Welcome to The Duels – where we reimagined how professional golf intersected with YouTube, treating creators as core narrative drivers, and not decorative celebrity placements (like some other leagues).
The goal of this campaign was to speak directly to the YouTube golf superfan – introducing them to legendary pro golfers they hadn’t yet seen on the platform, and reminding them that LIV Golf is intentionally unique compared to legacy broadcast tournaments that may have felt less engaging for their viewing habits. We partnered with YouTube’s biggest and brightest creators to develop a series that felt deeply endemic to the platform, with the intent of showing fans of YouTube golf how LIV Golf does the sport differently.
Rather than dropping influencers into isolated moments, the series integrated each creator into competitive teams, ongoing rivalries, and recurring storylines that unfolded across episodes and events on both creator and brand channels.
Built as a five-event global series, The Duels prioritized narrative cohesion over one-off spectacle. Each episode advanced a larger arc – tracking relationships, tension, and momentum – so audiences could invest in the people as much as the competition. This episodic structure marked a first for professional golf, rewarding the repeat engagement and binge-style consumption that’s endemic to YouTube.
Creative decisions were shaped by YouTube behaviors from the start: longer-form storytelling, personality-driven pacing, authentic banter, and competition that didn’t rely on clickbait to earn attention. The platform each episode was hosted on was more than a distribution channel – it was the creative framework. Stakes were real, with $250,000 on the line, reinforcing credibility and keeping the competition grounded in authenticity.
Our 2025 Duels generated more than 77.7M total views across YouTube and supporting social platforms, combining reach from both brand and creators.
The campaign produced 650+ social posts, including more than 60 posts published by the LIV Golf teams and pro athletes and 205+ in-feed posts by influencers and creators, with hundreds more published across brand and creator Stories.
On YouTube, 32 total videos drove 16M views, with the series’ five hero tournament videos garnering 10.5M combined views and more than 6M total hours watched.
Our social content garnered more than 3.5M total engagements and 17.25M media impressions, including features from Newsweek, Hypebeast, Golf Monthly, Golf.com, USA Today and The Dallas Morning News, among others.
