Fandom Is Identity.
Stephanie Dittmer Rogers is EVP of Marketing at the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied franchises in American sport. She leads brand, content, community, and marketing strategy for a team with the third-largest fan base in the NFL and a North Star called History of Innovation that stretches back 80 years.
“Fandom is part of your identity. It is the first thing people tell you about themselves.”
Stephanie Dittmer Rogers is a sports marketing leader who has spent her career at the intersection of fandom, storytelling, and brand building. As EVP of Marketing for the San Francisco 49ers, she leads brand strategy, content, and marketing across a franchise with one of the most loyal and geographically dispersed fan bases in professional sport.
Dittmer Rogers grew up in Iowa and came to sports marketing from a background in communications and marketing. She joined the 49ers organisation and has spent years building the brand across a transformative period that included the opening of Levi’s Stadium, Super Bowl 50, major concerts from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, and the ongoing evolution of how NFL teams connect with fans in an increasingly global media landscape.
Her marketing philosophy is built on a single principle: extend the touch point. Every activation, every piece of content, every partnership is an opportunity to deepen a fan’s sense of belonging to something larger than themselves. The IGYB culture, I Got Your Back, runs from the locker room into every marketing decision the team makes.
“We hosted Super Bowl 50, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift. I pinch myself that I get to work on this brand.”
“Consumer brands spend billions trying to manufacture what sports franchises inherit.”
Consumer brands spend billions trying to build the kind of loyalty that sports franchises inherit. The 49ers do not ask fans to care. Fans already care at a level that defines how they see themselves. Dittmer Rogers’s job is to honour that identity and extend it, not to manufacture it from scratch.
“The game is three hours. The season is eighteen weeks. Fandom is year-round.”
A game is three hours. A season is eighteen weeks. But fandom is a year-round state of mind. Dittmer Rogers’s strategic imperative is to find every moment, from signing day to training camp to a Tuesday social post, where the team can make a fan feel more connected to something they already love.
“The 49er came to California in search of something bigger, and we honour that spirit.”
The franchise’s namesake, the gold rush prospector, embodies a spirit of bold pursuit that runs from early championship eras to the Silicon Valley environment in which Levi’s Stadium sits. Dittmer Rogers uses that heritage not as nostalgia but as permission to keep taking creative risks in how the brand shows up.
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