From Big Game to Big Impact: How Untapped Growth and Grain Group are Navigating Live Sports Campaigns with Magnite

Programmatic access to live sports streaming inventory is enabling advertisers to go beyond broad awareness and drive measurable business outcomes with more precise, data-driven campaigns. We recently spoke with Grain Group’s Managing Partner, Agatha Chang, and Untapped Growth’s Managing Partner, Neni Pogarcic, to discuss how the two have partnered, working with Magnite to unlock premium live sports on streaming platforms and drive scalable performance for advertisers.

What role does live sports play in an advertising campaign? As brands push for more measurable outcomes, how do you view the ROI on advertising across live content?

Neni at Untapped Growth:

Live sports campaigns remain one of the few truly exclusive inventory environments, and have traditionally been treated as a premium awareness play, but that’s rapidly changing. As we look to continue tying media investments directly to business outcomes in a shifting media environment, new digital channels and formats offer significant opportunities. The challenge is that traditional sports media – particularly linear TV – can have rigid budget requirements, with less precise targeting, and subpar measurement. With live streaming offering more precise targeting and accountability in how campaigns are planned and executed, live sports can become a true omnichannel growth driver.

Agatha at Grain Group:

That’s exactly what we set out to prove recently, within a live campaign for sports nutrition brand Honey Stinger – that live sports can be part of an omnichannel campaign. We turned a premium game-day presence into something measurable and performance-oriented.

What is making programmatic access and workflows central to live event campaigns?

Agatha at Grain Group:

At Grain Group, we’ve moved away from the ‘spray and pray’ model of high-cost linear TV. For Honey Stinger, we engineered a real-time placement model. By leveraging Magnite’s premium inventory, specifically within high-stakes Big 10 and SEC matchups, we decoupled ‘Big Game’ impact from ‘Big Waste.’ We utilized programmatic workflows to maintain advanced precision, ensuring the brand didn’t just show up, but dominated specific, high-affinity and retail-specific shopping households. We’re treating live sports like a high-frequency trading floor by executing with speed and accuracy.

What specific capabilities enable you to drive efficiencies through live streaming via programmatic channels?

Neni at Untapped Growth:

I think the efficiency comes from a combination of precision and consistency. With Magnite, we can continuously and consistently place the advertiser into the most relevant live game environments throughout the season and amplify reach with relevant OLV, display, and linear inventory.

Agatha at Grain Group:

Our edge lies in our outcome-driven planning approach. While others are satisfied with a broad demographic hit, especially with sports, Grain Group always seeks to connect media investment directly to business outcomes by aligning audience targeting, media environments, and geographic coverage with where the brand can actually convert demand.

For instance, with Honey Stinger, we focused on their core media target clusters in priority retail corridors to maximize the likelihood that every impression would hit a specific business KPI. By keeping 85% of our impressions in live-game environments and synchronizing that live exposure with a sophisticated omnichannel surround-sound strategy, we were able to reinforce frequency across digital channels between game windows, owning the consumer journey. That’s how we delivered 3x the targeted reach compared to the legacy approach.

Do you see programmatic activation becoming the new standard for campaigns around major live sporting events?

Neni at Untapped Growth:

We do. Brands demand more accountability and performance from their media investments, and agencies want to manage investments from a unified platform to enhance pacing and measurement. Programmatic live sports offers a streamlined path forward. It combines the cultural impact and premium attention of live sports with the precision, flexibility, and measurement brands and agencies need today.

Agatha at Grain Group:

The traditional approach of buying a broad audience and hoping for the best is an outdated strategy. We’ve proven you can have both. We don’t think you should have to choose between the cultural gravity of a live game and the accountability of a performance campaign. Live + programmatic is setting a new standard for any tentpole campaign that demands measurable ROI.

What opportunities are you most excited about in the intersection of programmatic and live sports?

Neni at Untapped Growth:

The biggest opportunity is turning live sports into a true, full-funnel growth engine. We’re just starting to unlock what’s possible when you combine premium live environments with data-driven activation and cross-channel orchestration. Being able to connect live game exposure with targeting, social amplification, and measurable outcomes such as search and retail performance is going to be incredibly powerful.

Agatha at Grain Group:

I’m excited about how Grain Group is pushing the boundaries of curated live inventory by connecting the emotional high of a touchdown or basket directly to measurable retail performance and search intent.

Where Live Sports and Programmatic Converge

“What’s especially exciting about this moment is how buyers like Untapped Growth and Grain Group are redefining what’s possible in live sports. Together, we’re seeing a shift from buying isolated, high-profile moments to building always-on, strategic presence across the season – with the ability to align messaging to the moments that matter most.

At Magnite, we’re enabling that by bringing greater precision and speed to live activation, giving brands access to premium inventory in a way that is both scalable and accountable. As programmatic continues to evolve, live sports is becoming not just a cultural touchpoint, but a true performance channel – one that drives measurable outcomes and connects brands more directly to the pulse of the game.” Carolyn Sheflin, Regional Vice President, Independent Demand Facilitation