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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
DC: Brand Nerds, Brand Nerds, Brand Nerds. Welcome to another Brands, Beats and Bytes podcast. This is a What's Popping edition. So, uh, you all know sometimes with these morning shows, they'll have a special edition and it will say where in the world is. And it's one of the hosts. And then you guess where they are.
So Brand Nerds, for those of you all that can see it. So I know most of you all are hearing us. Where in the world are we today? We are in Atlanta, Georgia in Mercedes Benz Stadium, the beautiful Mercedes Benz Stadium, here one day before the AFLAC kickoff game. That's where we are, Brand Nerds. And we are here to talk to two very interesting gentlemen who I happen to know, but we're missing someone who I love.
And you all know, it's my co host. Larry Taman, LT. He's on assignment. We're gonna say he's on assignment. He's actually on the project, but we'll say he's on assignment. But with me here today are two stellar marketing people, but even better human beings. We have Garth Knutson, who I call G. And then we have Andrew Springate, who I call Gate Baby.
G is the CMO of Aflac. Gate Baby is the CMO of Keurig Dr. Pepper. And you all may be wondering why are these two dudes here together? Because actually Garth has done one of our podcasts by himself and Andrew has done one of our podcasts by himself, but now these two dudes are here together. Okay. We're going to get into that in just a moment, but a quick intro of who these gentlemen are.
I've already said they're friends of mine. Like you, you, you both are my boys. You are my boys. So Garth, uh, he grew up on the agency side of things. Um, but he also has had some corporate experience. He did before Aflac, Amazon Music for a little bit, for a little bit, for a little, for a little bit. Um, you were, uh, you were a Publicis.
That's where we met. So on the agency side account account, by the way, I got to say this. The worst thing you can do is be an account person servicing a business of a client. Who used to be an account person. I really feel bad for anybody doing that. But anyway, he was at, uh, Publicis, Long Duty, Wonderman and, uh, Garth and I hit it off right away at Publicis, our company, Brand Positioning Doctors right away, he and I became thick as thieves. So great friend, great experience. And, uh, you are one of our best clients, brother. If not, if not the best.
Garth Knutson: You become a dear friend and a mentor to me.
My man. All right,
DC: Brand Nerds. Uh, you've heard me talk about Garth and we, and we are boys, brother. We are for life, for life.
Now I have to get to Andrew Springate, CMO, KDP, Keurig Dr. Pepper. This brother and I, we go back a long way. You all know him as Andrew Springate. I know him as Gate Baby. And we worked together way back in the day. On a brand that we built proudly. I'm not going to get into the details of that because the brother's doing some other things right now.
But Andrew has a longtime CMO, longtime CMO, uh, Brand Nerds. We often talk on this show that the tenure average tenure for CMO. Don't, don't, don't, don't get nervous, G two years, two years less. And uh, gate baby, how long have you been the CMO seat?
Andrew Springate: Uh, seven years now.
DC: Seven years now. How many lives you got?
Andrew Springate: It's a lot of lives.
DC: A lot of lives.
Andrew Springate: A lot of cat lives.
DC: A lot of cat lives. So, Gate Baby, uh, started with me. He then left, uh, he did something in the dot com area. So, in the early days of the dot com area. And then he went home. Uh, he's from Texas. G is from Seattle. He's from Texas. He went home and then that's when he started working with with KDP. It wasn't KDP at the time. I think it was Cadbury Schweppes.
Andrew Springate: That's right.
DC: At the time.
Andrew Springate: Now Keurig Dr. Pepper.
DC: Now Keurig Dr. Pepper. Now Keurig Dr. Pepper. Um, he's also a good friend of mine. Um, he doesn't talk about this very much. He doesn't beat his chest. Uh, Gate Baby is a Harvard Business School graduate, HBS.
He doesn't talk about it very much. He is a extremely smart person. He's also very humble. But he can have a sharp tongue sometimes.
Andrew Springate: You guys will get it today.
DC: All right. Okay. All right. So what's popping today? Y'all is college football because behind us is the field right now for the game is going to be going down here between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Clemson Tigers.
So you're gonna hear some ambient sounds and that kind of thing. That's because we people are literally putting the stadium together for this for this game. So with that, y'all, we're gonna pop right into this. All right. Let's start it like this. I'm gonna come to you first, uh, G. College football. Very hot. The decision to be in it and to grow in it. A hot area, marketing area, platform area, lots of fandom. Garth, since you have been in, into this, you have grown Aflac's space in college football.
