Objective

To help scale the young professional football franchise in Tulsa; building awareness, excitement, and attendance through a smarter, more accountable marketing and media strategy that maximized impact from day one.

Rather than relying solely on legacy media approaches, our goal was to create a modern, integrated system that blended Tulsa’s strong local ties with data-driven tactics capable of proving performance and supporting long-term growth.

The Client

Tulsa Oilers Football competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL) and represents the return of professional football to the Tulsa market, something the city hadn’t experienced since the Tulsa Talons era in the earlier 2000s.

As a new franchise, the organization faced a unique challenge: generating awareness, establishing credibility, and building a loyal fan base quickly, while honoring Tulsa’s existing football culture and appetite for live sports entertainment.

What We’ve Done

Traditional Media Audit & Analysis
We performed a full audit of existing television and radio placements to identify inefficiencies, redundancies, and wasted spend, ensuring every dollar worked harder in a the early-years environment, where efficiency matters.

Media Buy Optimization
By restructuring and optimizing media buys, we freed up underperforming dollars and redirected them into complementary tactics designed to increase reach, frequency, and fan awareness without increasing overall budget.

Integrated Traditional + Digital Strategy
We demonstrated how traditional media and digital tactics can work together—not in isolation—to support a new franchise launch.

This approach allowed the Oilers to:

• Maintain strong local visibility through traditional media
• Expand reach beyond linear audiences with digital channels
• Target and retarget potential fans with precision
• Real-time conversion capabilities
• Monthly performance data and reporting that traditional media alone cannot provide

The result was a more dynamic, flexible, and measurable campaign.

Performance Reporting & Data Transparency
Digital media introduced a level of accountability that gave the organization clear insight into campaign performance, allowing for optimization, justification of spend, and confidence in decision-making.

Local Sponsorship Negotiation & Management
We also managed negotiations for local sponsorships, aligning brand partners with the Oilers’ mission, strengthening community connections, and creating mutually beneficial relationships that supported the franchise’s growth.

The Outcome

In the year immediately following the implementation of our recommendations, the Indoor Football League recognized the Tulsa Oilers Football organization with two of its highest honors:

• IFL Franchise of the Year, celebrating excellence across attendance, ticket sales, marketing, public relations, community engagement, league participation, and on-field success
• Fan Base Championship Belt, awarded to the franchise with the highest cumulative home-game attendance throughout their home schedule

For a 3-year-old franchise, these recognitions so early on underscored the impact of a well-executed marketing and media strategy.

The Takeaway

When launching something new, especially in a competitive sports market, proper marketing and advertising doesn't just create awareness.

It builds momentum.
It fills seats.
It attracts sponsors.
It turns curiosity into loyalty.

And when done correctly, it can transform a new franchise into an award-winning organization.