Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Interesting people, insightful points of view and incredible stories on what’s popping and not popping in marketing, tech, and culture you can use to win immediately. Brands, Beats and Bytes boldly stands at the intersection of brand, tech and culture. DC and Larry are fascinated with stories and people behind some of the best marketing in the business. No matter how dope your product, if your marketing sucks your company may suck too. #dontsuck
[00:00:00]
DC: Brand Nerds. Brand Nerds. Brand Nerds. Oh, it's a New Year. I hope it's a happy new year for most of you all Brand Nerds. Mine is kind of up and down so far, but that's life. But we are back at you with a special edition of Brands, Beats and Bytes which we call what's popping. You know what it is Brand Nerds. What's popping? There are things that are on my mind, maybe Larry's mind, maybe our guest mind. And it's typically topical. And this one is super topical because it has to do with college football, college football, specifically the College Football Playoffs. So that's the "what" this is going to be dropping just before the CFP game, which is going to be at the Hard Rock in Miami, Florida, which will feature [00:01:00] the University of Indiana. Hoo! Hoo!! Hoo! Hoosiers! Okay. The you, the University of Miami. So these are the two teams, and we're dropping this before that game. So that's the what in the, what's popping. But Larry, I gotta get to the who.
LT: Yes.
DC: I gotta get to the who, who are we having this conversation with Larry in, uh, in what's popping?
So, let me break it down a little bit before Larry, you do your bio thing. I like analogies. Y'all know that about me, Brand Nerds. And one of my analogies is you learn the most about someone in two circumstances if you live with them. Or if you've been on the set with them. Okay. Alright. This is one of the two.
I'm telling you, Brand Nerds, for those of you have who have been, who have lived with someone and been on the set with someone, you know, these [00:02:00] like 15, 16, 17 hour days. You learn a lot about them.
LT: And there's a lot of downtime too. That's what you,
DC: there's a lot of downtime, there's a lot of, and there's also a lot of stress, right?
There's a lot of stress. It's very much like a relationship. All of the things going on a relationship. So this next guest, uh, Brand Nerds, I had the great pleasure of being on a set with this dude for probably 12 hours, maybe a little more. We'd never worked together before. We had pre-production meetings before and Brand Nerds for those of you all who've been in pre-pro meetings, you know, like it, I, it was remote.
You hear someone talking. You go, excuse me, Brand Nerds. Okay, who was that right there? Because it was so smart. And so I started to zero in on this voice. I'm like, who is this cat? Like, everything that he was saying was on point, and I'm kind of in the background and I'd say a couple of things that he would kind of pick [00:03:00] up on them.
This is a major production, we'll get into that later, a major production. Didn't we get on set, Larry? We're out in California, so we're out on set old, what they call the old Disney Ranch. So now we, now, now, now we're like in, in the, in the grind of it. And this dude's trying to manage a production with two major brands.
We'll get into that, like two major brands with, with, with similar, but also sometimes different objectives. And so he's on one side, and I'm on the other Brand Nerds. I'm on the other with my, with with our client, and there were a couple of times where things got a little tense. They got a little tense on set.
This dude never wavered. He never wavered. He always had a solution in mind to resolve whatever happened, and he was so skillful at it. I was like, I, you and I, Larry, we could, we could ride with this dude anywhere. So Brand [00:04:00] Nerds, it, it is, it is a great pleasure to have this particular dude separate from all of his knowledge, it's expertise in marketing and branding and sport, but just this good human on the line.
Larry, can you tell the peoples who we have in the building today.
LT: DC, great setup. We have Ryan Lehr in the building today. Welcome, Ryan.
Ryan Lehr: Welcome fellas. Thank you so much. Uh, with an intro like that, I feel like I shouldn't even say anything. I don't wanna, that was, so, that's such a, what a wonderful intro. I don't think I've ever been introduced with, uh, such, you know, passion and thoughtfulness.
Thank you DC.
DC: Man, we're just getting started.
Ryan Lehr: Very kind.
LT: We're just getting, we're just getting started, Ryan, and you know, we're not gonna, uh, because it's a what's popping. We're not gonna get into Ryan's full bio. We're gonna give you the Twitter version, uh, for Ryan. And then we're gonna set some context for this great conversation that DC and I are, uh, going to have [00:05:00] with Ryan here today.
So Ryan is currently Co-chief Creative Officer for Deutsche. and Ryan has been with the agency and on the Dr. Pepper account since 2012 when he first started as an associate creative director. Started associate creative director. Now he's co-chief Creative officer for Deutsche.
So Deutsche is the creative agency responsible for the incredible Dr. Pepper Fansville campaign. As the avid Brand Nerds know, Dr. Pepper earned the first annual Brands Beats and Bytes I wish I did that Grand Prix Banger Award. This was our most prestigious award for a campaign other marketers everywhere secretly wish they had on their reel.
It combines bravery, originality, craft, and undeniable commercial impact. For those not familiar with Fansville, Dr. Pepper and Deutsche immersed themselves in college football culture, attending games and tailgates to gather insights into the [00:06:00] extreme passion and strangeness of fandom. The idea was to create a TV drama, a parody of high school sports shows.
Like Friday Night Lights focusing on a fictional town obsessed with a rivalry between state and tech teams. Ryan and his team were the creators of this campaign from the beginning, and that's key Brand Nerds from the beginning with the first Ville spot airing in August of 2018. For context, this is the same season that Clemson won the the CFP with Trevor Lawrence as their QB, who's now doing great finally with the Jacksonville Jaguars, even though they were just eliminated.
So since that time, Dr. Pepper has climbed from the number four soft drink in the US to the clear number two brand on the heels of this great campaign, which has won numerous awards including a Cleo. So this is the, the context that Brand Nerds that we're talking about, um, and what's happened here, Brand [00:07:00] Nerds, there's a lot more info on this great campaign in our 2025 Brand Bangers year, year-end award show, and also the podcast with former Dr. Pepper CMOs, Jim T and Andrew Springate as or as DC calls 'em the "gatebaby". If you want to learn more about this campaign, which we get into a lot of the intricacies of those, of that great Fansville campaign. So with those chops, Ryan is the perfect person to help us discuss the CFP. Again, that's the acronym for College Football Playoff for those Brand Nerds, not college football fans.
Here's some quick context for you. Prior to 2015 college football season, there was not a real process for a champion to be crowned on the field. Most of the time it was done by sports writers who voted on the team, they felt was the National Champion. Since 2015, hence the name, the College Football Playoff.
There is now a playoff system in place, which originally had four teams, was expanded to 12 a couple of years ago, and more than likely, [00:08:00] sometime soon will be expanded again. So, okay, Brand Nerds, let's give some quick fan and consumer context to the CFP. According to market research firm, Ipsos college football fandom grew in 2025 to 32% of all adults in the US from 30% of all adults in 2024.
For context, the NFL is number one at 45%, and that stayed the same from 2024 with MLB at 31% in 2024, which grew to 34% in 2025. So college football's just right there with MLB. A little bit behind on the 2025-2026 CFP TV ratings front. The CFP quarterfinals average 19.3 million viewers across the ESPN cable networks, which is up 14% from last year.