Garth Knutson: Yeah.
DC: For marketers in general, what is it about college football as a marketing platform that you find interesting, you think others should find interesting?
Garth Knutson: Well, and for us specifically, it's going to start with our products and the data and who we're trying to market to. Right. And we know from that data that people who enjoy college sports and college football specifically have a higher propensity to purchase our products. So you've got to start there, right?
DC: The data.
Garth Knutson: Um, but also then moving into why it could be a great marketing opportunity for so many different brands and companies. You know, these days there's only so much appointment viewing happening, right? The shift to streaming and you need to be there as a marketer. But if you want to be part of something that is culturally relevant. on an ongoing and annual basis. You know, you really have to go after live sports and in America, the two biggest, there's the NFL.
DC: Yeah.
Garth Knutson: And there's college football's number two. And Aflac, you know, people think that we have, you know, we spend billions of dollars in advertising, but it's literally fractions of that. So we have chosen, uh, college football, a place where we think that we can show up as a a big fish in a big pond while while spending a small amount, but you can only do that through through effective messaging and how you go about those partnerships.
DC: Cool. Gate Baby, you've been in this college football thing for a long time before it was like what it is today. So why?
Andrew Springate: Yeah, I mean, actually, historically, Dr Pepper has done a lot with college football. 75 years with the Cotton Bowl. I think well over 30 now with the SEC and the SEC champ game. So there was a long standing piece. Um, look, as we kind of renewed the strategy, you're thinking for us, some of what Garth said, hey, it's the second most popular sport in America.
Um, one other thing we love about it is it's passion inducing. Everybody has a, you know, you love your college. We love our college. You have a thought about Notre Dame or Duke or everybody has some thoughts about a college, right? Whether it's yours or the rival school, it matters a lot. Um, and then I think importantly for us, we try and reach people where they are and connect with them.
And this is where a lot of America is, and that's where they treat themselves. No better place than there to insert a Dr Pepper. Hey, we want to be where people are. They're watching college football. They're passionate about it. Um, you know, this is something where we think there's a lot of natural energy.
Other pieces, hey, as a fan, you want to treat yourself when you're watching the game, whether you're at home, a tailgate, or in venue. Great place to have a Dr. Pepper, so it's made a lot of sense for us strategically, and we, uh, are thrilled to be working with it.
Garth Knutson: And I feel like, you know, you mentioned you've been with it for something like 75 years, uh, with the Cotton Bowl, and I, I, I believe that so many marketers and brands, they'll jump to the idea, from a passion point to a passion point.
And I don't know what your media budgets are. And I won't ask. They're big. But well, but I imagine that there are a lot less than other people who are spending a lot more in college football.
DC: Okay, I see where you're going.
Garth Knutson: Dr. Pepper comes across as a really big fish in a big pond, right? Because they've been consistent, you know, over the past 75 years in the now the last seven years with the Fansville campaign.
DC: Yeah. All right. So You mentioned data. G, Gate Baby. You mentioned data. There is a well known fact in marketing. It's just psychology. People make decisions based on emotion and justify with logic. It's just the way we pick cars and schools and shoes. A well known fact in the marketing world. It's more like psychology.
We're really more like psychologists than we are even marketers, but that people make decisions, purchasing decisions and other decisions, life decisions based on emotion and they justify with logic.
You both mentioned data, so that's more of the logic side. So if you got Brand Nerds out here listening and they are trying to make a decision based on the data and maybe the data doesn't fully line up, the college football is where they ought to be.
Maybe it's a little bit off, probably does say they should be there. But let's just say for the moment that it's a little bit off and another sport is rising up. What would be your case to the Brand Nerds out there on the emotion side as to why college football is like that joint start with you, G.
Garth Knutson: You know, I think for me, it starts with what, what the product is, you know, what the, what we're selling is as a brand and going back to what I talked about earlier with appointment viewing, uh, going away, right.
And there are only so many places to do it. College football and, and, and football and sports are one of the last places that people can really get together and be around other folks, right? So they, they are emotional during, you know, the, the watching of this, uh, uh, sports
DC: sometimes a little too emotional,
Garth Knutson: a little too much, right?
