Dairy Queen is giving its football-season promotion some campus personality.
The brand is launching a limited-time $6.99 Chicken Strip Basket deal alongside its new MVP Dip lineup.
Promoting it are The Duck from the University of Oregon, Reggie Redbird from Illinois State University, and Big Jay from the University of Kansas.
Every one of them is a bird, and the tagline makes the joke explicit with "Dip chicken, not mascots."
The four-piece basket includes a choice of Original or FlameThrower Chicken Strips, fries, a drink, and one of three sauces:
- The new Strip Dip
- The new Ghost Pepper Dip
- DQ's house-made Hidden Valley Ranch
DQ needed a setting for an ordinary value promotion, and football season handed it one.
"Football brings together passionate fans, spirited rivalries and traditions that make every game memorable," Becky Felling, VP of marketing at American Dairy Queen Corporation, said in a statement.
"We’re excited to add to that energy with new and popular returning flavors from DQ at a great value."
Felling said the campaign gives fans more ways to enjoy the season by using the quirky personalities of college football.
The mascots also give DQ a piece of campus brand identity that it can actually work with.
College mascots represent their schools, and their personalities run through everything the athletic department posts.
Fans treat them as stand-ins for the team itself, and engagement spikes hardest when mascots play off celebrities or each other.
Three Birds and a Fake Documentary
The first spot plays as a documentary interview, with each mascot seated next to a human interpreter who speaks for them.
The interpreter narrates their growing panic as fans discover the Chicken Strip Basket and the MVP dips.
"We're just mascots, but with this deal, no bird is safe," says a third mascot shown only in silhouette.
"I know fans have got to eat, but at what cost?" he dramatically asks.
The spot ends with fans chasing all three across their own fields.
Kelly Schukart, VP and GM at Oregon Sports Properties, said The Duck made the partnership a natural fit for the season opener.
"The Duck is one of the most recognizable personalities in college sports, known for bringing infectious energy, humor and an unmistakable presence to every game day experience," he explained.
Three schools give DQ three entry points into college football fandom.
Each mascot arrives with its own following and its own history with fans.
The $6.99 offer is available for a limited time at participating DQ restaurants, with customers directed to DQ.com or the DQ app to find a location.
A Bigger Saturday Audience
College football keeps growing as a viewing habit.
Fans watched 179 billion minutes across nationally rated networks last season, up 12% year over year.
And ESPN's own networks posted their best college football regular season since 2011.
This audience is why DQ can attach a $6.99 basket to three mascots and reach fans who would skip a standard value ad.
This approach points curious marketers to three useful moves:
- Borrow attention from existing personalities: Characters that audiences already follow show up with attention a brand would otherwise have to buy.
- Give promotions a social role: Separate fanbases let a single seasonal offer reach people that share almost nothing else.
- Work with several communities: Multiple school partnerships let one seasonal message travel through distinct fan bases.
The strongest seasonal campaigns start with people, characters, or communities that already have a reason to care.
Our Take: Who Gets to be the Star?
We tend to think of mascots as decorative assets, useful for a sideline photo or a logo lockup. Here, they're cast members.
This creative decision makes room for the product to sit quietly in the scene and still feel relevant.
It's a little like watching a good bartender work. The drink is important, but nobody came in just to stare at the glass.
We think that the mascot is the actual product here, and Dairy Queen is renting it by the season.
This approach is the more interesting lesson for brands with access to licensed characters, community figures, or institutional personalities.
You can't just put them beside the product.
Give them something to want, argue about, or react to.
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