Fall means football and for colleges in the Southeastern Conference, game day is a big event, both on the field and off. As the SEC’s newest official sponsor, Aflac is bringing their brand to the pre-game festivities.

Part of the SEC Network on ESPN, SEC Nation is a televised pregame show that will be traveling to different game-day locations each week, for 14 weeks. As part of their sponsorship, Aflac will be traveling with the football morning show and building their brand activation booth next to the live set.

When there’s a potential for your brand to be nationally televised, it’s vital that the presentation is eye-catching and ready to impress. Aflac partnered with MELT Sports & Entertainment, a top marketing agency for immersive activations in professional sports and collegiate athletics, to develop a compelling booth design and integrated experience.

Because the booth will be traveling to each SEC game of the week, they needed a design that would be transportable, easy to set up and takedown, and look flawless every time. Stretch Shapes premium stretch fabric and custom designs fit the bill!

Working with their Stretch Shapes Relationship Manager, MELT and Aflac came up with an idea that would include a football into the design, branded with Aflac’s colors and logo. With the concept outlined, Stretch Shapes’ Creative Design Team worked together to figure out logistics and how to bring that concept to life, while still staying within budget.

The final design incorporated multiple Stretch Shapes products, coming into formation for a complete, free-standing booth that could be set up in any location. The booth’s frame was created using standard truss, which were wrapped in Pantone matching blue Hook & Loop Truss Covers. The back and side walls were created using blue Rectangle 2D Forms, with printed graphics on one side for additional branding.

Using Stretch Shapes’ custom fabricated metal framing, the half football shape was designed as the “roof” of the structure, with a Flat Panel Sail used to create the “ceiling” between the main booth area and the top football piece. The white stretch fabric covering the football frame was also printed with blue stripes, laces, and Aflac’s logo and tagline, to create the larger than life football piece.

All of the fabric items utilized dye sublimation printing and Pantone color matching to get the exact shade of Aflac’s brand colors for a smooth, cohesive finish. In addition to the custom design and printing, MELT also opted for the entire truss kit to be included so they could focus their attention on the other pieces needed to make each event a success.

Getting ready to kick off football season and the traveling tour, the booth was first built at Aflac Headquarters in Columbus, GA as part of a company kickoff party. Stretch Shapes’ experienced Installation Team was brought in – both to set up for the kickoff event but also to train the MELT team on installation so they would be ready for all the events to follow.

Although fall weather hit sooner than anticipated, the initial set up went smoothly and the MELT team was able to absorb all of the necessary information for future installs. Stretch Shapes is always ready to support clients through any questions they may have, but with a few successful weeks underway and no additional support needed, we’d call this a winning pass!