So if you can tap into that emotion and show that you're going, you understand the emotion and you're going through some of those same emotions that they are, your understanding of their sport, which is what we're trying to do with Uh, the Aflac Duck and bringing humor into their advertising and keeping relevant by bringing in somebody like Coach Prime or Nick Saban. And I think that you all do that, I think, better than anybody with Fansville talking about tapping into fan emotion in the sport.
Andrew Springate: So, DC, for me, emotion is so evident and it's a great thing to connect to the brand. Um, we are consumer obsessed at Dr. Pepper. We really try and understand them. A lot of our insight comes from fans came from, Hey, we were working with college football and as, as we were kind of shaping the strategy, we said, Hey, what do we need to do?
DC: Mm-Hmm. .
Andrew Springate: Well, we went to tailgates. We watched games with folks.
DC: Mm-Hmm. .
Andrew Springate: We went to, you know, Alabama, Georgia games.
DC: Mm-Hmm.
Andrew Springate: And really learned and saw the passion.
DC: Mm-Hmm.
Andrew Springate: And if you're wondering if it connects, you go see that you start learning traditions. You start seeing fight songs, you start, you know, seeing people being superstitious. All that's a lot of fun. And you realize there's a lot to tap into and a lot of great ways to connect your brand if you're doing it the right way. And for us, it was a logical place to be because there's consumption of our product. But just as importantly, you can tap into that broader emotional canvas and connect with people in a very different way.
Garth Knutson: And for us, you know, he mentioned that you know, their product is served at these types of events, right? For us, that's not, you know, and we're in the financial services and supplemental health insurance. So it is tough to find those places where people go and think about and talk about supplemental health insurance as consumers. So we just need to find those places where they're really passionate and that we believe that we have, you know, a proper message.
DC: All right. This is a good segue. You mentioned this earlier, G complimenting Gate Baby and Dr. Pepper. All right, Brand Nerds. Let me Break this down for y'all over the course of your marketing careers. You're probably going to see, see, not create, see 8 to 10 iconic campaigns. And you might have a 30 or 40 year career, 8 to 10. That's what you're going to see. You might, if you're lucky, get to create one of them. If you're lucky, if you're lucky. Brand Nerds, Fansville in season seven now. is one of the best campaigns ever created, ever created. You're welcome. You're welcome. And an interesting tidbit that we learned as we were prepping for this is a Gate Baby. You all were here in Atlanta as the Genesis of this whole Fansville campaign. Do tell.
Andrew Springate: Yeah. I mean like, look, as I had said, uh, Being consumer obsessed and understanding what our fans were passionate about was really important to us. So we did a lot of, uh, again, going to tailgates, seeing the fans. We saw Georgia fans up close and personal as they were, uh, coming to the stadium and tailgating.
Garth Knutson: They're very serious.
Andrew Springate: We realized that, hey, there is a lot of, you know, both emotion, but a lot of fertile ground for, uh, how to connect with people. And that was really what led us down the path of, you know, kind of doubling down and saying, Hey. What if we had a town called Fansville that was about two things, college football and Dr. Pepper? I mean, who wouldn't love this town? Anyway, that's given us a really fertile ground. And then I think the other thing that has really worked for us in a great way is we've kind of leaned in just to the evolution of college football, which is fun. You know, you have NIL, you have conference realignment, you have coaches moving, you have the transfer portal. There's just news every year and every day in college football that makes it easy to kind of evolve. be topical and relevant, which I think keeps the campaign fresh and really working for us hard.
DC: I want to shout out Deutsch L. A. One time. That's the agency behind this campaign. Ryan and team over there is shout out. What up, Ryan? Yeah,
Andrew Springate: Deutsch has been a, you know, in all sincerity, they've been with us since, uh, 2008, and they've been through a lot of great work, and we do think they have been stalwarts to everything we've done and do appreciate them greatly.
DC: So why did it take me to think of first?
Andrew Springate: I was going to go there.
So you, you, you're stealing my mind.
DC: Okay. All right. This is what Gate Baby and I do, by the way. I love him. All right, G.
Garth Knutson: Yeah.
DC: Uh, a soft drink, as you have pointed out aptly, is something that is consumed while college football is being consumed, but no one's consuming supplemental insurance or financial services.
It's literally. During a game, in fact, it might be the furthest thing from their mind in your case you have built on the great work of someone who you know, we both respect Shannon Watkins. Yeah, you've built on top of that and grown Aflac's connection to college football How the hell are you making a duck cool in this kind of like how how is this happening?
