The Best Story Wins in ESPN College Football’s Latest Campaign

College football is hitting its peak excitement with rivalry week looming, and the College Football Playoff semi-finals on the horizon. The season's unpredictability has everyone - teams, coaches, and fans - at the edge of their seats. What makes this season even more thrilling is the wide-open race for the four spots in the playoffs!

Arts & Letters Creative Co. thrilled to be part of the action with the newest spot for College Football on ESPN, titled 'Best Story Wins'. This new spot celebrates the race of contenders to the College Football Playoff of the unexpected falls under our brand platform, now in its second year: 'The Greatest Story Ever Played.' And in the world of college football, there's a treasure trove of tales waiting to be shared.

'Best Story Wins' premiered over the weekend - Saturday, November 18th, on ESPN (broadcast), ESPN YouTube shorts, as well as the brand’s social channels. More exciting work is in the pipeline under the College Football platform, slated for January, as we head towards the National Championship.

College football isn't just about what happens on the field; it's woven into the fabric of cultures and communities nationwide, creating unforgettable narratives week after week. But in this sport, not every story is created equal. From the 133 entries at the start of the season, only four will earn a place in the College Football Playoff, continuing their compelling journey.

“We liked the idea of thinking of these teams as their own individual stories. And with the College Football Playoff looming, we thought it would be interesting to position these stories as competitors who were actively one-upping each other with their own storylines, characters and plot twists knowing that only the best story wins.” said Scott Horlbeck, Creative at Arts & Letters.

“Visually, we were excited about the opportunity to continue our 'kitchen-sink' look and feel that we established earlier this year in our kick off film. Here, we took things a step further with a comic book hero graphic, an old-school boxing card animation and an intro that features 100 clips of 100 teams on screen at the same time.” said Jon Hirsch, creative at Arts & Letters.

From a collaboration standpoint, we were pleased to team up with ESPN's College Football Films team to capture exclusive footage of this year's CFP contenders, enriching Arts & Letters Creative Co.'s 'Best Story Wins' spot. The concept revolves around highlighting the captivating stories within the sport. The majority of the footage in this spot was purposefully captured for the campaign, exclusively owned by ESPN.