Case Study · Dick’s Sporting Goods × Sociallyin
We showed Dick’s the ideas before they spent a dollar. Two years later they handed us the Olympics.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, official retail sponsor of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, needed social content at social’s pace. Sociallyin’s Content Buffet model let them review finished concepts, each priced, before buying. Two years of picks led to the biggest moment in the relationship.
Content Buffet
Content Production
Community Management
UGC Campaigns
Real-Time Design
247k
views over the Olympic window
8,000
comments in a single peak week
$0
media spend behind the numbers
CLIENT
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Industry
Sporting Goods Retail
Engagement
2016 – 2018 · Olympics apex Feb 2018
Offering this proves
Content Buffet
01
BUYING BLIND
The paperwork outlived the moment.
In 2016, Dick’s Sporting Goods wanted a social-first production partner. They had a marketing team that understood the value of timely, platform-native content, but their internal process wasn’t built for it.
Before a concept could go anywhere, it needed a signed SOW, brand sign-off, legal review, and a budget release. The average path from idea to approval took six weeks or more. By then, the cultural moment that made the idea worth making had passed.
The social lead couldn’t pitch ideas they hadn’t built yet. They couldn’t build without budget. They couldn’t get budget without proof the idea worked. The loop had no entry point.
Committing dollars before seeing a frame of creative felt like a leap of faith. And for a brand the size of Dick’s, the cost of a missed bet wasn’t trivial.
The model
Content Buffet
Finished concepts first
Complete creative produced before any budget commitment. No brief, no retainer, no blank page.
Each piece priced
Every concept has a number attached. Pick what you want to run. Pay only for that.
Misses stay with us
The ideas you don’t choose are ours to absorb. Zero creative risk on the client’s side.
Speed by default
Nothing abstract to approve. Seen it, bought it, shipped it. The platform moment doesn’t pass while the SOW travels.
If a concept misses, the cost stays with the agency. The client only ever pays for what they chose to run.
02
THE REVERSAL
Show them the finished dish. Let them order after.
Sociallyin proposed the Content Buffet, a model designed around one simple insight: clients shouldn’t have to buy blind.
Instead of a brief, a retainer, and a blank check, Sociallyin produced a full spread of finished content concepts upfront. Each piece came with a price tag. Dick’s looked at the menu, picked what they wanted to buy, and paid only for those.
The ideas they didn’t choose stayed with Sociallyin. If a concept missed, the miss stayed with the agency, not the client. Dick’s carried none of the creative risk, only the cost of what they chose to run.
That removed the leap of faith. And it removed the six-week approval loop, because there was nothing abstract to approve. They were buying finished work they’d already seen.
03
AT THE TABLE
Two years at the table. Five plays for the Olympics.
From 2016 through 2017, Dick’s kept coming back to the buffet. The model built trust incrementally, each pick that landed raised the floor for the next one. Then came the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games, and Dick’s handed Sociallyin the social side of their Olympic sponsorship. Five executions in 17 days.
01
Facebook Group “The Contenders”
US Olympic hopefuls working in Dick’s stores. A Facebook Group gave fans a place to follow their journey and cheer them on. Community management ran live throughout the Games.
8,000 comments · peak week
02
Facebook Frame, First in Frame Studio
Sociallyin was among the first agencies in the world to use Facebook’s Frame Studio for a branded campaign. Fans added the Dick’s Olympic frame to their own profile photos and drove organic reach across the Games window.
First agency · Frame Studio
03
Instagram Stickers + Wallpapers
Custom Olympic sticker packs and screenshot-ready wallpapers gave fans shareable assets built around Dick’s sponsorship. Designed for mobile-native distribution, no media spend required.
Organic distribution
04
Fan Illustrations, Same Day
Fans submitted photos of themselves. Sociallyin’s designers turned them into illustrated Winter Olympic athletes and posted the results the same day. Photo in, athlete out, a live creative engine running through the Games.
Same-day turnaround
05
TwitterHUMANbot: Real Coordinators, Not Automation
Built to look and feel like a bot, but run entirely by real Sociallyin coordinators. Every reply, every interaction, every moment of fan acknowledgment was written by a human being in real time. The “HUMANbot” brought the same community care to Twitter that The Contenders brought to Facebook, without the uncanny valley of actual automation.
Real coordinators, live replies
Fan illustration engine · Pyeongchang 2018
Fan photo → Olympic athlete illustration → Same-day turnaround throughout the Games
Same day
Live during Games
5 plays
17 days
At the table
More from the relationship.
Two Dick’s Sporting Goods videos: The Argument, for MLB apparel, and a football cinemagraph.
Videos play muted. Tap a video, or use the speaker button, for sound.
Swipe for more.
04
THE OLYMPIC CALL
Two years of picks. Then the call.
The Olympic engagement wasn’t a new relationship, it was the natural conclusion of one that had been building since 2016. By the time Dick’s handed Sociallyin the Pyeongchang social program, there was no leap of faith left to make.
2016
First buffet
Dick’s tries the model. Concepts seen before any dollar committed.
2016–2017
Two years of picks
Dick’s kept coming back to the buffet. Each pick that landed raised the floor for the next one.
Late 2017
The call
Dick’s, as official retail sponsor of Pyeongchang 2018, hands Sociallyin the social program. The audition was the work.
Feb 2018
Peak
5 plays. 17 days. 8,000 comments in a single week. The relationship’s defining moment.
05
TWO NUMBERS
Two numbers we can stand behind.
The broader two-year engagement is described qualitatively, the model’s proof lives in a client who kept coming back and eventually handed us the Olympic program. For the Olympic window itself, the numbers are clean.
8,000
Comments · single peak week
The Contenders Facebook Group at its highest point during the Games
247K
Views · Olympic window
Total views across the Pyeongchang campaign content, full Games window
$0
Media spend
No paid distribution behind the reported figures, entirely organic and community-driven
Who was in the room
The decision to hand Sociallyin the Olympic program came from above the social team. By the time the call was made, the buffet had already built the case. There was nothing left to prove on paper.
Methodology note: Figures are from the original 2018 campaign report. The 8,000 comments reflect the peak week of the Facebook Group program. The 247,000 views cover the full Pyeongchang Olympic window. The broader 2016–2018 engagement is described qualitatively; aggregate two-year figures were not part of the original reporting. No paid media was placed behind the numbers reported here.
06
THE LONG GAME
Show the menu long enough and you get asked to cater the Olympics.
The Content Buffet was never just a pricing model. It was a proof structure, a way to build the case for a larger relationship without asking anyone to take a leap first.
“
“Show the menu long enough and you get asked to cater the Olympics.”
Every order Dick’s placed was a data point. Not just proof that the creative worked, proof that the model worked. By the time Pyeongchang came around, two years of picks had done what no pitch deck could: they had made the relationship self-evident. The audition was the work itself.
The Content Buffet’s real value isn’t that it removes risk from a single campaign. It’s that it compounds trust over time, pick by pick, concept by concept, until the client has already answered every question they’d otherwise need to ask before handing you their biggest moment.
Your biggest moment shouldn’t be a leap of faith.
The Content Buffet gives you finished ideas, each priced, before you commit a dollar. Misses stay with us. You pay only for what you choose to run.
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