---
title: "Inside the Den: The 2025 NFL Draft | 8th Hashtag Sports Awards"
description: Global awards recognizing excellence in fan engagement and celebrating creativity across sports marketing, media & entertainment
image: https://www.hashtagsports.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets-AF-2025/odmeeJWK-VSdF0ZTtuF-file.png
---

Inside the Den: The 2025 NFL Draft | 8th Hashtag Sports Awards

[The 8th Annual Awards](https://www.hashtagsports.com/awards/shortlist-2026?hsLang=en)

# Inside the Den: The 2025 NFL Draft

[Detroit Lions](https://www.detroitlions.com)

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ABOUT THIS ENTRY

This episode of Inside the Den, the Detroit Lions' behind-the-scenes documentary series, chronicles how the team's 2025 NFL Draft class came to be and the process behind it all.

![Image](https://www.hashtagsports.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets-AF-2025/odmeeJWK-VSdF0ZTtuF-file.png?width=1920&height=1080&name=odmeeJWK-VSdF0ZTtuF-file.png)

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

I think our results show that people will continue to watch as much behind-the-scenes content as possible of their favorite NFL teams, despite longer durations. Too often, videos are limited by tight restrictions on length, leaving the piece to either feel stretched or incomplete. By focusing on the quality of the content rather than the quantity of the length, we managed to have great success reaching hundreds of thousands of more fans than usual and connect them to our brand.

Objective

The main objective as to give Lions fans a behind-the scenes look at the team's 2025 NFL Draft. By giving fans a peak behind the curtain of what goes on during a team's draft, the aim was to be transparent and informative about the team's draft class, while also creating an engaging and enjoyable story for fans to follow. Another goal was to allow the quality and quantity of the content to dictate the duration of the piece, rather than adhere to a specific time limit.

Strategy & Execution

By making the piece over 50 minutes long, the story could be told as detailed as the content allowed it to be, not limiting itself because of time restraints or perceived watching norms. While editing the video, we knew that behind-the-scenes video of an NFL team's draft would make people want to watch. We thought as long as the content remains engaging and interesting to the viewer, we would make the video as long as possible in order to maximize the total views, average view duration and total time watched.

** 2x Nominations **

- Best Original Film or Series: Long-Form
- Best on YouTube

**Organizations**

- Detroit Lions
- One Pride Productions
- University of Michigan Credit Union (UMCU)

**Links**

- [  Detroit Lions ](https://www.detroitlions.com)
- [  Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSYX5lniXS7AEXyiTxDEz08deliQ972PF)

**Featured**

- Brad Holmes
- Dan Campbell
- Chris Spielman
- Tyliek Williams
- Tate Ratledge
- Isaac TeSlaa
- Miles Frazier
- Ahmed Hassanein
- Dan Jackson
- Dominic Lovett

**Credits**

**[ Derek Heitman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekheitman/) **  
 Senior Producer  
Detroit Lions

**[ Stuart Zaas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-zaas-170aa3191/) **  
 Director of Digital Media  
Detroit Lions

#### INSPIRED TO ENTER WORK?

Entries to the 9th Hashtag Sports Awards will open in October 2026.

Sign up below for announcements, case studies, podcasts, and the prestigious shortlist of nominations.

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