Fan experience is a core focus for building brand love.
Julie Bowerman, CMO for North America, Kellanova
Joe Favorito—a sports media, marketing and branding consultant who’s worked with the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and United States Tennis Association—points to USAA’s full-season commitment to the Army-Navy Game that now crosses all college sports, Werner ladders’ March Madness sponsorship that extended to conference and division championships, and Duke’s Mayo Bowl sponsorship and product placement as examples of the dedication required to successfully take ownership of a marquee event.
“If you’re going to be a bowl sponsor, you start in August with the conference media days and you do something every week in some city within those two [bowl] conferences, and you have arguably 24 different schools you can activate against that are relevant to that marketplace,” Favorito said. “That keeps tying back to whatever the bowl is during the year.”
Filling the bowl
Before Kellogg’s split into the Kellanova snack company and the WK Kellogg Co. cereal brand last year, it made significant investments in college football across multiple brands. In 2019, it began dumping Frosted Flakes on winning players while sponsoring the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
As Kellanova’s Bowerman points out, the company’s desire to “show up in places where fans would like to see us, even if they don’t expect to” has made its Cheez-It brand an official sponsor of the College Football Playoffs for five years. Leading up to the postseason, Cheez-It partnered with ESPN to create branded content with ESPN anchors and former professional athletes. It contributed to the CFP Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that allow college players to donate to teachers and schools.
Cheez-It has spent six years with the Citrus Bowl, introducing its Prince Cheddward character there in 2021 and becoming the game’s title sponsor in 2023. The Citrus Bowl’s organizers at Orlando’s Florida Citrus Sports also worked with Kellanova on the inaugural Pop-Tarts Bowl, giving the company and Weber Shandwick a rare shot at bowl-season synergy when they had new character Ched-Z emerge from a giant box of Cheez-Its with a “NON-EDIBLE MASCOT” sign after the Pop-Tart’s grisly demise.
“The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl sponsorship provides Cheez-It with an opportunity not only to capitalize on that snacking occasion … but also reach a national audience of fans tuning in across different generations, cultures and cities/towns,” Bowerman said. “The Pop-Tarts brand has always been focused on celebrating fandoms, [but] this year we were excited to tap into an even bigger fanbase—college football fans.”
