Reign On: A Social Media Campaign for Monarchs+

A proposal for a multi-platform social media campaign to drive awareness and subscriptions for ODU Athletics’ newly launched Monarchs+ platform developed in partnership with Ryan Parncutt, Director of Athletics Marketing and Social Media.

Organization – ODU Athletics

Penpal mentor – Ryan Parncutt

Campaign type – Social media

Duration – 6 weeks

1.  Executive Summary

Old Dominion Athletics launched Monarchs+, a subscription-based fan engagement platform, in April 2026. This proposal outlines a six-week social media campaign titled “Reign On” designed to raise awareness among ODU students, alumni, and local fans and convert that awareness into active Monarchs+ subscriptions.

The campaign draws on Ryan Parncutt’s expertise in collegiate athletics marketing and his direct knowledge of ODU’s existing social channels, audience demographics, and the goals behind the Monarchs+ rollout. His insight will shape which platforms to prioritize, what content resonates with Monarch Nation, and how to authentically frame the new subscription model to a fanbase accustomed to free access.

2.  Background & Opportunity

Monarchs+ is ODU Athletics’ new subscription platform offering fans tiered access to premium content, early ticket access, merchandise offers, and a daily newsletter called MonarchBrew+. Most importantly, subscription revenue flows directly to student-athletes through revenue sharing making fans active investors in the program’s success.

ODU Sports’ Instagram account currently holds approximately 19,000 followers. For a university with 23,000+ students and 165,000 alumni, that represents significant untapped reach. A targeted campaign timed to the Monarchs+ launch window while the news is still fresh creates a prime opportunity to grow both the subscriber base and the social audience simultaneously.

The challenge: convincing fans to pay for something they could previously access for free. The campaign addresses this by focusing on community identity, student-athlete impact, and exclusive access rather than traditional promotional messaging.

The campaign is built around four content pillars, each designed to appeal to a different segment of Monarch Nation while reinforcing the Monarchs+ value proposition.

3.  Target Audience

The campaign targets three distinct groups, each requiring a slightly different approach. Current students (18–24) are the easiest early win. They’re already on campus, emotionally connected to the program, and active on Instagram and TikTok. The subscription cost is low enough to feel accessible, and the appeal is identity-based: being a genuine, invested part of Monarch Nation, not just a follower. Young alumni (25–40) represent the highest long-term subscriber value. They have disposable income, nostalgia for their time at ODU, and a sincere desire to stay connected to a program they grew up cheering for. This group tends to respond most strongly to the revenue-sharing angle — the idea that their subscription has a direct, tangible impact on current student-athletes. Hampton Roads locals who aren’t ODU alumni round out the picture. They follow local sports and have a regional connection to the program, especially around football and basketball. For them, the appeal is exclusive access and community belonging rather than alumni loyalty.

4.  Content Pillars

👑 Behind the Crown

Exclusive behind-the-scenes access to practices, locker rooms, and team moments that only Monarchs+ members see. This is the campaign’s primary hook, it makes the paywall feel like a privilege rather than a

🎙️ Monarch Voices

Short-form athlete spotlights and personal testimonials. When athletes speak directly to fans about what subscriber support means to them in their own words, not a script, it creates an emotional connection that no amount of promotional copy can replicate.

🔑 The Access Pass

Showcasing real subscriber benefits in action: early ticket access, merch drops, and exclusive events. The goal is to make perks feel tangible and worth pulling out a credit card for, not just aspirational bullet points on a landing page.

📣 Reign On Moments

Fan-generated content and community highlights celebrating Monarch Nation. This pillar builds the social proof and shared identity that turns casual followers into committed subscribers and keeps existing subscribers engaged.

5.  Platform Strategy

Each platform plays a distinct role in the campaign funnel, from initial discovery all the way through to conversion. Platform priorities were shaped by thinking carefully about where ODU’s audience currently lives — and where the biggest untapped opportunities are.

