The BIG Dallas Tailgate
How We Helped Dez Bryant Build One of the Best Game-Day Experiences in the NFL
By Kevin — Relay Marketing
There's a moment at every Big Dallas Tailgate when you look around and realize something genuinely rare is happening. Thousands of fans from both teams — Cowboys faithful and visiting fans who flew in just for this — packed into the same space, sharing the same energy, hours before a single snap has been played. Dez is on the mic. The DJ is going. A celebrity guest the crowd didn't expect just walked through the door. And everyone is staying longer than they planned.
That's what we built. And this is the story of how we got there.
The Idea
When we started working with Dez Bryant on the Big Dallas Tailgate, the core idea was deceptively simple: take one of the most recognizable Cowboys of his generation, put him in front of his city on game day, and give fans an experience worthy of America's Team.
But what made it click wasn't just Dez's name. It was the programming philosophy behind it. Every week, Dez hand-picks celebrity guests who are genuine fans of the opposing team — athletes, entertainers, cultural figures who are traveling to Dallas specifically because they want to be part of this show. That decision changes everything. Instead of a Cowboys-only party, you get an event with a reason to attend from both sides of the aisle. Visiting fans who'd normally show up at kickoff start planning their trips around the tailgate.
The result: 3,000 to 5,000 people inside Texas Live, four hours before kickoff, every home game.
What We Actually Built
The Big Dallas Tailgate ran as a three-hour hosted show, with Hollyhood Bay Bay as MC alongside Dez. Each week featured a different configuration of guests, performances, fan activations, raffles, giveaways, and surprises. No two events felt the same, which kept the audience coming back and kept social media guessing.
On the numbers side, the proof of concept held up:
3–5,000 average attendees per event
2.3 million organic impressions per game
5.7% engagement rate across BDT channels
8,000 unique website visitors per event at bigdallastailgate.com
5.7 million combined social followers across Dez's platforms (@DezBryant)
Past guests included Trevon Diggs, Claressa Shields, Alycia Baumgardner, Ninja, Yella Beezy, Funny Marco, and Gillie Da Kid — a cross-section of sport, music, comedy, and gaming that reflected Dallas's actual culture, not a sanitized version of it.
We also built real brand partnerships around the show. The Betr Picks activation during Cowboys vs. Eagles generated over 1 million cross-platform impressions in a single game week, with Dez-created content, live digital signage, raffle entries tied to app sign-ups, and content captured in the VIP suite. We coordinated a show around the Post Malone x Dallas Cowboys merchandise drop. Each partnership felt native because it was — brands were woven into the show, not bolted on.
The Dwell Time Insight
Here's what took us a while to fully appreciate, and what we think is the most undervalued part of what BDT does:
Fans arrive four hours before kickoff. They spend three hours at the show. They leave for their seats an hour before the game starts.
That's not a tailgate. That's a 2–3x multiplier on the typical fan's stadium dwell time — and every extra hour translates into real, measurable spend on food and beverage, merchandise, and hospitality. We weren't just building an entertainment product. We were building a reason for fans to get to the stadium earlier, stay longer, and open their wallets along the way.
When you frame it that way, the value to a venue or a franchise becomes very concrete.