Behind the scenes of The Gist’s first brand campaign

It’s never a bad time to join the sports fandom bandwagon, but the men’s World Cup this summer has created a particularly big entry point for many newly minted fans. (Who knew there could be so many honorary Norwegians and Scots?)

The Gist, a sports media company that focuses on covering men’s and women’s sports in equal measure, wants to make sure those fans feel welcomed into the sports community—a task that has historically been easier said than done when it comes to women fans of men’s sports.

That’s why The Gist’s inaugural brand campaign, “Fandom Belongs to Everyone,” is meant to make all types of fans, from the die-hards to the newly initiated, feel on top of their game during the World Cup—ideally, of course, by keeping up with The Gist’s content.

“‘Fandom Belongs to Everyone’ is really our ode to the underserved fans, the overlooked fans, who love sports, even when sports culture hasn’t necessarily loved them back,” McKenzie Bolden, senior marketing manager at The Gist, told Marketing Brew. “Traditionally, people consider a typical sports fan to be a man, and so we really wanted to take this opportunity to challenge that narrative.”

Get schooled

The campaign positions The Gist as a prestigious academic institution for sports education, with a headmaster figure walking through various alumni who represent different archetypes of sports fans. The academy concept, created in collaboration with boutique production studio Grits, is meant to be somewhat ironic, Bolden said.

“When you think academy, you think exclusive,” she said. “That’s kind of how we’re positioning sports in this world—it’s supposed to be prestigious, but you can see it’s very welcoming. That’s how we’re trying to change this idea of sports being this prestigious institution where only certain people are allowed…We’re flipping it on its head.”

The alumni characters in particular were designed to make sure that as many people as possible feel “seen, heard, and understood” by The Gist, Bolden told us. They range from avid fans who “can tell you a player’s rookie stats and their high school GPA” to more casual fans who nevertheless are experts in “loving a team that does not deserve it.” The video skews slightly toward soccer, given the World Cup timing, but also hits on other sports, like football, to imply that the experiences depicted, like being asked to “name three players,” exist across sports, Bolden said.

The campaign officially debuted on June 11 and is running across social platforms through the World Cup, with various cuts featuring the different fan archetypes set to roll out over the coming weeks, Bolden said. The Gist’s audience is largely Gen Z and millennials, but she said she hopes it appeals to women of all generations.

Goal posts

Social growth, newsletter subscriptions, and engagements are among the KPIs for the campaign, and Bolden said she’s particularly invested in tracking shares and reposts of the videos.

“That, to me, is a representation of how people felt seen and understood,” she said.

Ideally, the campaign will also strengthen The Gist’s brand positioning among audiences, as well as for clients like advertisers and league partners, Ellen Hyslop, co-founder and head of content and audience, added.

While it’s too early for a full analysis of the campaign, Bolden said she’s so far “pretty happy with what we’ve been seeing so far” in terms of shares, reposts, and positive comments. Comments from people saying they relate to certain characters are particularly encouraging, Hyslop said.

Kitted

In tandem with the brand film, The Gist is rolling out merch: branded soccer jerseys that say “Fandom Belongs to Everyone” on the front, with the number 26 on the back to mark the year, which became available this month. Last year, the company collaborated with artist brand Rookie Made on hockey jerseys that say “She’s Not Next. She’s Now” featuring the number 25 on the back. Hyslop said the plan is to continue dropping new merch each year for Gisters to collect, with new numbers representing the year of the releases.

After the World Cup, the Gist team is already planning for MLB All-Star Week, the World Series, the NWSL Championship, and the start of the NFL season, Hyslop told us. In the past year, The Gist has announced content partnerships with all three leagues, as brands and both men’s and women’s pro sports organizations increasingly look to connect with women sports fans in ways that feel authentic.

It’s a trend The Gist seems to be benefiting from: In the fall of 2024, co-founder Jacie deHoop told us the company increased ad revenue 20x over the prior two years, and Hyslop said revenue was up 100% YoY as of the beginning of 2026.

“Way back in 2017, 2018, when we were doing our business plans and thinking about how we would work with folks, the leagues were at the top of our list,” Hyslop said. “It took us until we hit a million subscribers, it took us until we were seven or eight years old, and I think it took the market to actually catch up and say, ‘Okay, there is so much value in these fans.’”