Garth Knutson: I mean it starts in all do you like what you just didn't shout out to our agency Dagger Atlanta who helps us keep this Fresh we've been I think this is the sixth year.
DC: See Andrew, that's how it's done. You go back. Also,
Andrew Springate: I wish Larry Taman were here.
Garth Knutson: Al Patton, our chief creative officer from Dagger is standing right over here looking at me.
So I could not going to escape. He is here. Thanks Al. Um, but it's, it's about keeping this duck who has been around now for 24 years, 20, 25th anniversary next year, which is pretty amazing. Yep. So. You know, with our agency Dagger Atlanta, we work with them a lot every year to try to figure out new ways to to make it fresh, similar to how you do with Deutsche L. A. And Fansville. We've done that by bringing in Coach Prime back when he was at Jackson State, right? And everybody knew Coach Prime and Deion Sanders, but people didn't necessarily know him as a coach. So we got it early on that, which which was amazing. And you know, nobody keeps it fresher than than Coach Prime.
DC: Nobody, right?
Garth Knutson: And then, unfortunately, The man, uh, went through a pretty significant, uh, medical, uh, issue with himself and it was, it was, uh, extremely serious and, you know, that, you know, renewed, you know, his passion for the partnership and really gave him first hand experience of what people going through their own injuries and illnesses are going through too.
So even outside of the TV commercials, we started to find ways to weave in the product messaging. So for example. Smack who manages Coach Prime there. They've been amazing to work with called us right after coach was about to get out of the hospital and said, hey, you know, coach needs some, uh, special equipment to get around between practice in the stadium and on the field.
Like, so they came to us and ask, can you provide, um, equipment, medical equipment for Coach Prime to, to get around on so that he doesn't have to be, this is Smack. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, of course. We said yes, and we put the logo on it. But what to me, it was so much more than a sponsorship.
DC: What did you put the logo on?
Garth Knutson: So we had a, first it was a knee scooter. Okay, okay, okay. And then we had this three wheeled scooter. And Coach Prime is known, if you Google Deion Sanders scooter, the man's been riding these amazing scooters around since back when he was in, uh, Dallas. Of course. You may remember as a Cowboys guy.
Andrew Springate: Always got the latest.
Garth Knutson: And then more recently we got him a golf cart now that he's at, uh, uh, Colorado. But what I love about this so much, people might say, Oh, Aflac just got Coach Prime this fancy scooter because, you know, they're this big company with money and Coach Prime, you know, is, is Coach Prime. So, of course, he'd have, like, the fancy version of the scooter.
But really, we give our policyholders cash, you know, when they are hit with a, an illness or an injury, and they can use it on whatever they want. It's for the expenses that they're paying. Health insurance doesn't cover literally my exactly could be Uber, you know, PT, food, whatever it co pays and all of the things that you know, unexpected medical bills, which can really add up but we my team, the Aflac studio we did, we do a lot of policyholder testimonials.
And we did one that when I saw the first edit, I wasn't on the shoot, they came back and they were showing one of our policyholders who had bought a power scooter, so that he could get around while he was recovering. And I thought, you know what? That's the exact same that we did thing that we did for coach prime that everybody sees that we literally do for our policy holders on a daily basis.
So for me, that was this light bulb moment to try to figure out how are ways that we can start working with our talent partners and really connect them to what we do. And if, and if you think hard enough, you know, you'll, you'll find those. And I often say, I've always got a hundred ideas floating around in my head.
The problem is 99 of them suck. You know, but if you just keep sifting through those and throwing away all the, all the bad ones, you'll see these connections start to be made. And I think there's a lot of power in it. We found it with Coach Prime. We found it with Coach Staley and Coach Saban. And so I would just say to people, you know, just keep searching for ideas.
This, this, this game is all about, this game of marketing, which is a team sport, is all about ideas. And once you have these ideas, it's about assembling a team to be able to act quick.
DC: Hmm. All right, G, picking up on what you just said about the, uh, the partners for Aflac, Coach Saban and Coach Prime. And then we also now have, uh, Coach Staley.
I say we because I consider Aflac to be family. I'm on the team. I said it's a team sport. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Good looking. Coach Saban brought to the campaign instant credibility. He did at that time. He was not retired. No, he was and still is the goat.
Garth Knutson: Yeah, he was fingers full of rings.
