J.J. Watt 100 Sacks

J.J. Watt is undoubtedly one of the most iconic players in the history of the Houston Texans and one of the biggest stars in today’s NFL. His off-field celebrity nearly matches his on field dominance over his career and he is beloved by the Texans fan base.

We knew going into the season that J.J. was likely going to get his 100th sack at some point. After racking up a few early in the season we expected it to come in October but after a month without a sack he finally got number 100 on November 8th against the Jaguars.

Below is how we responded on social following the moment. For the purposes of this recap I’ve mainly shared what we did on TW as it was our real-time platform for covering the moment but we shared similar (or in some cases the same) content on our FB and IG channels as well.

Here is how we handled 100 career sacks for J.J. Watt:

After the sack happened I quickly published a graphic from our creative team with matter-of-fact copy as that is generally what we go with, especially in a season where our team’s on-field performance has been a struggle.

After that we went with the television broadcast clip of the sack. I wanted to beat other outlets in getting the highlight out and have our fans see it on our platforms first.

Considering we still had a decent amount of game left to play we waited until after the game to continue the celebration of J.J.’s 100th sack.

Following the game our VP of Communications sent us a video of J.J. addressing the team after the win and after his historic moment. This is the type of content that is only possible with strong relationships with other departments and everyone working towards a common goal. The video performed extremely well and was the perfect way for us to show J.J. being authentic and putting the team first.

Shortly after the game our team photographer, Zach Tarrent, sent us all of his frames of the sack and our digital media manager, Aynav Leibowitz, quickly pieced it together for a GIF. The result came out wonderful and I was able to quickly post a high quality piece of content that no other outlet had.

Sure, it was great that we got video of J.J. in the postgame locker room but what made that even more special is J.J. amplifying our content and adding his own personal touch to it. J.J. has a massive following of 5.5 million followers and is one of the most popular athletes in the U.S. so this did wonders for our content.

Something that we’d been cooking up as an organization during the season was this congratulations video with close friends, family and colleagues of J.J.’s. This was an excellent way for us to show that J.J. is more than an outstanding football player, he is an outstanding member of the community and has had an impact on the lives of many.

This piece was created by photos chosen by Zach and our lead videographer, Tyler Suddarth. Together they made this incredible video to show J.J. through the years on his path to 100.

This was our final piece of content from J.J.’s 100th sack. An Instagram Carousel of J.J. through the years during his time in Houston.

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