Our creationsSports & Fitness
RIOT is a sports and fitness creative agency and production studio in New York. We helped launch the Washington Commanders' new identity on film and introduced their mascot, cut the season trailers and openers for the Commanders and the LA Galaxy, filmed the instructors who are the heart of SoulCycle, and built the live-stream openers and Times Square screens for Red Bull and the FIFA Interactive World Cup. Here is what a sports creative agency does, how we do it, and the work itself.
47 films and campaigns by RIOT, a sports and fitness creative agency and production studio in New York
Plenty of agencies will pitch a club. The difference is what you only get here: a creative agency and production studio, a director on the sideline, and the trust of an NFL franchise, an MLS club and the biggest name in boutique fitness, who hand us their seasons before the fans see them.
Draft night, the opener, the derby, the playoffs, the new kit: we have delivered to the sports calendar for a decade, and the date has never moved for us either.
Matchday, the tunnel, the practice field, the class at six in the morning. Our own production studio means we are there with the cameras, not briefing someone else.
Brand strategy, identity and design, creative direction, film, photography, animation, sound, social. We are a creative agency and production studio: no hand-offs, no waiting on a third party for the version the stadium needs tonight.
The Washington Commanders, SoulCycle and Red Bull: an NFL franchise, the biggest name in boutique fitness and the brand that owns live sport, and they hand us their biggest moments. Ask them.
A sports creative agency makes the things a team, a league or a fitness brand is seen through: the season trailer, the rebrand, the mascot, the athlete's story, the show on the big screen, the feed. A sports marketing agency plans the sponsorships and buys the media. We make the work.
Sport runs on a calendar that does not move: the draft, the opener, the derby, the playoffs, the launch of a new kit. The work has to be ready for the date, it has to hit as hard as the moment does, and it has to look like the club in every frame, from the stadium screen to a fifteen-second cut for the feed. Fitness brands run on the same energy with a different clock: the class, the season, the new studio, the people who show up at six in the morning.
RIOT is a creative agency with a production studio: brand strategy, identity and design, film, photography, animation and social are all made here, by the same team. We write the idea, shoot it at practice, on matchday or in our studio, and cut it on the beat, in New York or wherever the team plays. The Washington Commanders, the LA Galaxy and SoulCycle have trusted us with their biggest moments. Below are the kinds of work we make for sports and fitness brands, how we make them, and the films themselves.
What we make for teams and fitness brands
Season trailers and openersThe season before it starts: the roster, the rivals, the reasons to show up. Cut for the big screen and the feed.
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Rebrands and identityStrategy, the mark, the system, the kit, and the film that unveils them and makes a city feel it. Ours for the Commanders went to Cannes.
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Mascot and character launchesA new face for the fans, from the first sketch to the day they walk out of the tunnel.
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Documentary and athlete storiesThe people behind the club or the class, filmed properly: instructors, players, the staff who make it happen.
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Fitness brand campaignsThe energy of the room, on film: campaign films, teasers and social for the studios people live by.
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Stadium and venue filmsA ground, an arena or an anniversary, with twenty years of memories in two minutes.
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Highlight and year-in-review reelsA season or a year of wins cut into something worth replaying at the gala and on the feed.
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Draft and event filmsThe night the roster changes: countdowns, picks and the films that go out the second the name is called.
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Anthems and hype filmsA cinematic film for a new era, a new coach or a new home: the one the whole city shares.
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Heritage and history filmsNinety years of a franchise in a minute, cut from the archive so the past looks like the future.
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Partnership and sponsor filmsTwo names, one story: the club, the partner and the fans who benefit, told so both come out bigger.
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Betting and gaming launchesThe launch film for the app fans play along with: bold, fast and built for the second screen.
PlayUSA: Beat The Bookie →
Live events and broadcast openersThe opener for the live stream, the final or the show: lights down, sound up, sixty seconds to set the room.
FIFA Interactive World Cup 2016: Live Stream Final Four Opener →
Out of home and screensGraphics and films built for the screens in Times Square and the boards around the pitch.
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Social and in-season contentHalloween specials, matchday cutdowns, upright and square, made in the same world as the campaign.
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Halftime shows and concert teasersThe teaser for the show at the stadium: the artist, the night, the reason to stay in your seat.
