition.

Think Nike’s retro sneakers or Nintendo’s re-released consoles. These moments make consumers feel like they’re reliving something special while creating exclusivity that drives loyalty.

How Nostalgia Helps Athletes Score Brand Deals

Tie the Athlete’s Past to the Brand’s Legacy

• Dig up baby photos or old gear photos. Show the brand you’ve been a fan since day one.

Bring Back the Classics with an Athlete Twist

Proven Examples of Nostalgic Partnerships

Tips for Using Nostalgia in Your Pitch

• Uncover meaningful childhood stories or photos.

• Show how these moments shaped the athlete.

• Use social media throwbacks to spark interest.

• Limited-edition releases tied to the athlete’s early days.

When an athlete’s personal story weaves into a brand’s past, fans feel a genuine connection—and that drives loyalty.

How We’d Approach It

Utilize mass intimacy (which you’ll read about later) This drink fuels them as they’re changing the world, having an impact, standing up for what they believe in.

How do you expect people to love you, trust you, or follow you if you're not willing to stand up for them? 

Staying neutral is a quick way to be forgotten, especially with younger consumers. According to MIT Sloan, 53% of consumers aged 18-29 want brands to take a stand on issues, compared to 35% of 45+ year old’s.

The people pleaser never wins attention in the digital age.

Athletes may be in the top .1% of human beings, but most of their content is consistent with 99% of other athletes. They fail to stand out amongst one another.

Let me introduce to you one of my favorite marketing techniques to stand out in a crowded newsfeed and build a brand that directly connects with your audience.

Let’s talk about mass intimacy and how it can be applied to athlete marketing campaigns.

The Problem with Staying Neutral

One of the best examples of mass intimacy in sports is when Nike decided to take a stance on skateboarders in the ’90s. Skaters were seen as outcasts with no major brands providing support or taking any real stance… until Nike stepped up and said, “These are real athletes and we support them.” And it paid off big time.

They sent a message to the world that they were siding with skateboarders, and they didn’t care if you liked it or not. 20+ years later, that watershed moment has led to a multi-million dollar business. They didn’t just sell products, Nike SB created a movement.

Nike built lifelong loyalty with skateboarders by taking a stand and not being afraid to say how they felt. Athletes can do the same. And more than loyalty, they can become leaders in a climate desperate for role models.

Nike has continued this approach with standing alongside their athletes against the haters or by supporting them through adversity.

Why Mass Intimacy Works

Showing up for your audience in ways that make them feel seen, valued, and connected— That’s the essence of mass intimacy. For athletes, this concept is paramount to building a personal brand that resonates with an audience to ultimately build trust (which is what brands care about most).

Most athlete brands are just athletes being athletes. Train, compete, post a “rise and grind” story, repeat. Adding a second layer gives you a differentiator over most other other athletes who only showcase themselves on the field or the court. That’s the first step.

But taking a real stand—having an opinion and actually aligning yourself with people who also believe in it with you—that allows you to stand out and build real connection with your audience.

Playing it safe or trying to appeal to everyone waters down your message, your impact, and quite frankly, just makes you forgettable. Athletes who don’t take a stand risk blending into the crowd of memes and fluffy highlight reels. Mass intimacy gives you a platform to be remembered by.

Here are ways athletes and brands can utilize Mass Intimacy:

Social missions

This is the most obvious and widespread use of mass intimacy. Support a social mission and unite those who also support that mission to become new fans of yours. Some are going to resonate more than others.

The key to mass intimacy is that you have to take a stance. There needs to be potential pushback.

The stats back up fans supporting athletes that stand up for something - Vox Media found that 67% of sports fans view an athlete’s effort to affect social change in a positive light.

Every athlete puts a camp. What can you support that will help you stand out?

Here are some examples:

Athletes like CJ Stroud have been very vocal about prison reform. You also have people like Meek Mill and Michael Rubin coming together to get legislation passed.

There are plenty of incredible organizations that support children of incarcerated parents.

Put Me In is an organization that helps children of incarcerated parents play sports and I’m sure you can think of some simple ways to help support and create content to amplify the mission.

Megan Rapinoe and Tom Daley have been advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion at all levels of sport.

Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg are appearing in a Super Bowl ad to “Stand Up to Hate” 

Joel Embiid x WhatsApp

For most Americans, texting is second nature. But for millions worldwide, including Joel Embiid, WhatsApp is the true link to home.

Born in Cameroon, Embiid’s journey to NBA superstardom took him across continents. Each move meant leaving behind loved ones—but WhatsApp kept him connected.

For immigrants and athletes alike, it’s more than an app; it’s a lifeline. It’s where parents share advice, friendships endure across time zones, and culture stays alive.

After choosing to represent Team USA at the Olympics, Embiid sparked debate. But beyond the headlines lies a deeper story—one of belonging to multiple homes at once. WhatsApp lets him share that journey, reminding us that home is never far when you can stay connected.

Identity Anchors

Let’s make it even simpler for athletes to figure out how they can utilize mass intimacy. What are the character traits or interests that are specific to them? What makes them who they are?

Now let’s find a way to utilize these identity anchors to create content and unite an audience. Who isn’t being spoken for that will have a new role model?

We’ve all seen how visible Jayson Tatum is with his son Deuce. Imagine him leaning more into supporting parents and the common misconceptions. What if he started a series on fatherhood and brought in experts to teach other fathers how to be great role models?

TikTok star Allison Kuch has been vocal about postpartum as a mother. This is the perfect example of utilizing mass intimacy to unite an audience.

Another relevant athlete example is faith. Riley Leonard just claimed in a press conference that “We’re the two main teams to publicly display our faith the most, I truly believe that Jesus was looking over both of our shoulders throughout the whole season and put these two teams on a pedestal for a reason.”

That’s one way to take a stance.

JuJu Smith-Schuster/Jared McCain x Indeed

One of my dream mass intimacy scenarios is TikToker/Athletes like Juju Smith-Schuster and Jared Mccain coming together to fight back against those who have critiqued their focus on their personal brands. Making a TikTok takes less than 10 minutes. These guys have been critiqued their entire careers for making social media content. I’d love to see them find humorous ways to put their doubters in their place and support other athletes who are building their brands.

Honestly (and this just came to me as I’m typing) it could be a funny campaign for a performance drink like Body Armor to do a campaign on fueling athlete performance on and off the court/field and showcase their performance away from their sport is making TikToks.

Another potentially funny campaign could be a company like Indeed or LinkedIn partnering with these guys to help them find a second job with their free time due to the pending TikTok ban.

Find a Common Enemy

Common enemies create a unifying force. Think about the skateboarders example with Nike. The goal of the campaign is to fight back against the naysayers who don’t believe skateboarders are athletes.

The best part about unifying based on a common enemy? You don’t need to alienate anyone that was going to support your brand. The people who would be upset with Nike’s campaign probably weren’t going to buy Nikes anyway.

Here are a few campaign ideas:

Joe Burrow x ADT

Not to make light of an unfortunate situation, but Joe Burrow was recently the victim of a home burglary. This could be a great opportunity for a home security system to partner with Joe to stand up against burglars.

Mark Andrews x BetterHelp

In one of the biggest games of the year, the sure-handed Mark Andrews dropped a pivotal pass that cost the Ravens a key playoff game. There were death threats and a ton of negativity sent his way online. This could be a great opportunity for a brand like BetterHelp to work with a player like Mark to talk about mental health and reduce the stigma towards therapy.

Titan Farms x Clemson Football

Most fans hate the transfer portal. Let’s use that hate and to energize the fanbase! Titan Farms is the “largest peach grower on the east coast, with over 6,000 acres growing peaches, bell pepper, eggplant, and broccoli.” What do they have in common with Clemson? Dabo Swinney has been historically anti-transfer portal. Titan Farms and Clemson Football are growing their product in-house. You get the idea and the potential commercial.

Why This Matters

Mass intimacy isn’t just about visibility; it’s about impact. When you show your audience you’re willing to go further for them than anyone else, you don’t just build a following—you build trust, loyalty, and a lasting legacy.

The digital age gives athletes unprecedented access to their audience. The question is: will you use it to stand out, or stay neutral and blend in?

Let’s build personal brands that mean something. Brands that stand for something. Brands that last.

Check out our most recent video on how to create an Athlete Content Franchise over on IG @JABA