• Loading stock data...
Sunday, December 1, 2024

‘College Colors Day’ Increases Fan Participation Throughout the Season

college-colors-day

The passion. The fanfare. The legions of fans absolutely losing their minds in excitement every Saturday from August through January. This is exactly the type of environment that IMG College Licensing was looking to capture to help welcome back the return of the college football season.

With “College Colors Day” celebrating its 14th anniversary, college football fans across the country have been able to express passion for their team in new and exciting ways. Nicole Armentrout, vice president of marketing for IMG College Licensing, explained the psyche of the fans who make the day such a success.

“‘College Colors Day’ is really like our Christmas for kicking off the season,” said Armentrout. “College football fans are some of the most passionate fans that you’ll ever see. Their excitement about giving everything they can to their team to help them really assists with promoting our campaign.”

SEE MORE: SMU Wants to Bring Tailgating Experience Inside Stadium 

Armentrout noted different ways that the IMG College Licensing team worked with their premier properties in order to showcase fan engagement throughout the season.

“It’s up to us to develop tools for the institutions to work with. We tried to cover many different angles and capture the audience from multiple platforms. We wanted to give fans the feeling of truly being involved in their team’s success. This year we created videos for all of our schools that got them pumped up about their school’s colors.

[mc4wp_form id=”8260″]

“We really wanted to broadcast it out for fans to proudly display their school’s identity in a prideful way. We also teamed up with our Partner GIPHY to have videos developed featuring our school’s mascots dancing and proudly displaying their colors. We have had a relationship with GIPHY for a few years now, and the opportunity surrounding ‘College Colors Day’ stemmed from organic conversations between their team and our digital team.

“A number of school partners were excited to create content for this platform, and to provide a unique piece of content that feels shareable for their respective fan bases. This really helped to fuel the messaging with our ‘Unleash Your Colors’ campaign which gives fans an opportunity to display their reactions throughout the season. The campaign has been adopted very well by both larger and smaller licensing programs as we give all of our university partners a chance to express their true fandom.”

SEE MORE: The Foundation and Future of Athlete-Driven Social Media 

The “Unleash Your Colors” campaign was noticeable on social media as graphics would highlight players basked in the color of their school. Simply put, IMG College Licensing team allowed the colors to speak for themselves.

The team’s key communication arose while working with its properties to create content that fans would be really excited about and be compelled to share.

The hard work paid off as this year the campaign saw more adoption of that content than ever before with over 12 million media impressions. From August 1 through September 3, over 40,000 posts populated across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook referencing the holiday. Most of these posts contained the #CollegeColorsDay hashtag while also seeing the hashtag trending Top 5 on Twitter during the morning of “College Colors Day”, reaching as high as third nationally.

“This year has been very successful to the nature of the dynamic content we are helping to put out there,” said Armentrout. “Yes, we have static content but then we have the more engaging content such as the engaging videos that we collaborated on.”

With teams looking to embed this content into their everyday marketing, it is critical that IMG College Licensing and its schools work together to figure out which content performs the best on which platforms.

IMG College Licensing represents nearly 150 universities; the resources for “College Colors Day” was funneled through 50 of their top schools. To harken back to the theme of the campaign, Armentrout explained that while the size of the school aided in pushing the promotion, it truly boiled down to the fan’s own involvement.

“We truly saw that the most active colleges were the ones where the students took the lead of posting their own reactions to our content. And it’s not just the current students. The alumni bases were immensely successful in spreading word of the campaign. So a state like Texas is huge for us with Texas A&M being one of our top clients. Of course, the University of Alabama and the University of Michigan are definitely powerhouses.

SEE MORE: goCharge Gives Power to Fans When They Need It Most 

“We do have some schools like West Virginia that do amazingly well with the content and their rabid fan base. But you truly see the content take off and explode with nationally buzzed-about schools such as Penn State and Clemson. You do have challenges with some schools that say they can’t fit in content since they already have so much they are producing internally with everything going on. That’s why we prioritize the quality of the content we offer.”

With a successful campaign this season, Armentrout is always looking for ways to keep the fan engagement at this all-time high while also looking to grow more organic content generated by fans.

“The whole campaign has progressed and the ways that consumers want to connect with their favorite brands and we look at these schools as brands. It’s important to note that fans are already fans of these brands. We don’t have to convert them but we need to constantly be asking how do we try and change their behavior.

