The 'Fanatics Town Hall' Is the Only Corporate Gathering We Want to Attend

The sports app calls on Luke Wilson to reward fans

Sports fans put a lot into showing up for their teams. They deserve rewards that match their enthusiasm and energy.

This is the premise of the “Fanatics Football Town Hall.” It’s “part shareholder meeting, part city council hearing and part revival,” run by American sweetheart Luke Wilson. The hero spot heralds the sports app’s latest campaign. Fans can expect to see more elements of the cheeky community gathering play out during football season.

Wilson channels his trademark “voice of reason” humor (seen in movies like Old School and Legally Blonde) as he rallies a room of attendees reflecting the wide range of sports-fan personas (merch lovers, collectors, a superstitious grandpa, former NFL player Calvin “Megatron” Johnson and media personality Livvy Dunne). The sports app also cast talent from the Fan Advisory Network, Fanatics’ grassroots fan community.

Separate from Fanatic Sportsbook that houses betting, the Fanatics app is the digital ecosystem that represents all that Fanatics has to offer.

“You can shop, collect cards, play games, check scores and buy tickets. It’s our version of Fanatics.com in an app where you can experience everything,” James Rowe, president of agency partner OBB Bolded, shared with Muse. OBB Bolded is the branded content studio of OBB Media, the agency that partners closely with Fanatics on major sports and entertainment projects, including its major tentpole event, Fanatics Fest. “One of the hallmarks is that you earn FanCash throughout the experience, and those rewards can then be recycled to spend across Fanatics right in the app. The app really gets football fans ready for all things game day: the right looks, cards, tickets; everything in one place.”

To date, Fanatics has over 100 million fans in its database. Selena Kalvaria, CMO of the Fanatics App, shared, “Our philosophy is that you have to start with a product that not just meets but exceeds consumer expectations. It’s intuitive, informative and feels more experiential than transactional. In our part of the business, we’ve always focused first on product. The next phase has been storytelling around those propositions.”

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Muse sat down with Kalvaria and Rowe to discuss how the inaugural “Fanatics Town Hall” came to life, the collaboration style among creative partners and what fans can expect this season.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

“Fanatics Town Hall” has a couple of key creative players behind the spot: Fanatics’ internal Creative Studio, Fanatics Studios and OBB Bolded. How did you all work together?

Selena: Given that Fanatic Studios and OBB are part of our family, it was a natural fit. They know us extremely well through a lot of different endeavors as part of the business. The collaboration on this one was slightly evolved in the sense that we have a strong internal studio that leads all of the creativity within our part of the business. So, it was natural then to bring some of those ideas to the Fanatic Studios team. They helped build, strategize and make everything happen in a way that brought that vision to life.

James: We’re working with Selena and the internal team right from the word “go,” both from the creative side and a production side. We’re always thinking about not just the creativity, but also how we are going to produce this.

We’re also thinking about a wider ecosystem because this isn’t just a spot; this is a campaign that’s going to run throughout the whole season. We think about PR, social and the surrounding pieces that are going to keep this fresh. It isn’t as easy as putting us in one box and Fanatics Studios in another. It feels like one team rather than many.

Can we talk about talent selection? It was clear that you were very intentional about putting recognizable faces in there.

Selena: We wanted to bring a leader who felt very like “one of the people,” authentic and a bit of a darling; someone who you felt could have that charisma and carry the leadership of bringing everybody together. For us, Luke represented that. He’s having a great summer with lots of great projects and collaborations, and he’s someone that you recognize and trust to represent your voice.

The intention was to bring a mix of people that would spark interest from lots of different parts of the Fanatics community. Livvy [Dunne] is someone we’ve worked with for a long time, so she’s a very consistent face in our work and events. Then someone like Calvin Johnson is just beloved—people see him and go, “Oh my god, Calvin’s here.” Even the organ player is a gentleman named Robert Williams who Philadelphia Eagles fans will recognize. We wanted to create a little spark at every turn.

Were there any surprise learnings from producing Fanatics’ Big Game spot, “Bet on Kendall,” that you applied here?

Selena: This is actually the first Fanatics app ecosystem campaign that we’ve ever led. What we used from the Super Bowl experience was how to create a brand world, not just launch a campaign and execute it through channels.

The Fanatics Studios team help us strategize how to think about all the different content and channels, and how to pull different pieces of the main campaign to tell a broader story. We realized that was extremely effective in the way Kendall was able to capitalize on tremendous earned media before the actual advertising started.

What do you think marketers are getting wrong about sports fans?

Selena: That fans represent this really hardcore fandom that has to be expressed one specific way. At Fanatics, we recognize and hero all types of fans. You see a little bit of that in the “town hall,” where we have different archetypes from different walks of life, but they all express their fandom differently.

James: Fandom has become more multi-hyphenate. You’re not just an Eagles fan; you have many sports that you’re following. In today’s digital age, you’re not just sitting down and watching football for four hours on a Sunday; you’re also watching highlight clips, and the fan journey is way more immersive because there’s so much content and so many opportunities to interact.

Where will this run?

James: What you’re seeing launched today is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve shot so many different parts of this that will go on broadcast—and the story will evolve throughout the season—but also through social, stills and experiential. We’re going to be showing up throughout the course of the season for the fans. We love this idea of a “Town Hall” because it feels like such a socially native idea: you tell us what you want and we respond. You’re going to see that come through all season.

I’m curious to hear what insights led you to focus on the rewards play.

Selena: We know that fans put so much into their fandom, and Fanatics uniquely allows those fans to be rewarded across all the ways they express it—gear, cards, gaming or anything else. The aggregate of those things as the destination for Fanatics is unique. We have an ecosystem that touches so many passions that we’re uniquely able to bring a rewards currency to life that has incredible value for them.

Related: FIFA, MLB, Mitchell & Ness and More Showed Up Big at Fanatics Fest 2026