Let’s get this out of the way right now: we’re not talking about the NFL. The National Football League — America’s most lucrative sports brand — remains the established juggernaut with logical divisions of teams and mass appeal throughout the country, especially in the largest of cities. It is, in a word, stable. Some might say strong. Others might say … sterile

We won’t go there. Can a lot of the league’s teams and stadiums feel a little, um, corporate sometimes? Depends on who you ask. And even if the answer is yes, would it really matter — will people still watch? The eyeballs are there, say the ratings.

Here’s a better question, though, and one that relates to all of us in the B2B branding world: What’s the risk of every experience feeling NFL-like? Or Apple-like? Simple: blending in. Boring people. Being bound by a singular standard of success and expression. And maybe trying to be something we’re not. So, we say be yourself. Be different. And be open to borrowing from brands that might not always be the biggest, but are the best at creating truly compelling experiences — and tremendously loyal followers.

Friends, let’s talk about college football, the anything-but-sterile (or stable) fan experience that’s as varied and vast (some would say illogical) as, well, our B2B landscape. Let’s talk about how and where we can infuse the energy and emotion of Saturdays in the fall into our own brands. And let’s start our conversation with … a video game.

Design thinking empowers business leaders to reimagine their organizations, products, and services through a user-centric lens.

Create a cathedral

It’s back. EA Sports College Football 25 returned in Summer 2024, greeting fans after the gaming franchise’s 11-year hiatus. We won’t get into the backstory of the break — search for “name, image, and likeness” for more on that soap opera — but we will dig into this: how many people are buying the game.

On its first day of early access (read: before the game was fully released), more than 700,000 gamers hopped on. In fact, so many people hopped on that it jammed up EA’s servers. A week into its full release, more than 5 million unique users had played, according to a recent EA earnings report. And the game could help boost sales of the newest consoles (namely, Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S), as it’s not available on the older platforms. When you remember that EA has another wildly popular football franchise — the Madden NFL line — the numbers are even more impressive. Considering this, what makes College Football 25 different enough to attract customers, especially those who also plan to buy the newest Madden game?

Catch that on-campus cool

So, that magical atmosphere — how can we create it? First, we have to understand it. What is magic?

• Engaging: It invites fans to be part of the game. It invites customers to be part of the journey, even as heroes vital to its success.
• Emotional: It’s fans feeling seen, heard, and supported, in the good times and the bad. It’s customers feeling like you not only understand them, but empathize with them — and root for them.
• Everything: Not just the players or the game or the stadium or the fans or the food or the alma mater or the colors or the mascot or the university’s culture. Not just your product or your features or your sales strategy or your mission or your company culture. No single thing. But everything, all together. Honed and harmonized.