Dr Pepper’s ‘Fansville’ Adds Jerry Jones, Mixed Reality And More

College football fan favorite Fansville, a satirical episodic drama from Dr Pepper set in a fictional college town, is returning for its eighth season. Over the past several years, college football players like Quinn Ewers, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, and DJ Uiagalelei have headlined the series. This year, however, Dr Pepper turned to someone from the pro football world: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Dr Pepper CMO Drew Panayiotou says the cameo from Jones came about in part thanks to his appearance on the Billy Bob Thornton led Landman TV show.

“Jerry Jones did a segment playing himself in Landman, and I said, ‘Wow, Jerry seems to have some acting chops. Maybe we should think about him in college football.’”

Panayiotou’s original idea was to play off a storyline from America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys, an eight-part documentary series that premiered on Netflix in August.

He’d already been thinking about how Jones tries to get the best college players, and then, “Lo and behold, there was a story that came out a couple of weeks ago on Jerry’s Netflix series, and it talked about him negotiating differently with players in the draft.”

Panayiotou passed that story along to his creative team, but they ended up coming back with the idea of pro towns versus college towns and “Away Game” was developed.

In that episode, the college football fans are terrified to find themselves in Pro Town, a place where people go to yoga on Saturdays. There, they encounter Jones.

“I think the best way to get value out of sponsorships is actually to think about how you do more than just putting your name on a stadium or putting your name on a sign,” said Panayiotou. “How does that sponsorship live in all your storytelling and media?”

Dr Pepper has relationships with the Cowboys, along with other NFL teams including the Bears and Browns.

“I think that the value of a sponsorship has to be about that joint storytelling and it needs to evolve to what we’re doing with the Cowboys, taking assets, telling stories where relevant, and bringing them together.”

Another way Dr Pepper is evolving its storytelling is integrating into existing programming like The Pat McAfee Show during the show’s signature commercial-free hour. During “Playoffuary”—a term the brand trademarked for the stretch between the College Football Playoff Semifinals and the CFP National Championship game—Dr Pepper will tap into additional ESPN talent to further engage fans.

Fansville will also produce its own documentary-style social series to share behind-the-scenes stories of past winners of the Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway, a 17-year long tradition in college football.

These integrations are thanks in part to a new strategic advertising collaboration with Disney Advertising. As part of this expanded partnership, Dr Pepper will have access to Disney’s college football fan insights that will allow the brand to personalize its content.

“They have so much data on fandom, so we’re marrying our data together so we can tell more interesting stories. For the very first time, you’ll see ads that are tailored for SEC fans and ads that are tailored for Georgia fans.”

“Over the course of our long-standing relationship with Dr Pepper we’ve built a deep understanding of their business and how college football plays a key role in their consumer strategy,” said Rita Ferro, president of Disney Advertising. “The beauty of this collaboration lies in our abilities to push each other year after year to continuously evolve and innovate.”

Fansville will be seamlessly blended into live college football broadcasts this season for the first time ever using mixed reality. For example, during LSU’s win over Clemson Week 1, the Fansville Dr Pepper water tower appeared on the live broadcast as the commentators compared quarterback stats.

“We want to continue to push our storylines into what’s happening during the game,” said Panayiotou. “I think it’d be really interesting to see how we can take Pepper into the game.”

Ferro says college football fans will benefit from this expanded partnership.

“We create brand moments through custom integrations that link brands to the game moments fans care most about, allowing them to be part of the cultural conversations that take place beyond the field. Rivalries, traditions, and viral moments become part of the zeitgeist.”

Currently, the mixed reality elements are scheduled, but in the next phase, Dr Pepper wants to be able to be reactive in the moment based on what’s happening on the field.

As an example, Panayiotou brought up Alabama’s loss to Florida State the first week of the season and how that begins fueling fan conversation around the coaching “hot seat” for Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. In the future, he’d like to have the ability to use mixed reality to acknowledge it live during the broadcast.

“If you think about the second quarter when the game started slipping away, that’s a hot seat moment…How does how seat show up in the second quarter of the Alabama-Florida State game, where it says, well, the seat is starting to get warm?”

“No one’s ever done these fully immersive mixed reality elements, and well look for opportunities through the season where we can kind of push the storyline to these elements and be the first to do it of any brand.”

For now, fans can enjoy a new season of Fansville as the episodes roll out over the course of the season featuring familiar faces like Brian Bosworth as Sheriff. As has become tradition, the ads will reference trends and conversations in college football like the coaching hot seat, flag planting and quarterbacks sliding in the draft. Several episodes have already released with more coming as the season progresses.