What a Top-Performing Brand Activation Should Look Like for Gen Z

Real results from Duluth Trading Co. at the JVA Chi-Town Boys Challenge

Youth sports weekends don’t just draw athletes; they gather entire families in one place for hours at a time. It’s one of the few environments where teens and tweens are fully present, not scrolling past ads. Parents are engaged, kids are moving between games, and everyone is interacting with what’s around them. The venue becomes a high-attention marketplace where people watch games, explore booths, and connect with brands offering products, experiences, or simple moments of fun.

Fastbreak turns that environment into a strategic advantage for brands. When a company shows up with purpose at a youth sports event, it gains more than visibility. It creates real, in-person connections with a hard-to-reach Gen Z audience and the family members who influence preferences and make purchasing decisions. It’s a chance to build affinity, spark curiosity, and drive measurable results—all in a single weekend.

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Who Was in the Building

Duluth Trading Co. partnered with Fastbreak Connect to activate at the JVA Chi-Town Boys Challenge in Chicago. The event welcomed 8,832 athletes and 22,000 attendees to the largest convention center in North America. Duluth’s presence showed how a brand can stand out, earn attention, and build a relationship with a community that appreciates products built for everyday use. Their activation is a clear example of what a brand can do when it focuses on authentic engagement and long-term value.

Create a Presence That Draws Attention

Duluth created a presence that invited people in without pressure. Their on-site team greeted athletes. Their mascot took photos with players and families. Coaches and parents stopped to watch the interactions and learn more about the brand. Everything felt approachable.

The activation became a spot teams visited before and after matches. It offered something fun, social, and easy to participate in. Players asked for photos. Families waited for their turn. Duluth did not rely on sales pitches or giveaways to get attention. They relied on personality and genuine interaction.

What this means for your brand

‍If a brand footprint is memorable, it becomes part of the event experience. People choose to stop. Strong activations earn interest. They choose to interact.

Leave With Content You Can Use All Year

Duluth did not treat the activation as a weekend campaign. They treated it as an opportunity to create long-lasting assets. Fastbreak Connect captured content across the entire footprint. This included photos, video clips, mascot interactions, behind-the-scenes moments, and real reactions from families.

These assets give Duluth ongoing value. They can post highlights during seasonal campaigns, build email content around the experience, and reuse photos across multiple social platforms. The event ends, but the content continues to work. That efficiency increases the return on every minute spent on-site.

What this means for your brand
An activation should deliver assets that extend the value of the event. When you leave with high-quality content, you gain something that supports your brand for months, not days.

Let the Community Carry Your Message

Duluth saw firsthand how athletes drive social reach. Families and players posted photos of the mascot, shared their experiences, and tagged Duluth on their own. These posts created a wave of community-led promotion. It came from genuine excitement, not from incentives or ads.

Nine tagged Instagram posts produced more than half a million views.

500K+ Total IG Views

Parents shared moments because they wanted to remember them. Players shared because it made them feel part of the event. Duluth benefited from real participation.

What this means for your brand

‍When a brand creates a moment worth posting, the audience becomes the voice. Organic reach builds trust faster than paid impressions because it comes from people who actually care about what they are sharing.

Focus on Engagement, Not Just Traffic

At live events, people walk past dozens of booths. Attention is limited. Engagement is earned. Duluth pulled people into the experience and kept them there. Nearly everyone who visited interacted in some way. They talked with the team, posed with the mascot, or captured content.

98% On-Site Engagement

This level of engagement gives a brand memorability. When athletes have a direct interaction, even a brief one, they remember the brand. They learn something. They form an impression that lasts longer than a logo sighting or a passing banner.

What this means for your brand

‍Strong activations convert attention into participation. Engagement builds loyalty. People remember brands they interact with, not brands they walk past.

Build Interest Before the Event Begins

Duluth did not wait for families to arrive in Chicago. They built interest with promotional emails ahead of the tournament. One email delivered a 29 percent click-to-open rate, which is considered excellent across most industries.

29% Top Click-to-Open Rate

This strategy encouraged curiosity and recognition before families ever reached the venue. When they walked into the convention space, they already knew Duluth would be there.

Typical CTOR benchmarks fall around 10 %to 15% across most industries, while anything above 20 percent is considered strong and anything over 25 percent is viewed as exceptional. Duluth’s 29% performance places the campaign in that top tier, showing that the audience found value in the message before the event even began.