From Cubs dreams to Hawkeye success
With the 2024-25 Hawkeye sports season underway, Brandee Britt is happy she’s not a reporter covering the Chicago Cubs.
That was the job she dreamed of growing up, before an internship with the University of Iowa Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as a first-year student at Iowa changed her career trajectory.
“You just never know where life is going to take you,” says Britt, director of social media and digital strategy for Iowa Athletics. “I think 18-year-old me would be really proud. I don’t think I could have imagined where I’d end up. Some people work in my field their whole career and never get to work a national championship game. I’ve done it twice.”
Brandee Britt cuts down a piece of the net after the Iowa women’s basketball team won the Big Ten tournament.
Britt grew up in Plano, Illinois. Along with her passion for sports, she says she always had a knack for writing and storytelling. Journalism, she says, was the perfect way to unite her two loves.
“And that led me to Iowa,” says Britt, who graduated in 2015 with BAs in journalism and mass communication and sport studies. “I remember my dad driving me here for a visit. I was just so enamored by everything. I loved that they had a dedicated building to journalism, that it was a priority here.”
Britt says she appreciated the many hands-on opportunities and field experiences the School of Journalism and Mass Communication offered.
“It started with an intro class in media storytelling where I was able to get my hands on a camera for the first time,” Britt says. “Video camera, photo camera, audio — I just really loved that I got a chance to do a little bit of everything so I could figure out what I really wanted to pursue.”
Britt says she thought she was a good writer coming into college, but Iowa made her better.
“I was surprised by how much I didn’t know, and that seems silly, but you’re just so naïve,” Britt says. “Iowa teaches you how to write clearly and concisely — and that is a skill that will take you far in whatever field you go into. Now, when I’m working with students who have majors such as sport and recreation management, I encourage them to take a journalism or writing class. Because if their writing skills aren’t honed, it’s going to set them back.”
When Britt started at Iowa, she planned to go into broadcasting, but an internship in athletic communications changed that.
“I didn’t know that was a job that existed,” Britt says. “It’s funny because I now work in social media and digital media, which existed when I was in college but nowhere near how it exists now. The job I’m in now didn’t exist when I started college. It’s pretty cool how that all has transformed.”
“As a woman in sport, I feel really empowered here, and it’s because of the people around me. Walking into Kinnick Stadium for the Crossover at Kinnick in 2023, I kept thinking about my younger self and the phrase, ‘Look how far we’ve come,’ which rings so true.”
After Britt’s graduation, Iowa Athletics hired her as an assistant director of athletic communications, mainly covering the Hawkeye softball and volleyball teams.
“It was pretty rigorous. I was traveling all fall and all spring,” Britt says. “But I was young, and it was fun, and it was a unique time to be about the same age of our student-athletes while I was traveling with them and covering them. I worked hard and learned a lot and moved to the women’s basketball athletic communications job.”
When Iowa Athletics decided to create a position dedicated to social media and digital marketing, Britt was interested.
“I had a knack for social media and transforming the accounts I was working on,” Britt says. “We have 22 sports, and they were all doing their own things, so we started putting some strategy behind our accounts that hadn’t existed previously.”
Britt says the Hawkeye women’s basketball social media channels are a good example of what her team has been able to do.
“Obviously we had Caitlin Clark, who is incredible, but I think people connected to our team in part because of the things that we were doing on social media,” Britt says. “Because we have such an amazing photo, video and graphic design team, people get to see who our student-athletes are as people, and they form a connection to them. It all kind of takes off from there.”
During the 2023-24 academic year across the 22 Hawkeye sports’ social media accounts:
- 634,644,239: Number of social media impressions, meaning more than 634 million people had eyes on Hawkeye content.
- 51 million: Number of likes, retweets, shares, commenting, etc.
- 51,000: Number of pieces of content posted across all accounts.
The recent historic success of the women’s basketball team, including competing in the national championship game the past two years, also has highlighted Iowa’s proud tradition in women’s athletics and lifting up generation after generation of women in sport.
“As a woman in sport, I feel really empowered here, and it’s because of the people around me,” Britt says. “Walking into Kinnick Stadium for the Crossover at Kinnick in 2023, I kept thinking about my younger self and the phrase, ‘Look how far we’ve come,’ which rings so true. I have a specific memory of telling someone I wanted to go into broadcast sports, and they said, ‘But you’re a girl.’ Now I run social accounts for a huge sports platform. The Iowa Hawkeyes are a worldwide brand. I feel lucky and honored to be here for this part of history.”
Working with coaches, student-athletes, and student workers is the best part of the job, Britt says.
“And in this world of name, image, and likeness, I’ve gotten to really sit down with our student-athletes and talk about, ‘What’s important to you? What do you want help with? How can we assist you in terms of your social presence?’” Britt says. “I can’t help them make a deal, but I can help them have a good enough social presence to get one. That’s been really fun and new and different.”
So, does Britt ever wish she was covering the Chicago Cubs?
“It’s game day 162 times a year! That’s a lot for one sport,” Britt says. “I love that I get to work with a variety of sports. I like that each team challenges me in a different way, makes me think in a different way. Because what’s important to the women’s gymnastics team is different than what’s important to our men’s wrestling team. It always keeps me on my toes.”
