Reposts flood in. Likes climb quicker than directors can rely.
Every spring, the Chargers know easy methods to run up this rating.
Relating to what senior director of manufacturing Tyler Pino calls the “content Super Bowl,” the Chargers are multi-time season NFL schedule launch champions. They broke the web with common anime movies in 2022 and 2023. A Sims 2 theme in 2024 saved on-line sleuths laughing for weeks at inside jokes.
The schedule reveal video posted Wednesday within the pixelated type of Minecraft surpassed a million views on X, previously referred to as Twitter, in 45 minutes, and 4 million in three hours, confirming the Chargers’ social media dynasty. The subsequent closest NFL crew schedule video was considered roughly 1.5 million occasions throughout that very same span.
ought to we REALLY make our schedule launch video in minecraft?
sure sure yesyesyesyes sure sure yesyes sure sure sure yesyes yesyes sure yesyes yesye sure yesyes sure yesyes pic.twitter.com/gxk31Dql5L
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) Could 15, 2025
The Chargers set the bar amongst a throwback motion determine business, a Mario Kart parody and an advert for a prescription drug. They’d some transient competitors when the Indianapolis Colts additionally dropped a Minecraft-themed video solely to delete it roughly an hour later. The Jets even poked enjoyable on the surprising twin movies.
Annually’s artistic movies have instantly grow to be extra notable than the schedules they promote. However the Chargers’ content material crew tries to remain targeted on the method of successful followers over one like, lower-case letter and chuckle at a time.
“I don’t think our goal is to be the best on the internet,” stated Megan Julian, Chargers senior director of digital and social media, “but our goal is to build generational fandom on the internet.”
Recognized for his or her creativity and informal humor, the Chargers had been named the NFL’s finest Twitter account by Complicated in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
When Julian joined the Chargers in 2018, she was the one individual behind the social media accounts. The franchise had simply returned to L.A., the place a complete technology had grown up with out the NFL. Followers had been already invested in several groups. As a substitute of making an attempt to alter a longtime fan’s thoughts, the content material crew aimed to domesticate new ones by reaching totally different, youthful audiences that may fill SoFi Stadium for generations.
Allie Raymond, left, and Megan Julian of the Chargers’ social media crew, stroll on the follow area throughout rookie minicamp on the crew’s headquarters in El Segundo.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
Julian made the Chargers’ social media accounts really feel like getting into a gaggle chat. The crew, which incorporates director of natural social media Allie Raymond; Jaemin Cho, the senior vertical video coordinator; Lorren Walker, programming supervisor for natural social media; and coordinator Hannah Johnson, submit in lower-case textual content in brief, sharp bursts. They by no means overexplain the joke.
Right here, amongst buddies, it’s already identified.
“You’re talking with the fans,” Julian stated. “Not at them.”
Sometimes commenters complain in regards to the decrease case letters or can’t sustain with the most recent slang. The schedule launch movies usually embrace pointed jokes towards opposing gamers or groups. Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, who controversially sat out for one play final 12 months as a result of he was drained, ran out of fuel in a go-kart race on this 12 months’s video.
However the distinctive tone has constructed a definite model for a company that’s combating for any solution to stand out in a crowded L.A. market.
“We’re creative, and we think a little bit off kilter,” stated David Bretto, the director of artistic video. “But we do that because we’re allowed to do that, and the organization sees the success.”
A member of the Chargers’ content material crew movies gamers participating in rookie minicamp on the crew’s headquarters in El Segundo on Could 9.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
“There are only 20 days a year that we actually play the sport. Then the other 345, we’re just entertaining people.”
— Jason Levine, Chargers senior vice chairman of brand name, artistic and content material
The content material crew’s fame precedes them. When videographers checked luggage on the NFL mix, safety guards requested what they had been cooking for the schedule launch. Incoming rookies requested who’s behind the keys of the social media accounts that go viral with the most recent TikTok traits.
Impressed by the vitality of younger, charismatic stars on the 2018 crew together with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Derwin James Jr., Julian began to craft a social media persona that matched the on-field personnel. For the franchise’s present period, exhibiting the gamers’ personalities stays on the forefront.
Some gamers welcome the sight of the social media crew holding a tiny microphone tethered to their telephones. Linebacker Daiyan Henley is as ubiquitous on the Chargers’ TikTok account because the crew’s emblem. A extra reserved character equivalent to Justin Herbert nonetheless shines by in movies that showcase the star quarterback’s humble allure.
Spotlight movies of Herbert avoiding their cameras nonetheless flip into web gold as a result of whereas this can be a soccer crew, soccer is simply a fraction of the franchise’s digital model.
“There are only 20 days a year that we actually play the sport,” stated Jason Levine, Chargers senior vice chairman of brand name, artistic and content material. “Then the other 345, we’re just entertaining people.”
Allie Raymond data gamers and coaches participating in Chargers rookie minicamp on Could 9.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
The largest web stage is the schedule launch. The Seattle Seahawks sparked a revolution in 2016 with a cupcake-themed video during which particular components representing every metropolis of their opponents had been stirred right into a batter. Some groups rent manufacturing firms and out of doors contractors to organize for the large reveal. This season, NBA legend Allen Iverson and actress Brenda Music made cameos for the Buffalo Payments and the Rams, respectively.
However Julian proudly notes that the entire Chargers’ movies have been produced in-house.
The Chargers’ first main schedule launch video got here in 2019 once they represented every opponent with inventory footage. A canine wearing a lion’s mane. An individual in a bear go well with on a picnic. Each video games in opposition to the AFC West rivals Kansas Metropolis Chiefs had been represented by awkward cooks. The 73-second assortment of clips was so bizarre it by some means labored.
The day earlier than it dropped, Julian and Bretto almost scrapped the venture all collectively.
“To me, schedule release kind of feels like you’re on a cliff,” Bretto stated. “You put all this work to get to the top of this mountain, and at the very end, there’s nothing to do but just jump. You don’t know how the audience is going to react.”
Simply rely the tens of hundreds of likes. The reception is evident.
