We are only 6 days away from the kickoff of the 2012 NFL season! So excited to watch actual football and not some meaningless preseason “games”. True to NFL form, the league has done it’s fair share of promoting the upcoming season, but their “Back to Football” campaign over Facebook is a game-changer. Fans can now create their own customized NFL branded cover photos.

I’m not sure why another team or league didn’t think of this earlier, but this is pure genius. NFL fans in particular are extremely passionate about their teams and not afraid to show their allegiances, especially over social media. Why not give the chance for these rabid fans to create their own custom Facebook cover photo to show their team pride? It gives the NFL more branding by giving fans the freedom to choose their favorite team and make a photo to display to all of their friends. The NFL controls the content and messaging of the photo by giving fans a set amount of pictures to choose from and choices of filters a la Instagram. Of course you have to “Like” the NFL in order to access the app (which is a smart tactic to gain more Facebook followers), but I doubt many fans will have issue with that for an opportunity to create something incredibly unique.

Not only does the NFL benefit from this social media marketing strategy, but the local community of your favorite team is supported as well. Every time a specific team is selected for a cover picture, they earn points. The team with the most points will receive an NFL Play 60 United Way refurbishment project. Team community relations departments can promote this contest as well to their fans to help their surrounding community and raise the team profile. The NFL continues to look good to the public by continually publicizing their partnership with United Way and their initiative to end childhood obesity in Play 60.

Now if you don’t mind, I have to get back to creating more epic cover photos. I may lose of couple of hours of productivity today…