Heated Rivalry Marketing: How Earned Media and Community Turned It Into a Global Moment

We’re not the marketing team behind the show. We’re just like everyone else who watched Heated Rivalry over winter break.

A couple of people on our team went back for a second binge. And yes, we’ve done the thing where you casually tell a friend, “Just watch it. Trust me.”

But at some point we paused and looked at it through a marketing and PR lens, because that’s what we do at ITANIZ.

How did a series like this become globally talked about so fast? And why does it feel like it’s everywhere, even without the kind of massive marketing budget you’d expect from a big studio push?

Here’s what we think happened.

The short version

Heated Rivalry didn’t just get watched. It got carried.

By community. And then by earned media.

That combination creates a flywheel that money can’t easily replicate.

1) Community became the media budget

A traditional media budget buys reach.

A community “buys” repetition.

Every time someone:

• posts a clip

• makes an edit

• argues in the comments

• sends it in a group chat

• rewatches and turns it into a running joke

They’re doing what ads normally do. They’re distributing the story.

That’s why this didn’t feel like a normal marketing campaign. It felt like a collective online behavior. People weren’t just consuming it. They were participating.

And participation is the most powerful form of distribution.

2) Earned media didn’t create the hype, it confirmed it

This is where many brands get it wrong.

They think PR is the starting point. It’s not.

Earned media is usually the middle of the story, not the beginning.

What happens is:

• community makes something unavoidable

• then media outlets cover it because it’s already “a thing”

• and that coverage makes it feel official, credible, and worth checking out

Once the show reached that point, it didn’t need to convince people anymore. The public conversation did the convincing.

3) The earned media flywheel

This is the pattern we see behind moments like Heated Rivalry:

1. Portable moments Scenes and dynamics that still work out of context.

2. Community distribution Edits, reposts, reactions, jokes, shipping, and discourse.

3. Earned media legitimacy Coverage turns “internet hype” into “real cultural moment.”

4. Amplification loops Interviews and appearances become a clip factory.

5. New audiences enter. Fresh viewers binge and join the conversation, and the loop speeds up.

This is why it feels global. It’s not one campaign. It’s a compounding loop.

4) Why everyone could “tap into it”

One of the strongest signals that something has become a real moment is when different media verticals start covering it for different reasons.

Not just entertainment coverage.

Suddenly you see adjacent angles: cast, culture, style, set design, fan behavior, and even business framing.

That’s important, because it means the story has multiple entry points. Different audiences can walk in through different doors.

And once you have that, the reach becomes wide, fast.

What brands can learn from this (without trying to copy a TV show)

Most brands try to buy attention.

But if your goal is momentum, the smarter play is to design content and community behavior that makes attention spread naturally.

Here are three takeaways we use in our work at ITANIZ:

1) Build content that travels, not content that sits

A lot of content is technically good, but it stays trapped on your page.

Travel-ready content is simple:

• easy to repost

• easy to explain

• emotionally clear

• worth reacting to

2) Give people something to do

Community isn’t “followers.” Community is behavior.

If you want earned momentum, you need participation:

• a prompt

• a debate

• a ritual

• a format people recognize and wait for

3) Make it easy for earned media to pick you up

Earned media loves clean angles.

If your story has multiple angles, you don’t need to beg for coverage.

You make it easy for others to write about you.

A personal note

Beyond the marketing lens, I think part of the show’s pull is that the two lead characters feel comfortable and believable together. The chemistry is strong, and the performances feel natural.

Also, placing that kind of relationship inside a hyper-masculine sports world is still not “easy” for a lot of audiences and cultures. That contrast makes the story more interesting and more talked about.

Episodes 4 and 5 are genuinely excellent. If you haven’t watched it yet, I’d recommend it.

And if you do, watch the marketing around it too. It’s a clean reminder that earned media and community are not extras.

When they click, they become the real distribution system.

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Written By Amir Zinati | Founder & Director at ITANIZ | Community & Venture Builder