Building the Sponsorship Engine Behind The Two Robbies & Friends
How The Playbook Advisory built a repeatable brand-partnership and creator program for a daily World Cup show, from a standing start to a live, revenue-generating sponsorship business.
Engagement start: March 2026 | Decks & proposals built: 18+ | Sponsorship tiers launched: 2 | Prospect conversations: 20+
The Client
The Two Robbies & Friends is a daily World Cup show hosted by former Premier League players and NBC Sports analysts Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe, presented by title sponsor Pepsi and distributed across Yahoo Sports and OneFootball. The show also features its own dedicated food segment, Kick Of Flavor, hosted by celebrity chef and cookbook author Dennis Prescott. Produced under Box to Box Sports, the show built its identity around the stories surrounding the 2026 World Cup, not just the matches themselves. It needed a commercial engine that could keep pace with a daily production schedule.
The Challenge
A daily show with real distribution and a title sponsor already in place still needed a way to turn that attention into a structured, scalable sponsorship business. Every new brand conversation was starting from scratch, there was no standard product to sell against, and the show's growing creator and content ecosystem had no formal program behind it. The team needed a dedicated partner to own brand partnerships end to end, not just for the World Cup window, but as a business built to outlast it.
The Approach
The Playbook Advisory (TPBA) was brought on as the show's retained Brand Partnerships & Sponsorship Consultant, owning the sponsorship relationship in full, from packaging and pitching through negotiation and account management.
Built a repeatable sponsorship product. Replaced one-off asks with a tiered, metrics-backed pricing model built on guaranteed view thresholds tied to clip and episode integrations, so every pitch started from a clear, defensible value proposition.
Ran a full pitch-deck operation. Produced and maintained a growing library of tailored decks and proposals across categories including spirits and beverage, consumer tech, gaming, automotive, and hospitality, refreshed monthly alongside core overview and partnership materials.
Drove full-funnel outbound at scale. Ran simultaneous outbound campaigns to national consumer brands and premium hospitality venues, generating dozens of live prospect conversations and owning each from first outreach through negotiation.
Stood up the show's creator program. Selected and onboarded a creator-management platform, co-built the onboarding curriculum and brand-compliance guidelines, and sourced individual creator talent, building a companion content and revenue stream from the ground up.
Delivered a marquee content moment. Sourced and produced a guest segment with MLS Commissioner Don Garber, coordinating booking, talking points, and studio logistics directly with MLS leadership for a same-day turnaround.
Managed the title sponsor relationship. Owned day-to-day account management for Pepsi's agency team, including a standing reporting cadence on merchandise and activation status.
Extracted more value from owned assets. Cross-sold one of the show's branded activations into sponsorship opportunities across multiple additional partners, turning a single asset into several revenue lines.
The Impact
Within months, The Two Robbies & Friends moved from ad hoc sponsorship asks to a structured, repeatable partnership business, with a standing product to sell, an active outbound pipeline, a functioning creator program, and a title sponsor relationship managed with the rigor of a much larger media operation. The engagement continues today, with TPBA still owning brand partnerships for the show as it moves through the World Cup and beyond.
The Playbook Advisory partners with sports, media, and consumer brands to build the deal-making and partnership infrastructure behind their growth.
