ESPN | Because Its Gameday
The Business Challenge: ESPN’s College GameDay is more than a studio show, it’s an entertainment brand. But to experience everything CGD had to offer, you had to be tuned into your TV for 3 hours on Saturday morning. ESPN was struggling to maintain CGD’s relevance by reaching a broadcast audience alone. Fan behavior had changed, and ESPN needed to rethink how marketing engaged with them.
The Creative Idea: Give sports fans College GameDay EVERYDAY, not just not just Saturday. Meet them where they are and match their fandom, which is always on, 24-7, with a true social-first content experience where fans could consume CGD from anywhere at anytime. Say goodbye to waiting 153 hours for the next College GameDay, because now, everyday is GameDay.
We focussed the feeds on weekly content designed to give fans a little College GameDay everyday with location announcements, athlete access, campus highlights, on-air-talent exclusives, GameDay behind the scenes and so much more stuff.
We drove traffic to the social only pre-show “Countdown to GameDay” with paid ads.
And we activated on campus to give fans an immersive GameDay
experience and encourage participation in the live broadcast.
Agency EP + Co
CCO John Cornette
CDs Ellen Page, Bee Reynolds
Creatives Rory Jenson, Will Isom, Tim Kang
Brand Strategy Cory Brinson
Account Lead Scott Voege
Producers Jarrell Williams, Jillian Cornette, Jeff Henry
Photography Orlando Assan, Heather Grace