The 2019 Heisman House campaign exceeded expectations by tightly entwining college football insights with Nissan’s new suite of intelligent mobility tech. As the lead brand strategist on this project I briefed creative directors, integrated media teams and ESPN on product insights, college football trends, and new age ways to prioritize branding.
I worked diligently with our analytics team to set up an in-depth campaign survey as well as partnered with our audience team to isolate interesting fan behaviors. These efforts helped the team architect a robust comms plan to meet our business objectives and increase Nissan’s association as an auto tech leader.
Case Study: 2019 Heisman
OBJECTIVE
Generate awareness for Nissan’s brand
Build positive opinion around Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies
The common troupes of College Football like rivalry superstitions, fan excitement, mascot antics contribute to fantastical creative tone
- 2018 Competitive Audit
Raw insights
Fun to Drive
#1 priority of college football fan vehicle shoppers
3.5x
more likely to be early adopters of technology and gadgets
Wednesdays
Trash talk on Twitter & Instagram peaks midweek as fans get antsy for bit football matchups
STRATEGY:
ON THE COUCH IN THE HEISMAN HOUSE
Only Nissan’s Heisman House lets you step inside college football and hangout with the greats. Connect college football fans to our brand through content that combines insights, Nissan’s vehicles and tech.
The 12th Men & Women
These passionate 12th men/women are fired up all week for the intensity of their holy day — Friday/Saturday.
They're eager for a story to emerge, patient for their team to bond and hopeful for where the season may take them.
Rivalries engulf entire regions, divide families and transform friends into foes all in the hope of scoring 365 days of bragging rights. They crave a shared sports experience, honor traditions, get hyped on rivalries and want to know everything about the players.
CREATIVE IDEA
ROAD TO THE HEISMAN HOUSE
Road to the Heisman house
Rookies must pay their due.
Proving yourself, staking your claim and fighting for your school
is a full-time gig in the Heisman House.
When everyone in the house is a winner – losing even the smallest thing stings a lot
Creative Showcase
Road to the House
Our launch spot introduces the Heisman House cast for the first time while driving. We were able to naturally showcase the benefits of various new voice enabled connectivity features
Bo vs Alexa
Combining the insider knowledge of Bo’s renaissance man talents we were able to humorously showcase the insanely smart Nissan Rogue with Alexa integration.
Comms Plan
Native Previews
These native previews were shot for directly for Instagram & Snapchat user behaviors. They helped push fans to check out our vignettes on YouTube while also added realism to the Hiesman House.
Gifs & Stickers
College football season boasts one of the largest and most intense fanbases. We mined data corresponding to the top 100 searched & used terms on Giphy.
We then had our Heismans’ act those actions out. To reach these fans where they trash talk we developed both stickers and gif packs to build message linkage to the Nissan Heisman House
Results
+11pt consideration
increase in brand consideration due to the 2019 campaign
+24pt awareness
awareness increased sharply due to combined social & television efforts
4x social sharing
social sharing took-off as more bite sized assets were created for fans
700k votes
Twitter voting performed near record high despite Burrow being the Heisman lead contender