A High-Performance Brand Gets A High-Pressure Opportunity To Broaden Appeal

Sunoco is a 100-year-old gas station brand tightly tethered to motorsports. It has a storied history of sponsoring racing champions on the track, including recently celebrating its 20th season as the Official Fuel of NASCAR. For Sunoco, this was a huge moment to find fame beyond the track — on a national stage, no less. March Madness is must-see viewing, a prime platform to bring Sunoco to a bigger audience. As the tournament progressed, UConn emerged as a favorite. And all eyes were on Adama Sanogo — as the star player was repeatedly referred to as “Sunoco.”

But how to take advantage of this when legally, we couldn’t even approach Sanogo?

We had to figure it out, and fast, because the tournament end would soon be upon us.

Sunoco Becomes Sanogo’s Biggest Superfan

Because of Homeland Security and visa laws, any formal engagement with Sanogo would jeopardize his status and UConn’s championship run. So what’s a brand to do?

We set out to turn Sunoco into Sanogo’s biggest unofficial superfan. We created tons of social content that played up the nonstop name mix-ups. And then we kept up constant conversation with his fans, knowing that if we pulled it off right, they would run with the idea. And did they ever.

Turning Days Of Thunder, Into Dunks Of Thunder

Sunoco’s core, car-doting “Car Connoisseurs,” over-indexed on motorsports. Especially NASCAR. Qualitative research pointed to the sport’s high-octane, hyper-competitive nature. Sunoco’s involvement in the sport drove brand appeal, but the fans were aging out, driving fewer miles. Although they weren’t the future, we couldn’t alienate them.

Meanwhile, the cultural cachet of college sports fandom was skyrocketing — due in great part to recently enacted Name-Image-Likeness rules, finally allowing college athletes to profit from their performance. As these athletes became celebrities, 2023 March Madness saw record viewership.

MRI analysis revealed a significant opportunity to broaden Sunoco’s appeal by tapping into college sports superfans. Thirty million strong and drawn to the hyper-competitive “don’t miss the action” element of sports, they’re streaming games during weddings, and viewing every highlight on social media. But while Sunoco’s awareness was high, it wasn’t a brand for them.

Stoking The Fire With Fans

We couldn’t engage Sanogo, so we did the next best thing: We became his #1 fan. Across platforms, we instigated conversation with trending meme content. Any time someone commented on the Sanogo/Sunoco phenomenon, we responded. Then we created custom-made jerseys featuring Sanogo’s name within Sunoco’s iconic diamond logo. Fans begged for one. And they asked the question we knew was coming: “Where’s the NIL deal?” Yep, they all wanted to make sure Sunoco was paying Sanogo. But we had to just take the heat until Sanogo was no longer a student.

Then it happened. UConn won the championship. Sanogo was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. And the “official” fun could begin. We flew Adama to the Bahamas, the only place he could legally work on his visa. We filmed content announcing our relationship with a signed collab jersey giveaway. And the crowd went wild.

Results are just icing on the cake when capitalizing on an “in the moment” opportunity. That was the case with Sunoco’s activation around the Sanogo name slip-up. As a result of the scrappy effort, Sunoco’s social engagement soared, boosting by 1,835%. But outside of the purely organic engagement the brand received (with absolutely ZERO media spend), success came on an even bigger stage. Our activation highlighted the greater issue at hand, spurring bipartisan senators to join forces and propose legislation to finally do away with the law that disallows international students from capitalizing on the NIL craze.

Wildest of all? This all went down over the course of three weeks. Despite the many hurdles and roadblocks that could’ve taken down The Impossible NIL Deal, we were relentless in making it happen. Just as relentless as Sanogo himself in pursuit of his school’s fifth national championship.