PGA Tour relaunches Creator Series

& NBA announces Dynamic Badges to reward fandom + Differin' launches 'Level Up Lobby' on Roblox

Author

Joe Condon
January 14, 2025

Hey folks - welcome to Edition #42 of The SEG3 Report!

To start with the important things - it goes without saying that we hope all of our readers in LA are keeping safe. The city and region is home to so many incredible people that make our LA show and community what it is - so if there is any way that myself & SEG3 can help support you, please just reach out.

Today’s newsletter dives into The PGA Tour’s Creator Series, and the value of collaborating with niche creator communities to attract new audiences; the NBA’s launch of ‘Dynamic Badges’, linked to NBA ID, which will reward fans for their engagement across the NBA ecosystem; and lastly, Differin launches ‘Level Up Lobby’ on Roblox, which provides in-game perks for IRL purchases.

Right, let’s get into it!

Contents: Edition #42

PGA Tour Relaunches Creator Series Events

The PGA Tour is doubling down on digital content creators by introducing a series of creator-focused golf events in 2025. This initiative follows the success of the 2024 Creator Classic, which featured 16 golf creators in a standalone tournament.

Why You Should Care

TL;DR: The Creator Classic provides the PGA with new inventory, new commercial opportunities and more diverse, relatable content through creators that have built audiences around the sport of golf in a way the PGA and its talent cannot.

In full: Golf as a sport has perhaps undergone the largest reshuffle of any over the past 3-4 years, with the emergence of LIV Golf, to the pending merger of PGA, European Tour & LIV, and now, TGL - led by Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy, a tech-infused indoor league which is bringing a new entertainment focus to its gameplay & broadcast.

All of these are signals that the traditional game needed to evolve to meet the needs of today's younger, more digitally savvy audience - who perhaps value increased access to their favourite athletes and enhanced entertainment value over the traditional polished format and content.

So with those headwinds, The PGA Tour green-lighting a second Creator Classic is a smart move for a few reasons:

Creation of content

The polished production of pro game will always attract the golf enthusiast. And this production is becoming more tech driven by the day, with near real-time digital twins and more becoming the norm.

Not to say there isn’t a place for this content (there certainly is) - however, if like me, you are a fair-weather golfer, mostly terrible, but enjoy getting out for a round or two every now and then, there is certainly an air of relatability (and entertainment) to watching the golf content creator skewing one into the water as a pose to 5 feet from the hole. I can dream…

The PGA will be hoping the creator series can be a stepping stone for casual fans of the sport to become actively interested in the pro game - whether that be to attend, engage with their content or subscribe to the broadcast etc.

On the note of broadcast…

Distribution of content

The PGA Tour is varying its distribution of the Creator Classic, with it to be broadcast on Youtube, ESPN, NBC & FAST channels.

This combination is smart as Youtube is where many of the creators house their communities, and with ESPN & NBC, they are keeping one of their broadcast partners sweet by providing new content to them (ESPN), whilst still expanding distribution with NBC to broaden the reach of the Classic.

And with distribution comes…

Commercial Opportunities 

As one of our speakers coined it at SEG3 LA, “having customers & distribution is a superpower” that many global brands take for granted.

So with the Tour creating new assets, such as the Creator Classic, it gives the commercial & media teams more inventory to work with that they can pitch to new sponsors or distribution partners (of different categories that the traditional product may not be a fit for), whilst also giving the opportunity to grow the relationship with current sponsors & media partners who may want to expand to cover the Creator Classic.

It’s exciting to see so many new formats of sports popping up (like Baller League, which we covered in Edition #38), and with the on-field content/competition being one cog in the wider sports machine needed to attract & engage today's fan, I certainly don’t think this is the last development we’ll write about in 2025…

NBA launches ‘Dynamic Badge’

This badge evolves based on fan engagement, allowing users to customize a Digital Basketball and complete Seasonal Challenges across the NBA App and League Pass. Achievements unlock new titles and visual effects, enhancing the badge's appearance.

Why you should care?

TL;DR: In an era of generalisation, personalisation of experience and rewarding your audience's engagement will be a must to retain fans. Digital identity, like NBA ID, is the talk of the town - and for good reason - having more data on your audience's behaviours, whilst incentivising them to perform actions (interactions/purchases) to grow their profile/top leaderboards to unlock exclusive rewards has been a mechanism that gaming has known for many years. Sports is now finally catching up to the importance of it too.

In full: Although there isn’t a great deal of information available on the dynamic badges as of yet, it is another example of a shift in narrative that we’re seeing across sports.

One that shows generalisation will no longer cut it, and that fans want to be acknowledged and rewarded for their continued support.