The Indiana, Alabama Rose Bowl topped the charts with 23.9 million viewers, up 13% from Ohio State, Oregon last year, which was at at 21 [00:09:00] million, and it's the largest audience in the two years of the 12 team college football playoff format. Surpassing last year's Ohio State Notre Dame National Championship, which had 22 mil. 22 million. So think about it, the quarterfinals had almost two more, 2 million more viewers than the championship game did last year. So we're just giving you the context Brand Nerds to where college football is really kicking. So Brand Nerds, as you know, fan interest is the fuel to all of this. With this great interest, brands leverage the fanaticism, which again, fan is short for fan for fanatics to strengthen connections with these fans who are in the target audience, just like Dr. Pepper has done so successfully. A quick perusal for corporate involvement, of course, along with the Dr. Pepper Fansville campaign. Dr. Pepper is actually the sponsor of the actual National Championship Trophy. AT&T is the title sponsor also, uh, Modelo is the official beer [00:10:00] sponsor for CFP. Given the disparate nature of college sports, and even more so with college football, there are so many Fidos involved in college football, including the CFP, of course, the NCA, the conferences themselves, the A CC, Big 10, SEC, et cetera, the schools themselves, and all the different media partners that are involved.
Consequently, there are many brands in the mix with college football focus, such as our friends at Aflac. Our previous and also our previous employer and direct competitor to Dr. Pepper, Coca-Cola is very heavily invested in, in, uh, college sports and college football. There's Capital One. There's Great Clips, Geico, to name a few.
Also, how about Home Depot? Who, if you think about, in many ways, is really synonymous with college football since they have been the longtime title sponsor for the incredibly popular ESPN College Game Day Show. In lots of ways, game Day is basically the unofficial home for college football since ESPN is the CFP broadcaster.
[00:11:00] And oh, by the way, home Depot never happens without our great friend Tim Spengler imploring the folks at Home Depot in the 1990s to just try it for one year. Now, 30 plus years later, it's going stronger than ever. Clearly, CFP is becoming more entrenched in the national consciousness and is growing more and more each year.
We thought with the impending final game between what has become the juggernaut of the Indiana Hoosiers, iu, and by the way, Ryan is wearing a hat to show his colors versus the juggernaut of yesteryear and is reemerging. Now the u as DC said the hurricanes of Miami, CFP is popping. So DC What say you?
DC: Fantastic setup Larry.
Um, we did that because some of our Brand Nerds Ryan, are big time sports fanatics. Some of our Brand Nerds, they don't care. So that setup sets the table for this conversation and, uh, Brand Nerds. I wanna bring you [00:12:00] to something that Larry said in the introduction of Ryan. He said, when this campaign started, Dr. Pepper was number four, share number four in this country. Now that this campaign has been running, it's now in season eight. Dr. Pepper is number two. It passed Pepsi last year, uh, in, uh, in share number two. Dr. Pepper is bigger than Pepsi Cola. Let that sink in for a little, a little while. Brand Nerds, I mentioned this, Larry, because oftentimes in our, in our space, we get just so excited about the sexy awards, like the Grand Lion and the Cleos and all of this.
And what we as brand builders Ryan, what we think is, well, are you selling anything? And what this says is that Ryan Lair, his partners, they don't just [00:13:00] create fantastically entertaining, culturally relevant marketing. They sell stuff. With their client, Dr. Pepper. They sell stuff.
So I wanted to start with that. The next is, we gotta talk about this hat. Okay? We gotta talk about this IU hat. Brand Nerds. Brand Nerds. So check it out. As, as Larry has said, Ryan is sitting up here on the screen in front of me. You, you guys can't see him unless you guys are watching YouTube. So he is got this IU hat on.
Now what you don't know brand nerds is that Ryan, myself and Andrew Springate, gate baby, former CMO, at, uh, at Dr. Pepper, Keurig Dr. Pepper at the time. He also vitally important to Dr. Pepper becoming number two as well as the whole brand team, management team over at Dr. Pepper. So I wanna be clear about this.
My Dr. Pepper fam, some of you all I know. This is not some situation where Ryan's on here trying to beat his chest going, [00:14:00] Hey, I want to talk about how Deutsche has done this Fansville campaign. That's not Ryan's personality. He didn't even, he was a little reluctant to do this. His first question, Larry, as he can remember, it was like, well, can we get some of the Dr. Pepper people on here with me? He talk about this. We said, no, no. Ryan, we wanna talk to you. So I'm be clear about this.
LT: We've already talked to Dr. Pepper. People,
DC: we, we already did with Ed. So I wanna be clear, the Dr. Pepper brand team, who listening to this now, Ryan's got your back. He's, he, he's got your back now.
But Ryan, myself, and gate baby, we text one another. We don't talk about business, we talk about sports and, and when we talk about sports, we talk trash to one another. Like I'm going to talk trash about Ryan right now. Okay? Like right now, he was a cry baby because Notre Dame didn't get in. He was a cry baby.
Andrew and I were like, now Andrew is a Texas fan. Gate baby's a Texas fan. Longhorns, hook 'em, horns down. That's, that's a, that's Gate baby. Ryan was like. [00:15:00] Uh, trying to get his Notre Dame people in. So I'm not buying this IU hat, Ryan. And this hoo, hoo, hoo, Hoosiers. Alright, I'm gonna go into a question, but Larry, we've um, Larry, we've been talking a lot.
Ryan, is there anything you wanna say about this whole setup that's happened before I get the first question?
LT: Well, he's, he is gotta give the explanation to iu. Go ahead Ryan.
DC: Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.
Ryan Lehr: Well, first of all, after that I need to have a nice drink of uh oh. Oh my goodness.
LT: Oh my goodness. Ryan's taking a Dr. Pepper.
Ryan Lehr: That's such a long setup. I was, I was thirsty. Yeah. Um, now, so IU is my side team, and you will know why that's relevant because, uh, uh, one of, so for the listeners, uh, one of our narratives this year on Fansville was one of the characters had a side team, which is a team. You're sort of. Interested not your number one team, not your, it's sort of your, your side piece team.
And it was DC's DC texted me when he saw it. I did. And he was like, so, so kind again, so generous to be like, [00:16:00] Hey, I'm laughing out loud at that new Fansville spot. Oh my gosh. Hilarious. And, and IU, my, both my parents. So again, for context, I was born in South Bend, Indiana, which is where Notre Dame is. My mom was born and raised there.
My dad moved there when he was 12. So again, Notre Dame was sort of in my blood as a kid. It's sort of a, it's almost like a cult. I was raised Catholic as well. And so, um, sort of a Notre Dame family, but both my parents also went to IU. That's where they met, even though they were both from South Bend, they met at IU in Bloomington.
So there is no Ryan without IU. So in some ways the IU, uh, you know, it's factored into my. Origin story, if you will. And so, again, my folks, my family from Indiana, so many of them went to IU. One of my best friends from Indiana, he went to IU undergrad and Notre Dame business school. And so again, it's, it's part of the blood.
But here's the thing. And you know, this, DC, IU has had nothing to [00:17:00] root for, for their entire, nothing existence. They were the, the, the, the, what was it the most, losingest this program in the history of the NCAA until last year.
DC: Correct.
Ryan Lehr: And so, you know, they're, they're my side team. But it's really exciting to see a team like this have this dramatic turnaround.
And again, it's only a story that can happen in college football, which is what's also really exciting about it. You don't, you know, you don't have these types of stories in other, uh, in other sports.
DC: So True. So true. Larry, anything in response to, uh, Ryan's IU side piece story, by the way, in, in, in the, in the Fansville campaign, the side piece is Western, not, not, not state, or their competitor tech, but Western.
LT: Tech, which is, which is great.
No, I love Ryan. Ryan has bonafides as it relates to iu. He does, uh, he does with both, both his folks. And what I love about th this is, you know, [00:18:00] again, the three of us are real avid college football fans. You do have a side piece. You have your, you know, I went to UNC, they're my squad, but you know, they UNCs like IU, we're a basketball school.
