Believe it or not, Dr Pepper was actually worried that college football fans were getting tired of popular pitchman and concessionaire Larry Culpepper before this season. So the soft drink brand that has become synonymous with college football decided to survey fans on whether the Culpepper character, played by actor James M. Connor, had run its course.
What they found was exactly the opposite.
“If anything, fans said they wanted more of Larry,” said Jim Trebilcock, the chief commercial officer who has engineered Dr Pepper’s college football strategy since he took over marketing in 2008. “I was worried that he’d get burned out.”
Dr Pepper came back with its most aggressive campaign in Culpepper’s three college football seasons, creating 11 new commercials with its ad agency, Deutsche. The last one debuted on the night of the CFP championship game last week on ESPN.
“We really sharpened our Larry Culpepper messaging around tailgating,” Trebilcock said. Culpepper toured college football tailgate parties in the obnoxious Tailgate 2000 RV.
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Clemson’s Dabo Sweeney takes a selfie with college football’s favorite stadium vendor.
Photo by: LEROY BURKE
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With that, Dr Pepper created co-branded spots with Kroger and also ran a major retail program with Dollar General.
At the CFP championship in Tampa, Dr Pepper entertained 200 guests from retailers, bottlers and other customers in seven suites at Raymond James Stadium.
After three years as a CFP official partner and sponsor of the national championship trophy, Trebilcock said Dr Pepper’s marketing “really hit stride this year. Larry’s so popular now, we have to get security for him when he goes out.”
I’M WALKING HERE: Tampa’s Riverwalk was the heart of the CFP’s fan activity, marking the first time at a CFP championship that fans could easily walk to the fan fest, concerts, 5K, “Taste of” and other sponsored areas, all along Hillsborough River.
Dos Equis might have benefited the most from Tampa’s centralized fan campus. The Heineken brand came on board as a CFP sponsor last year, but too late to mount much of an activation plan for Phoenix. But Dos Equis was visible just about anywhere along the Riverwalk, providing pop-up bars and a raucous tailgate party the night before the championship game.
The centerpiece of the party was the huge Dos Equis-branded helicopter used in the most recent commercials that show the new “Most interesting man in the world” kicking a field goal with a coconut.
WHITEWASH: One noticeable change in the CFP’s branding in Tampa: Most of the banners featured a white background instead of the black that was used in Phoenix and Dallas. Credit Salt Lake City-based agency Infinite Scale for working with the CFP on the fresh, new look.
Cameron Smith, a partner at Infinite Scale, said the change was prompted by the move to an outdoor stadium in year three of the CFP, as well as a desire to tweak the look.
The agency’s design work showed up on banners at the stadium, hotels, airport, street signs, and other building wraps, as well as the Gasparilla ship that was anchored in the Hillsborough River during the week. The banners were produced and installed by a local agency, OAI Visual Branding in Tampa.
