New York Giants Give Eli Manning a Classy Content-Filled Farewell

A live stream of Eli’s retirement ceremony garnered more than 200,000 views

There comes a time when the in-house media-production team at a professional sports franchise needs to step up in a special way. It could be the hiring of a new coach, the unveiling of a new logo, a big free agent signing, or — if they are lucky — a championship. In the case of the New York Giants this offseason, it was the retirement of and farewell to one of the most beloved and decorated players in franchise history: Eli Manning.

Eli Manning’s retirement announcement set off a flurry of media activity to properly celebrate the quarterback’s career.

In mid January, when the word came out that the legendary quarterback was hanging up his cleats after 16 seasons (and two Super Bowl titles), the Giants production, events, and media teams already had months of work and prep completed in  anticipation of this very moment. A moment they knew they needed to hit the bull’s-eye on.

“We felt a huge responsibility to make sure that everything was done right for this guy, because he means so much to the organization as a whole,” says Christine Baluyot, senior director, production and events, New York Giants. “He just embodies what a Giant really is. He’s a generational guy. We felt like we needed to make sure that we send him off in the right way. That was number one. It was in every single thing that we thought about. It needed to be right.”

And it paid off in a big way. Over the course of the week of the announcement, the Giants unleashed a content onslaught of sentimental, funny, and nostalgic videos that attracted more than 9 million video views (across social-media platforms and the team’s website and mobile app) in the first five days alone.

All the content was built around a simple theme: #ThankYouEli. And it was polished with all of the class that one would expect from the Giants organization.

“We tailored [the content] to the type of guy he is: classy, simple, elegant,” says Baluyot, a 13-year veteran of the Giants organization. “In that way, everything embodied him perfectly.”

Creatively, the Giants leaned into Manning’s jersey number, 10, which served as a perfect start for building Top 10 lists: videos of moments, touchdowns, plays, playoff moments, and much more. It didn’t stop there, though. The teams dug deep into the archives to create videos, such as one of every touchdown pass he threw in his career (there were 366 of them!). One video — a compilation of “Off the Field” moments spotlighting some of funniest spots of Manning in commercials, public appearances, and even as the host of Saturday Night Live (which he did in 2012) — pulled in about 1.8 million views in its first five days of release.

This is not to say that all went off without a hitch. When word of Manning’s decision arrived at the front office on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the plan was to make a formal announcement and begin a content rollout on the following Thursday. However, when the New York media caught wind of the news, word of Manning’s departure began swirling in the public on Wednesday. Rather than go silent on it, VP/Executive Producer Don Sperling and his team opted to be proactive, releasing the news and opening the content funnel on that Wednesday.

“We made a decision: Let’s go,” he says. “All of that planning and all that was done during the season immediately after paid off because we were ready to go.”

Adds David Dominik, senior manager, digital media, New York Giants, “Luckily, we were prepared. We were able to pivot and just roll with it.”

Content began pouring out, in the form of features and tributes, across the Giants’ digital platforms (Giants.com, the Giants app, and the team’s various email newsletters) and social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube).

The effort culminated in a live stream of Manning’s retirement ceremony, which was watched by approximately 200,000 viewers — a huge number for a stream from the team. The event and production teams worked in collaboration with the Public Relations and Community departments to stage the event at the Field House at the team’s practice facility, and, although production of the stream was typical (in terms of cameras, graphics, distribution), there was the added element of rolling in live videos to be shown at the press conference for Manning, his family, his former teammates, legends, and the more than 100 media members in attendance to see.

Following the ceremony, Dominik noted that one of the surprises from the day was the popularity of photos on the team’s website, mobile app, and selected social channels. Behind-the-scenes photos from the press conference were especially popular, with the site and app registering more than 4 million views of photos; more than 840,000 unique visitors to Giants.com were logged in the days immediately after the event.

“I’ve never seen numbers like that,” says Dominik. “I was expecting it to be good, but this was huge. We also recently had our [new head-]coaching announcement where we did a similar behind-the-scenes experience, and, while it did very well, it was not to this level. The photo gallery to me was the big surprise.”

The Giants also saw a spike in social engagement unlike anything it had seen since maybe the championship run. In the five days following the start of the content rollout, the Giants tallied approximately 74 million social impressions, about 3.9 million social engagements, and more than a 15,500 subscriber growth across social media. The celebration was also good for business: according to the Giants, the Manning content plan helped open up about 22,000 season-ticket leads.

And this was only phase one of what the Giants expect to be a two-phase content plan. Although the official schedule hasn’t been announced, the club is expected to honor Manning at a game next season. Around that game, the media team expects to release a whole new wave of content to celebrate one of the team’s all-time greats.

“It has been a special experience to be a part of,” says Sperling. “[Former owner] Wellington Mara has a saying that we echo here a lot: ‘Once a Giant. Always a Giant.’ Eli said so eloquently in his speech, ‘Once a Giant. Only a Giant.’ It just shows you what Eli Manning is all about, and we hope we have honored him in the right way.”