The Houston Dynamo Football Club took home two Crystal Awards from the American Marketing Association Houston Chapter Wednesday night. The Club was honored with the Best Organizational Rebrand award for its November 2020 brand relaunch, and the Houston Dash won Best Social Media Campaign for their coverage of the team’s 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup championship.
The rebrand, which saw both Dynamo and Dash crests take on new hexagonal outlines featuring monograms inspired by Houston’s network of bayous, focused on deepening the Club’s connection with the city it calls home.
The Club saw more than an 11:1 return on investment from the rebrand, including record-setting season ticket numbers for the Dash, year-over-year growth in Dynamo season tickets, more than $4.5 million in earned media value, a 35 percent year-over-year increase in jersey sales and more than 4 million social media impressions in the 24-hour period following the launch.
The Dash’s triumph in the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup came amidst a global pandemic that forced the shutdown of virtually every facet of American society, and the social media team’s coverage of the team’s on-field success had wide-ranging impacts away from the pitch.
With much of the organization’s sponsorable inventory committed to in-stadium assets, the pandemic forced clubs to rethink how to deliver value for their partners. In just 30 days, Challenge Cup social media content accounted for nearly 15% of the recaptured sponsor revenue total for the year. Additionally, coverage of the team’s raucous championship celebration garnered more than $80,000 in value for Budweiser alone.
According to the global sports social media monitoring site Deporte Finanzas, Houston Dash social media channels were among the best on the planet in July 2020. The Dash had the ninth-most Instagram engagements of any football club (male or female) in the world, ranked ninth in TikTok views among all clubs (male and female) in the Western Hemisphere, and had the fifth-most social media engagements of any soccer team in America that month.
The American Marketing Association is the leading educational information, career-building, and networking resource for Houston’s marketing professionals. The Crystal Awards are based purely on results and are judged by a nationwide panel of marketing and communications experts, business owners, national AMA chapter leaders and more. This year marked the 35th year of the Houston AMA chapter’s Crystal Awards.
