Taco Bell on Thursday signed a multiyear agreement with ESPN and the College Football Playoff. The QSR has been a BCS partner since '06. Taco Bell's first initiative under the new agreement is to create the first student section for the CFP, offering 3,000 seats -- 500 students from each of the schools represented at all three games. Taco Bell and ESPN will also reserve 60 seats -- 10 per school, per game -- for the most dedicated fans. Current students can enter the most-dedicated fan contest by following @ESPNCFB on Twitter and Instagram, then posting a photo showing his or her school spirit with the hashtag #livemasfans (
THE DAILY). AD AGE's Maureen Morrison noted the seating area will be called the Live Mas Student Section. The campaign is "clearly one to appeal to the chain's core demographic: men in their late teens and early 20s." The participating schools' athletic departments "will work with Taco Bell and ESPN to select the ticket winners." In addition to the social-media effort, the campaign, created by ESPN's in-house creative agency CreativeWorks, "features a 30-second spot and a 10-second spot starring college football studio host and broadcaster Rece Davis and featuring the University of Oregon" (
ADAGE.com, 11/6).
