Community Is the New Competitive Edge for Sports Marketing

February 12, 2026

Key takeaways

Community-centric sports campaigns can create long-term value.
Athletes can serve as strong messengers and advocates for brands.
Brands should vet athletes before partnering with them and encourage them to be authentic.

Fandom and culture have redefined what it means to win in marketing today. From social trends to influencer-led moments, brands have discovered that engagement, participation, and cultural relevance create a better experience than traditional reach or impressions.

During an ADWEEK House: The Big Game group chat co-hosted with DNA Vibe, industry leaders explored how community-driven campaigns can create lasting value around major sporting events and beyond.

The Big Game group chat co-hosted with DNA Vibe, during an ADWEEK House

Uniting communities with a movement

Maria Del Rio, CMO at DNA Vibe, a leader in regenerative wearable technology, opened the discussion by sharing how the company recently launched SHINE, a movement to help people and communities reach and sustain their highest potential.

Del Rio explained that the movement is about more than generating awareness; it’s about generating trust and something that lasts. For DNA Vibe, the company has a two-part mission: to support better lives for athletes and to build a better community.

“We’re trying to make sure that there is a healthy community that is producing healthy people, healthy athletes,” Del Rio said. “If you invest in people and if you do the right thing, the results will come. The trust will compound.”

Jimmy Smith, founder of Ad Legends and chairman, CEO, and chief creative officer at Amusement Park Entertainment, shared that he was excited “to get to express what I’m about in the way I want to express it,” through his work with SHINE.

“When you talk about community, yes, there’s a community in the neighborhood, which is obviously super important,” Smith explained. “But there’s a community with businesses.”

Smith added that often brands don’t understand the importance of positively impacting and uplifting the communities they want to connect with, and how that can affect the bottom line.

Jimmy Smith, founder of Ad Legends during conference

The influence and impact of brands on communities

Leela Srinivasan, CEO at Parity, a sports partnerships platform, spoke about the company’s partnership with DNA Vibe to bring women athletes into the conversation and help them lead the push out to the communities they serve.

Srinivasan said she encourages Parity’s athletes to be authentic and true to themselves.

“When we’ve run the numbers, we see that among women’s sports fans, they’re almost 3X as likely to buy something because a woman athlete recommends it as they are any other kind of influencer,” Srinivasan explained. “And so there’s definitely a great amount of influence these athletes have. But with great influence comes great responsibility, and you have to find the balance.”

Players’ responsibility to use a platform authentically

Jason Sehorn, a former NFL player, spoke about the responsibility of athletes to “walk the walk” because talk means nothing if they say one thing and do another.

“It’s the ultimate double-edged sword. So, the first side of the sword is that you have a platform. You should use that for good for something. The second part of that sword is you’ve now spoken out, so you now have to carry yourself in a different manner, because you’ve said that you act this way and you believe in this,” Sehorn said.

Authenticity is key, agreed Gina Scott, VP of partner services with NFL Players Inc., the marketing and licensing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). Players need to work in the community where they live and show the impact they are making locally.

“We tell players all the time, not everyone is going to have that global campaign, but there are three cities where you’re going to be most marketable, and you can make your impact. Your hometown, where you play collegiately, and where you are playing currently,” Scott said. “If you don’t do anything else, serve the communities that you either resided in, went to college in, or are playing in now, because you have to show that you are giving back to your community.”