Cleveland Browns Dawg Pound Logo Redesign Campaign | 6th Hashtag Sports Awards

Cleveland Browns Dawg Pound Logo Redesign Campaign

WIT

The 6th Annual Awards

Winner trophy-icon-silver
  • Best Use of Fan-Generated Content
Nominee ✨
  • Best Brand Experience or Activation

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

The Cleveland Browns approached WIT looking to engage fans in a full redesign of their tertiary “Dawg Pound” logo. They aimed to replicate and build on the success of the viral WIT Vote-to-Win activation that had fans select their 50-yard line field design in 2022.

Image

How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

Browns followers, from non-fans to super fans, enthusiastically participated throughout the campaign, with incredible social buzz at every turn. Across the four activation launches encompassing this experience, there were over 100,000 fan votes registered and more than 1,000 pieces of content submitted. These results surpassed expectations based on the viral field design promotion WIT facilitated in 2022 for the Browns, which had already set internal records for the team and platform. The “Dawg Pound” logo reveal received well over 1.3 million views on The Pat McAfee Show YouTube and X/Twitter accounts, and commentary throughout the sports world pushed the reach of this campaign far beyond. WIT has revolutionized the way teams, leagues, and partners think about digital activations while completely changing the way fans can interact with them. In just a few clicks, Browns supporters easily voted, uploaded content, and shared custom graphics in social competition. When the Browns came to WIT looking for a bigger campaign than ever before, including several unique KPIs, there was no question that it could be done. The broad catalog of 30+ WIT product offerings easily handled a multi-step campaign with several rounds of voting and UGC collection, netting impressive results.

Objective

In 2022 the Cleveland Browns launched a WIT Vote-to-Win activation that had fans choose a design for the team’s 50-yard line, a spot which had been empty for seven years. The experience went viral among Browns backers and the sports world at large, impressing the Browns with the results. Fans were thrilled to be able to have a say in an important team decision while the team received invaluable leads and impressions. Looking to replicate and build on the success of their first activation, the Browns came to WIT in 2023 to create a new, completely bespoke experience for their followers while tracking every engagement, sourcing new leads, and allowing their entire fanbase to get in on the action from across the country. This campaign would go far bigger than the singular viral field design initiative, segmenting in four launches over several months to give fans a promotion that ramped up gradually and welcomed new participants at every phase. This intricate, intensive campaign was designed to give every Browns fan a chance to influence team history with the scale and timeline such a momentous decision deserved.

Strategy & Execution

WIT and the Browns finally decided on a three-pronged approach for the new project. This campaign kicked off with a “Bark Madness” bracket in March asking their fanbase which dog breed best represented the Browns in a dynamic, interactive matchup of eight dog breed choices. Next came an open call for original Dawg logo designs from Browns supporters featuring the winning breed using WIT’s Art Contest product. Participants received custom dynamically-generated share graphics displaying their current rank and the number of votes needed to move up a spot. The campaign came to a close with two rounds of voting via WIT’s Vote-to-Win product to narrow down the choices and finally select the winning design. Both Vote-to-Wins featured post-entry pages with text and links guiding contestants to purchase tickets. In just a few taps or clicks, fans were able to easily enter each activation, upload content, and share custom graphics with their communities. The WIT team places a tremendous emphasis on UX/UI design, which is evident in all of the industry-leading, cutting-edge products we continue to take to market. Every product has a carefully crafted user interface that appears to be a fully native fan experience.

Organizations

  • WIT
  • Cleveland Browns

Credits

Brent Rossi
SVP, Marketing & Media
Cleveland Browns

Andrew Gribble
Director, Digital & Social Media
Cleveland Browns

Mark Podolak
Creative Director
Cleveland Browns

Leah Archual
Senior Manager, Digital Media
Cleveland Browns

Ryan Marks
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Cleveland Browns

Celebrate in NYC

Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.

 

RESERVE SEATS