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The world of fantasy sports is dog-eat-dog\u2014and not just for those managing fantasy teams. For brands that operate fantasy platforms, it\u2019s a competitive space, especially given the dominance of major sports media companies like ESPN and Yahoo and sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings. But there\u2019s at least one underdog with a plan to take them on.<\/p>\n
Underdog Fantasy, a fantasy and sports-betting company founded in 2020, is ramping up its marketing efforts to try to reach sports fans outside of the typical male-dominated demographic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very obvious who is being targeted with traditional advertising when it comes to fantasy sports and real-money gaming,\u201d Underdog CMO Liz Marro told Marketing Brew. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge opportunity for whoever can figure out how to unlock the other half of the population<\/p>\n
With its biggest-budget ad campaign to date, which premiered this fall, Marro said Underdog is trying to capture that opportunity and get sports fans barking.<\/p>\n
Underdog started running TV commercials in 2021, Marro said, and at the start, they were fairly scrappy\u2014filmed in the office in front of a greenscreen taped to the wall, with the scripts written by Marro and read by in-house talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we actually had an investor reach out to us and compliment us on our purposefully lo-fi strategy,\u201d she said. \u201cThey thought it was on purpose that we were doing it on such a tight budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, Underdog has shifted its strategy away from lo-fi and direct-response advertising and toward brand awareness marketing designed to encourage growth, Marro said. That\u2019s in part because the company is growing: Underdog recently cleared 1 million paid customers, and has grown from 10 to about 350 employees in three years.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s new campaign, \u201cThe Dogs Are All Here,\u201d which debuted with a few 15-second spots in mid-September and led up to a 30-second ad released in late October, is, according to Marro, the company\u2019s first pure brand awareness push.<\/p>\n