More Than a Seat: Branding in Sports 2025

This past August, I was blessed to achieve my one year anniversary of being employed by the Miami Dolphins. Beginning my Dolphins career as videographer/editor and climbing my way to post-production manager has brought opportunities of knowledge that weren’t even a thought beforehand. Branding is at the root of a lot of that knowledge. Author Douglas Holt states, “Brands succeed when they breakthrough in culture,” in which I couldn’t agree more (Holt).

Welcome to Miami

To experience success as an employee within the marketing department of the Miami Dolphins, one must understand the deep roots the city has with the Latin community. “From the ’50s to the ’90s, waves of Cubans, spanning different social strata, sought refuge

in Miami, bringing with them a vibrant cultural heritage and a tenacious spirit of resilience,” (Jones). With that being the case, the city breathes Latin culture through and through, all the way into its sports teams. Within the Dolphins, we have many campaigns through the year and partner with various organizations that help promote Latin culture. Though we still experience success within these partnerships, the process of attracting them and the audience who resonates with this culture has changed over the years.

Tickets!

Take a second to consider this. Over the years, the value of the Miami Dolphins ticket has decreased due to the recent production of the

franchise. Though we live in this advanced age of tech, with all our resources, it’s much tougher selling the consumer than it was during those years. Some could simply correlate that solely on the team's production, but it goes back to the idea of branding. Companies must captivate their audience with visual storytelling now, as opposed to the simple ads that may have got the job done in the past. Our organization relies heavily on us as the storytellers of the brand to produce the best content possible that resonates with fans and leads them to purchasing tickets as a byproduct.

Culture shift

Holt’s idea of “Crowdculture” explains how culture is no longer simply what we grow up accustomed to, but is now dependent on viral content that could shift what we once knew to be culture (Holt). Essentially, a particular culture could be one thing today, someone publishes a video that goes viral, and suddenly that entire base foundation of the culture is now turned upside down. One of the largest factors is the way humans consume content has drastically changed. How can we understand crowdculture and apply it? For me, to understand crowdculture is to understand crowd control. How can we captivate this crowd through the content that they deem useful and has viral components within it?

For Miami, we’ve discovered maybe it’s through storytelling and making the latin community pivotal within the storyline of the project. Also potentially through creating nostalgia by connecting the dots of Dolphins legends with the present players. On the other hand, the option of virality presents itself as well—being creative in our content strategies to not only offer viral moments, but pinpoint the deep connection of community that hits home for the fans.

Regardless, organizations must adapt in how they approach their current and potential markets. The majority of companies are beginning to recognize the significant role storytelling plays within their branding and are beginning to create positions that allow for them to grow in that area.

How Miami Became America’s Most Latino City

Branding in the Age of Social Media