I am a coffee fan probably 14 hours a day, and have always been intrigued by the marketing of the drinks as a place for community as well as caffeine. For decades, from Dunkin to Tim Horton’s, sports have been a central point in the storytelling around the beverages as well.
However now there is a challenger brand, based in Omaha, that is going to use the national platform of a bowl game to catapult its growth, similar to the path other CSR brands have done.
The company is Scooter’s Coffee, and they are taking the naming rights for the former Frisco Bowl on December 19 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, live on ESPN. The game will again feature two teams from the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference or the Sun Belt Conference, but more importantly it is in a key market for growth for the company as they look to go way beyond their current 29 states and push the two giants in consumer coffee, Dunkin and Starbucks.
Using a Bowl game as front porch, one that is not along the main front for consumers when thinking about the college football postseason, may seem like a bit of a risk for a company that is certainly about fun and accessibility for its followers, and probably less about disruption than say, Black Rifle Coffee (based in Texas). However the assets that come well beyond just the game in a category that right now (coffee for the time challenged and weary college demo) has worked out for two other brands, most notable Outback, which took a Tampa Bowl game and leveraged it to a brand explosion and Chick-fil-A, which used the much larger Peach Bowl in Atlanta to vastly expand its platform in their space from 1996 until now.
Now just slapping a name on a field and hoping for the best doesn’t work. There has to be a pretty large marketing and brand spend against the game assets to make it fly for consumers. Stunts, like the one the chain did with a world record cake ball for its 25th birthday, will be welcome as well, as Scooter’s tries to find casual coffee drinkers, its myriad of college fans, and its core consumers. A quality social play, as well as highlighting players from the conferences involved in their markets, are also well underway. They should look to how Duke’s Mayo has found its voice in a crowded bowl space to national buzzworthy prominence as a template for success.
Still, we love disruptors and the challenges of the college bowl space as a spot for brand expansion. Coffee is, well, blue ocean still for the college market, and it will be interesting to see how Scooters of Omaha leverages its play, launching with a Texas bowl to find its wider footing.
