How Mint Mobile won The Masters weekend without the expensive sponsorship fee
When the big carriers sponsor the majors, we sponsored the minors — a mini-golf tournament that earned 1.5M+ views during the biggest weekend in golf.
Role
Self-initiated pitch —
led strategy, creative & execution
Brand
Scope
Brand Activation · Influencer · Social Community · PR · Email
The Opening
No one asked for this campaign. Masters weekend was on the calendar, and AT&T and Verizon were lining up to spend hundreds of millions on marquee athletes and tentpole sponsorships. Mint Mobile plays a different game — the value challenger that wins by being sharper and funnier, not bigger.
I saw an on-brand opening hiding in plain sight and pitched the whole idea: a way to earn a share of the biggest moment in golf without anything close to a Masters budget.
The constraint was the whole point. We were never going to outspend anyone for a slice of the actual tournament — so the question I started from wasn't "how do we buy in?" It was "where's the relevance the big spenders are ignoring, and how do we own it completely?"
The Idea
Going big was never the play — it's just not who Mint is. When they go big, we go small. So we invented our own Major: a mini-golf championship, the same weekend as the Masters.
We partnered with Danny Sanicki of Twin Tour Golf — a creator whose entire channel is competitive mini-golf, with a devoted following and, critically, zero prior brand sponsorships.
Masters-style nods made the parody land: a green jacket, a trophy, a caddy, a live leaderboard. Then we pulled real Mint subscribers into it through a qualifier tournament — so the audience wasn't just watching the Mint Mobile Major. Two of them were playing in it.
Why It Worked
Authenticity by selection
A creator who'd never been sponsored meant his audience welcomed the partnership instead of resenting it. They congratulated him on landing it — the opposite of the usual #ad #partner eye-roll.
Build on the format
We added to Danny's existing tournament structure rather than overwriting it. The content still felt like his channel — which is exactly why it performed there.
Integration as comedy
Mint showed up with a "Please Talk" course sign and lines like "kinda like being stuck in a 3-year wireless contract." Jokes the audience quoted back to us — branding that earned its place.
Make the audience the cast
The subscriber qualifiers turned passive viewers into participants and gave the community someone of their own to root for. Participation beats impressions.
The Scorecard
1.5M+
total video views across
33 posts
50k+
total engagements
likes, comments, shares
What The Comments Said
"This is the Masters content we deserve."
— EverydayJayne
"Many people are saying the Mint Mobile Major is the greatest championship in all of sports."
— Fezski
"Flawless integration of Mint marketing copy."
— Dan Mason
"Mint Mobile sponsoring the best TikTok page!"
— Lauren Haen
What It Proved
A challenger brand doesn't have to buy its way into culture. It can earn its way in — by showing up where the big spenders won't, with a creator who hasn't been sponsored into oblivion, and a joke the audience is happy to repeat for free.
The principle travels well beyond mini-golf: find the underpriced cultural space sitting right next to the expensive one, and own all of it.
TikTok is the engine for brand moments like this
Highest views per post, highest engagement, the most quotable comments — and the clearest path to "this thing is happening."
Participation beats impressions
Putting subscribers in the field created stakes and storylines that pure reach never could.
Restraint reads
as respect
The audience explicitly noticed — and rewarded — that Mint didn't overdo the marketing