DC: Yeah, seven of them. I think Coach Prime brought a different dimension. You mentioned Smack. So I just want to shout out, uh, Coach Prime and the Smack team. So Coach Prime, I've now had the pleasure of working with you for multiple years. You are beyond professional. You are the living embodiment of doing something in partnership that rises above the contract and this dude and I, and all of Aflac, we thank you. And we salute you for that and shout one time Constance who leads it. What's up Constance, uh, Jose and Sam. Well, you know, come on, Sam. Well, we own the shoot every time. Got a shout out, Sam. Got a shout out, Sam. All right. So over to you, uh, Gate Baby. Season seven episodic. Why has this not gotten boring? I don't think there's ever been an advertising campaign in history that has literally had the same core set of characters year after year after year. And you know, you know, this to G. We marketers sometimes get tired and fatigued of something before the consumers do. Why are y'all still in this?
Andrew Springate: Yeah, the same great question, but I would actually say you're sitting by something that's gone for 25 years using the same duck. But yeah, look, I mean, as marketers, sometimes we get bored with ideas, but we've been really committed to connecting with our fans and bringing something to college football.
And this story is actually built. And as I was kind of alluding to earlier, there's always news in college football coaches changing, rules changing, realignment. So that's kind of kept it fresh and, you know, allowed Ryan and our teams to kind of think differently. Uh, for me, then it's just staying on a strategy that is, Hey, how do we make sure we connect with the college football fan?
And we've found ourselves very much synonymous with college football. You know, if you kind of ask somebody who advertises in college football, Dr. Pepper is generally going to be the highest scoring one or right up there. So we've been proud of that. And I think for us, it's a winning strategy with evolving news, ways to connect to the fans.
And, uh, you know, as we want to go, we want to be where the fans are. And this is. You know, allowed us to kind of continue to connect.
Garth Knutson: When it seems to me that the Fansville campaign gets boring when college football gets boring and college. It's only getting more exciting literally every year.
Andrew Springate: Yeah, the news is there every year. And I think, uh, you know, for us, it's continuity is really important. Um, I do think you kind of quickly signal. If you see a Fansville thing, you know, it's supposed to be funny and you know what it's about. And hey, importantly for us. It's tan. Dr. Pepper is a treat that fits in your college football experience. I think it works really well and hopefully we'll continue to see it go. We don't think it's running on fumes. We think it's stronger than it's ever been. You know, we're going to continue to drive it as hard as we can. It's five months of the year for us as all in on college football and, you know, connecting the brand to it.
DC: So, Brand Nerds, take a lesson here from, uh, from Gate Baby. Do not become fatigued of a great campaign and idea before the consumers do ride that thing out duck for 24 years. You guys have been in this for seven years. The equity that gets built up will allow you to more efficiently market your brands for four years.
So keep that in mind.
Andrew Springate: And Darryl, if I can just add one point in talk. I give a lot of credit to our brand teams, our sales teams, and actually ultimately the retailers because they've all realized it actually works really well for them. And our bottlers help bring these things to life now. So we've got people in the distribution legs that are, you know, throwing up great displays, massive displays.
I mean, I'm talking hundreds of cases of Dr. Pepper, and that is all because there's this entity called Fansville that is a driven from a consumer idea and understanding. So it really is exciting to see it pull through.
DC: Well done, brother. So Brand Nerds, I mentioned that we are in Atlanta, Georgia, Mercedes Benz Stadium, and there are several things that are unique about this stadium.
I've been here a few times. G, you and I were here last year, like, a couple, couple, like, right here, right here. Literally, literally right here. So, one thing here is that, uh, Brand Nerds, if you go to a movie theater and you get, like, a a tub of popcorn, a bucket, easy, easy, a tub of popcorn and a beverage, that's gonna cost you, like, $25.
I mean, the last time I was actually at the, uh, movie theater was, uh, yeah. I spent so much money. I said to the person behind the counter, I said, you need to put a ski mask on if you're gonna tell me that's that amount of money for this here in this stadium, they keep prices low. $20 bucks will get you a full meal for yourself and two or three other people. $20. They have a $20 menu board here, and it doesn't matter if the Super Bowl is here. World Cup is coming. They don't move the prices. So I just want to Give some respect to mercy
Garth Knutson: and you got into the game for free because you were my guest. You didn't pay anything.
