• by Danielle Oster , September 26, 2025

Dr Pepper has made college football an important part of its marketing strategy, particularly over the course of the last decade. The flagship Keurig Dr Pepper soft drink brand introduced the “Fansville” campaign in 2018, built around the concept of a fictional town devoted to all things college football, and has been pulling from its playbook ever since.

Now in its eighth year, this year’s campaign brought “Fansville” to NFL fans, with an ad debuting during “Thursday Night Football.”

Marketing Daily caught up with Brad Rakes, vice president, brand for Keurig Dr Pepper, via email to discuss the campaign.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: How have changes to college football, and evolving fan engagement with the sport, influenced the evolution of “Fansville” over the course of the campaign’s history?

Brad Rakes: College football is changing daily -- that’s what makes it fun and exciting! It’s important to lean into these changes in real time, because that’s how you create strong content and connections. For example, the topic of NIL (name, image, and likeness) has continued to dominate college football headlines and discussions, so we leaned into the conversation in a topical and humor-forward way this season.

For the 8th year of “Fansville,” Dr Pepper focused on an “Are You Fan Enough?” theme. In our upcoming episode, “Dr Pepper Stand,” we challenge fans to see if they’re really fan enough and thus, willing to do what it takes to win. In the opening scene we see two young fans raising NIL money to bring better recruits and make sure their QB has someone to throw to.

This year’s “Fansville” also takes its first steps into the pro-football world with “Away Game.” We see “Fansville” fans lost on their way to the game -- they’re confused because no one in the town they’re in is tailgating or wearing gear. Enter [Dallas Cowboys owner] Jerry Jones, who officially welcomes them to “Pro Town.”

Dr Pepper is also looking to tell “Fansville” related stories in new ways. This year we’ll also produce our own documentary-style social series to share behind-the-scenes stories of past winners of the “Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway,” a 17-year-long tradition in college football.

Marketing Daily: What led to featuring Jerry Jones in the ad?  Was there any concern fans might find the appearance controversial, given his divisiveness among football fans, and far-right politics exemplified by his recent $1 million donation to Donald Trump’s “MAGA Inc.” Super PAC?

Rakes: Dr Pepper has had a long-standing partnership with the Dallas Cowboys and so we challenged both ourselves and our creative agency, Deutsch, on how we could leverage that partnership in a way that keeps us culturally relevant and a part of topical college football conversations. We saw an opportunity to integrate Dr Pepper into the pro-football conversation by creating “Protown” as a comedic contrast to “Fansville.”

This was the grounding that brought forward Fansville’s “Away Game” episode, and we thought including Jerry Jones in the spot was a natural fit for the story we wanted to tell. Jerry’s relevance spans generations, and his presence is helping us to authentically engage fans and amplify Dr Pepper’s role in football culture.

Marketing Daily: What can we expect from the rest of this year’s “Fansville” campaign?

Rakes: We still have four episodes to release, with each leaning into hot topics within the college football landscape. Think a coach is in the hot seat and should be terminated? Want to engage in the NIL conversation? What about the time between playoffs and the National Championship? We may or may not be introducing a new school and mascot into “Fansville.”