Why ESPN made a giant ring for college football’s national champions

Sports marketing, like sports itself, is about executing in key moments. On Monday night, ESPN came ready to play with an unconventional prop during its broadcast of the 2024 College Football Playoff national championship game. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Tying into the custom of championship rings, the network collaborated with agency Arts & Letters to craft a supersized version—a ring more than a foot in diameter, worn on three fingers, that was presented to Michigan after its win over Washington. Also read: Inside women's sports marketing The ring made a few appearances on ESPN shows before kickoff, but got its moment to shine during the trophy presentation and other postgame activities, as you can see in the broadcast footage below. In many ways, the initiative married tradition with experimentation, leaning into college football’s legacy of sideline swag while also leveraging the always-evolving approach to activating on social during and after a linear broadcast. One ring to rule them all ESPN has a history of creating unique products for big events—from its Victory Goggles for the 2022 NBA Finals, which kept champagne out of the winners’ eyes during postgame celebrating, to its “Postseasoning” spice mix for 2022’s college football playoffs. Both of those products were also conceived by Arts & Letters. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Ahead of Monday’s game, Annie Dunbar, senior social media manager at ESPN, pressed the marketing team for something similar that players could engage with—and fans could consume on social while watching the linear broadcast. Curtis Friends, VP of sports marketing at ESPN, and his team once again engaged Arts & Letters (which has also been handling ESPN promos for many years). The agency came back with the idea of an oversized championship ring, based on the existing affinity in college football for sideline bling—for example, the University of Miami’s turnover chain, a giant necklace which for years was worn by defensive players after they forced turnovers. “My only comment when I saw it, was, ‘It just needs to be bigger. That’ll make it more fun,” Friends told Ad Age about hearing the Big Ring pitch for the first time. Andrew Kong, creative director at Arts & Letters, said his team was inspired by other larger-than-life items, such as UNLV’s sideline slot machine and the giant Noggin Boss hats that have become popular in the NFL lately. “ESPN wanted something that would capture people’s attention, on the field and online,” he said. “So we looked at what players are gravitating toward on the sidelines and in the locker room after games.” Crafting the ring From there, it became a design challenge, with Arts & Letters working with Raven Lake Studio on the design elements of the Big Ring. The ring’s silhouette forms the shape of NRG Stadium in Houston (the site of Monday’s game). It features 10 (fake) diamonds signifying the 10 years of the CFP era; four rubies representing the final year of the four-team playoff structure (the CFP moves to a 12-team format next year); and 133 smaller diamonds representing the 133 programs in Division I FBS college football. The ring also features the ESPN and CFP logos. Its sides commemorate the game site and year, and feature the words “The Greatest Story Ever Played,” which has been the theme of ESPN’s season-long brand campaign for college football. “We started off by creating a prototype in the office,” Kong said. “We got styrofoam balls out and we’re sawing them and attaching them with toothpicks to one another. We looked at the prototypes and we were like, ‘We should go bigger, right?’ That led us to [Raven Lake], who 3D printed it and applied each of the stones to the ring by hand.” It was important that the final design look premium, much as the Victory Goggles did, said Friends. “It just looks cool,” he said. “At every stage of the fabrication, it was just beautiful. It feels premium. It couldn’t be something that felt cheesy or chintzy—we’re not about that.” The Big Ring in action As Monday night approached, the ESPN marketing team gave the broadcast team all the talking points about the ring—and later made sure it was on the stage, and on camera, during the trophy presentation. Friends said it was important, though, for it not to feel staged. It had to feel organic, which meant much of the content that was captured ended up being earmarked for social—where it can feel like more of a natural play. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ESPN (@espn) “We would want it to be organic. We wouldn’t want it to be forced, and our broadcast team wouldn’t do that anyway,” Friends said. “You see what comes up after the game. It’s important not to script that out.” In terms of metrics, ESPN told Ad Age that on-site content focused on the Big Ring is closing in on ESPN’s monthly video view averages in less than 24 hours. One video of offensive player of the game Blake Corum and defensive player of the game Will Johnson holding the ring got over 1 million views on Instagram. Individual videos of Corum and Johnson donning the ring on hits 800,000 views overnight and counting on ESPN’s TikTok. The ring has also been showcased on the Michigan football and College Football Playoff social media accounts as well. Go big or go home There is a level of absurdity, of course, in having a ring that’s a foot high that you wear on three fingers. But a dose of absurdity fits American sports culture generally—something brands have been exploring more lately, in stunts such as the Pop-Tarts edible mascot. While Friends said there is “no real formula” to it, he acknowledged the “Instagrammable moment” value of creating larger-than-life props and stunts. “Larger-than-life stuff plays well. I don’t know that Pop-Tarts was the first one, but it hits,” he said. “We’re not building these things just for an Instagram moment—there’s a few insights we weave through it. I think you’ll start to see more brands do it, like Pop-Tarts, as long as there’s a real insight and it doesn’t just feel like a stunt.” “Whever you can have your brand message jump off the screen and exist elsewhere, that’s always a great opportunity,” Kong added. “Especially when you can literally get it into the hands of the players and coaches—that’s pretty special.

Why ESPN made a giant ring for college football’s national champions

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