From Friday Night Lights to All American, dramas and sitcoms about football have permeated TV networks for decades. In recent years, marketers and brands have looked to get in on the fictional football content game, too.
This year, both Applebee’s and Bud Light introduced football-centric original content that doubled as marketing campaigns. Other brands are a few seasons in: Dr Pepper has been running its satirical college football drama, Fansville, since 2018.
Given how competitive and expensive sports sponsorships can be, particularly when it comes to football, original content can serve as a way to help brands stand out to fans and stretch sponsorship dollars even further, execs told Marketing Brew.
“Having a chance to bring out something further and something separate [than traditional ads] only broadens the connection between what we’re doing with the NFL as a partner versus just a standard television ad and use of marks,” Applebee’s CMO Joel Yashinsky said. “I think we’ve been able to flush out a bigger opportunity.”
Holding hands fans
The idea for Pre-Seasoning – An Applebee’s Training Camp was born after Yashinsky’s team looked for another way to “elevate our partnership with the NFL” beyond ads, he told Marketing Brew. The miniseries is meant to be “a little bit more sticky, a little bit more fun, a little bit longer in the approach” than the usual marketing campaign, he said, and is also aimed at conveying the idea that Applebee’s goes well with football.
To help get that message across, Applebee’s incorporated several NFL stars into Pre-Seasoning, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, and Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
Dr Pepper has taken a similar approach with Fansville, using real college football players in the show since the NIL rule took effect, including Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers in its most recent season. The brand looks for athletes who have an “authentic connection to our brand,” Senior Brand Director Brad Rakes said in an email.
“We aim to show college football fans that no brand understands their fandom like Dr Pepper,” he said.
Bud Light took a slightly different approach to its college football ads this season, partnering not with an athlete but with actor and comedian Shane Gillis. So far, the brand has released two ads with Gillis, and though there isn’t a story throughline like there is with Pre-Seasoning and Fansville, the Bud Light spots feature football-centric plots and run for up to two minutes.
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“The longer-form content captured the iconic Bud Light humor and Shane’s relatable-yet-distinct comedy so exceedingly well, we knew we wanted to lead with the full piece,” Todd Allen, SVP of marketing at Bud Light, said in an email.
Full-field pass
While these branded football series aren’t as long as an episode of House of the Dragon, they’re lengthier than a more traditional 30-second ad. Pre-Seasoning consists of six two- to three-minute episodes. Fansville episodes are typically less than 30 seconds long, but put together as a season, it equates to a few minutes’ worth of content.
To show viewers the full story across a season, Dr Pepper runs Fansville episodes through the college football season on ESPN, CBS, and Fox, Rakes said, as well as on radio and digital platforms and on the brand’s social channels. As a result of its efforts over the years, he said Fansville has helped frame Dr Pepper as a leader in college football while also helping to “drive momentum” in the increasingly crowded soft-drink space.
“We’ve built equity in a campaign that college football fans are excited about and want more of,” Rakes said.
Applebee’s primarily ran Pre-Seasoning on social this year, using media buys across NBC, Peacock, and Amazon for different ads focused on driving people to its restaurants, Yashinsky said. The series is more geared toward brand metrics like engagement and buzz, and in September, about a week after the series debuted, he said he was pleased with the initial results, which included the series getting a mention on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
As of early December, the series had more than 2.5 million views across Applebee’s owned social channels, according to the company. The content turned out to be a “big bang for the buck,” resulting in more episodes than the Applebee’s team initially hoped for after a two-day shoot, Yashinsky added.
Whether the greater football audience appreciates episodic content from brands or not, marketers ask, “Are you not entertained?”