[mc4wp_form id=”8260″]

“We want them to increase their actions where they’re wanting to showcase and buy more gear and get more excited about their teams and the college football season. It’s really about delivering these kinds of content that are lined up with their upcoming matchup that will encourage fans to naturally share. We definitely don’t want to make it a situation where it’s some entity that’s forcing something down their throats.”

Moving forward, Armentrout sees fine-tuning and improving on content to be the key driver to the success of the “College Colors Day” campaign.

“To be able to be ahead of trends and just deliver the best ideas to our schools is the key objective moving forward. We are always striving for more participation. Having already had our content featured nationally on ‘The Today Show’ and ‘Fox and Friends’, we are constantly working to achieve more of that national exposure. To help bring out the best product, it’s all about overall better content, better value, and more participation.”

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

U.S. Investors Are Gunning for England’s Small Soccer Clubs

Is another Hollywood-like success story possible among the U.K.’s smallest clubs?
Nov 1, 2024; Boise, Idaho, USA; Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty (2) leads the team onto the field prior to the first quarter against the San Diego State Aztecs at Albertsons Stadium.

Schools Are Scrambling to Prepare for the NCAA Revenue-Sharing Era

In the post–House v. NCAA world, “everyone’s kind of on their own.”
Nov 4, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Recording artist Taylor Swift arrives prior to a game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The PWHL Could Be Inviting a Date With Taylor Swift’s Legal Team

The Toronto Sceptres may have opened a Pandora’s box of trademark issues.
Bluesky and Twitter

Why Bluesky Is Not a Serious Threat to Sports Twitter

Bluesky recently hit 23 million total users. That doesn’t touch X/Twitter.
podcast thumbnail mobile
Front Office Sports Today

Happy Thanksgiving From FOS Today

0:00

Featured Today

Can an Elite Women’s Soccer School Survive the New College Sports Moneyball?

Santa Clara faces an uphill battle in the new college sports landscape.
Nov 16, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman (2) celebrates after defeating NJ/NY Gotham FC in a 2024 NWSL Playoffs semifinal match at Audi Field. Mandatory Credit:
November 22, 2024

The Washington Spirit’s Business Makeover Carried Them to the Finals

The team’s return to the NWSL championship looks a lot different from 2021.
Nov 18, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Williams Racing driver Logan Sargeant of the United States (2) during the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
November 21, 2024

F1 Grand Prix Upended Vegas Last Year. Stakes Are High for Its..

Stakes are high as F1 gears up for a successful second act.
Classic Football Shirts New York Pop-Up
November 18, 2024

Vintage Soccer Jerseys Have Found a Sweet Spot in the Lucrative U.S...

The money-making shirts are at the prime intersection of memorabilia and fashion.

Who Is Jolin, the Mystery Woman Fueling Michigan’s Recruiting Boom?

Little is known about the woman with ties to billionaire Larry Ellison.
Nov 24, 2011; College Station, TX, USA; General view of the line of scrimmage during a game between the Texas A&M Aggies and Texas Longhorns in the third quarter at Kyle Field.
November 26, 2024

High Stakes and Record Ticket Prices for Texas–Texas A&M

The get-in price for Saturday’s game is more than $500.
Nov 26, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Oregon Ducks guard Keeshawn Barthelemy (9) approaches Texas A&M Aggies guard CJ Wilcher (10) during the first half at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mandatory
November 27, 2024

Is This $9 Million Basketball Tournament the ‘Future of College Sports’?

NIL opportunities for players are scheduled throughout the six-day tournament.
Sponsored

How UBS Crafts Impactful Partnerships Across Sports, Arts, and Culture

As UBS continues to expand its impressive array of sports and entertainment partnerships, the company solidifies its position as a leader in wealth management.
November 25, 2024

Federal Judge Denies Motion to Ban San José State Volleyball Player From..

The judge explained his reasoning in a 28-page ruling Monday.
Nov 20, 2024; Birmingham, AL, USA; Alabama forward Derrion Reid (35) grabs a rebound in the CM Newton Classic at Legacy Arena. Alabama defeated Illinois 100-87.
November 25, 2024

The First-Ever College Basketball Tournament to Pay Players Has Arrived

A total of $9 million in NIL earnings is up for grabs.
November 24, 2024

Chaotic Upsets Turn CFB’s Rivalry Weekend Into Must-See TV

Many berths in the 12-team College Football Playoff remain up for grabs.
November 22, 2024

The Big Noon Debate: Will Ohio State’s Early Games Lead to Change?

The Buckeyes will end the season with seven noon ET kickoffs.