How the New York Giants are trying to win more than a game in Germany

MUNICH — Standing on a jet bridge Wednesday evening at Newark Airport, waiting to embark on a flight to Munich, two men examined their dark blue boarding passes.

These weren’t your typical boarding passes, mind you.

The cards that had been handed out to each passenger featured the route, of course — “EWR to MUC” in this case — but the usual personal details had been replaced by the words “Giants Fan Flight.”

As part of the New York Giants’ partnership with United Airlines, one of these fan flights has departed Newark Airport for Munich once a day from Wednesday through Friday ahead of the Giants’ game Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

Also featured on those blue boarding passes was a graphic with the New York and Munich skylines, along with a Giants player bridging a football field between them — a perfect depiction of what the Giants are hoping to accomplish with their trip to Munich. The Giants aren’t just playing a game in Germany, they’re aiming to make their mark there and grow an already burgeoning Giants fan base.

While the two men waited to board the flight, they chatted with one another in German, but the English words “New York Giants” and “American football” could clearly be overheard in their conversation.

That kind of brand recognition is exactly what the Giants are hoping for and looking to build upon this week. The flight the two boarded, which featured team towels at each seat, was packed with Giants fans decked out in red, blue and white sweatshirts and hats headed to Germany to watch their team play in this NFL season’s international series finale.

But Sunday’s game is only part of the Giants’ story in Germany.

Earlier this year, the NFL’s International Committee awarded the Giants marketing rights in Germany through the NFL’s Global Markets Program, the franchise’s first foray into the initiative that launched in 2022.

Broadly, the program grants franchises access to international audiences to allow them to try and build fan bases around the world. Previously, without marketing rights, teams were pretty much limited to branding a bar in a particular company as the “team pub.” Now, they can do so much more.

For the Giants specifically, those rights mean they can try to establish a foothold in Germany both through digital marketing and through events — like when former Giants players Amani Toomer and Brandon London announced the team’s selection of tight end Theo Johnson at an NFL Draft watch party this past April in Munich.

So why Germany for the Giants? Why not the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Nigeria, South Korea, Brazil, or one of the many other places other NFL franchises have secured international marketing rights?

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Despite being the 10th team to gain international media rights there, data collected by the NFL told the Giants there are 19.6 million NFL fans in the country. Between that large fan base and the team’s history there — the Giants played a preseason game in Berlin in 1994 — “it just seemed to be the place that made the most sense,” said Nilay Shah, Giants senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy.

It didn’t hurt there’s already a small but loyal fan base due to the team’s history and an engaging fan club, Big Blue Germany, that has an established relationship with the team.

Michael Hotz, the fan club’s second president/finance chair, watched other franchises come into the German market over the last few years and hoped the Giants would, too. After this year’s marketing rights decision, Hotz said, “We know we are something special for the Giants.”

It should be noted that the Giants didn’t know for sure they’d be playing a game in Germany when they applied for marketing rights there. They first knew it might be possible, however, when the NFL announced in January that the Panthers would be hosting a game in Munich this season. The Giants, of course, knew they were scheduled to play the Panthers on the road in 2024 and began preparing for the scenario the game might be played in Germany.

The foresight proved wise when the league schedule — and the Giants’ trip to Germany — became official in mid-May. From there, the Giants could focus on fine-tuning their plans, not just for game week but also the buildup in the months ahead.

There has been a lot that’s gone into that. One piece of their marketing efforts was to team up with legendary German soccer club FC Bayern Munich, with each tapping into one another’s fan bases to promote their respective brands.

Former Giants star Victor Cruz poses for a photo Wednesday with FC Bayern Munich star Harry Kane. The Giants have teamed up with the soccer club as part of their marketing efforts in Germany. (Courtesy of New York Giants)

But the Giants have also engaged with other soccer clubs in Germany. Players from RB Leipzig attended Giants training camp, with videos of the two teams interacting across social media channels both in the United States and Germany.

Among other initiatives, the Giants also invited five German social media influencers and creators, each with millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok, to the season kickoff celebrating the franchise’s 100th season. The group toured New York, attended special team events, as well as the season opener, and shared experiences with followers.

The team also brought back former defensive tackle Markus Kuhn (the first German-born player to score a touchdown in an NFL game) as a German brand ambassador and content strategist for this season. Among his other responsibilities with the team, Kuhn has spent time with Giants players creating fun social content.

Finally, the franchise forged a relationship with a major German-based media company, RTL, to help distribute the content it’s creating. 

“We’re going to be there years to come beyond the game, and so all of our touch points, they’re going to come up until the game, and they’re going to keep going,” Giants integrated marketing manager Marissa Soto said. “Having the game there just accelerates everything we’re doing from a marketing and business perspective, but we’re looking at it beyond the game.”

Still, having the game to promote the Giants brand certainly doesn’t hurt.

“When you can get your players out on the field, that’s a huge win in trying to grow in that affinity,” Shah said.

Beyond all of the work the Giants did in the months leading up to the highly anticipated game — NFL executive Peter O’Reilly said recently that ticket demand for this matchup surpassed that of the league’s first game in Munich in 2022 — the Giants have been trying to make this week special, too.

The team conducted a youth football tackle clinic with the Munich Cowboys, along with hosting other community events. And on Thursday night, the Giants began a three-day takeover of their team pub, Hofbräuhaus Munich, the legendary beer hall that has roots tracing back to the 16th century.

With blue Giants banners flying inside and outside the beer hall, fans mingled excitedly across tables. Some fans, of course, came from New York and New Jersey, thrilled to experience an NFL game in a different culture.

However, for a few special Giants fans already living in Germany, the night felt like validation. The fan club, Big Blue Germany, started a decade ago when a couple of guys met for beers and wanted to talk about the football being played across the Atlantic. Since then, the group has grown to include nearly a thousand members, and with the Giants so focused on building their fan base in Germany, it’s a fair guess the group may soon cross that threshold.

While members of Big Blue Germany have traveled to the United States and London for games, this weekend’s matchup on their home turf is extra meaningful.

“It is something special for us,” Hotz said. “Because we are Big Blue Germany and for the German guys, I would like to say it’s awesome for us.”

(Top photo of Hofbräuhaus: Associated Press)