We've never been anything in football. Bill Belichick, he, he ain't doing it yet. Um, and so you always have other teams that you like and root for. And so, you know, that's one of the reasons why fans bill's so great because they get into those kind of, uh, intricacies of fandom that are really cool that we all as fans relate to.
DC: No doubt. All right, first question here, Ryan. Uh, I'm going to mention a controversial name in some circles, but if you were at a tailgate in Death Valley, not the Clemson Death Valley, but the LSU Death Valley in Louisiana, you are going to find not just like bratwurst which is what you'd find in the, uh, in the Midwest, [00:19:00] not ribs, is what we'd find in Kansas City, you find some gumbo, okay? You'd find some gumbo. I love gumbo, Ryan, 'cause there's a lots of things in the gumbo that makes the gumbo great. The roux the base, the seafood, the crabs, these different things, or crawfish, I should say. These make a gumbo, a gumbo, a quality gumbo. I wanna relate this to marketing and the Fansville campaign.
I wanna know what's in the gumbo that makes the Fansville campaign great. And let me just add these two things. Fans, bill is the, uh, is one of the longest running episodic marketing campaigns in history, using the same characters, human characters. There are only a couple of more ever Dos Equis, the most interesting man in the world [00:20:00] that ran about a decade Progressive with Flo.
Jamie, her sidekick. That's about 17 years, but to have a collection of eight or more people every year in a campaign and keep it fresh. Ryan, what's in the Ville Gumbo?
Ryan Lehr: Well, there are some secret ingredients. I can't tell you everything. Similar to Dr. Pepper's 23, you know, unique flavors. Um, it's a, it's a, it's a recipe that we, we hold tight.
But no, I, I think there's a few things. First of all, great relationships, obviously, you know, credit to the clients. Um, I've had the fortune of working with, you know, a, we know, uh, great CMOs such as Andrew Springate and his successor, Drew Panayiotou, um, who's [00:21:00] big, big fan of Fansville along with Tim Cofer for the, uh, the CEO.
Um, oh yeah. You know, but again, there's also other clients as well, like Derek Debrowski and Brad Riggs and Ally Hunter through the years, like they've all been so great, so collaborative and they've helped, you know, you can't do great work without great client relationships, but yeah. Then, so that's first and foremost.
Um, yeah, and then you, you get into the creative, and I think you said, you know, a few things, which is, you know, that, that we sort of always, you know, talk about is, you know, the consistency of the cast, the crew. Mm-hmm. The director, the creative teams, you know, we've created this, this, um, thing. And, and again, we, and I, I would say it's almost like, uh.
Uh, sort of judo in a way that we use sometimes our disadvantage to our advantage. And the disadvantage is being we [00:22:00] can't use team marks. We can't go, Hey, I,
DC: oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ryan Lehr: Worry about the Indiana Hoosiers. You know, we can't, and so the side team has to be Western. The teams are tech and state, but in some ways what that has allowed us to do DC is that, ah, it has allowed us to create our own universe and simplify this massive world of college football, which we know there's 130 teams and division one or, you know, 128 or something like that, and allows us to distill it into this, almost this simple parable fable type thing where it's just we, we can, we can draw parallels, but not exact storylines and we can got it. We can draw inspiration and
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: To us, that has become an advantage. And again, and since NIL we've now been able to pull athletes in if we want from
LT: Yep.
Ryan Lehr: You know, which, which has again, expanded our universe. But when we tell a transfer portal story or we tell a [00:23:00] story about NIL, and again, that's another thing that's in the gumbo is we have, you know, now witnessed over the last five years since COVID, post COVID the most change to this sport.
You know, dramatic change with the advent of transfer portal, the advent of NIL, the ad, the, the, the conference realignment and these shifts have given us such fun narratives to draw of and draft off of. And it's just allowed the, the campaign to stay fresh. And again, the ensemble is great and in some ways being able to write to eight different characters we can then have different POVs from any of these characters
DC: Mm-hmm.
Ryan Lehr: About different things within the college football universe. So how would these characters respond to this?
DC: Mm-hmm.
Ryan Lehr: How would this character respond to this? And so it allows us to keep things fresh. And then again, I mean, obviously the brand, it's such a great brand and it's, it has such a history with college football [00:24:00] that it, it, it, we never feel like we have to force the brand in there.
It be, it, it's become part of and parcel of the, of the narratives of the campaign because it's so authentic to the space because Dr. Pepper in its heartland of Texas in the south, it's, it's been involved in college football, even predating the playoff with their tuition program. But even, you know, relationships Oh yeah.
With specific schools dating back to the thirties, I mean, so again, it's Dr. Pepper. You know that to, to us it just feels like college football. And that's that. You can't fake that. You can't fake that.
LT: Nope. Can I point out two things? DC what? Ryan just alluded to one, authenticity. Again, since the thirties, Dr. Pepper's been involved with college football. You can't fake the funk on that. And the other thing, uh, the second thing, Ryan, which we talk about a lot on our podcast, is [00:25:00] that, and this is counterintuitive to m many folks sacrifice. You guys have gone all in with college football. And again, I know it's not the all of your marketing mix.
I know you do things that are outside college football, but this is, uh, the bulk of what you guys do. And as I alluded to in the, in, in the setup, 32% of the country are college. That's a third of the country are college football fans, and if you emotionally connect, if you do a great job with those folks, Brand Nerds, guess what?
That vaults you, that gets you the results that they've gotten. And by the way, you don't have to be a college football fan or know anything about college football, to watch those Fansville spots and get the wink of it and get the understanding that you think that that's fun. So that's something that they've sacrificed, but that they've done it in a way that's inclusive for everyone.
And that's really special, in my opinion.
DC: Genius. Just a, a [00:26:00] absolutely genius. And, uh, Larry, you know, this, uh, I, I'm, I'm jealous that I wasn't somehow, uh, a part of it, but go ahead Ryan. Look at you about to say something.
Ryan Lehr: Well, I was, I was gonna say, and that's something Larry, that we talk about often is that we don't want to get.
While we want to play to the diehards, we also don't want to alienate the casuals.
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: Um, and so, you know, that's why the, you know, visual gags, we love a great visual gag. Like a, a goalpost turned into a swing set, a transfer portal opening up on Main Street, sucking people into it. Right into it. It's like we, we, we, we, we rely on slapstick sometimes people falling into a manhole. We are not, you know, too good to have like, fun and, and, and be a little broad at times because we know that like big visuals, big humor can translate when maybe you don't know exactly the specifics of every single aspect of college football. And so we, and [00:27:00] we also, sometimes we, we play certain narratives, you know, or certain spots, let's say more towards a die hard and other spots like more towards a casual.
Um,
LT: Before we move on, I just want to point out one quick thing that you said here. It all goes back to the brand, though. The Dr. Pepper brand is irreverent and always has been humor based, so you're easily able to do that. If it wasn't the positioning of the brand, you ha you, you wouldn't be able to do it so readily.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah, absolutely. Humor's been a, a, a huge part of the brand. Um, you know, and it's something that we've always felt, you know, we think it's helped, you know, sort of. Create this personality and help, help the brand sort of grow is because it does appeal to, I think people who drink Dr. Pepper sort of feel slightly like unique and it, and it, right.
And it plays to that. It's the oldest, you know, major soft drink in, in history.
[00:28:00] It's, so, it predates Coca-Cola by a year, you know, 1885. So it's, you know, been around a long time.
DC: All right, Larry. Okay. So Brand Nerds. We've now given you the marketing of it all and the insight, this, this, the insights is what makes this fans veil just so special. Let's now turn this a little more to the sport.
