YouTube desires to scare up pleasure from youthful followers for this yr’s NFL season. 

This week, YouTube premiered a new spot forward of the NFL season, which kicks off right this moment, as a part of its marketing campaign to advertise NFL Sunday Ticket, the platform’s NFL subscription package deal. The spot stars soccer execs and in style content material creators in a hidden digital camera prank state of affairs.

In a two-and-a-half-minute video, YouTube showcased soccer tremendous followers and potential owners attending a staged open home in Los Angeles. With a setup harking back to MTV’s Punk’d, YouTuber creators Haley Kalil and Joe Mele labored behind the scenes to orchestrate soccer gamers and sports activities commentators bursting by way of a pretend wall and shocking the unsuspecting followers.

Within the remaining shock, former Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens tight finish Shannon Sharpe seems to greet the followers, giving them a free subscription to YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket.

Wes Harris, advertising and marketing director for YouTube, stated the thought for the spot got here from eager to seize the enjoyment of watching soccer at residence and “fairly actually” bringing the thrill of soccer into individuals’s residing rooms.

The technique of this yr’s marketing campaign, which Harris stated is likely one of the most social-heavy and social-first campaigns he’s labored on, was to succeed in younger followers the place they’re watching sports activities.

“We all know that creators and influencers are such an enormous a part of how youthful followers observe soccer and the NFL,” Harris instructed ADWEEK. “YouTube performs an enormous position in that as a result of it’s our creators which can be growing the ancillary content material behind-the-scenes, evaluation, punditry, soccer projection, or fantasy soccer projection.”

Tapping into YouTube’s creators for the sports-inspired video made sense for Harris. In any case, a Deloitte research from final yr discovered that 90% of Gen Z followers use social media to devour sports activities content material.

In the meantime, when it got here to collaborating with Sharpe, he stated it was a pure match given the soccer star’s background as a creator and podcast host.

“He additionally comes with the legitimacy and the credibility of being an NFL legend, so we wished somebody to anchor the spot from a credibility standpoint and supply the shock and pleasant second,” Harris stated. “We didn’t simply wish to scare individuals. We wished them to have a second of levity and pleasure on the finish of seeing an NFL legend.”

In the meantime, Kalil labored beforehand as a part of the platform’s creator marketing campaign final yr, additionally attending Tremendous Bowl LVIII with YouTube.