The Bay Area Host Committee knew it faced an uphill battle to excite the locals for Monday’s CFP title game, as the greater S.F. region is not seen as a college football market. So the committee held its powder until late August, and only then started the painstaking work of activating a championship game more than 830 miles from any team that finished in the Top 15 of the CFP rankings. “One of the things we found in the Bay Area, in particular, is that people focus on things when they are more in view, so not quite as far out as planning for years in advance,” said 49ers VP/Special Events Patricia Ernstrom, who also is serving as the Exec Dir of the CFP National Championship Host Committee. As the Fan Fest and other championship weekend events kick off Friday, the size and enthusiasm levels of the crowds gathering in Santa Clara and San Jose remained an open question. Secondary market ticket data suggests depressed interest in the game itself, and no one involved knows what to expect from unaligned local fans. At the centerpiece of the four-month buildup was the campaign “Guess Who’s Coming?” orchestrated by Baker Street, S.F. It included social media and outdoor advertising, including a “takeover” of the CalTrain station in Mountain View, home to Google, which sits about eight miles from Levi’s Stadium and 15 miles from downtown San Jose. The CFP bought out ad spaces there and also approached commuters to pitch the game, interactions they turned into social content. The host committee also brought “pep rallies” to colleges and corporate campuses at Twitter, Adobe, Playstation, several We Work offices, and did 15 football watch parties at bars and restaurants.
Plaza de Cesar Chavez will be transformed to mimic a gameday experience with an ESPN broadcast spotBEN FISCHER
EXTENDING ITS REACH: The CFP for the first time will let local residents attend the Fan Fest for free on Friday. The event normally is only free to game ticket holders. The adjacent Plaza de Cesar Chavez will be transformed into “The Quad,” designed to mimic a campus gameday experience with an ESPN broadcast spot. Discovery Meadow Park, about 12 minutes away by foot, will host free concerts in the evenings after the Fan Fest closes. Saturday’s media day will be at SAP Center. Asked about expectations for local attendance on Friday, Enstrom shrugged in uncertainty, and said, “I hope everybody takes us up on it." With the spread-out geography of the Bay Area a natural challenge -- Levi’s Stadium is at least an hour from S.F. by car or train and at least 20 minutes from downtown San Jose -- the host committee did its best to pack as many ancillary activities into central San Jose as possible. They hope fans will gravitate to a convenient, walkable destination. “One of the things that’s great about San Jose and the South Bay is you have such a huge population within such a close proximity to downtown, but downtown feels like a small town, for an event like this it’s the best of both worlds,” Enstrom said. The Host Committee’s community sponsors include Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose; San Jose Int'l Airport; the Tech Museum of Innovation; Bay Print Solutions; Standard Party Rentals; Stuart Event Rentals; Scott’s Seafood San Jose; Le Boulanger; the Mountain Winery; and Sushi Confidential.
