• by Fern Siegel , November 11, 2022

To promote their brands alongside college football, Wendy’s and Dr Pepper, just kicked off the “Home Team” series, which appears on Team Whistle’s YouTube page and across social-media handles.

The series joins duos of current or former college football players, and their at-home or on the field teammates. They participate in light competitions, Q&As and funny stories. The first episode just went live.

Each episode illustrates why these teammates are a perfect pair akin to the combo of Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger and Dr. Pepper. The series features Christian Kirk, former Texas A&M player and fiancée Ozzy Ozkan and outside linebacker Will Anderson and defensive back Brian Branch, who play for Alabama’s Crimson Tide.

The target audience — Gen Z and millennial viewers — are reached via a major push on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.

Social first segments, such as “fast-food favorites,” are designed to extend the conversation.

"Social strategies are a critical component to any marketing program, given the scale of audiences on these platforms.Content formats need to be organic to each platform's user experience, and play to the strengths of each platform's KPIs," Corey Radel, vice president of brand partnerships at Team Whistle, told Agency Daily.

"With the plan we executed with Wendy’s, it's not only receiving an integration into a series with a built-in-audience distributed on social, but platform-specific, intentional supporting content customized per client KPI,” he adds. “A well-executed social strategy not only gives clients full distribution across the platforms they want to be relevant on, but also gives the client assets on those platforms that are organic to those audiences."

Team Whistle owns Whistle TV, its free ad-supported digital network available on The Roku Channel and other OTT platforms. An Eleven Group media company, it has a slate of 50+ shows and a creator network.