A creative advertising campaign that shouts “Go Bills!”

What was meant to be a “building year” for the Buffalo Bills turned into a 13–4 regular season and a trip to the AFC Conference Championship. I admit, as a passionate Buffalonian and billiever in our hometown team, it’s hard to even type that out, now knowing the ending. But what’s not hard is to reflect back on roughly seven months’ worth of Buffalo Bills sponsorship work we did with M&T Bank. Work that made thousands of fans smile, laugh, and, most importantly, keep billieving throughout the season.

Game planning a new campaign.

There are some things only Bills fans get, like only dipping chicken wings in blue cheese, shirtless below-freezing tailgates, and “Go Bills!” being the go-to response for any occasion. So when it was time for M&T Bank to roll out this year’s sponsorship campaign, showing that the hometown bank gets Buffalo football culture and has the only Bills debit card to back it up, we kept coming back to the idea that, “Bills Fans get it.” And so, this year’s campaign theme was born.

A TV spot that gets it.

In September, we kicked the season off with a TV spot promoting our exclusive Buffalo Bills debit cards that played up the “Go Bills!” greeting.

Letting James Cook.

A couple of games into the season, “Let James Cook” became a viral phrase in Buffalo celebrating the Bill’s star running back, James Cook. Immediately we knew we had to be the first to get James to actually, well, cook. A week later, Cook was on a grill outside the Elmwood Avenue M&T branch cooking up some free victory dogs for customers and the neighborhood alike.

While James was slinging Sahlen’s, Bills superfan Pinto Ron was saucing ’em up for those who stopped by.

Needless to say, the videos were a doggone hit, earning thousands of likes and hundreds of shares on our @mtb_bills Instagram fan page.

Rookie Q&A with Keon Coleman.

Keon Coleman’s personality and promising stats stood out early in the season, inspiring us to create the social series “Rookie Q&A.” Designed to help the new WR get familiar with Buffalo culture, the series resonated with fans, earning over 50,000 likes and 11,000 shares on Instagram. Coleman also signed Billieve Together flags and dropped clues on social to help fans find them throughout the season at local small businesses that bank with M&T.

The blue cheese of social media accounts.

Game-specific messages, Billy Buffalo takeovers, and gameday trivia on social had us in the moment with the Bills Mafia fanbase all season long.

@mtb_bills scored thousands of new followers during the season and saw an unprecedented overall engagement rate of 8.38%.

Signage that showed we get it.

Billboards and digital ads were used to promote the bank’s exclusive Bills debit cards, with messaging and designs only fans would get.

Gate signage brought smiles to fans waiting in line.

And scoreboard signs kept fans amped in the stadium.

And then, the playoffs were on.

Of course, we had to put a playoff spin on the ad placements and social series we’d been running all season.

High fives for the Beasts of the AFC East!

As the Bills became AFC East champions for the FIFTH time in a row, we made sure high fives were being given all around the stadium at the next home playoff game.

Rallying around the Bills!

M&T hosted the biggest playoff rally in Buffalo inside the biggest building in Buffalo, Seneca One Tower. Our team showed up in big ways too, helping spread the news on social, hiring a local artist to design the traveling rally bus, prepping swag to excite fans, and collecting social content during the event.

 Oh yeah, and we waved the largest Billieve Together flag on top of the 529 ft. tower. GO BIG OR GO HOME!

Fly your Billieve Together flag high.

To charge fans up even more, we refreshed our iconic “Billieve Together” flags and handed out 25,000 at local M&T branches. They were gone in just two days!

And now a moment for the spot that promoted the new flag design for the first time across TV and social. Our Crowley team scripted, produced, cast, edited, and even composed the original score. #GoTeam

After this aired, flags ran out in JUST TWO DAYS. We were prepared for this, changing “Get yours” to “Fly ’em high” when the time came.

Snow place like playoffs at home.

It was snow boots on the ground for one of our last – and coolest –  home games. During the playoffs divisional round we had two social teams out capturing fan content and a hired local snow sculpting artist, Eric Jones, to turn our Billieve Together flag into a snow sculpture outside the stadium. Talk about the perfect snow game photo opportunity.

The Big Game.

Being one game away from the Super Bowl, we had a whole football team worth of New Orleans-inspired creative content and were ready to laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll). Though those ideas never made it off the bench, we’re so proud of how much we did throughout the year. It’s safe to say Bills fans got it. And we hope you did too.

Go Bills!