→Every season has a date it cannot miss.
Five steps, from the first call to the files in the truck.
The season, the fans, the moment and what the work has to do: fill a stadium, launch a kit, open a studio. One page, agreed before anyone opens an edit.
A creative direction that works on the big screen, on broadcast and on a phone, and sounds like the club. When it is a rebrand, the mark and the system come with it. We present it as a film, not a deck.
Practice, matchday, the locker room, the class, our studio. Our production studio plans it and shoots it, in New York or wherever the team plays.
Fast, but every cut on the beat. Titles, motion graphics, color grade, sound design and a mix that fills an arena.
The master, then the stadium screen, the broadcast cut, the sixty, the thirty, the fifteen, upright and square for social, captioned, in 4K, on the season's schedule.
A few lines is enough to start. We read every brief the same day, then set up a call on Zoom or a meeting in person to talk through the season, the moment and what you need. From that conversation we tailor a plan and a bid for your team or your brand.
It makes the things a team, a league or a fitness brand is seen through: the season trailer, the rebrand and identity films, the mascot, the athlete and instructor stories, the stadium show, the social content, from one creative direction, so the club looks like itself everywhere. A sports marketing agency plans the sponsorships and buys the media. RIOT does the creative and the production, and works alongside your marketing and media partners.
A sports marketing agency sells and plans: sponsorships, media, partnerships, ticketing campaigns. A sports creative agency makes the films, the identity and the content those plans run on. We do the branding too: the strategy, the name, the mark, the identity system and the kit, then the films and content that launch it, as we did for the Washington Commanders. And we are happy to work alongside the marketing agency you already have.
Both. The Washington Commanders and the LA Galaxy on one side; SoulCycle and [solidcore] on the other. The craft is the same: a calendar that does not move, fans who can tell when something is fake, and a moment that has to land the first time.
Major Tuddy is a hog because of the Hogs, the offensive line that carried Washington to three Super Bowls in the 1980s and early 1990s, and his name is Washington slang for a touchdown. The fans chose him. We made the film that introduced him and the one that shows how he was made, and we wrote the whole story in our journal: For the fans, by the fans.
Yes, and it is the thing we are asked for most. A season trailer or opener cuts from your footage, the archive and what we shoot at practice and on matchday, with a track chosen first and licensed properly, delivered for the stadium screen, broadcast and social on the same day.
It depends on the shoot more than anything. A trailer cut from footage you already own is a focused edit. A campaign with a shoot day at the facility, players, crew and graphics is a production, and we scope it to the season and the channels it has to fill. Send a brief and we come back with a plan and a number within a couple of business days.
Yes. Sidelines, tunnels, the stands and the locker room, with the credentials and the discipline a club expects. We have shot at the Rose Bowl, at Dignity Health Sports Park, at Lumen Field in Seattle with the Sounders, at Q2 Stadium in Austin with Austin FC, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for One Vegas and at the Commanders' facility, and we plan every matchday shoot with the team's media staff.
Yes, the whole rebrand: strategy, the name, the mark, the identity system, the kit and the launch. We are a creative agency and production studio, so the identity and the films that unveil it come from the same people. For the Washington Commanders we made the official rebrand film, the new identity trailer and the brand evolution piece that put ninety years of helmets in one shot. If you are changing your name, your mark or your kit, we design it and we launch it.
Yes. Our SoulCycle series follows the instructors who are the heart of the brand, seventeen films and counting, each one a real story told in their own words. We made the film about how the Commanders' mascot was built the same way: with the people, not around them.
Usually, and it is the fastest work we do. Broadcast footage, archive and stills become cutdowns, upright and square versions and specials like our Halloween Scary Season for the Commanders. If the footage has gaps, we shoot what is missing.
We are based in New York and we go where the team is: Washington for the Commanders, Los Angeles for the Galaxy, the studios of SoulCycle across the country. The work travels; the standard comes with it.
The Washington Commanders, through their rebrand, their mascot and their seasons. The LA Galaxy, through season openers, the Rose Bowl campaign, the stadium's anniversary and their halftime shows. SoulCycle, through campaigns and the instructor documentaries. Red Bull, PlayUSA and the FIFA Interactive World Cup. The films are all on this page.