DC: I didn't pay anything and I ate and drank. Well, maybe I shouldn't say that on the camera. Thank you for that brother. So that's one thing. Another thing is they got a roof up in here. You guys will see some of this image cut in the way it it almost looks like a Voltron situation and there's not another roof like that. In the, uh, in the world. Now, to my knowledge, I know Jerry World is also pretty nice.
Andrew Springate: World's pretty spectacular. Shout out to the Cowboys.
DC: Shout out. No, no, no, we're not. Shout out to Cowboys. Shout out to the Lions. Shout out to the Seahawks. The Cowboys. Every year you all think you're gonna win the championship. You haven't won nothing in 30 years. Okay, so just easy.
Andrew Springate: We're going to the Super Bowl.
Jerry, please.
DC: When we're all dead. Okay. All right. Now we get to the reason why these two brothers are here together. Y'all just thought it was because they are both CMOs of big companies. They're both smart marketers. I was looking for some insurance. And I'm an original call, but I'm thirsty. I don't believe either one of you. That's probably true. Right. So, You all have explored something that is rarely, if ever, explored in our world. As brand folks, we can be very protective of our own brands. Why are you all here together now?
Garth Knutson: I'm, I'm glad that you asked because I actually don't know the full story. And Andrew doesn't know the full story. I know The beginning of the story and a few pieces in between. And I'm hoping you can, you can fill, fill you in on the back post, some of them, but so it goes back to a meeting that I had, uh, with, with, uh, my manager, Virgil Miller back in, uh, December of last year. And he had been encouraging us to, to think boldly. And in the meeting, I came in and I had a presentation and a bunch of ideas. And one of the ideas was, uh, the Aflac duck is a celebrity, you know, 23 years of, of brand equity. You know, brands you know, all over the country are looking for celebrities to be in their advertising and their marketing, and they'll pay good money for it.
Right. What if we offered up our celebrity to be in other brands advertising, you know, at, uh, for free essentially. Um, and, and there were two ideas that came into my mind that I, that I presented in that initial meeting. One was. The ESPN. This is Sports Center campaign, which has also been going on for so long.
It seemed natural. You know, the Aflac duck shows up at Sports Center with, with Nick Saban or Deion Sanders. And the other was Dr. Pepper Fansville. I thought the Aflac duck should be in a Fansville commercial. Um, and, I like being in that association. So that's, well, I mean, I said this to you before the show, and when we've talked on the phone a couple of times, I work in advertising, Dr. Pepper Fansville is my favorite. Campaign on TV, you know, right now. Yeah, facts. And, you know, we had this idea around if we're not competitors, can we be partners? Right. We're both in college football. We both have a lot of equity in it, and we're both doing humorous advertising in college football. And my boss was like, great idea.
Like, see if you can make something happen. Sounds great. So worked with again, uh, Al, our, our CCO at Dagger Agency and his team put together a pitch deck. As if it was coming from the agent of the Aflac Duck to Dr. Pepper pitching this idea. And I sent it to, took a, took a PDF of this and texted it to somebody on your team over at Liquid Sunshine. Brian Mead. Brian Mead. And I didn't say anything in this text, I just sent the PDF.
DC: Mmm.
Garth Knutson: No, no, no comments or anything. That's smooth. Within five minutes Brian responds back and he says, what can I do to help make this happen? And I said, and I knew, I knew that he was the guy cause this, this is somebody who loves advertising and loves to do good work and is passionate about making amazing work. And I said, get me a meeting with your CMO and that's, that's where you take over.
Andrew Springate: So probably inclined to do it, but actually I was going to say, uh, your buddy to the right there, DC kind of helped grease the skids. Cause he goes, you're going to get a email from Garth, great guy. Interesting idea. Take a look at it.
So that kind of sparked interest. for us, which he didn't know I was doing. No, he didn't know you were doing that. Okay, you helped him because it definitely was one more reason. You know, I got Brian who I trust a lot, but getting some input from you is always helpful.
DC: Thank you, bro.
Andrew Springate: Um, look, as, as I said, we're always trying to connect in college football.
And to me, There's a couple truisms that fit here pretty well, like, hey, Aflac is part of college football. There's some fun there. Um, and we've actually been toying with the idea of how could we partner within college football. We talk a lot about ESPN. We've looked at, uh, Heisman House, some of those things that kind of feel part of the fabric of football.
