“The NFL talks a lot about being championship ready, and that means if a team goes on a run for a Super Bowl, you want to be able to capitalize on that success… but it also means being in for big moments for teams and for us. That was the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers,” Kemp said. “When Aaron came on board…there was a huge opportunity for us from a revenue and engagement perspective.”
For Jets marketers, it meant touting the team on HBO’s Hard Knocks in 2023, watching record numbers of fans take interest in the organization, and sending Rodgers onto the MetLife Stadium field for a Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 11 with an American flag in his hands. Though Rodgers was injured for much of 2023 and left the Jets after 2024, Kemp looked back fondly on the initial days of what became a “pretty polarizing moment for the entire organization.”
Ready to rock
The Hard Rock brand encompasses its namesake cafes, casinos, hotels, live performances, and the memorabilia collection that fills them all, but it’s also a host of sports and entertainment partnerships spanning the globe.
Within the first few weeks at the company, Kemp’s team has created content around Eddie Vedder’s visit to Hard Rock’s memorabilia vault in Florida; built content plans for the Hard Rock social channels around this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix and with Oracle Red Bull Racing; and is preparing for the upcoming SI Swim cover reveal party at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York. On a team led by Sheldon, Kemp said he is looking to amplify its existing Hard Rock entertainment partnerships and its vast social media ecosystem to create unique content to serve each of the company’s partners and properties.
“We’re thrilled to have Tim on board,” Sheldon said. “His track record certainly speaks for itself, having produced several award-winning social and brand campaigns, and we’re excited to have this unique blend of entertainment-focused business acumen, thought leadership, and creativity support new and innovative approaches to marketing the Hard Rock brand across all of our various platforms.”
It’s a large undertaking, but Kemp said his time with the Jets exposed him to the effort that NFL CMO Tim Ellis and the league’s head of social, influencers, and content, Ian Trombetta, put into creating the model he’s looking to emulate. By distributing content to platforms for not only the league, but its 32 teams and all of their varied accounts, the NFL is able to connect with fans around the globe on an individual basis by building “an unbelievable machine” that puts them all within reach.
