Tailgating is a time-honored college football tradition, and in recent years, the experience has evolved from a cookout, foldout chairs and open trunks, to big screens, sound systems and games. And as brands tap into these fervent fan spaces, their strategies have been evolving, too.
No one has watched this tailgating evolution more closely than Jay Freedman, president of NFuse 360 Marketing, which produces The Tailgate Tour, billed as the largest and longest running fan experience in college sports. Now in its 25th year, The Tailgate Tour, which kicked off Aug. 31 at the University of Florida and over 14 weeks will travel to campuses around the country, offers fans a free pregame experience that showcases beverage, CPG, personal care and wireless brands through booths, photo ops, sampling and giveaways.
The event’s longtime media partner, Fox Sports Radio, helped jumpstart the tour when it set out to create in-person engagement around its broadcasts, according to Freedman. In the early years, the tour featured a few 10-by-10 tents traveling around the country, and the radio network would broadcast live from each location. Twenty-five years later, it has grown into a stadium-adjacent fan village that takes over campuses and reaches more than 1.5 million fans over the season.
“To be out in the midst of our target audience in a perfect type of place for us—a college campus near a football field before a big game—is huge so they can interact directly with the brand,” says Scott Shapiro, svp, Fox Sports Radio. “What we’re really pleased with is the growth through the years, the number of fans who come through. Taking part in tailgating gives a lot of credibility to who we are in their minds, so when they get home and want sports coverage, our hope is that they’re more likely to think of us.”
To help us explore best practices around tailgating experiential today, we asked Freedman and Shapiro to share their playbooks on engaging a passionate demographic (that has a few surprising characteristics).
Know today’s college football fan.
Freedman says participating brands can feel tentative about joining The Tailgate Tour because their target audiences aren’t college students and young adults, but that group is “the smallest demographic that we touch on game days today.” In fact, the tour’s biggest demographic is adults 25 and older.
“It’s all recent alumni and older adults,” he says. “Because of that, a lot of our activations are more mature in nature. We’re out there with brands that want to talk about grilling from a sophistication standpoint or wireless, talking about connectivity, data and business solutions. That world has shifted a lot.”
Both men and women make up the avid college football fanbase, with Freedman citing The Tailgate Tour’s audience as 51-percent male, 49-percent female. It’s not a man’s world.
Choose a college that’s wild for football.
Some universities get more into their school spirit on game day than others, and after touring so many college campuses, Freedman has noted which schools are the most into tailgating celebrations.
“On game day, most of the college students are sitting at their fraternity or sorority houses or in the dorms, doing things that college students typically do,” he says. “We always talk about how not all schools are created equal. There are schools that are much better on game day than others. Auburn University is amazing. Fans are out at 7:30 or 8 in the morning for an evening game.”
Design booths for that social carousel.
It goes without saying, but “for the ’gram” is still very important when it comes to events. The key is making it into attendees’ Instagram carousel of photos, which now includes up to 20 photos, or TikTok videos. Just because tailgate audiences skew older than Gen Z, it doesn’t mean they’re not posting on social media. And Shapiro is conscious of that in the design of Fox Sports Radio’s activation.
“We have great signage, experiences and opportunities for fans to take a photo in front of a Fox Sports Radio booth so that it’s not just a logo,” he says. “When we get a photo sent our way of somebody at The Tailgate Tour, it shows us and our fans out of our studio environment. We love seeing that stuff.”
This year, Fox Sports Radio has a sign-making booth as part of its activation, where fans can get creative with markers and poster board to show off their school pride.
Sampling is a strategic play.
While food and beverages are game-day staples, there are other essentials that may be overlooked. The Tailgate Tour partners with brands that offer products of utility and comfort to attendees. Kimberly-Clark is once again on tour, highlighting its Cottonelle brand by elevating the traditional porta-potty experience with air-conditioned bathrooms that are stocked with Cottonelle toilet paper and wipes.
“If you’re tailgating, you can walk a mile just to get to a porta-potty, and so their activation is all about consumers being able to conduct trial within a restroom,” Freedman says. “It’s creativity in a different way for a brand that typically might struggle to get through the noise on game day.”
On the other side of that, Freedman says digestive care is also popular among the tailgating crowd. This season, Pepto Bismol is on the road with The Tailgate Tour, and brand ambassadors are passing out samples, something fans are appreciative of, he says.
Talk about putting on a game face.
Photo credit: NFuse 360 Marketing
