Now It’s A Game — Thursday Night Football on FOX
Historically in the NFL, Thursday Night Football was known for underwhelming football games. The best matchups were often saved for the weekends, teams were playing on short rest and limited preparation, etc. However, when FOX bought the broadcast rights to Thursday Night Football for over $3 billion in 2018, we knew we had to generate excitement for the showcase like never before.
After our TV executives and programming leads worked with the NFL to beef up the schedule with more exciting matchups as Step One, we unveiled six "Now It's A Game" ad spots for our TNF lineup. We worked heavily with Wieden + Kennedy on these.
Watch: Now It’s A Game: Thursday Night Football Has A New Home
The spots’ fast-paced editing reflects the hard-hitting energy of Thursday Night Football. We wanted to do something that felt creatively unique and different, but was also authentic to the voices of people who love the game — fans, players and broadcasters — in their everyday environments.
The campaign shows every day fanatics – such as a dentist, a mechanic, and a young student — talking up Thursday Night Football on FOX at work and on-the-go. It also features NFL stars Jared Goff, Ndamukong Suh and Saquon Barkley along with FOX Sports’ broadcaster Joe Buck and Pro Football Hall of Fame colleagues Troy Aikman, Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, and Howie Long. An unbridled enthusiasm for the new slate of games is shared by them all, in conversation with peers, passengers and patients – a common theme leading to the realizations that “This is different!” and “Man, these games are good!”
Here a few more examples (each in line with Anthem spot, but extended and focusing on specific matchups):
Aside from the spots, a sleek, all-new digital graphics package was created highlighting the must-watch nature of TNF, to be used all season across social platforms:
Results:
2018 Thursday Night Football Presented by Bud Light season delivered an average audience of 14.9 million viewers, including FOX, NFL Network, FOX Deportes, NFL digital, FOX Sports digital, Amazon and Yahoo Sports, up +4% versus the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average (vs. 14.2 million). Thursday Night Football streaming platforms were up +66% vs. 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average.
Flash forward to 2019, where the digital campaign continued, and Thursday Night Football had its best year of ratings since 2016.
FOX Sports’ Thursday Night Football coverage concluded as the No. 1 weeknight show in television and No. 2 in primetime overall. Across FOX and NFL Network, Thursday Night Football delivered an average audience of 14,890,000, ranking as the best overall performance since 2016.
Thursday Night Football has grown by +6% since the network acquired the package in 2018. The 2019 TNF season delivered an average audience of 15.4 million viewers, including FOX, NFL Network, FOX Deportes, NFL digital, FOX Sports digital, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch and Yahoo Sports – up +4% versus the 2018 TNF season average.
Including the streaming audience on Amazon Prime, Twitch, Yahoo! Sports, and the FOX and NFL digital platforms, Thursday’s game averaged 14.1 million viewers.