Nissan | Heisman House Seasons 1 - 4

This campaign is heading into its 14th season. Super proud of that. But let’s back up a little bit.

What does Nissan have to do with the Heisman trophy? Nothing. Nothing at all. But we needed to make people care about Nissan’s sponsorship. What is the Heisman trophy you ask? One guy wins it a year. You’re basically immortal after you win it. It started in 1935 and it’s college football’s most prestigious brotherhood. We took all those metaphors about guys with shared elitist traits and made it into an actual frat.

I was 4 years into this business when this weird sports brief landed on my desk. It was just supposed to be a print ad and we turned it into a platform. My partner and I created the concept and we ran all creative top to bottom for its first 4 seasons. We were just a couple kids captaining this thing that no one cared about in the agency. Chiat didn’t even give us an agency producer so we had to work directly with ESPN’s producers. It was small time stuff until one day it kind of wasn’t. Probably the most fun I’ve had in this business.

By the time we passed the torch, we shot 34 Heisman Trophy winners and built Heisman House into a branded franchise: An annual 10-city National Activation Tour (they build a physical Heisman House on a different college campus every week!), around 50 broadcast and online spots, print campaigns, virtual Heisman House websites, an hour long broadcast special on ESPN, and a home for the Heisman fan vote concluding with the ceremony every December. It’s still running today as Nissan’s largest and longest running integrated platform.

Featured Heismans:
Barry Sanders, Doug Flutie, Vinny Testaverde, Troy Smith, Tim Brown, Eddie George, Mark Ingram, Desmond Howard, Marcus Allen, Charlie Ward, Ron Dayne, Matt Leinart, Charles Woodson, Robert Griffin III, Herschel Walker, Archie Griffin, Ricky Williams, Tony Dorsett, Carson Palmer, Mike Rozier, Ty Detmer, Sam Bradford, Earl Campbell, Bo Jackson, Roger Staubach, Billy Sims, Johnny Manziel, Andre Ware, John David Crow, Danny Wuerffel, George Rogers, Eric Crouch, John Lattner, Johnny Rogers.

SEASON 4

SEASON 3

Confessionals
We made a bunch of these for digital content. Here's a couple of my favorites.

Virtual Heisman House
We created an online hub where fans could cast their Heisman vote, tour the house, watch digital content, broadcast spots, and re-live archived footage of their favorite Heismans in action.

SEASON 2

SEASON 1