How Texas A&M absolutely killed it with Johnny Manziel Heisman Campaign
A Heisman Trophy winner can do wonders for their university. Everything to bringing the school into the national limelight to increasing the flow of donations. So how the school’s athletic and marketing department position their candidate can make or break an athlete’s chances of winning arguably the most prestigious award in college sports.
This year, Texas A&M faced the uphill battle of marketing their superstar, Johnny Football…err…Manziel, to land the Heisman Trophy. Sure, Manziel had the numbers to make a strong case, but no Freshman had ever won in the history of the award. It didn’t help the Aggies Head Coach, Kevin Sumlin, has a policy that does not make Freshman available to the press either. Plus, he faced a tough oppoonent in Manti Te’o, from the #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish who endured a world of hardship in his personal life to get to be the dominate linebacker that he is.
But Texas A&M proved up to the task by launching an all-out marketing blitz to make sure their guy would win. Jason Cook, Texas A&M’s vice president for marketing and communications and the athletic department went digital with their strategy creating a Johnny Manziel-centric website, www.heisman.aggieathletics.com.
“Our fans wanted billboards and blimps, we had a website,” Cook said. “And it proved to be extremely successful.”
Although, their digital strategy was central in their approach, they definitely went somewhat traditional as they placed a giant Johnny Manziel billboard smack-dab in the middle of Times Square after the win. Which ultimately helped the university capitalize on the win unlike Oregon in 2001. Luckily, A&M’s $500,000 investment proved to be a wise one, especially when Oregon spent half that on their “Joey Heisman” 10-story billboard alone for Joey Harrington BEFORE the vote – a unsuccessful attempt.
New York City was not the only area in which Johnny Manziel’s smiling face was featured as Texas A&M made it a truly national campaign as they had over 400 billboards across the country and purchased ad space on ESPN.com, SI.com and USAToday.com.
Overall, Texas A&M’s marketing team had a succinct approach to the marketing Johnny Manziel that didn’t stop after the win – which can often be the crucial aspect that is glossed over. It will be interesting to see how these efforts surrounding the Heisman campaign translates into more donations, ticket sales and overall support for the athletic department and school.
Billboards went up AFTER he won and had no effect on winning – only leveraged winning in marketing TAMU. Only pre-Heisman award marketing were website, a strong social media – twitter- push and interviews the week before votes were due.
Thanks for your response Bo. We never implied that the billboards went up prior to voting, but that they helped capitalize on the victory. Sorry if that was confusing and we'll modify the language of the article.
Sports Business Now "New York City was not the only area in which Johnny Manziel’s smiling face was featured as Texas A&M made it a truly national campaign as they had over 400 billboards across the country and purchased ad space on ESPN.com, SI.com and USAToday.com. These efforts helped Manziel win the coveted Heisman Trophy and brought Texas A&M into the national college sports conversation."
Not an implication – it's a statement and it's still there.
You don't think A&M beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa also had a lot to do with bringing A&M into the "national college sports conversation?" You haven't been listening! A&M has had NCAA Championships in several sports over the past few years–this year has just been the icing on the cake!
Hi Peggy, thanks for your comment. We never meant to imply that A&M is not a major college sports program because obviously it is. But in terms of the visibility that the Heisman Trophy brings to casual sports fans, it helped immensely.
Of course! But a lot of the marketing that A&M done was done after he won, not before.
Props to Jason Cook's team, but the biggest impact the A&M marketing dept. had on Johnny's victory was due to: 1) A no-gimmick approach, and 2) Saving it all for the final few weeks leading up to the Heisman. As Bo pointed out, the billboards were meant to increase A&M's brand exposure AFTER the Heisman win.
Johnny was easily the most dominant individual player in college football this year, so he was likely to win it anyway (and the results show the voting wasn't very close).
Thanks for your response Matt! You are definitely right that they didn't get gimmicky which was important in the win. Our whole point was that their overall campaign (before, during AND after) was succinct to fully capitalize on Johnny winning.
The smartest move by the marketing department was to embrace the fan bestowed nickname of "Johnny Football. With Coach Sumlin's policy of not letting freshmen talk to the media, the nickname and the silence only added to the intrigue as Manziel went out week after week and kept having ridiculous performances. When Manziel was finally able to talk to the media after the Missouri game, they found a student mature beyond his years who is as humble as he is gifted athletically. If anything, I would say ESPN marketed Manziel for the Heisman by showing his highlights every week, especially after A&M defeated Alabama.