LT: Yeah.
DC: So Larry, uh, what, what are you thinking about in terms of the sport college football and the playoffs? And let's see what Ryan's thoughts are.
LT: Well, you know, I, I think that, um, let's start with the College Football Playoffs again. We went to, they went to 12 teams, um, last year. Just last year with the, with the, uh, the 2024 season.
Now we're in 2025. Do you all think it's gonna go to 16 teams? It seems like it's obvious. I think that contractually, this was the last year that they have for it to be [00:29:00] 12 teams. Do you think, and it expand, do you all think it will expand? Do you think it will expand to 16 teams? What do you think's gonna happen?
DC: Ryan?
Ryan Lehr: A hundred percent. It'll expand. Now, whether, you know, I, I just think, you know, there's. There's just been too much controversy over teams being left out, obviously this year. And by the way, I was not a crybaby about another team,
DC: Ryan, you were, you were totally a crybaby. Totally.
Ryan Lehr: I was a crying man. All right.
How about that? Um, no, I, I, I don't know if it really needs to expand in some ways. I don't think there's 16 teams that could win at all. I think we've seen even in this year. Yeah. I, I do think Texas had a, had a, a great team. I think they could have probably made some noise. I think Notre Dame was, was
LT: for sure
Ryan Lehr: very solid.
I think if they made it in, they would've probably shown up pretty well. I don't, you know, again, but I, it will expand. I, I think, you know, whether it's this year or next year, I think it's probably inevitable at this point. Um, [00:30:00] uh, so yeah, I, of course it'll expand. I think there's just too much interest. And, and adding more teams.
LT: Well, sixteen's a great round number and I think the, the first round being on campus is really cool, right? Yeah. That gives it a whole other flavor. And then you go to neutral sites and I, so I think it's just inevitable that they're gonna go to 16. I think if they go any further than that, that's where you get into the NCA basketball situation.
You know, there's always the teams in the, in NCA basketball, they're talking about expanding it. Please, dude. Like you're, you're crying. You're the 67th team. Right. And you know, I, I'm sorry, I can't, my heartstrings don't go to you because you, you shouldn't, shouldn't have lost 12 games. Right? Yeah.
Ryan Lehr: Like at some point the argument gets diluted as it gets Yeah.
Banded. It's like the, no one's gonna cry for the 17th team as much as the That's right. 13th team or the fifth team back when it was four teams. And I do think it's interesting what you're talking about with the, the, I mean, [00:31:00] a, you've had two years now where you've had eight teams that have gotten a buy and seven of those teams have lost
LT: Exactly.
Ryan Lehr: Being the only team that has won on a buy. So does the buy week even help? You could argue that it doesn't. Um, and so if you went to 16, it could just be a straight sweet 16 system.
LT: Exactly.
Ryan Lehr: I also think, Larry, one of the things I've noticed, and I've gone to a few of the games, been fortunate to go to a few of the games, went to the Rose Bowl here and Pasadena.
I'm based in LA so it. Easy little jaunted over. But you know, you saw a team like Indiana, which traveled, so, I mean, it filled the Rose Bowl. It felt like a home game. It was, right. Yeah. 80% Indiana, and again, they were playing Alabama. But you have to imagine these Indiana fans have had nothing to cheer for for 130 years.
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: Um, so they're obviously gonna take in soak in every second Alabama the most, you know, what is it the third most winning this program of all time has and has been on this heater the last 20 years. They probably don't roll out of [00:32:00] bed until the semi-finals, you know, it's one of the, they're not gonna travel all the way to Pasadena in a team that had three losses.
That actually, that's the team that I don't think should have made it this year. I think that's the argument I always thought Miami deserved to be in. Um, when it goes back to, you know, Notre Dame.
DC: Yeah, yeah.
Ryan Lehr: But, um, I think, you know, Alabama fans, they didn't really believe in this team. At least they weren't gonna believe in, in the quarterfinals.
So then you start wondering. Should there be more home games, I guess would be my point. Yeah. As opposed to these. Because if you wanna follow a team throughout the playoffs, you gotta travel three separate times. That's
LT: Oh yeah.
Ryan Lehr: That's asking a lot for the diehard fans. Whereas point you look at, um, the regionality of how the, the tournament selection process happens in NCA basketball, they try to at least put the ones and twos within a certain region.
Right. To allow for the more fluid, you know, it doesn't always work out that [00:33:00] way, but I just, I, to me, I just think there's something so unique about the NFL playoffs is all home games until the Super Bowl, you know, so may maybe they need to adopt a little bit more of that. Because I also think having, now it is in the middle of the holidays and so a lot of students might be off campus, which has been one of the arguments, but again,
LT: they'd find their way back to that
Ryan Lehr: special about having these home games.
LT: Yeah.
DC: They'll work that out. But back back to the question here of, uh, 16, 12 or should it go to 16 or more? I agree with Ryan. It's not if, but when it is going to expand. Unfortunately, sports, while as fans we really enjoy it, the decisions about expansion become very political.
LT: Oh yeah.
DC: So here's the situation.
Uh, the, uh, the heads of these different, uh, sort of big time conferences are going to meet, but only [00:34:00] two matter. And I don't mean to be disrespectful, okay? I just Okay. Just I don't wanna be disrespectful Brand nerds, the two that matter are the Big 10 and the SEC Notre Dame's independent, by the way, Notre Dame, they got a side deal.
So next year, if they finish rank 12 or higher, they're in no matter what. That's a side deal. All right. That's what Fansville will all do. Something about that one that is that aside. So the Big 10 and the SEC, so the Big 10 Commissioner, I think his name is Tony Petitti, and then the SEC Commissioner, his name is Greg Sankey.
Here's the deal. Greg Sankey and the SEC, they want to move from 12 to 16.
LT: Sure.
DC: Tony Petitti, big 10 Commissioner wants to ultimately go to 24 teams down the road and the Big 10 commissioner won't agree to go to 16 unless the SEC Commissioner commits to [00:35:00] wanting to go to 24 later. So that's the, that's the politics of what's happening here.
So it is going to expand. It's just when it's gonna expand and whether the politics at play.
LT: Well,
Ryan Lehr: 24 seems like a lot.
DC: That seems like a lot to me too.
LT: Me too. But I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna shout down, uh, DC here. So the U being an a CC team
DC: Yes.
LT: And I don't see any SEC teams in the final.
DC: There are no, there are no SEC teams.
You, you are correct.
Ryan Lehr: But is that the third straight year?
LT: That's right.
DC: Yeah. It could be the third straight year.
Ryan Lehr: They the most teams in the playoffs this year. Oh, that's right. Five teams. Their, their commissioner thought they should have seven teams, um, out of 12. Mind you. And not one of them made the finals out of, not one.
Yeah. They only beat one non SEC team in the playoffs. Um, yeah, I mean the SEC dominance, you know, was, was definitely a thing in the last 15 years, but I do think since Nick Saban left, [00:36:00] um, you know, obviously I think the, the, the conferences, I think some of these things have leveled the playing field, NIL transfer portal.
Um, a lot of the talent that used to be in the SEC is now dispersed throughout the rest of the conferences. I think the A CC actually gets a really bad rap and actually was probably a stronger conference than people thought on paper. Um, you know, Miami didn't even win the conference and they're now in the finals, so
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: And they lost the smu how Bill, how good was an smu? No, I mean, so again, I, I, I do think people need to sort of reframe how they look at the conference springs, especially after this year and after the last couple years. Um, whereas. Sure. Politically, as you said, power wise, Big 10 and SEC still hold most of the cards, but Yeah.