And, you know, to us, Aflac had some merits. Now, look, I have to say before we even started saying, Hey, Deutsch, think about it. And how do we write some scripts? I had some trepidation. I wasn't sure this is a no brainer. You're right. As a brand person, I am super worried that my brand's front and center.
People are taking away the message. So as we talked about sharing Aflac's interest with Deutsch, we started to say, Hey, there's something there. Uh, you know, let's think about it and let's kick the tires. And I think what they always do really well and that we've done really well is find the truisms in sports.
We were talking about how things change. Well, look. People know their sponsors, people know there's paid advertising, and that's part of the fabric of college football. I think what this work we're doing together jointly does brilliantly is kind of with a wink and a nod. You know, the consumer knows that they're getting free football, but they're, you know, asked to watch the ads.
I think this does a great job of making something fun and interesting, putting our brands together and kind of saying, Hey, these are a couple of the sponsors in college football, and this is how it comes to life. And so
Garth Knutson: season seven,
Andrew Springate: season seven of Fansville,
Garth Knutson: the Aflac duck, which is my partially my responsibility gets to be in my favorite, you know, tv campaign. My favorite campaign and my favorite, uh, insurance brand spokesperson, the Aflac duck, are gonna be in a commercial together
Andrew Springate: and we are excited to see this. So, uh, Look, I think you see collabs in society all the time and actually some of the best music's made that way.
Foods now. Hey, this is a logical one for us to kind of try. I think it hasn't been done in the marketing world broadly or you know, I like this. I don't know. I think this is a fun way to lean into something. And I think, you know, for us, it again, keeping football fresh for the fans and the fans of our brands. And I think it'll be some big news. I'm excited that we're doing it.
DC: I think this is gonna be my final question, but maybe not. We, we do what we do to drive results. So Garth, you are now in a situation where the company Aflac this year hit an all time high in stock price, all time high in the history of the company.
Uh, first six months of the year. I think you all were up 6 percent uh, overall. You Gate Baby with Dr Pepper and the team, the larger team this year became the number two soft drink beverage in this country in the land. So both of you dudes are about results, but I'm going to ask you to do something that's not necessarily results based.
But if Brand Week or Ad Age or one of these publications were writing the headline after seeing this mash up, That's a good one. What would the headline be to best describe what they are, what they have seen and what drops on the 30th?
Andrew Springate: I think the headline will be two great brands and college football collab to create something even better. Um, and actually, I'm super proud of the spot, but I have no doubt. Actually, we are results driven and we drive the results because we connect with people. I think this will connect with people and that will lead to more interest in our brands and hopefully more sales. So I expect us to drive those results and fuel us seen as a key brand in college football and as importantly, drive our sales to help us be the number two soft drink in America. That is exactly what it's all about.
Garth Knutson: And I don't want to give anything away about the spot. I'd like to see it for the first time on their own here about it. But there is one line in it. I think that would be my headline from one of the characters from C. J. He says, My whole life is a commercial and he is so it's similar sort of that frustration or the joy or all of these emotions we've talked about in college football this this collaboration of these two brands really helps bring that out in this character and I think that fans are just gonna just gonna love it
DC: All right I said that was gonna be my last question yeah it's not this is my last question yep this is my last question we'll start with you G .What have you not said or heard regarding the conversation with college football and partnerships and mashups that the Brand Nerds have not heard that you would want them to know, if anything, maybe nothing, but Brand Nerds in there, a brand manager, a director CMO, anything you want them to take away that you haven't already said or that Andrew hasn't already said?
Garth Knutson: I mean, I think I touched on this earlier, but I mean, you know, when you're trying to get into a consumer passion point, whether it's football or, uh, baseball, opera, music, pickleball, you know, anything. If you just show up one dimensionally, if you just do TV ads or you just do events or you just do this, you're not really going to maximize that spin.
You know, we talked about both of our brands have been in this sport for, for decades and it sounds like, you 100 years combined between the two of us, which is pretty amazing, but we're not just doing TV. That's what we were just talking about for the last five minutes. But we've got the Aflac kickoff game here.
We've got partnerships with celebrities in the sport. We do events and we we do a little bit of everything, and I think you have to do that in order to maximize that spin. A lot of people think that Aflac spends a billion dollars like a year in advertising, like some of these other big insurance companies were a fraction of that.
