32 students have the unprecedented opportunity to work alongside the United States Football League

As the United States Football League heads into its second season, FOX Sports has approached AdZou — the School’s professional ad agency that serves as a capstone course for graduating seniors — this spring with the task of creating holistic marketing campaigns that can be activated in all four host cities — Canton, Ohio; Birmingham, Alabama; Detroit and Memphis — that grows league awareness, generates local buy-in and energizes a fan base that drives ticket sales and tune-in.

FOX Sports’ biggest ask is to develop a strategy that would increase in-person attendance at games with a campaign that is locally-focused, but could be scaled up nationally. The biggest obstacle arguably could be to maximize the consumer demand gap for football out of the regular NFL season and convince viewers that the in-person aspect of the USFL is worthwhile.

“What’s unique about this ask from FOX Sports is that despite its program partnering with over 30 schools around the country, we are the only school tasked with this specific situation, which makes it even more special to represent Mizzou’s J-School,” said senior Maggie Evers. “While exciting, it also poses quite the challenge being that it’s a pretty clean slate topic in terms of historical success for spring football leagues.”

AdZou students said they are anxious to get the ball rolling on the campaign and hope to see their work transformed into tangible results for the 2024 USFL season, but the real draw of the work is the opportunity to solve real-life problems for leading sports broadcast network FOX Sports.

What’s unique about this ask from FOX Sports is that despite its program partnering with over 30 schools around the country, we are the only school tasked with this specific situation, which makes it even more special to represent the Missouri School of Journalism.

Maggie Evers

“When finding out FOX was one of the capstone clients two semesters ago, I worked hard to put myself in the position to be a part of this campaign,” said senior Mitchell Small. “Finding out I got FOX was extremely fulfilling for me as it’s an area of interest being a student-athlete. The reveal of USFL was more surprising mainly because I had never heard of it, but the further we are getting with the research, the more intrigued I get daily.”

The USFL began in the 1980’s amid huge expectations, with some of the top collegiate players choosing to join the new league. However, within a few years the league shut down due to financial instability and failure to compete with the NFL.

However, what’s old is new again as FOX Sports bought and relaunched the USFL last year, hoping to position it as the go-to spring professional football league.

As the players prepare to take the field, AdZou students have entered the primary research phase of the campaign creation process and hope to uncover interesting results that will lead them on the path toward success. They are given the unique opportunity to see inside the sports industry from a strategic branding perspective while also utilizing the Missouri Method, the School’s hands-on education.

“My expectations are for the teams to develop a comprehensive plan/campaign that will resonate with the consumer,” said FOX lab instructor Scott Fuenfhausen. “FOX has a lot riding on this, and Mizzou’s AdZou program is the only university given this huge opportunity.”

Updated: April 3, 2023