Inside Nissan’s ‘Heisman House’ campaign with Zillow, college football star Caleb Williams and influencers

Nissan is not putting its Heisman House up for sale—but the automaker is joining forces with real estate platform Zillow to hype it. The fraternity-style dwelling—which for 13 years has anchored the automaker’s college football marketing—this year welcomes the University of Southern California quarterback and 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. In a series of ads debuting this week, Williams partakes in silly antics with the brand’s usual crew of former Heisman winners, which this season includes Tim Tebow, Eddie George, Robert Griffin III, Matt Leinart, Baker Mayfield, George Rogers, Barry Sanders, Billy Sims and Charles Woodson. But the house itself is the star of a digital complement to the TV campaign that includes a dedicated Zillow page that goes live on Sept. 1 where fans can take a virtual tour and “get up close and personal like never before,” according to Nissan. Yes, it is a real house—but Nissan has used two of them over the years to film the ads, one in Pasadena, California and another in Austin, Texas, where this year’s campaign is set. The Zillow deal “felt like a great brand fit,” said Marisstella Marinkovic, VP and chief marketing officer for Nissan U.S. “They are in the business of marketing homes [and] the Heisman house is one of the most interesting places and homes in all of the U.S.” Football marketing news Tracking Super Bowl, NFL and college brand moves Read more here The campaign, handled by Omnicom’s TBWA\Chiat\Day, will further the real estate theme with a couple of influencer partnerships. One deal is with Caleb Simpson, who is known for producing video tours of regular people’s apartments and homes on TikTok ( where he has 7.7 million followers) and Instagram (1.4 million followers). For Nissan, he will tour the Heisman house with the football greats and mascots. The automaker is also partnering with TikToker Jonathan Carson, whose humorous video reviews of homes, often sourced from Zillow postings, have gained him more than 380,000 followers. This is the first Heisman House campaign under the watch of Marinkovic, who joined Nissan in March from Kia, where she served as director of marketing operations and strategy at Kia Motor America. The campaign stems from Nissan’s long-running sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy. “Heisman has been a tradition at Nissan for many years now. And when I joined, one of the things that I was excited about with this property, and one of the reasons that we love the Heisman, and the Heisman House, specifically, is it's part of culture,” Marinkovic said. This year’s effort, she added, was developed in response to consumer curiosity about the house. “A lot of people have been asking, is it real? Is it a real place?” she said. “We are now this year giving fans access to the house like no other year.” Williams’ involvement in the campaign marks the second straight year Nissan has used an active college football player, taking advantage of so-called name, image and likeness rules that took effect in 2021 allowing for college stars to get paid for appearing in ads. Read more on Nissan's first NIL deal (with Bryce Young) in 2022 One of the ads makes light of the new endorsement opportunities afforded today’s college stars by depicting the Hiesman vets randomly plugging fake products, including dental floss and dust spray, as Williams looks on. But he just can’t bring himself to endorse an ice tea brand backed by USC’s rival UCLA. In real life, Williams has proven to be a savvy businessperson. As recently reported by The Washington Post, he “is the first Heisman winner to have his entire career play out in the name, image and likeness era of collegiate sports, with players allowed to profit off their personal brands.” I’m Not a Businessman; I’m a Business, Man!— Caleb Williams (@CALEBcsw) July 3, 2021 Simpson's first deal as a freshman was with Beats by Dre and he has since inked agreements with AC+ION Water, Neutrogena and PlayStation, adding to his revenue haul that the Post estimated to be in the seven-figure range. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CALEB WILLIAMS (@ayeeecaleb) He also runs a charity called Caleb Cares Foundation, which is focused on mental health awareness and combatting bullying. In addition to Nissan his other new deals include Dr Pepper, for which he stars in the soda brand’s “Fansville” campaign from Deutsch L.A. The effort, which is entering its sixth season, depicts a football-crazed drama, styled like an over-the-top episodic drama. Williams’ Dr Pepper appearance makes reference to his nails, which he is known to paint with messages before games; his mom, who is a nail technician and the inspiration for the quarterback’s nail art, also appears in the campaign. Below, see more ads from Nissan’s campaign:

Inside Nissan’s ‘Heisman House’ campaign with Zillow, college football star Caleb Williams and influencers

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