Marketing Case: Novig Built Hype Around Sydney Sweeney’s Sex Appeal

Sydney Sweeney appeared in an ad wearing almost nothing, covering herself only with balls, rackets, and protective gear. Within a week, the video generated tens of millions of views, sparked backlash from female athletes, and inspired parodies from betting brands. The campaign was commissioned by Novig – a US prediction market where users trade contracts with each other on the outcomes of sporting events. Before the campaign, the brand had almost no Google search interest. The provocation was intentional: Sweeney received an equity stake in the company and, according to Novig’s CEO, she played a major role in shaping both the visuals and the messaging of the campaign herself.

Betting on Provocation

🔵 Ahead of the football season, Novig spent the majority of its marketing budget on this campaign. The company is not trying to win every auction for league partnerships

🔵 The script is built around a play on words: Novig is all about sports, so the ad decided to show only sports. The video also explicitly says that the platform does not offer markets on wars, deaths, or politics

🔵 According to sources familiar with the project, Sweeney chose the music and camera angles and edited the script. She says she is involved in every discussion, from casting to budget

Scale of the Hype

🔴 By September 15, Novig’s post featuring the video had generated more than 12 million views on X and 47 million on Instagram

🔴 According to Google Trends, search interest in Novig rose from 1 to 100 points in five days

🔴 A search query about Sweeney’s ad became the most popular query of the week, outperforming searches about Trump

🔴 Polymarket released its own celebrity-filled video, featuring LeBron James, one day before Novig. On Instagram, it received fewer than 55,000 likes, while Novig’s post with Sweeney generated more than 1.2 million

Hate as Fuel

🔵 Female athletes criticized the campaign, including four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus. The main complaint was that the ad promotes sport through sex and undermines years of work by women in athletics

🔵 Athletes posted training videos with captions such as “this is what a woman in sport looks like.” The Australian Institute of Sport published a similar post using music from the ad

🔵 The video was parodied by betting brands DraftKings and PARI

🔵 The campaign was aimed at men who bet on sports, while most of the criticism came from people who were not its target audience. The response videos themselves generated millions of views and further amplified awareness of the original campaign

Betting on the Next Chapter

🔴 Sweeney responded without comment by posting covers from ESPN’s Body Issue – the annual magazine edition featuring nude athletes

🔴 Novig’s CEO said that the attention generated by the video outweighs the criticism

🔴 The company announced additional videos featuring Sweeney, including content focused on responsible trading. Podcaster Bobbi Althoff, another new Novig partner, also released her own version of the ad

🔴 Sweeney is a co-owner of Novig, which gives her a direct financial incentive to remain closely associated with the brand despite the criticism

Conclusion

Novig has not disclosed how many customers the video brought in. During the first weeks of the NFL season, which coincided with the campaign, trading volume on the platform reached $1.14 billion – sixth place among 11 operators, ahead of Robinhood. A campaign built around this level of provocation can likely generate a significant influx of users through sheer attention: after Sweeney’s previous high-profile campaign with American Eagle, the brand also saw a surge in sales and new customers.