Instagram — Primary Awareness Channel

Reels for behind-the-scenes content. Stories for countdowns, polls, and limited-offer teases. Feed posts for pillar content and athlete spotlights. The link in bio drives directly to the Monarchs+ sign-up page, making it the campaign’s main conversion point.

TikTok — Highest Untapped Potential

Most mid-major athletic departments are still treating TikTok as an afterthought, posting the same content they’d put on Instagram rather than creating for the platform’s native format. ODU’s roster is full of personable, interesting athletes who could do really well on TikTok if given genuine creative freedom. The tone here is candid and authentic, not produced. TikTok is how the current student generation discovers new things to care about, and it’s where ODU has the most room to grow.

X (Twitter) — Real-Time Engagement

Game-day posts that connect fan excitement to the subscription platform. Quick stats, subscriber milestone announcements, and conversational content that builds a sense of community momentum. The framing is always: your subscription supports the athletes you’re cheering for right now.

MonarchBrew+ Email — Conversion Touchpoint

A weekly preview of what paid subscribers accessed that free followers missed. This isn’t about making non-subscribers feel bad, it’s about making the value of a subscription feel concrete and real, which is the moment most people decide to sign up.

6.  Six-Week Campaign Timeline

Week 1 — Launch Announcement Push

Coordinated posts across all platforms announcing Monarchs+. Athlete Instagram Story takeover where players introduce the platform in their own words, authentic, unscripted, direct to fans. The goal is to generate buzz and awareness before the hard sell begins.

Week 2 — Behind the Crown Rollout

The first exclusive behind-the-scenes content drops. Teased publicly on Instagram and TikTok with ‘full access only on Monarchs+’ framing. The idea is to create curiosity about what’s behind the paywall, not resentment of it.

Week 3 — Monarch Voices Athlete Series

Three to four short athlete testimonial videos. Each athlete speaks directly to fans about revenue sharing and what subscriber support means for their day-to-day experience. Personal, genuine, and specific the opposite of a promotional voiceover.

Week 4 — The Access Pass Showcase

Highlight real subscriber benefits in action: early ticket access, merchandise perks, exclusive events. Fan-generated content is encouraged through the #ReignOn hashtag to start building organic social proof.

Week 5 — Community Milestone Push

Celebrate subscriber milestones publicly. Something like: ‘500 Monarchs have joined Monarchs+, are you in?’ This kind of messaging creates real social proof and a sense of urgency without feeling pushy or desperate.

Week 6 — Final Push & Recap

A recap reel of the six weeks. A tease of the next exclusive benefit dropping for subscribers. A final call-to-action that drives remaining conversions while setting up long-term engagement beyond the campaign window.

7.  Sample Content

These prototype posts show what the campaign voice looks and sounds like in practice consistent in identity, adapted in tone for each platform.

Instagram Caption — Week 1 (Launch)

Monarch Nation, something big just dropped. Monarchs+ gives you exclusive access to behind-the-scenes content, early ticket presales, and a direct way to support our student-athletes through revenue sharing. The throne is yours. Link in bio to join. #ReignOn #ODUSports #MonarchsPlus

TikTok Concept — Week 3 (Monarch Voices)

Athlete to camera, locker room, casual tone] ‘Real talk when you buy a Monarchs+ subscription, that money comes back to us. It actually matters. So if you’ve ever wanted to do more than just watch that’s how.’ Cut to game highlight. Text overlay: ‘Join Monarchs+. Support the ones repping your school.’ #ODU #MonarchsPlus

X Post — Week 5 (Milestone)

500 Monarchs have joined Monarchs+ in the first month. 500 fans directly investing in our student-athletes. Next stop: 1,000. Are you in? odusports.com/monarchs-plus #ReignOn

Instagram Story — Week 2 (FOMO Tease)

[Blurred behind-the-scenes clip with a lock icon overlay] ‘Monarchs+ members are seeing this right now. You could be too.’ Swipe up → sign-up page.

