Social Rocket
Lowe’s is expanding its NFL campaign “Earn Your Sunday” 2026 and explicitly uses the featured football stars like macro influencers. Alongside classic advertising, the US home improvement retailer combines player personalities with product drops, loyalty benefits and live activations – and aims to reach younger audiences in the process.
The current “Home Team” includes Myles Garrett, Jordan Love, Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey and Dak Prescott. According to Lowe’s, it is in its eighth year as the NFL’s official home improvement partner.
NFL stars are meant to be more than testimonials
In an interview with Adweek, Lowe’s CMO Jen Wilson describes the players as “macro-influencers”. The campaign accordingly tries not just to buy reach, but to build the well-known personalities into the creative idea. The advertising draws on the players’ individual traits and links them to products from the Lowe’s range.
This sets the approach apart from a pure sponsorship logo placement. Much like the Chipotle campaign with 100 creators, the campaign’s face itself becomes the content carrier.
Media, loyalty and product drops work together
Lowe’s links “Earn Your Sunday” to several touchpoints. The retailer is bringing back NFL-branded mini toolboxes and plans further exclusive product drops. Members of MyLowe’s Rewards and MyLowe’s Pro Rewards partly get early access to these offers.
In addition, there is again an “Earn Your Sunday Tour” with stops in selected markets and activations around NFL games. Lowe’s also remains presenting sponsor of NBC’s “Football Night in America” and gets 2026 a new set within the show.
The sponsorship thus becomes a closed system of media, commerce and experience. For social marketers, what is particularly interesting is how prominent athletes can be used not just as reach carriers, but as recurring content figures.
The Gen Z effect is strategic for Lowe’s
Wilson tells Adweek that the NFL now reaches a younger audience for Lowe’s. She explicitly points to the Taylor Swift effect surrounding the league. This matters to the retailer because many of these consumers do not yet belong to the core target group of homeowners, but will become important over time.
The NFL itself is simultaneously expanding its social monetisation. Just this week NFL and TikTok significantly expanded their partnership. For brands, sport is thereby becoming an even stronger content and creator environment rather than just TV sponsorship.
That celebrities and creators increasingly function as long-term brand platforms is also shown by Old Navy’s current strategy with Cardi B and MrBeast. What matters here is less the individual spot than how personality, platform, product and community can be connected across several channels.