There’s no dancing around it: Touchdown dances and celebrations are one of the most viral aspects of the NFL.
To showcase the league’s best moves ahead of this year’s Sept. 9 kickoff, the NFL and 72andSunny today rolled out the marketing campaign for the new season, highlighting the game’s stars and their new, likely viral, touchdown dances.
The campaign, “The Season Is Your Stage,” creates a make-believe NFL celebration hub, the “Celly Studio,” where the league’s top players practice and perfect their celebration moves.
According to Zach Hilder, 72andSunny LA’s chief creative officer, research showed the impact of how NFL celebrations have flooded culture and social media, which ultimately led 72andSunny and the NFL to “invent” a place where the dances start from.
“The celebrations are not just a part of the game, but now they’re part of culture. They go viral. Everybody knows ‘the Griddy’ and the ‘Sexy Dexy,’ and they take on a life of their own,” Marissa Solis, svp global brand and consumer marketing, NFL, told ADWEEK. “So that’s where the idea came of, ‘Hey, why don’t we do something about celebrations come to life?’”
With the Indianapolis Colts’ Cam Bynum—known for some of the NFL’s most viral dances—serving as choreographer, stars such as the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts, the Chicago Bears’ Luther Burden and Rome Odunze, and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Dexter Lawrence (namesake of the viral “Sexy Dexy” dance) all showcase their celebrations.
There’s so much star power that even the sugarcane bushes from the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show with Bad Bunny make a cameo.
Dancing through life
Though some players brought their own celebrations to the campaign, Bynum was also brought in early, brainstorming along the 72andSunny creative team to come up with celebrations for the NFL stars.
“It’s an incredible group, and our hopes and dreams are that some of the stuff that we’ve previewed in this commercial will actually make the field this year,” Hilder said.
Fans can look out for more creative to come across on their social feeds as the season approaches, and Hilder noted viewers can stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes video with Bynum.
Moving forward, Solis said that fans should also look out for activations at stadiums and opportunities to show their own takes on NFL celebrations. The whole point is to get people involved.
