How do I find the right football creator for my brand?
Criteria, selection process and examples from real campaigns.
Choose creators by audience, platform and campaign goal rather than by follower count alone. PANA selects creators based on data from a curated roster of more than 100 creators and, where needed, researches additional creators outside the network.
1. Start with goal and audience
Before you collect names, clarify who you want to reach and what should happen afterwards. Reach, website visits, ticket sales or entries to a giveaway call for different creators and formats.
2. Choose the right platform
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch and Spotify reach audiences in different situations. Short videos work for attention, stories for campaigns with a direct link, and YouTube for more detailed integrations. What matters is where your audience is actually active.
3. The criteria that count
- Engagement: How actively does the community respond to content?
- Content quality: Do style and standard fit your brand?
- Fit with the football community: Does the creator come across as authentic in the scene?
- Brand fit: Are there points of contact with your values and products?
- Professionalism: Reliability with deadlines, briefings and approvals.
- Usage rights and conditions: What may be done with the content and on which terms?
These are also the criteria we use to assess applications for our roster: engagement, content quality and fit with the football community, not just the number of followers.
4. More creators do not mean more impact
The German Football Museum reached more than 100,000 people with a single creator. At SOCCERBEAT, two creators on location generated more than 140,000 views. Both cases are in our case studies.
5. How a selection works
- Build a longlist from your own network or through research.
- Check the data: audience, engagement and previous collaborations.
- Content check: do style, tone and quality fit?
- Talk to the creator about the idea, the effort and the conditions.
- Brief with clear guardrails and an approval process.
6. Choose yourself or with an agency?
With full service we take over research, selection and negotiation completely. If your team prefers to handle the selection itself, our strategy consulting shows you what to look for.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the goal. A single fitting creator can achieve a lot, as the German Football Museum shows with more than 100,000 reach. Larger campaigns use several creators.
Based on data from a curated roster of more than 100 creators, matched to audience, platform and campaign goal. Where needed, we research additional creators.
Engagement, content quality and fit with the football community, not follower count alone.
Yes. In strategy consulting we show you what to look for, and your team handles execution itself.