The Home Depot "College GameDay Built By Doers"
The 6th Annual Awards
- Best Branded Content
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
For 22 Years, "College GameDay" has been “Built by The Home Depot.” Over that time, we’ve seen firsthand the work that goes into producing college football’s premier pregame show on a different college campus each week. It takes hundreds of “Doers” to plan, move, construct, write, produce, and break down College GameDay every Saturday during the fall. As a brand that champions the hard work done by doers every day, The Home Depot worked with Octagon to turn the cameras around this season and share the stories of members of the "College GameDay" staff, including security, producers, stage managers, and truck drivers, all nominated by the "College GameDay" crew. The content featured "GameDay" talent sharing memorable stories and thanking the staff, and each concluded by surprising each member with their own custom mascot “headgear,” which is worn by Coach Corso himself.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
Excellent branded content should both serve the brand goals and tell stories that are insightful and entertaining for fans. We are always getting asked “how does GameDay actually get built?” So we knew that content that took fans behind the scenes would be interesting to them. What makes this content truly “excellent” is how we told the brand story through the unsung heroes who put in the work each week to make this show happen, and then honoring them with an incredible surprise. This led to engaged talent, which resulted in a highly engaged audience.
Objective
The Home Depot’s objective was to create talent led social content that positioned the brand as a champion for “Doers” and resonate with "College GameDay" audiences through viewership and engagement.
Strategy & Execution
To create this content, we had to get each crew member to a single summer production day without giving away the surprise. Octagon worked with ESPN and talent, including Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, to identify and align on four crew members, each nominated by a member of the crew. The headgear idea came very late (about one week before the shoot), so the Octagon production crew sourced a team of artists and costume designers to work around the clock leading up to the shoot, resulting in the incredible moment that concludes each video. All episodes were shot on a single production day, with b-roll captured on site at "GameDay" in the opening weeks of the season. Content was released over the course of the season by the cast members, including shout outs to them on social.
Organizations
- The Home Depot
- ESPN
- Octagon
Links
Featured
- Kirk Herbstreit
- Desmond Howard
- Rece Davis
- Lee Corso
Credits
Heather Dade-Themelis
Sr. Manager, Sports Marketing
The Home Depot
Matthew Chelap
SVP
Octagon
Matthew Malichio
Executive Creative Director
Octagon
Sean LaGamma
Executive Producer
Octagon
Josh Patterson
Group Creative Director
Octagon
Will Butler
Senior Content Director
Octagon
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