8.  Success Metrics

Campaign performance would be tracked across three areas — reach, engagement, and conversion — to give ODU’s marketing team a full picture of what’s working and where to invest for future campaigns.

·      Instagram follower growth of 20% or more over the six-week window

·      Average engagement rate of 5% or higher on campaign posts

·      1,000 Monarchs+ subscribers by the end of the campaign

·      TikTok reached at least 3x the pre-campaign baseline

These targets are ambitious but achievable for a program with ODU’s existing audience base, especially given the timeliness of the Monarchs+ launch. A well-executed campaign in the platform’s first two months creates a foundation that compounds over time.

9.  Mentor Input — Q&A with Ryan Parncutt

As part of developing this proposal, I reached out to Ryan Parncutt with three questions that sit at the core of the campaign’s strategy. His role as Director of Athletics Marketing and social media at ODU makes him the right person to pressure-test every assumption in this plan.

Who is the primary subscriber you’re hoping to reach with Monarchs+?

The honest answer is probably tiered. Current students are the easiest early win they’re already emotionally invested, and the subscription price is low enough to feel like a no-brainer. But the highest long-term value subscriber is likely an alumnus in the 25–40 range: someone with disposable income and genuine nostalgia for their time at ODU who wants to stay connected to the program. Local Hampton Roads fans round out the picture, especially around football and basketball seasons.

Which platforms have the most untapped potential for ODU Athletics right now?

TikTok stands out as the clearest opportunity. Most mid-major programs are still posting Instagram content on TikTok and calling it a strategy. ODU’s roster has athletes who could genuinely thrive on the platform if they’re given creative freedom and not forced into a corporate template. YouTube Shorts is a secondary opportunity — it has better search discoverability and a longer content shelf life than TikTok, which matters for a program trying to build a long-term audience.

What’s the biggest challenge in converting followers into paying subscribers?

The value perception gap. Fans are conditioned to receive ODU content for free, so the subscription ask requires a genuinely compelling exclusive — not just a newsletter or a promo code. The risk is that the perks look better on paper than they feel in practice. The campaign’s job is to close that gap: to make the content behind the paywall feel meaningfully different from what’s free, not just marginally better.

10.  Narrative — How The Quest Came Together

When I first reached out to Ryan Parncutt as part of this penpal assignment, I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d learn. I had a general sense that collegiate athletics marketing was interesting work, but I didn’t fully appreciate how much complexity sits underneath it or how human the job actually is.

What Ryan helped me understand, over the course of our exchanges, is that ODU Athletics isn’t just competing for wins on the field. It’s competing for attention, loyalty, and dollars in a media environment that gets more fragmented every year. NIL, revenue sharing, streaming, and the decline of linear TV have fundamentally changed what it means to be a fan of a college program. Monarchs+ is ODU’s response to that moment, an attempt to build something more durable than a social media following.

Fans won’t pay for something that feels like what they already get for free. The campaign’s job is to make the exclusive content feel genuinely different not just slightly premium.

When I saw the Monarchs+ launch in April 2026, the concept for this project clicked almost immediately. I knew from our conversations that Ryan’s team faces a specific challenge that a lot of platforms run into: how do you get people who already follow you for free to take the step of actually paying? That’s not a technology problem. It’s a storytelling problem.

The name Reign On came from thinking about what ODU’s brand identity actually is at its core. The Monarchs aren’t the biggest program in the country they’re a program that represents Hampton Roads, that has built a fanbase on genuine regional loyalty, and that punches above its weight. A campaign called Reign On honors that without overstating it. It says: This isn’t about making the program look bigger than it is. It’s about deepening what’s already there.

Every decision in this proposal the platform priorities, the content pillars, the audience tiers, and the emphasis on athlete voice over marketing copy comes from applying what I’ve learned in this class to the real-world context Ryan gave me a window into. He was the secret ingredient the assignment asked for. The Quest was figuring out how to actually use it.