Auburn fans never yield—except on the road. In January 2022, we launched a multicity billboard campaign promoting our Auburn vanity plates in the state of Alabama. Using alumni research and our club network, we targeted the cities with the highest concentrations of Auburn alumni and friends. The simple, eye-catching creative played off a line in the fight song “ever to conquer/never to yield” that is very familiar to all Auburn fans. By changing one word to “sometimes” (indicating, of course, how you must yield sometimes when driving), along with the use of Auburn colors, graphics, and even an intuitive URL shortener, we created a simple, funny, and memorable outdoor campaign. This billboard tells you to go get your Auburn tag without ever saying it. And the Auburn family did, resulting in more than $220,000 in vanity tag sales for the month of January, the second-highest January in the program’s history.
From the Judges
Great representation of a simple, concise message that resonated perfectly with the target audience. Shows a clear understanding of the fan base represented through the number of tags sold. The campaign was clever, effective, successful, and a good use of resources for an out-of-home spend in a fast-paced, busy area.