You know, the ACC you know, I don't know, there's been a pretty enlightening, uh, playoff for them, um, Miami, two losses in that conference, but [00:37:00] seems to have been able to handle Ohio State. Been able to handle
DC: Oh, yeah.
Ryan Lehr: You know, all their opponents in the, in the playoffs.
LT: Yeah. And you know what's interesting that IU, your, your side piece, Ryan, uh, I heard this the other day, that, you know, Curt Cignetti has done an incredible job.
He came from James Madison and, you know, he's infamously or famously it, his initial press conference with, uh, iu, um, people were, were, were questioning him of whether, uh, his background was sufficient enough to come to IU, which again was the most losing program when he came there. And he got so frustrated at one point.
He said, if you don't think I have the credentials, Google me. Which again is hilarious in retrospect, right? But I heard the other day somebody talking about they have basically filled that team with two star recruits or former transfers from division two. Uh, you know, mostly guys who weren't top recruits, whereas Oregon, who they played are more, or all [00:38:00] four and five stars and Brand Nerds, five stars, the highest you can get outta high school.
So that's really interesting from a pure football standpoint. But I, I wanna segue into NIL you guys and NIL you, you alluded to it, Ryan, that you guys have used NIL uh, and used athletes again, which is totally part of what's happening in the, in the world of college football and college sports today. And it's, it's the wild west though, branders.
There are not many rules, shall we say, and there's not really, uh, Michael Wilbon on PTI loves, he calls the NCA Barney Fife, that's an old reference. To somebody who, who's a cop, who, who just is a, doesn't understand how to enforce anything. So that's the world that we're in and you know, so NIL is now enables brands to utilize college athletes in a great way.
So what do you think is the future? We know, Ryan, again, you guys have used, used some, some really top athletes, which you can talk top, [00:39:00] top college football stars in the campaign. What do you think's gonna happen as it relates to utilizing these great stars that are uh, that are bubbling up to the surface going forward?
Ryan Lehr: Yeah, I mean, listen, NIL name, image and likeness is the NIL for context, and it allows players, you know, for the first time to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness. And again, some of the rules surrounding it or it's a little murky at the same time. You know, I do think it's a long time coming.
College athletes, obviously we know stories like Reggie Bush who, you know, his jersey was the number one selling jersey in the entire country and he didn't see it. His USC college jersey was the number one selling jersey of all sports, in the country and he didn't see a penny of that. And then he, it's crazy.
And then he gets suspended for getting a, you know, or not suspended, but, you know, USC gets in trouble for, you [00:40:00] know, some illegal benefits that he might have received or his family received while he was in school, which didn't amount to anything close to the amount of money he could have made, if he got any, any of that, uh, the proceeds of the jersey sales.
So, again, I think it's a long time coming that college athletes should be able to capitalize and, you know, monetarily on, on their, um, you know, name, image and likeness. And so, I, I, where it goes in the future, I don't know if they're gonna have to figure out a way to sort of cement what the rules are, because as you said, it's, there's, there's a lot of murkiness.
Um, yep. Uh, obviously before all this, there was, it was probably even more murky with under the table. Under the table, yeah, yeah. You know, athletes being paid under the table. Um, as someone I think once said recently, it's like that that's all the, under the table's just now over the table. It's just, um,
LT: right.
Ryan Lehr: Uh, but as far as where it goes, I don't [00:41:00] know. Uh, I, I know that it's been really, uh, powerful for Dr. Pepper, um, and a lot of fun for us to work with these athletes. And we've seen it grow firsthand because, you know, a lot of people don't realize we were actually the first brand to put an NIL athlete in a major, uh, television campaign.
Um, and it was actually DJ Uiagalelei, who was the quarterback of clemson, he was a five star guy. He was taking over for Trevor Lawrence, which you referenced earlier, and he was sort of the heir apparent of the Clemson team. But we actually, NIL didn't. Interesting story was it didn't get approved. We were already on set.
We were shooting Ville.
DC: Wow.
Ryan Lehr: And we were on set and we got the news and the clients were like, you know, who were having these kind of hurry discussions of like, could, could we. Take [00:42:00] on an NIL athlete. Well, we're already on set. We're in LA and we sat and we came up, we were doing a spot about the transfer portal, and we came up with the idea of, well wait, it's already an effects driven spot where we were sort of creating a physical portal where someone would kind of cross over and appear outta nowhere.
And we realized, well, what if we wrote DJ into this spot? We wouldn't need him on set because it's already effects. We could take a green screen to Clemson, shoot him separately. And so then all of a sudden we were giving our, our, our, uh, cast these alt lines. The deal wasn't fully set yet, but we gave the cast these alt lines.
They're like, they were so surprised. They don't, they didn't understand
LT: whether, right,
Ryan Lehr: we're trying to teach 'em how to pronounce DJ Uiagalelei which is not an easy name to pronounce. And we basically incorporated DJ into that spot. Um. It ended up being the [00:43:00] first time ever that a, that a college athlete's been in a national, uh, television campaign.
And then the interesting thing was, is he ended, he, he in the fans will spot, he, he enters the transfer portal and then in reality, he ended up going into the transfer portal two times after that. So we, he did, we predicted the future in some ways. We were the first time DJ entered the transfer portal.
LT: What a great story, D like, and, and again, Brand Nerds. I hope you enjoyed that because that's truly behind the scenes, inside the, the velvet ropes of what happened when, when you're, when you are a brand and now all of a sudden the landscape's changed and you're immersed in this world, and how do we leverage this in the best way?
I remember that being, you know, the DJ was one of the first
DC: Oh yeah.
LT: College athletes to be in a brand spot. And the, the way you guys handled that, I mean, that's, that's just incredible. And, and that's where you're also using technology of today, where you didn't have to have him there [00:44:00] on set. You could do the green screen in Clemson, South Carolina.
What a great story.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah. And again, and one of the things too, and it goes to my initial point, is like, you can't get things like that done if you don't have incredible, brave clients and incredible relationships with your clients. Mm-hmm. Um, to be able to pivot, to be able to move, to have the trust, uh, to, you know, kind of trust the process that we can, you know, do that.
And they, even them asking was they felt. They didn't wanna put it on us to figure it out, but again, everyone was one team, one dream. Like, let's do this. We all wanna, we all wanna see this succeed. And so, um, it was so, so exciting in that regard. And then the other thing was, here we are shooting on a green screen in a event space on Clemson's campus with DJ and his mom and like, uh, maybe a couple his friends and, you know, with a green screen, I mean, it's, it looked kind of ramshackle.
Right? Right. Uh, very small to now where it [00:45:00] is, where it's like, you know, we've got it just grown in such a regard, you know? Right. Where now we've had Bryce Young, who was a starter in a playoff game this last week, but we had him the second year of NIL and then Caleb Williams. Obviously we saw the Great Comeback with Chicago.
So these are all sort of our alumni, our fans, but alumni getting to see them in the playoffs. And, um, and so it's, it's exciting to see how the NIL has grown from being this sort of. Thing that was almost makeshift to now, it's like we're, we're, we're talking to the athletes like months of beforehand.
We're, we're reading scripts to them. We're trying to get them on board with having fun with their, with their image. And because again, Fansville is very self-aware. It's very humor based. So if you come in as an NIL athlete, you have to be able to have fun with, you know, who you are. We, we actually had, there's been a joke that the Fansville athletes never have a great year when they're on the [00:46:00] ville at like, like the Madden Curse.
