The Bundesliga Surge: Adapting Legacy Sports IP on TikTok

Scoring global relevance through multicultural narrative strategy

Role: Senior Social Strategist (at Media.Monks)
Client: DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga (The German Football League)
Scope: Global Influencer Strategy, IP Adaptation, Paid Social
Platforms: TikTok, Instagram

Challenge

Ahead of a high-stakes match between FC Bayern München and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the Bundesliga needed to move beyond traditional sports circles. In a world of "vibe-led" fandom, the league needed to spark global buzz that felt authentic to a digital-native audience.

The Goal: Build locally resonant, "scroll-stopping" content across the U.S., Brazil, LATAM, and Europe while maintaining the league's premium identity.

Most brands publish match highlights; we turned the Bundesliga into a cultural movement. I led a 5-continent creator strategy that drove a 60% surge in reach and redefined the league for Gen Z.

Strategy: Translating
the "Beautiful Game"

I developed a cross-market strategy to move the Bundesliga into lifestyle, gaming, and freestyle feeds by scaling a single, high-energy TikTok trend.

Strategic Vetting & Casting: Curated a multicultural slate of 10+ creators with a combined following of 20M+. I prioritized "narrative fit"—selecting freestyle legends and lifestyle creators who could authentically replicate the trend for their specific audiences.

Platform-Native Architecture: Authored "TikTok-first" briefs that replaced traditional interviews with a standardized "This or That" challenge. This ensured the content felt like an organic community trend rather than a studio ad.

Localization at Scale: Synchronized the rollout with global broadcasters (ESPN, Sky Mexico) to ensure the social buzz drove high-intent viewers directly to the matchday broadcast.

Execution: Orchestrating the Global Content Drop

As the lead strategist, I managed the high-velocity lifecycle of a 5-continent activation.

End-to-End Governance: I handled the full operational stack, from outreach and rate negotiation to legal contracts, liaising with international agents to ensure a seamless global rollout.

Paid Media Architecture: I oversaw the TikTok Ads boosting strategy, using data-driven insights to amplify top-performing organic hooks and extend our reach into untapped audience clusters.

Multicultural Synergy: I managed creators across multiple time zones and languages, ensuring a synchronized global "narrative drop" that made the matchday feel like an unavoidable cultural event.

Campaign Highlights

The campaign transformed Bundesliga’s global presence into local fan passion by allowing creators to put their own cultural spin on the league’s narrative. From Mercedes Roa’s comedy in Mexico to Raquel Freestyle’s trick shots in Brazil, the activation bypassed traditional "sports ads" to become a viral cultural moment. By syncing with media giants like OneFootball, we ensured the match was unavoidable for football fans worldwide.

🇲🇽 Mercedes Roa — 11.7M followers

This comedic “This or That” challenge reached millions, boosting Bundesliga’s presence in the youth-heavy Mexican TikTok scene.

🇧🇷 Raquel Freestyle — 3.6M followers

Brazil’s freestyle queen dazzled with a signature trick shot challenge, driving high engagement and sparking comments from fans across South America.

🇺🇸 Elischa Edouard — 320K followers

A rising comedy creator known for football fandom sketches, Elischa nailed culturally fluent, high-shareability content geared toward U.S. Gen Z fans.