It’s not easy getting from Colorado Springs, CO, to Columbia, SC, in 48 hours — at least for an 18-wheeler and two vehicles filled with 12 field staffers.
But that’s what a credit card has to do these days to stand out from the pack.
Looking to literally drive its way into the world of sports sponsorships — territory dominated by its larger competitors — Discover Card approached TV sports network ESPN last year about developing a campaign around its popular College GameDay football show.
“Visa has the Olympics and MasterCard is big with Major League Baseball,” explains John Birmingham, Discover Card’s director of advertising and brand management. “We wanted to find something that had mass appeal but that we could own.”
More specifically, Discover wanted to build brand affinity and relevance with the diverse college football audience while driving card usage and traffic to its Web site.
First on the agenda was a season-long national contest offering GameDay fans a chance to co-host the end-of-year show. Dubbed the Discover Gets You on GameDay Challenge, the contest asked fans to pick the winners of select college games at discovercard.com. The top 25 contestants submitted taped auditions judged by the show’s producers.
But the heart of the campaign was the Discover Card Tailgate, a 48-foot tractor-trailer containing a replica of the ESPN broadcast studio that was dispatched to 13 different college campuses during the season before hitting the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, for a grand finale.
The entourage would arrive at the designated campus on Wednesday, spend a day setting up, then host two days of activities before serving as the warm-up act for GameDay’s live pre-game broadcast on Saturday.
Those Wednesday arrivals weren’t any pooch punt: ESPN wouldn’t decide where to send GameDay next until after each week’s games were played. That meant Tailgate’s crew had to scramble to set up the logistics and get to the next campus in time.
Ready for the Snap
The centerpiece of the tour’s activities was the booth offering videotaped “auditions” for the show. All contestants were e-mailed a photograph of their tryout, and each week’s top participant won a Sega Dreamcast.
Fans also could meet and toss a ball around with GameDay’s hosts, practice passing, and play wide receiver for a mechanical quarterback. Discover customers who presented a retailer receipt of $25 or more paid with their card that week gained access to the VIP Grandstands, which offered prime seating for the GameDay broadcast. (Cardholders could also score $10-off coupons for purchases of at least $50 at the tour’s retail sponsor, Foot Locker, New York City.)
As buzz grew, the Tailgate became a focal point for pep rallies and other on-campus events. ESPN Radio often broadcast its weekly GameNight show from the truck.
“We were able to drill deep into the passion of college football and make the interactive components as authentic as possible,” says Rick Miller, director of client services for Marketing Werks, Chicago, which handled.
More than one million people attended Tailgate festivities, including 250,000 who actively participated. About 50,000 premiums were distributed and 3,330 auditions recorded. By the end of the season, 80 percent of GameDay fans could identify Discover as show sponsor, and more than 40 percent of cardholders polled said the sponsorship made them want to use their card more.
Riverwoods, IL-based Discover is developing a tour for this season. “We’ve just scratched the surface on this,” Birmingham says. “We’re looking to further enhance the fan experience.”
And now they know a short cut from Colorado Springs to Columbia.
Supporting Cast
John Birmingham, Jennifer Murillo, Discover
Rick Miller, Jennifer Baker, Marketing Werks
Sean Hanrahan, Patricia Betron, ESPN
Lee Poskanzer, Jennifer Pugliese, Foot Locker
Network