I remember, yeah. The Fansville Curse. And so when we had Caleb on Caleb Williams, who was the returning Heisman winner, we had him actually directly acknowledge the curse. And that was a lot of fun too. So taking that meta self-awareness that's great, uh, to that next level, which again, and then DC and I wasn't NIL, but we, we definitely got into that meta self-awareness with the project we did together on Fansville.
So, yeah.
DC: Uh, on NIL. Ryan mentioned something, this is not NIL, but I'm gonna connect it to NIL upfront. He, when we were doing introductions, that kind of thing, he talked about origin story and I want to go NIL origin story and, and have a tip of the cap to Ed O'Bannon. Yes. Ed O'Bannon basketball player at UCLA brought a case against the NCAA about [00:47:00] name, image, and likeness of college basketball, uh, student athletes whose images were being used in EA sports video games.
Now this is like 2009 ish around there, video games. And to your earlier point, Ryan, about Reggie Bush's jersey. The players were getting none of that. So he sues, he sues the NCAA. So all of the money now that these kids are making, I'm so happy for them.
LT: Me too.
DC: They need to be thanking Ed O'Bannon.
LT: Yes.
DC: For being the first, the OG to say this is not right.
So Ed O'Bannon on this, what's popping edition of Brands, Beats and Bytes with a gentleman, uh, Ryan Laer and a wonderful client and brand Dr. Pepper, who are benefiting from the NIL and the payment and they're paying athletes. What you fought for back then, this [00:48:00] brand and Deutsche were the first ones to use an athlete and they, they didn't even know they could use 'em at the time and then pay that athlete.
So shout out to Deutsche LA Shout out to Dr. Pepper. But a major shout out to Ed O'Bannon.
LT: Well said. Yeah.
Ryan Lehr: That was the landmark case. Landmark case.
LT: Well said.
DC: All right. I want to go, uh, to something else that I look forward to it, Ryan, every season with fans and the question I ask myself, this is before I see anything, before we text her or any of that, I go, what insight have they stumbled upon?
Maybe not even stumbled upon. What insight are they going to go to? And some of them, every season, Larry, are obvious and then some are not so obvious. So, NIL that's one where you can, you can guess NIL. It's a major seismic shift in college football and all the sports, you know, [00:49:00] Dr. Pepper is gonna have something to say about that.
The not so obvious is the side piece. This is why I texted you Ryan, and I was literally laughing, falling down, crying. My stomach was hurting on this side piece, Western side piece commercial that's not so obvious. I want to go to something that may not be so obvious this year in the CFP this year. It's age, age.
LT: Yes.
DC: Okay. Curt Cignetti head coach of IU is 64 in the semifinals. He played against Oregon. Whose head coach is Dan Lanning. He's 39. In the other semifinal, Mario Cristobal, head of the, uh, university of Miami, a head coach at University of Miami, the U, he's 55. He played [00:50:00] against Pete Golden. Head coach of Ole Miss, he's 41.
Alright, so there's a delta between the, so, so the final coaches to this is to win it all. Curt Cignetti 64 and Mario Cristobal 55. But that's not all. Wait. Oh, oh yeah,
Ryan Lehr: I was gonna, oh yeah, I was gonna add
DC: one other thing, but Yeah, but, but, but wait, there's more, I'm gonna get to the players, the teams in a minute.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DC: I'm gonna start knocking down the coaches who were all in this year's 12, uh, team seating, Brent Venerable, Oklahoma 55, Joy McGuire, Texas Tech 54. Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs, 50 K, Kalin De Bo Bama, 50, Mike Elco, Texas A and M 48. Bob Chesney, James Madison, Dukes 48. Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes 46.
And then John Summerall, former coach of [00:51:00] Tulane. Now Coach of Florida 43. So you start going down. So these are the o Mario Cristobal and Curt Cignetti. Netti are the oldest of all of the coaches.
LT: Right.
DC: There's no coach early, uh, older than them, which then brings me stand with age to the players.
LT: Right?
DC: Harry?
Ryan Lehr: That's what I was gonna go, because
DC: I wanted to make this comment when
LT: Larry we're all on this go.
DC: Okay. Larry. Larry, you talked about the two stars.
LT: Yep.
DC: At Indiana. No, five stars. But they're all on this. Yeah. Yeah. And and they are, they are knocking, they are knocking folks out, like embarrassing people. Why?
Because IU is the oldest team.
LT: Yep.
DC: The playoff field, average age of 23. So these are grown men. They're 23 years old, so they might have been a two star or a no star at 18. They're now a 23-year-old transferring three times to three different [00:52:00] schools, and now they're playing an 18-year-old five star. As, as Charles Barkley would say.
Ryan. Ath-el-ete. Ath-el-ete. So you have the oldest team coached by the oldest coach, and they're dominating. That just might be something in there, Ryan, about the age situation. Well, your thoughts, gentlemen, your thoughts?
Ryan Lehr: I, again, I, you know, I think that's a, it is an amazing insight, especially when you see some of these memes where it's like.
They're the oldest team and the Packers are, the youngest team in our, in the NFL are barely older. Barely I knew. Yes. And so it's like, it's hard to, it's hard to, um, sort of fathom. But again, a lot of this goes back to COVID. Uh, and then you look at Carson Beck who is, you know, he was in the same recruiting class as Trevor Lawrence.
He's in his seventh year of college football.
DC: What?
LT: Wow.
Ryan Lehr: Carson Beck, who is the quarterback for Miami. Who
DC: Oh, wow. I didn't realize he [00:53:00] was in that same class.
Ryan Lehr: I didn't either. Yeah. And they're linebacker. I think they're Mike linebacker is like, the quarterback of the defense is also in his sixth. Year or something, uh, for Miami.
So Miami's also benefited from that. But it's like you have the COVID year where, again, for context for, uh, listeners, uh, the NCA granted an extra year of eligibility to anybody who was in college during COVID. Mm-hmm. And so that, along with red shirts and some of the transfers or medical red shirts, it's, it's allowed some of these players to have extra years of college eligibility, which again, used to just be limited to four years.
But, um, yeah, it, it's wild. And I, I love that insight. Uh, and yes, if you're asking if I could, uh, whip up a ville narrative around that, uh, yeah, maybe you'll have to tune in next year and I'll give you a slash, I'll give you a slash.
LT: That's great. Well, and also for context, I just looked this up. Alabama's team again, which IU obliterated [00:54:00] what their average age was under 20.
And so again, there's a huge difference in maturity physically, uh, emotionally, mentally, for a 20-year-old dude and a 23-year-old dude. Just a huge difference. Difference.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah. And I mean, again, and I think the thing is, is these players, at least from the IU standpoint, have bought into, uh, sign nettis, you know?
DC: Yep.
Ryan Lehr: Culture and mentality. And they've ended at IU because that's the thing. Now that's a you is that is there are something like 4,000 players in the transfer portal right now. Yeah. At least there was the other day, which is, represents over 30% of all college football players, which means they're all bouncing around.
And some of them, yeah. It's almost like a game of musical chairs. The, the transfer portal ends in a couple days, and if some of these guys who enter don't end up on a team, they're outta luck. But at the same time, it's. You know what, it's, there's just so much fluidity. It's, you know, [00:55:00] where do these players end up and do they stay to develop to, you know, buy into a team?
Because I, I, I worry that there's just too much fluidity now. It almost becomes, you know, yeah, you gotta recruit new high school players and then recruit every one of your players and then recruit the other players in the transfer portal. I mean, it's, it's added so much to these, uh, head coaches. You can see why coaches like Saban, you know, probably were like, I don't want to have to deal with that.
I think it's time for me to retire. That's why he bounced.
