How DICK’S Built a Creator Program That Generated 40 Million Views
2,500 pieces of content. 40 million organic views. Not from a brand channel. From a creator program.
That’s the impact DICK’S Sporting Goods new Varsity Team Creator Program had in 2025. And this year, they’re doubling down on the program and making it even bigger. If you’re considering a creator or employee creator program right now, you could learn a lot from what DICK’S has done the last five years.
For starters, DICK’S has made its creators feel very valued. Just look at what these creators get to be a part of the program in 2026:
Money—DICK’S is paying its creators for the work they do (Note: Would be curious to hear how they’re handling this for employees)
Experiences—DICK’S just finisned up an exclusive, all-expense-paid 4-day Orientation experience in Tampa, Florida.
Exclusive stuff—DICK’S sends its creators quarterly ‘Trend Boxes’ featuring the latest products from the hottest brands at DICK’S. They also get early access to select product launches, VIP events and celeb appearances.
Other opportunities—Obviously they have the chance to be featured on DICK’S social media channels (other other marketing materials). They can also participate in “Coaches Corner” sessions where creators connect with DICK’S influencer marketing team and agency for insights, coaching and trends.
I mean, that’s quite the list. And I know not every brand has access to some of this stuff, but most brands have something. If you think hard enough, you probably have some sort of experience people would want to be a part of. You have information or data employees would want access to. Or, you have swag or “stuff” they would covet.
DICK’S program started in 2021 and man have they grown it since then. This year, according to this Digiday article, 10,800 people applied to be a part of the program for around 60 spots—that was up from 5,300 last year for 50 spots. Wow!
And given the list of perks above, you would think DICK’S would be looking for creators with huge followings and big engagement numbers. Not the case. DICK’S claims to be looking for all sorts of creators with the key being creators who “are people in sports that are showing their life behind the scenes, not just the game-day highlights.” That same theory could apply to employee creator programs—don’t just engage the people with the biggest communities. Look for creative talent. Look for employees who “get” social.” Employees who know how to create content that speaks to people.
Finally, I’ve always said these employee creator programs should start small and build from there. That’s exactly what DICK’S has done. They started the program as an employee creator program in 2021 with JUST ONE employee. In 2023, they hired an agency to help them build the program—that year, they grew it to it to 18 employees after receiving applications from 700 employees. And again, this year they received more than 10,000 applications for 60 spots.
And so far the results speak for themselves. Last year, the Varsity Team generated 2,500 pieces of content with a total of 40 million organic views.
At a time when AI is flooding our feeds and trust in brands seems to be plummeting, this creator program approach by DICK’S seems to meet the moment. And the authenticity these creators are bringing to the brand? You really can’t put a price tag on that.
Most summer internships are already filled. But I found one that isn't: MINE!
I’m hiring a part-time Social Media Intern to work with me on real client work from late May/early June-August.
I realize I'm late in posting this, but I earned some new work that starts in June and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to 1) Provide an opportunity to an entrepeneurial student, and 2) Help mentor a young person, and 3) Get some much-needed help for the summer!
Now, this won't be a “sit in meetings and observe” role--mostly because I don’t sit in that many meetings anymore! This will be more of a “create, edit, publish and learn by doing”-type role.
We’ll focus heavily on:
* Short-form video
* Capturing content
* LinkedIn writing
* Real-world brand work
It’ll be: 10 hours/week, flexible (meet IRL once a week), and pays $25/hour.
Again, I know it’s late to be posting about summer internships, but if you (or someone you know) is still looking for a hands-on opportunity to build a real portfolio this summer, please send me an email (arik@arikhanson.com) that talks about why you’re interested and a few examples of your work (with a focus on short-form video and social content samples). I'm going to take applicants through next Wednesday (5/6) because I want to move quickly.
PS: Full disclosure, I'd love to hire a Tommie!
I’ve been playing golf since I was about 8 years old. And last week, I finally made it to Pebble Beach.
And funny—it somehow exceeded my extremely high expectations. As part of our trip, we played Pebble twice (best decision ever). But also played Spyglass, Poppy Hills and Pasatiempo (sorry--probably only golf nerds will know those names). Our caddy (who was also a highlight of the trip) also invited us to play his club (TPC of Monterey) one day which was super fun.
It was, without question, an absolute dream golf tip.
But while the golf was unbelievable (I'm running out of descriptors!), the part I’ll remember most was doing it all with my oldest friend Eric Rislove. We've been playing golf together for probably 40+ years. Played high school golf together. Played college golf together (a little). And now play at the same club in Woodbury. That's a whole lot of history--and that's just the golf part!
Sure, playing #7 at Pebble was beyond incredible (parred it the second time!), and I definitely have many Pebble holes etched in my memory. But the best part was playing all these wonderful courses with a good friend--and the time in between. Exploring dive bars in Monterey and Carmel (Mulligans was awesome). Going to a Journey cover band concert (super great--they played all the bangers!). And just hanging at the Inn at Spanish Bay (which was absolutely incredible).
Grateful doesn’t every begin to cover it. A trip I will remember for the rest of my life. All thanks to an invite from my friend.
Does your boss have AI brain?
Real interesting article here from Rachel Karten where she includes snippets from many folks she interviewed about how their bosses and teams are using AI. And while I haven’t heard nearly the negative feedback Rachel has about leaders over-using AI to drive creative and decision-making, I can definitely understand how it can happen—especially at smaller and midsized companies which is probably the folks she was talking to in the interviews (it feels like her readership leans this way).
The bigger picture here is the tail end of the article where Rachel talks about the complete lack of change management programs around AI rollouts. That’s very real. And I am definitely seeing that, too. And that strikes me as very odd. As communicators, we have change management platforms for almost everything—why wouldn’t we have one for one of the biggest technological disruptive changes of our professional lives? That’s what I see—and it’s definitely what I’m hearing from people much smarter than me who work in AI.
Is Vine making a comeback?
A social media platform stiff-arming AI-generated content? Imagine that! Now imagine that platform includes an archieve of more than 500,000 archived Vines and you have a recipe for a potential win with Divine.
Data shows delay between gated content download and consumption
Some good data here on the age-old debate: to gate or not to gate. Put me firmly in the “not to gate” camp, where I’ve resided for years. More than ever, content marketing is all about building trust and nothing screams SALES more than gating all your content. A few pieces of the data in this survey seem to support my hypothesis.
If you’ve been thinking about signing up for SOCIAL//IRL, this is your nudge.
We’re almost a month out from June 3 and I’m starting to lock in the format for the day. This won’t be a sit-back-and-listen kind-I'm-going-to-talk-at-you-for-six-hours kind of workshop.
It’s going to be:
• Hands-on work on your actual content
• Real-time feedback (from me and the group)
• Pressure-testing your strategy—not just talking about it
Which is exactly why I’m very purposefully keeping it small. And I’ve already seen a lot of great interest and a number of people signed up that I’m excited about.
If any of that sounds interesting or useful, you sign up right here.