• by Erin Everhart , Staff Writer, June 12, 2026

Fandom is another level of loyalty. Fans view their teams as extensions of their families. It’s never “they” won; it’s “we.” It’s rearranging your day to watch a game and planning your wedding around a bye weekend. Fans are the most captive audience on the planet. 

With brand loyalty, you may switch products when something better comes along, but sports loyalty doesn’t work that way. You don’t leave your team because they had a bad game or even a bad decade. You don’t churn. You just suffer.

Fandom is universally understood no matter what language you speak, what tax bracket you’re in or how you define football. Sports fans are just built differently, because we all know what it means to love a little team so much it hurts.

Smart brands have figured out that if you can show up authentically in that space, you’re not advertising, you’re becoming part of the memory. 

Lowe’s is doing that with sports. They’re in year eight of being the official home improvement partner of the NFL, the organization that owns a day of the week. They have an ongoing, multi-year partnership with Lionel Messi, arguably the most recognizable athlete in the world.

They activate experiential tours, launch limited-edition product drops, run full-funnel campaigns all with a loyalty play to tie it all together. They are, objectively, doing this right. And I say that as someone who spent six years rooting for the other team.

We sat down with Gerardo Soto, VP of Media and Sports Marketing to hear how they’re doing it. 

Listen to the full episode here, and don’t miss Gerardo as the opening keynote at our Sports Marketing Summit next month in Park City.