UVA’s victory celebration following FSU win featured in Yeti ad

It’s a one-second clip amid a 60-second ad, but if you’re familiar with University of Virginia football, the moment is easily identified.

That blur of navy blue across a green surface is the beginning of the celebration following the Cavaliers’ double-overtime win over then-eighth-ranked Florida State University on Sept. 26 at Scott Stadium.

Yeti, the popular outdoor lifestyle brand, used a snippet of that victory scene as part of its new “Four Letters” ad. “RUSH” is what accompanies the UVA footage at the 19-second mark.

“If you live for it, we’re here for it” is the ad’s tagline, which also includes clips that associate with other four-letter action verbs such as race, push and dive.

As of Thursday, the ad has drawn more than 3.4 million views on YouTube.

“When a brand like Yeti features a university moment, especially an unscripted one like a spontaneous celebration, it can have a profound impact,” said UVA professor Kim Whitler, an expert in marketing strategy and brand management at the Darden School of Business. “There are few brands that have the level and depth of emotional connection of a university brand.

“When a national brand like Yeti (features) a university brand, Yeti ends up drafting off the strength and emotion of the university brand, which has spent decades building place-based identity and intergenerational loyalty. There is a spillover effect that can benefit Yeti – and vice versa.”

College fandom is one of the most durable forms of group identity in American culture, Whitler said, and “Yeti is positioning itself as part of the UVA story, rather than just a product consumers can buy.”

The Yeti president and CEO is 2004 Darden School alumnus Matt Reintjes.

“Yeti’s brand personality has always straddled toughness and warmth – serious gear, but in service of experiences that bring the ultimate joy,” Whilter said. “College sports celebrations are the perfect venue for that: unpolished, loud, genuinely happy.”