Here’s What ESPN’s Jo Fox Said at AWNY About the IRL Launch of Its DTC Streaming App

October 23, 2025

Another Advertising Week New York is in the books, and what was everybody talking about? If you guessed AI, you’re right – but that’s only half the story. Because while AI-generated articles on the web now outpace human-written stories (SOURCE: Graphite) – and maybe because of that – the other hot topic was the premium placed on the real – on authenticity, on trust, and on the kind of brand experiences that are only possible in real life.

OUTFRONT showed up big to show off some of our success stories and to illustrate how out of home advertising has evolved into something bigger, better, and brand-ier: IRL. Brad Alperin, OUTFRONT’s Head of Brand Solutions, sat down with Jo Fox, SVP Marketing at ESPN, to talk about how the iconic brand took to IRL to launch its new DTC streaming service. Watch the full panel below – or read on for the highlights.

A Slam Dunk in IRL: Becoming Unskippable and Unignorable

Brad Alperin: Everybody knows what ESPN is. Talk a little bit about this new offering that you guys were looking to launch. How is it not ESPN and what's different about it?

Jo Fox, SVP Marketing, ESPN: We were launching our new direct-to-consumer offering…also relaunching our app, so, sort of enhanced features…you can bet, play fantasy, shop…it's a whole amazing experience, like a sort of utopia for sports fans…our challenge in the marketing team was like, how do we explain that really simply to people, particularly when fans have an ingrained view of what ESPN stands for?

When you're going direct to consumer, you're probably talking to people who might be less avid sports fans…you actually just can't talk to yourself, right? ESPN has a really powerful owned media inventory, but we need to talk to people in different places we weren't normally.


Brad: How do you connect to [the new audience] in ways that don't confuse the legacy audience?

Jo: Everybody knows what ESPN is, right? They've all grown up with it, they've loved it. But of course, that also means that people have a very clear idea of what ESPN is. And that's the bit you have to combat in this…We sort of looked back at our brand and…said, OK, what is it about ESPN that people know, that resonates? Things like our ESPN red, the “da da da, da da da” that people all know from SportsCenter. We don't want to get rid of any of that, right?

But we need to make it look fresh and modern in a way that appeals to new audiences and particularly digital audiences…how do you make sure you stand out in areas that people are in, both on their phones and in real life?

We have been in people's lives for a long time and not just on their screens, but we're at college game day. We take SportsCenter on the road. Dick Vitale, one of our famous talent, liked to crowd surf through college game day crowds. Our talent are not just behind a desk. They're out in the wild as well.

The core of our plan was like, how do we dig deep into this? We are in your lives, we connect you to sports and to each other through that.


Brad: Sport has become so increasingly important in today's media landscape because…we have fewer and fewer of these shared experiences, fewer and fewer of these things that feel unmediated by AI and digital and virtual.

There's something that exists in the real world around sport that makes it sort of proudly analog almost, in a way…How did that impact your decision making as you were thinking about…it is an app, it is digital, but like how does that tell the truth of the “real worldness” of sport?

Jo: We thought, let's start with a really strong paid plan and an earned plan. But then think about - where do we not always show up as a brand? What is different for us? Let's not talk to ourselves all the time. Let's talk to new people. We had to talk to new people because we were launching this to a whole new generation of fans as well. So we started with that and we thought, well, it's not just the marketing, it's also the content…

We then also thought about, well, how do we – obviously we activate in New York and LA…but not forget our Heartlander fans who are not just in big cities…We also thought about, how do we show up in stores? And so we showed up in Walmart. We're out in Fayetteville in Arkansas, but also we showed up with Complex and launched a pop-up store in New York.


Brad: You took the E train in New York City and you turned it into the ESPN train…How did that idea come about?

Jo: We had the store activations, we had what was a really robust, fun plan that hit everybody. But what we thought was missing…what is that thing on the day that tells you you've launched? We talked to a number of our partners and agencies, and they’re trying to help with the idea, but none of it felt truly ESPN…it was one of our internal creatives who – we are right on the E subway line basically. And I was talking about outdoor and could we do like – basketball trash cans?...And he was like, well, there's the E line, we could just do the E train, it's the ESPN train. And from that it just totally snowballed.

We had this idea…But we're like, how do we launch it on the day? And then we realized that Jimmy Pitaro, our chairman, was going to the New York Stock Exchange to ring the bell. And we were like, oh, the E train goes to World Trade Center. So we made sure that they all came down to World Trade Center. We had a press moment. We had outdoor that was at World Trade Center as well as Spring Street, the stop at our headquarters.

We also then we had invented App-E, our new mascot…then we were like, but we should have New York's favorite mascots as well. So we got them to come along. And then we got a drumline… then we were like, well, shouldn't we get someone to do the subway announcements? So we got Stephen A. Smith to be at Spring Street doing all the subway announcements.

Then we were like, well, we should also probably get an influencer down there. So we had SubwayTakes. And so it just became this really massive moment. It was super fun and it really, really felt like it cut through and was impactful. But it also felt like us.


Brad: Talk to me a little bit about the impact of your big launch moment.

Jo: Anecdotally, so many people reached out to say “I just took your train,” or sent photos, or they were from LA, going “do we have a train?”…We had all these branded Lyfts in both LA and New York... then of course, we had all the quantitative results. We had press, everything from like LA Times to Washington Post to Sports Business Journal. We had a lot of digital and social. So we felt we really supercharged that launch. We had the press down at the World Trade Center station as well after our executive came from New York Stock Exchange. But it really felt like a moment.

Brad: Were there responses, reactions that surprised you?

Jo: The thing that always stays with me is, I got off at Spring Street, the E train with all the mascots and the drum lines, it was crazy. There were these little kids that happened to be walking along Spring Street and they were just so excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Met. Clearly Mets fans – came up and hugged them. The mascots were being overwhelmed…It's the delight actually that is really great in these moments…And you know, there was other people. It wasn't just the kids, but that's the thing…I'm becoming more and more un-used to seeing things in the real world. Everybody's on their phones, right?...increasingly, as we become more digitally, AI-focused, it's really important for brands to think about what makes them distinctive and how to drive an authentic connection in the real world as well.


Brad: What insights are you taking from the launch about how ESPN shows up in the world, how you're going to connect with fans? What did this teach you about how to use IRL in more of your marketing and engagement strategies overall?

Jo: Now we're like, OK, we've now launched. We have to reach all of these people, people who we can't get necessarily through our own channels. Where should we show up?…We've not been as a brand properly to SXSW. We wouldn't normally go there, but as sports becomes more entertainment and all these areas are doing more with sports, you're like, well, we probably should show up there in a different way as well and make sure that our brand is stretching to a broader audience, younger generation, different people.


Brad: You talked a lot about like really showing up in their world, not just on a screen, but how do we go out to the places where they are? How do you exist in their world?

Jo: We've been trying out these things in cities aside from our launch as well. We did a Monday Night Football nail bar with Saweetie, our first ever female music curator. We had the ESPN red nails and people came in to do that. We're talking to a different audience that might be more entertainment-inclined or like pop culture-inclined.

We did the same thing with House of ESPN at Fashion Week. So again, an IRL experience where people couldn't go and see some of the fits from the WNBA stars…it's just trying to think about what do you do that again connects properly in real life for these people. They have an amazing experience and it makes them rethink the brand they thought they knew.

There's different brands or activations or pop-ups or things that don't quite connect and often that's because you don't really know why they're there or what they mean to you….you always have to think really about, what is my product offering? What is my brand saying? And how do I authentically tap into that? Because there's no way anybody can pull off anything that's inauthentic anymore.

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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