Football with the boys.
File under: Integrated Marketing Campaigns, Partnerships & Promotions, Fantasy Football
It doesn’t really get any simpler
than, “put the product in the sports guy’s hand and have him look at the camera,” but here are a couple of examples of promotional campaigns I worked on that tried to be more strategic and interesting about it. They both feature Mexican beer brands carving out spaces for themselves during American football season. It’s a critical selling window for beer, but one that is traditionally dominated by the big domestic lights: Bud, Coors, and Miller.
While leveraging former NFL personalities for credibility, we went beyond an expected endorsement message to build narratives that would resonate with consumers and draw them into these brands’ worlds — bringing football to the brands, rather than trying to send the brands into contested territory.
The Corona Hotline
It started in 2017 with the idea that Coach Jon Gruden, already a beloved Corona spokesperson, was best put to work not just as an ambassador of the beer but as a personal coach to anyone looking to find their “gameday beach” — a moment of pure happiness that can be achieved while watching football. Developed in conjunction with the agency Cramer-Krasselt, the Corona Hotline was a surrealist response to two questions:
Who are the players and coaches talking to when we see them on the phone from the sidelines during football games?
Who cares… what if it was regular people on the other side?
2017: The hotline appears
My role here: Creative direction
Creative team: Sarah Altenburg & Will Wilson
2018: The new guy
My role here: Creative direction
Creative team: Sarah Altenburg & Will Wilson
2019: Big beach energy
My role here: Creative direction
Creative team: Sarah Altenburg & Landon Dinnin
The format was pretty much the same for three years, even with Gruden’s departure (back to real coaching) and Tony Romo’s arrival in 2018: the TV spots, created by C-K, depicted football fans calling the hotline for gameday advice, which was dispensed quickly and effortlessly by our laid-back operators.
The print and point-of-sale materials I created with my team prompted people to call the hotline where they could interact with [a pre-recorded] Gruden or Romo for a chance to win various fantastical prizes, like a trip to QB camp or a beachside Big Game party. Each hotline call-in experience, written and produced by me and my team, featured games, quizzes, and other choose-your-own-adventure-style interactions to increase replay value.
After three successful years of establishing the platform, in 2020 we expanded the hotline “world” into the realm of fantasy football.
TV spot by Cramer-Krasselt (not my work).
Retail campaign sample, 2020. Leveraging Tony Romo’s infectious enthusiasm and magnetic personality, we invited consumers to give him a call for a chance to have their fantasy league “sponsored” by Corona — giveaways included league trophies, attire, and a grand-prize trip to host next year’s draft at a beachside resort. More than ever in this recurring campaign, we played into the throwback cheesiness of the hotline format with our design elements.
My role here: Creative direction
Creative team: Sarah Altenburg, Landon Dinnin, and Joel Richter
Photos: Stewart Cohen
As always, our 2020 promotion went big on “retail theater,” giving store owners the opportunity to deck out their accounts and make Gameday Beach a reality.
We introduced the “Lime Time Trophy” (“Limebardi Trophy” was nixed by the legal team) as a new icon for the brand that would give prize winners something to share and compete for in their fantasy leagues for years to come.
All campaign materials enticed shoppers to call the hotline where they could consult with Tony himself. Check out the above audio clip for a sample interaction (callers received one of 20 randomized experiences).
While the result of this sample call is an instant win, you are not a winner.
My role here: Creative direction
Copywriter: Danny Furey
Here’s Tony showing off the trophy in an interactive standee featuring some fun fantasy football pep talks for passersby. Click below to “press the button.”
Vive el Football
Corona’s mass-market appeal and long history in America gives it a little bit of breathing room from its identity as a “Mexican import beer.” Not so much for Modelo, which holds tight to its heritage and remains wildly popular among Mexican-Americans and the Latinx community as a whole.
So when deciding to go for it, so to speak, during football season, Modelo depended on me and my team to deliver a compelling hook that could justify the beer’s place on the gridiron — we had to convince not only consumers but the retailers themselves that Modelo was a worthy beer to stock the fridge with on gameday.
My role here: Creative direction
Creative team: Gaba Gonzalez, Joel Richter, Will Wilson
Photos by Michael Maes
Lucky for us the NFL was continuing its expansion into playing on foreign soil — which began in London in 2007 — with games in Mexico City in 2016 and 2017. We saw this as a perfect opening for Modelo and seized the opportunity by creating a promotion that would send winners to the 2018 game. (The NFL was thinking strategically as well, as football continues to be a fast-growing interest for Mexican-Americans.)
The gritty intensity of football isn’t actually much of a stretch for Modelo’s “Brewed with a Fighting Spirit” positioning, but we got another boost when the brand enlisted three retired NFL greats of Hispanic descent — Roberto Garza, Tony Gonzalez, and Anthony Muñoz — to help us put together a campaign-within-a-campaign that took center stage during the NFL’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.
Photo by Erik Isakson
The program ran in both English and Spanish and was so well received that the brand has since dug deeper into the sport, ultimately scoring its first official team relationship in 2020, sponsoring the Las Vegas Raiders for the inaugural season in their new home.
Produced by Esquire (not my work).
Touchdown!