This past summer, NerdWallet came to us looking to get the brand into the cultural sports conversation. At the time, no one was more talked about than Colorado University’s football team. The Buffs were gearing up for their second season under Coach Prime aka Deion Sanders, and they had the two most famous players in college football, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, dominating preseason Heisman conversations. So we decided to strategically capitalize on NerdWallet’s existing partnership with Colorado to spark some serious buzz by working with one of their biggest stars.
But first, let’s back up. NerdWallet’s role is to help consumers make smarter financial decisions. So when it came to NIL deals, we wanted to take a unique and ownable approach that prioritized getting athletes to commit to making a smart financial decision with their earnings and contract transparency. Which is why, a few months earlier, we launched the “Smartest NIL Deal Ever,” with college basketball stars Juju Watkins and Rob Dillingham. It was the first NIL deal that contractually obligated players to be smart with their money by utilizing NerdWallet’s financial tools. The internet ate it up, and the press took notice. So we thought—why not run it back? If we could ink one of Colorado’s biggest stars to a Smart NIL Deal, then we could give NerdWallet the cultural moment they were looking for.
We didn’t want to simply sign Travis Hunter to a Smart NIL Deal—we wanted to make it truly unique and create fan excitement. So, we created an exclusive, one-of-one Travis Hunter x NerdWallet trading card, designed to hold a piece of the actual contract he would sign. This capitalized not only on the CU buzz, but also the popularity of sports trading cards that was taking TikTok by storm.
Of course, landing a player of his caliber took up most of our budget, leaving us with minimal resources for production. That meant overcoming a few key challenges. First, card design. Without the budget to partner with a major manufacturer like Topps, we had to ensure the card still looked premium and collectible for football fans. On top of that, incorporating a window to display the signed contract added complexity to the design. We managed to find a local Colorado vendor who hit all the marks, on an insanely tight turnaround.
Then there was the production of our video assets. With almost no money left, we had to get creative—so creative that our content shoot with Travis was filmed by a scrappy, local crew that consisted largely of our own team. Luckily, we all happen to be big Buffs fans. We created a teaser video, along with a full social video for Travis + NerdWallet to post, incorporating elements popular on Travis’ own page--like him doing some of his signature dance moves.
Finally came our rollout on TikTok and Instagram. Not just platforms where Travis' fandom was growing - highlighted by his performance on the field and his personality off - but also where a young engaged football community could be introduced to NerdWallet for the first time. Even though we were working with a Heisman candidate, we knew we needed to do something extra to get the internet talking before we dropped our one-of-one card. So during our shoot with Travis, we filmed a short teaser in which he addresses the fans to let them know he “pulled something,” a common trading card term, but also an expression that we knew would send injury-questioning shockwaves all throughout the college football world. A simple misdirect specifically designed to get people talking.
To get as many eyeballs on it as possible, we activated on the week of the biggest game of the year for Colorado. This was not just the first Big 12 matchup of the year for the team, but also had national attention as an opportunity for Travis to solidify his Heisman chances.
The combination of our rollout plan, the exclusivity of the trading card, and, of course, Travis Hunter, helped NerdWallet earn some of their best results to date. All in all, the content received:
The campaign also over-delivered across our benchmarks for engagements by over 18%, with 106 national and regional media placements that resulted in over 1.19 billion media impressions and received four national media features.
And of course, the most important result of all… Travis took home the Heisman trophy at the end of season.
