Lane Kiffin will appear in this season’s ‘Fansville’ ads from Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper
College football fan favorite Fansville officially becomes the longest-running ad campaign in college football history this year as it returns for its ninth season. The satirical episodic drama from Dr Pepper set in a fictional college town taps into storylines around rivalries, game-day superstitions, and the latest headlines in college football in a way that feels authentic to fans of every team.
“Fansville has lasted nine seasons because it is built on something that has real staying power: the wonderfully irrational passion of college football fans,” said Derek Dabrowski, SVP and Head of Cold Brand Marketing for Keurig Dr Pepper.
Dabrowski said the team asks themselves at the end of every season if there are still “fresh fan truths to uncover,” and the answer continues to be yes.
“College football constantly gives us new material – coaching storylines, rivalries, conference shifts, player movement, traditions, memes and whatever debate has taken over the group chat that week. The sport evolves, but the emotional truth underneath it remains incredibly consistent.”
Now Starring Lane Kiffin
If there’s one person in college football who’s provided storylines over the past year, it’s LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin. It’s not surprising then that he’ll be starring in the latest campaign, “Fandom Never Sleeps.”
“He is one of the most recognizable and talked-about personalities in the sport,” said Dabrowski. “Fans watch what he does, debate what he says and generally have an opinion about him. That makes him a natural fit for a world like Fansville, which has always embraced the personalities, drama, humor and occasional absurdity that make college football unique.”
Kiffin leaned into the creative process, and Dabrowski said some of the moments fans will enjoy the most this season came from Kiffin’s own personality, not from a script.
“Authenticity in sports marketing is difficult to manufacture. The best partnerships work when the person already belongs in the culture you are trying to participate in. Lane fits that nicely.”
Coming Up With New Storylines
Of course, Lane Kiffin won’t be the only story this year. Fans can expect a full season of stories around what it is to be a fan of college football today.
“The best Fansville stories usually begin with a truth where a fan can immediately say, ‘I know that person,’ or, more often, ‘I am that person.’
Perhaps the true magic of Fansville is that Dr Pepper, and the people dreaming up the storylines, are all fans too.
“The goal is not to chase culture from the outside. It is to demonstrate enough fluency in the sport that the work feels like it came from someone who actually understands the joke. That has always been central to how we think about Dr Pepper in college football. We do not want to simply advertise at fans,” said Dabrowski. “We want to fan alongside them.”
Wearing Your Dr Pepper Fandom
Now you can show your fandom for Dr Pepper too with the brand’s new college football merchandise collection. From t-shirts to tumblers, fans can be outfitted from head to toe in Dr Pepper gear this season.
Fansville has grown beyond a traditional advertising campaign,” said Dabrowski. “It has become a world that fans recognize, understand and increasingly want to participate in. The merchandise collection is another way to invite them into that world.”
Dabrowski says it’s one more way the brand is trying to be part of the sport, not just advertise around it.
“If a fan chooses to wear something from Fansville on a Saturday because it feels like part of their college football identity, that is a very different relationship than simply having seen one of our commercials. That is the kind of participation we are trying to build.”
The brand is celebrating fans as well with its first-ever Fan Wall of Fame at Indiana University, an interactive mural experience. Fans can attend the unveiling at 3 p.m. on Friday, September 4th in Bloomington and receive a free can of Dr Pepper and Dr Pepper college football merchandise, while supplies last.
Now that Fansville has made history as the longest-running ad campaign in college football history, how will the brand know when it’s time to move on?
“I often say marketers and businesses get bored much faster than consumers do,” said Dabowski. “The best brand platforms compound over time rather than resetting every year. As long as college football fans keep finding new ways to celebrate, argue and occasionally lose all perspective, Fansville will have stories to tell.”