Intersport builds a reason to show up.

The pickleball players presented a small problem. They liked playing pickleball. Watching professionals play it was another matter. Intersport, the Chicago media and marketing agency with a majority stake in the APP tour, had researched players and consulted YouGov’s audience data. Its finding punctured an easy assumption: enthusiasm for a sport does not automatically produce an audience for its professional version.

• The work: sponsorship advice, live experiences, content and original sports properties.
• The buyers: brands including Under Armour, Chase and 7-Eleven.
• The useful distinction: research the participant before buying access to the fan.

The APP widened its approach to serve players at every level. That decision offers a useful entrance into Intersport. A marketing agency can begin with an available sponsorship and look for a buyer. Here, the interesting work began with a question about behavior. Who was actually there, and what did they want?

A company built around the occasion

Charlie Besser founded Intersport in 1985. Its early output included college basketball halftime stories for ABC Sports; in 1987 it launched the College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships. The progression matters. Producing coverage teaches you how to hold attention. Creating the competition gives you something to cover again next year.

Today, Intersport combines experiential marketing, sponsorship consulting, branded property creation, research, creative work and video production. A public recruitment listing describes a team of more than 200 serving over 50 clients. Its buyers include brand marketers, broadcasters and sports organizations. The assignment might involve choosing a partnership, staging an event, producing its content or measuring the result.

In market terms, this places it among sports and experiential agencies, with some of the responsibilities of a property operator. The distinction is practical: advising a sponsor and delivering the sponsored experience demand different skills. Intersport sells both. Its business combines client services with commercial interests in events and hospitality.

Give the athlete somewhere to go

Consider Under Armour. The relationship began with the All-America High School Football Game in 2008. After years of developing that showcase, the task became broader: extend the approach into other sports and gather grassroots initiatives under one name. UA Next launched in 2021, linking football, volleyball and basketball camps, competitive circuits and headline events.

The participant gets an opportunity to compete. The brand gets a recurring presence around that opportunity, while footage and social channels carry the experience beyond the venue. Intersport’s case study reports annual earned-media impressions in the millions and subsequent expansion abroad, including performance testing in a London store. The platform supplies both an activity and material for telling its story.

For a marketer, the lesson is portable even when the budget is not: identify an experience the audience already values, then build a useful role for the brand within it. That requires a credible sporting experience. Putting a name on a poorly run camp would leave the name attached to the problem.

The cleats had more than one job

For 7-Eleven and Speedway, Intersport assembled Cleat Crew: nine college football players designing custom cleats with The Shoe Surgeon. Auctions benefited Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Athlete stories supplied content; a related store promotion gave fans another route to participate. Football, collectible footwear, local hospitals and convenience-store visits were connected in one campaign.

There is a concrete money trail here. 7-Eleven reported $115,570 raised through auctions and company donations, including $10,000 for each participating hospital. Across nine hospitals, that corporate contribution amounts to $90,000. Those figures describe the charitable component; they should not be treated as the price of producing the campaign.

Intersport reports more than a billion earned-media impressions. It also reports that customers aware of the store program visited three times as often and reported baskets three times as large as unexposed customers. That comparison is interesting, but it does not establish that the campaign caused either difference. Existing enthusiasm could influence awareness and shopping alike.

Sometimes the product is access

Chase Sapphire Reserve presented a different problem at Sundance 2025: make the card’s premium positioning tangible. Intersport’s answer included a hospitality lounge, a five-day Tavernetta restaurant pop-up, film panels, cardmember packages and a bar for designing western hats. The reward became something guests could enter, eat and wear.

The agency’s account, drawing on Sundance’s sponsorship performance summary, reports 86% aided sponsor awareness and says Chase led visitor sponsor ratings. Such results speak to recognition and experience. A buyer still needs to decide which behavior the investment should change, and how that change will be measured after the festival closes.

The calendar gets a vote

Owning a property brings exposure to conditions outside the creative brief. Intersport’s World Champions Cup debuted in 2023 as a three-team international golf competition. Its 2024 edition was postponed following storms. The joint announcement cited timing in relation to those storms. The idea could survive while the scheduled event could not.

The next chapter brought a new host, Feather Sound Country Club, and announcements in August 2025 naming Skechers title sponsor and Shriners Children’s official charity partner. Building a recurring property means maintaining those relationships through interruptions. It also means accepting obligations that a campaign presentation can only describe.

“We’ve always thought here that the power of live is undeniable.”

Drew Russell, president of content and live events, April 2026

Russell’s promotion and Morgan Howe’s return as head of growth in April 2026 put leadership around the agency’s continuing expansion. But the most instructive detail remains the pickleball finding. Before planning how a brand will reach an audience, establish what that audience enjoys doing. Sometimes the person holding the paddle has no intention of turning on the television.