You know, there's there's one other I won't name. We spend literally 1/20 of what they do in brand advertising. So in order for us to come across, like I said, is a big fish in this big pond of college football and spending like a little fish. We've really got to get creative. And that's why I'm so excited about this partnership.
It's just a new way for us to find another dimension, another place, another space to activate that we hadn't before.
Andrew Springate: Good. Darryl, I'd leave you two thoughts. Yes. Um, one. I know we talk it, but follow your consumer fans. It's important to understand them and understand their passion points. We've talked that, but I'd say follow that.
That really is the, the ultimate, uh, the ultimate North star. I think the second one for me, and you talked a little bit at Garth is try new things. Um, most of our brands are very resilient. Um, you know, you're not always going to get it right, but I do think when you're following your fans and trying new things and trying to keep fresh and contemporary reinventing the brands.
That's when you're going to have your most success. You don't run the same play you ran last year. You look at how do you make it better or even pivot and do something completely different. So, um, I think there's a lot of great in that. And that's what I would encourage people to think about from today's lesson.
DC: In some ways, there's a parallel to what you just, both of you just said, to the game of college football. It evolves. It changes. It tries new things. Realignments, NIL, all that things. You all are beginning to do that. On the marketing side, and I dare say that while the competition on the field of college football is fierce in the world of marketing off the field, as it has to do with college football and beyond, competition may be even more fierce.
So well, well done, gentlemen. Okay, we're gonna get y'all out of here on this Brand Nerds. I got to do a couple thank yous.
Andrew Springate: Wait, I want to do a thank you. Thank you to you. Thank you to Garth. I've enjoyed that. Thank you. The time and yeah, this is great. I enjoyed working with you. It's an honor to get this.
Always appreciate all you've done for me historically. So thank you very much.
DC: You're welcome. All right, Brand Nerds. I got some thank yous that I need to run through. I'm gonna do this expeditiously. I'm gonna start with you two brothers. Garth, um, this was your idea actually to do a podcast. here because we hadn't done a full podcast yet.
This is close to it. So thank you very much. And thank you for your trust brother in Brand Positioning Doctors and in me to service your business. And thank you for your friendship. Gate Baby. Thank you. Brand Nerds. You all don't know this. This brother, uh, it just became an empty nester. His youngest daughter, he's a, he's a, uh, thrice, uh, girl, dad, just like me, just went to college, University of Texas.
Give him the horns. Okay. Hook him. Yeah, hook him. Hopefully you'll be hearing from us this year. Hook him, hook him horns. And so he left that to come here and he's going back on a Friday, Labor Day weekend. So, uh, Gate Baby, thank you. And, uh, and thank you for the work that we did together some decades ago.
It is still, in my opinion, a blueprint for what is done largely in marketing today. So, thank you for that. Check. All right. Jason Kersey, who was with a A. M. B. Sports and Entertainment. He heads media operations. Uh, now, yeah, I think I've messed up this brother's name. I apologize. He's the chief commercial officer, and he is a brother.
Also, Harvard undergrad. Uh, double M. Michelle McMullin, an Aflac. She heads all sports. He helped get us in here. Amy Persons. Amy's back over there. She heads up P. R. on the marketing side. David Epps, the Chief Operating Officer at the Chick fil a Bowl. He helped make this happen. Dagger fam, Mike P, who's the ceo, Adam Greenwall, Tara Oates, Andrew Austin, who's like here on the ones and twos setting all this up with the with the red camera.
What's up there? Um, Andrew, Mary Catherine Watts. Otherwise known as M. C. What's up? Al Patton, who heads creative over there and then on the Brand Beats and Bytes and BPD team, Jade Tate, who's a producer on our team. Larry Taman, who you guys know as the co host, also executive producer and co founder. Jeff Shirley, who is super producer, Jeff Shirley.
He's not here today, but we thank you, Jeff. He is a super producer. Joi Noel is the newest member to the BPD team and therefore the BBB team. And then the person that helped us start this podcast at Stanford University, um, not shout out the farm, um, the pod father, we call him Tom DeOro. But last but not least, I need to thank my daughters.
My daughters are all here on this production behind the camera on the audio, wardrobe. They're doing all the things here. And to be a father and be working with all three of my daughters at the same time. Hailey, Lauren and Sydney. I'm looking at each of you all now. Thank you. You are largely the reason why I do what I do.
I love y'all. And with that, while LT is not here, lt is gonna take us out of here on the audio. We out.
Garth Knutson: Thanks.