Without an NCAA partnership, Samsung broke into college football by tapping into the cultural moment of Lee Corso’s retirement—positioning its TVs as the only ones powerful enough to keep a legend in the game, even from his couch.
CREATIVE TEAM (Weber Shandwick)
Jeff Immel Chief Creative Officer
Juliet Fox Group Creative Director
Lauren Lapid Senior Art Director + Designer
Joe Wong Motion Graphics + Video Editor
Lauren Durham Copywriter
Lindsey Glassen Lead Producer
CLIENT TEAM (Samsung Electronics America)
Brian Choi Executive Director, Consumer & Shopping Marketing
Heejoo Lim Senior Manager, TV Consumer Marketing
Aadi Krishna Manager, TV Consumer Marketing
Dervla O'Brien Social Media & Influencer Lead
THE CHALLENGE — With competitors paying top dollars for NFL sponsorships, Samsung made the decision to get in the game by going all in on college football. But without an official NCAA partnership, we had to rely on cultural relevance and a keen understanding of our audience to make sponsorship-level impact without sponsorship-level dollars.
THE INSIGHT — College football fans are a different breed, their fandom fueled by collegiate pride and nostalgia for their formative years. And if there's one deity that even the deepest rivals worship together, it's legendary commentator Lee Corso. At the start of the 2025 season, Lee retired at the age of 90 after a 38-year career as the host of ESPN's College Game Day.
THE IDEA: PHASE 1 — SET THE STAGE FOR A COLLEGE FOOTBALL ICON WITH FAN CTAS & EMBARGO OUTREACH — We seized upon this once-in-a-generation moment to solidify Samsung as the only TV that can keep Lee Corso in the game — even from his couch. And who better to set up Lee's perfect retirement pad than his loyal fans? We worked with Lee's co-host Demond Howard to solicit fan suggestions about what should go into his at-home game-day setup and then surprised the new retiree with a setup filled with memories and inside jokes from his storied career, plus the all-important, big screen TV.
THE IDEA: PHASE 2 — LAUNCH #TVLIKELEE CAMPAIGN + PROMO
Once we curated the perfect, fan-sourced, Lee Corso-worthy living room setup, we brought Desmond to Lee's home to reveal the big surprise. Then, we offered fans the chance to upgrade their own game-day setup using promo code TVLIKELEE. By leveraging the retirement of a sports legend as a cultural touchstone, we turned what was essentially a product endorsement into an emotional campaign that made Samsung the college football 'TV MVP.'
THE RESULTS
#1 Share of Voice for Launch Week (54%)
240+ pieces of earned coverage
831K+ total organic views (including supporting influencer content)