DC: Yeah.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah. Well, you know, you probably talked to him on, on set of, uh, the, the Great Aflac campaign that you guys have.
DC: Oh, thanks, man. I, I will send Garth your regards. It was, this was his, his brainchild, not, not Saban, but uh, the, the collaboration between Dr.
Pepper and Aflac on, on, on CFB. I'll send, uh. I'll say Garth.
Ryan Lehr: Oh yeah, Garth was, uh, yeah. What an amazing, uh, CMO he [00:56:00] is. And such a great audience. I, I had the, uh, was fortunate enough to be able to present to him, and he, he was such a great audience. Um, I just remember reading him the, the script that we had and, and again, for context DC I don't know if you wanna set up that we, you know, we did this collaboration last year.
You doing Ryan? Yep. Yeah, we did this collaboration last year of Affleck and, uh, Dr. Pepper, Garth Knutson, um, the CMO had reached out to the CMO of Dr. Pepper saying that we would love to partner and get the Affleck duck into a Fansville ad. And our clients again, you know, brought it to us. Not like a mandate, but, Hey, do you think there's something to this, you know, respectfully, like, don't wanna, you know, again.
Saddle us with something we didn't wanna do. And we were like, oh, this would be amazing. We would love that. I mean, the Aflec Duck is an icon of advertising. And of course with the self-awareness and humor that we have within the campaign, we could find a way to tie that in. And so [00:57:00] we'd come up with an idea about the sort of over commercialization of college football.
And we presented this, um, script to Garth and, and our, uh, CMO at the time, Andrew Springate. And they both loved it and immediately approved it. But I mean, Garth was, you know, just so generous, you know? 'cause again, as you know, and you've been clients, uh, not all clients, they, sometimes there's that client poker face that
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: You know, that sometimes they're taught to do that. Some clients are told not to, not to show too much emotion. Don't laugh, don't you know? And yeah, I tend to believe the opposite. I tend to think some of the best clients I've ever had don't play those kind of games, you know, and that are just. Uh, react to it as if you are a consumer first, and then think about it, you know, how it fits into your brand and all that.
Second, you know, like, listen as a consumer, and Garth did that and he was laughing, and again, he was, [00:58:00] you know, just gave us just, I don't know. That's it. Just so nice when you meet someone for the first time on a Zoom and you're presenting creative work to them and they're just so generous and so thoughtful.
And again, great gave us this great opportunity to partner with, you know, two partner, two iconic brands together and, and in the world of Fansville and then I got to meet DC on set and that was, uh, the, the beginning of our, uh, our awesome friendship and relationship. And, you know, it was, it was a lot of fun, but like you said, it got tense.
Two brands on the same set. It did, you know, two different, you know, sometimes like you, I think you said have, uh, maybe different, um. What's the word? Uh,
LT: Objectives.
Ryan Lehr: Objectives, yeah. But I, I think ultimately it turned out wonderful. And
LT: it did.
Ryan Lehr: It was so much fun.
DC: Yeah. I, I'm gonna give a, a lot of credit to, uh, both Andrew Spring Gate, gate baby, and, and [00:59:00] Garth.
Uh, those two CMOs got together. CMOs are competitive, Brand Nerds. Those of you who have been in these seats, heads of marketing, you know this, these two gentlemen, both of whom I worked really closely with, different times, different context. When these two dudes started talking about possibly working together, even though I knew that Andrew had never met Garth, and Garth had never met Andrew, I knew it was going to work because these two leaders, while they are competitive with regard to what happens in the marketplace.
They are not competitive when it comes to ideas. They are collaborative when it comes to ideas, both Garth and Andrew. So I'm really glad that, uh, that that worked out, Ryan, and, uh, to what I said upfront, Ryan being on set with you and the crew, the brand team, and all of the [01:00:00] Deutsche folks, uh, it, it was one of the more enjoyable moments that I've had on set for two reasons.
One, the preparation that was done, uh, beforehand. Uh, two, actually three reasons. One, preparation, two, the continuity. Like Larry, you remember this. We talked about it. Watching you guys prepare the early meetings, the pre-pro, it's like a machine. The, the book that they use is so tight. Everything is so tight.
LT: Love that.
DC: And then finally. It was the, the, the output I could tell, and I know you could too, Ryan, as could, uh, uh, Mallory as well. You remember Mal? Mm-hmm. Was on set, uh, as well. Uh, we could tell there was magic literally happening in real time. That was dope. That was dope, Ryan. Really dope.
Ryan Lehr: No, it was, and it was, you know, again, two great sets of great.
[01:01:00] Clients and
DC: Yep.
Ryan Lehr: And again, and, and, you know, coming together, collaborating and, and it's so fun because, you know, you really, you know, Garth and Andrew really opened the door to, you know, ville sort of acting like this franchise, and we were able to get a collab with, um, Nissan Heisman House off the ground this year.
Uh, which again, I don't know if, you know, we would've been able to do that had we not, you know, had that experience. It just allowed us to A, the confidence. Yeah. And b you know, just knowing that if we're all come at it in a great way, and, you know, obviously Drew Panayiotou , the, you know, new CMO was, you know, so brave and working with Nissan and there were some other challenges with Nissan because with the Heisman House, they didn't have.
They have their own partnerships.
LT: Right.
Ryan Lehr: And so we, we had to, you know, work within those parameters, but everybody kind of held hands and were like, this is going to be good for the brand even though [01:02:00] Dr. Pepper doesn't appear at the Nissan Heisman house.
DC: That's
Ryan Lehr: right.
Only, only Brian Bosworth playing his character, sheriff Bo.
But we, but we knew that that as a piece of ip Yeah. Is strong enough because it really, college football fans would know that it's from Fansville and hence from Dr. Pepper. And again, the fans, uh, and Got it. And again, that's, that's also takes a lot from a brand point of view to be able to relinquish some of that control and maybe, yeah.
Let go of like having to make sure the brand is front and center and know the strength of the IP that we've spent eight years creating. And so I give a lot of credit. To my clients, um, for having that. Um, because again, you know, we know in this, you know, business, not everyone's willing to, to, to, to do those or make those sort of, uh, concessions.
Um mm-hmm. But it, it [01:03:00] worked out really well, but I, I don't think we ever would've been able to do that had we not had the experience working with, you know, the ALE team and all that. And now we're sort of like, who's next?
DC: Who's next, who's next?
LT: That's cool.
That's great stuff. Ryan in DC I feel like I, I have so much more to talk about. We could talk for hours, but I think, uh, at some point the, the Brand Nerds are gonna tune us out.
Ryan Lehr: Yeah, well, you can invite me back anytime. We can talk about college basketball too. That's,
LT: we, we, we DC let's market. We need to do that. That would be great. Um, we, we definitely need to do that because we, uh, we definitely, uh, uh, will have our NCA attorney, uh, hats on when that, when that happens. Um, so Ryan, we, we thought to get outta here as DC started to say, we're gonna provide some closing thoughts.
Um, and I'll start. Um, guys, I think this is still, it's going to sound weird, but I actually think this is still in its [01:04:00] infancy as it relates to full popularity of the college football playoff. Obviously, college football's been around way longer than the NFL, you know, for. Probably 150 years or so, but I think that the, the college football playoff will expand and will get bigger.
And I think they finally figured out the timing. If you remember, they screwed up in the timing a, a few years ago. They had like the semi-finals on New Year's Eve, which was crazy, right? Like, and now they've figured out the timing. And so having the final be this Monday, which is in between the NFL divisional playoffs and then the, the NF, the NFC and a FC championship games leads you to a perfect segue into just football, you know, centric great stuff, right?