Sports occupy an unfair percentage of mind-share with their fans, with such regular touchpoints across a season/year, and for the most loyal fans, significant spend to follow their clubs and showcase their fandom - yet, their dedication over years has long gone unrewarded, and if anything, has been treated solely as a commercial one by the sports organisation.

This has left fans feeling short changed, and given they are the lifeblood of the industry, change has desperately been needed to safeguard the future.

The NBA, being one of the more forward thinking organisations, has been ahead of the curve - launching NBA ID in 2022 (which Dynamic Badges are linked to) to not only capture more insight into their fans, but start to provide a better value exchange for their fans commitment to the sport & franchises.

The short term impact?

More satisfied and engaged fans.

The long term play?

A better understanding of their fanbase through NBA ID unlocks more definitive insights which they could leverage in future media rights & sponsorship negotiations.

I’m certain the sustainable, long-term commercial model for sports brands will come from building it around fandom, and rewarding them based on their commitment to your brand. I wrote more on the future commercial model in Edition #31 if you fancy another read!).

Differin launches ‘Level Up Lobby’ on Roblox

Differin, Dentsu, and Dubit have collaborated to bring acne care to Roblox with the launch of the "Level Up Lobby." The experience features mini-games like Foam Blaster and Zit Zapper, along with opportunities to earn in-game rewards by uploading receipts from Differin product purchases.

The campaign also strategically places the Level Up Lobby within popular Roblox games, including NewSmith, Teamwork Puzzles 2, Carry A Friend, Paradise RP and The Floor is Lava.

Why you should care

TL;DR: Building standalone experiences is hard business, and will only make sense for certain brands that can sustain the insatiable thirst for content and updates that the audience wants and expects, or that are happy for it to be part of a short-term campaign. Partnering with other games & creators has proven to be a tried and tested way to drive footfall to brand experiences in the short-term. The most interesting takeaway from the experience is that Differin are rewarding IRL purchases with power-ups in the Roblox game. 2025 will be the year where the lines between physical and digital commerce blur even further as Roblox hits the accelerator on their commerce plans.

In full: The Level Up Lobby is part of wider ‘Level Up’ campaign from Galderma (owners of Differin), which has been in place since late 2024, and has spanned Twitch, Reddit, TikTok, Youtube and more - achieving some pretty impressive numbers.

271 million impressions. Purchasing intent rising by 5,800%. Sales conversions up 52%. Website traffic up 266%. 1.2 million minutes watched on Twitch.

Adding Roblox to the mix will almost certainly help to grow a lot of those numbers:

“We are excited to partner with Dentsu and Differin to bring Differin to life on Roblox. By meeting audiences where they are, we’ve created an experience that combines fun mini-games, partnerships with popular Roblox creators and real-world connections. This approach highlights the power of Roblox engaging communities in authentic ways that drive real-world value”.

Andy Douthwaite - Chief Commercial Officer, Dubit

The question will be however, for how long?

The consensus across industry seems to have shifted away from building original experiences as the default, and instead has become a question of what the objective is.

Is it more short-term, campaign driven? 

What could make the most sense?

Original experiences: Requires more investment to build and marketing dollars to acquire players, but can drive significant short-term uplift and outcomes.

Integration/Licensing: Requires less investment in development & marketing as partnering with a game that is already built and tends to have a strong player base - but games may have multiple brand partners, so messaging, especially if short term, could get lost in the noise.

Are you looking for more of a long-term presence? 

What could make the most sense?

Original experiences: Can begin to build community and you’ll have full autonomy on creative decisions. More opportunity for monetisation, but requires ongoing investment and development (which unless you have a games team in-situ, with product managers, producers, game designers, analysts, artists, QA’s, developers etc), or plans to partner long-term with a developer, it’s probably not best advised to pursue this route.

Integration/Licensing: Reduces operational complexity, whilst giving access to audiences of target demographics and if licensing, potential revenue opportunities.

Given the Differin experience seems to be a short-term campaign, and its current run-rate of driving sales conversions of 52%, there certainly is scope for the experience to serve its purpose.

Aside from the conversation re: original vs licensing/integration, another interesting trend in the space is around commerce, which Differin is also leaning into for this experience - rewarding players for purchases of Differin with power-ups in-game. 


I’m a big advocate that your fandom or engagement should be rewarded no matter where you’re interacting - it’s why the NBA ID is interesting - as tracking and rewarding action and behaviours across physical and digital creates a 360 view of your customer/fan.

With commerce being one of Roblox’s targeted growth areas (which they’ve been trialling and testing with select partners like Walmart Discovered, which we covered in #Edition 7), it’s just a matter of time before we see many more brands trialling and testing commerce on audiences in the platform, which will be exciting to track.

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That’s all for now - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report and see you next Tuesday for more of the same!