And so I think there's a huge opportunity, and Ryan, this is maybe challenge to you guys think about this, is to think about. All of the, the College Football Playoff, then [01:05:00] segueing into NFL playoffs and then the king of all things in advertising the Super Bowl. Mm-hmm. And I think that there's an episodic opportunity for brands to look at it that way, to have some great spots that are maybe endemic to the college football playoffs, the NFL playoffs, and then culminating in the Super Bowl.
So I think that's something that could, that could be really out there for brands to really take advantage of. That's my closing thought. DC? Ryan? Any thoughts to that or, uh, do you want to hit your closer? Your, your closer? You're, you're closer.
DC: Go ahead, Ryan.
Ryan Lehr: I, you know, I, yeah, I think there's obviously could be some opportunity there.
Um, you know, Dr. Pepper for instance is just, you know, they've made their commitment, their big bet on college foot on, on college football at the same time we did about three years ago. We got, um. Some sort of bonus media [01:06:00] right after the national anthem on Super Bowl, and they put in one of our Fansville spots and it aired, it was not technically a Super Bowl spot, but it was ah, uh, aired that day.
And it was quite the surprise 'cause I was making guacamole at my house and I looked up to the national anthem. Wow. Anthem. And there was, there was one of our, uh, spots on air. So that was a, that was sort of a, a fun surprise. But yeah, Larry, I think, I think some brand, you know, that might be able to, to harness that at some point.
And episodic content, obviously near and dear to, to our hearts. 'cause that's what we, we, we talk about Fansville as a TV show, you know, because mm-hmm. That's the concept. It's a fake TV show. And so we even call our spots episodes behind the scenes and, you know, so yeah, I, I, I think there's brand entertainment, episodic content.
I think a lot of this, a lot of these things will be unlocked, I think. Um, by, by brave, brave brands because I, I do think brand entertainment is still sort of at its [01:07:00] infancy too. I think certain brands have the opportunities to like really unlock that moving forward.
LT: Any closing thoughts for us, Ryan, that for culminating this conversation?
Ryan Lehr: I'll end on that. Um, but I mean, other than thank you so much, you guys, uh, been so I think a generous with your time and generous with your praise of the campaign and, you know, well we're, and it's, you know, uh, just so grateful to have this opportunity to work on a such a great campaign and with a great brand.
As a huge college football fan, it's, it, it sometimes doesn't feel like work because it is so much fun and, um, and it just appreciate getting the opportunity to speak with you all and knowing what fans you are of a, the sport and the brand and the campaign. It's just, again, it doesn't feel like work this right here.
Like we could do this all day.
LT: We're thrilled to have you. This has been super fun. D, I know you got some, uh, a closing thought here.
DC: I do, Ryan. [01:08:00] Your words of it doesn't feel like work is exactly where I was gonna go with my closing thoughts. I've got three daughters and I love my daughters. I'm a girl dad through and through.
If someone asked me about one of my daughters, I would wax poetic about my daughters. Because I love them. I could tell you things, Ryan, about them that you would have no idea of some of the quirks that they have because I would express it as a father who loves his daughters. And you would do the same thing with your family.
And Larry does the same thing with his. We all do it. That's what I think makes Fansville different is love. You all love college football and because you love college football, you can [01:09:00] find these unique insights to talk about. You love the Dr. Pepper brand. You don't like the Dr. Pepper Fran brand. You're sitting up here on our podcast, drinking on a Dr.
Pepper. You all love the Dr. Pepper brand and the love of college football as fans and the love of Dr. Pepper combined gives us. Fansville. I believe that's the only way you get it, is that way.
Ryan Lehr: That's the gumbo. That's the gumbo right there.
DC: That's the gumbo that That is the gumbo.
So continuing Ryan, on this subject of love, I'm gonna share a story with you all that you don't know and that I've not mentioned to anyone who is associated with Deutsche or with Dr. Pepper. 'cause I don't talk about things like this, but this time it's germane 'cause it has to do with love. You are not too long ago at Dr. Pepper. Got a new [01:10:00] CCEO, not CMO. I know you got a new CMO after Andrew Springate, but before that you got a new CEO. His name is Tim Cofer When that was announced, I am certain that there were folks maybe in your world and at the Dr. Pepper, on the Dr. Pepper world, on the brand team who wondered is fans Bill going to continue?
Will the CEO love this campaign? As much as we love this campaign, it's only natural. And when you come into a company, particularly a publicly traded company and your CEO and you know the importance of marketing, you've got something to say about the biggest campaign that this brand does. I knew Ryan, you all were going to be just fine with Fansville continuing.
And the reason why I know it is because I know Tim Fer is a huge [01:11:00] sports fan. How do I know this? When we were youngins, Tim Cofer lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and my best friend, also a great friend of Larry's and a business partner, Jeff Shirley
LT: and the, and an executive producer of the show
DC: and executive producer of the show, Jeff Shirley.
He worked in Madison, Wisconsin as well. Oscar Meyer. Oscar Meyer. Annually, Jeff Shirley would host a group of us to play Madden, so there'd be a tournament, a Madden tournament. Ryan, do you wanna know who the baddest dude was in the Madden video game world at that place in Madison, Wisconsin? Every year, it was me.
Okay. It was me, DC. One year, I'm, and, and Topher would come to this, it was probably 10, 10, 12 of us. He would come every year. He'd come and play [01:12:00] Cofer and I are playing with one another and I'm wearing his ass out. Okay. I am, I'm killing him. So we get down to the only way he can win is an onside kick. He doesn't know how to do a successful onside kick.
And I say to Tim, I say, Tim, if you do it like this, this and this, you might recover it. He did it, recovered it, and beat me. Okay. Uh, Ryan and Larry, I was so upset. I was so upset that this dude beat me because I gave him the advice to beat me. Now, he may have a different version of the events. This is my version of the events, and he and I were cool.
We got along just fine. What I saw in Tim was his competitiveness through these tournaments. I also saw his love, his love for football. And just another thing, [01:13:00] in case you don't know this, Ryan, do not call Tim Cofer during a Packers game. Do not do it. I don't care what's going on. I don't care how much money is in the balance.
Don't call the dude during the during, uh oh. I'm sorry. No, not, not, uh, Packers. My my Bad Vikings game. Vikings game, I think Cofer's a Vikings fan. Don't call the dude. During a, uh, a Vikings game. So love, that's why Fansville will continue because talented agency, talented client, all who love football and a CEO who loves football and I imagine is gonna let y'all do what y'all wanna do.
Ryan Lehr: Uh, he's, he's been a great audience and a big supporter. And, um, yeah, I've, I've heard stories of the Madden expertise from him. Ah, oh yeah. You know, or about him. Uh, but that is, that is a hilarious, uh, uh, story. Unbelievable. [01:14:00] Uh, it is. That's, that's the, that's the risk of telling people what's in the gumbo.
You gave 'em the onside kick gumbo.
LT: That's right.
DC: That's right.
LT: That's right. That's right.
Ryan Lehr: That's so funny that that is, but yeah, that's, that's a great story.
LT: That is a mic drop story, I think. Total mic drop.
And I think that that takes us to the show close, uh, Brand Nerds. Thanks so much for listening to Brands. Beats and Bytes. the executive producers of brands. Beats and Bytes are Jeff Shirley, the aforementioned, Darryl "DC" Cobbin, Larry Taman, Jade Tate, and Tom Dioro. That is he. And if you do like this podcast, please subscribe and share And for those on Apple podcasts, if you are so inclined, we love those excellent reviews.
We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we look forward to next time where we will have more insightful and enlightening talk about marketing.