STANFORD — Stanford and the Heisman Trophy electorate: A match made in second place.

Four times in the past seven years, the Cardinal has produced the Heisman runner-up, a source of deep frustration for fans.

While many Heisman observers across the country, including Stanford coach David Shaw, believe the trophy is won on the field, a good case could be made that the Cardinal had the best player three times: Toby Gerhart in 2009, Andrew Luck in 2011 and Christian McCaffrey last season, when he broke Barry Sanders’ record for all-purpose yards.

The lesson: When it comes to the Heisman, exposure matters, messaging matters.

McCaffrey began the 2015 season far off the Heisman radar but gained notice with a series of stellar early season performances.

But exposure was a problem: Every game Stanford played in October started at 7 p.m. (Pacific) or later, yet five of the six Heisman voting regions are entirely or largely in the eastern half of the country.

The Cardinal waited until the second week of November to unveil a website dedicated to McCaffrey’s candidacy.

“Stanford has always been one or two weeks late on their promotional push,” said one longtime Heisman watcher. “They’re like the guy who shows up five minutes after the play is over.”

The Cardinal doesn’t plan to make the same mistake this season. Staffers reached out to Heisman voters and members of the media to compile a list of best practices, then hatched a plan to keep McCaffrey in the headlines while limiting the risk of voter fatigue.

The covers of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine kept him relevant during the summer, and the website will remain active, a hub for McCaffrey information.

To offset the exposure issue, Stanford will send emails every Sunday morning to college football media members with statistics and highlights. The package won’t be McCaffrey-centric, at least not initially. But his exploits will be well-documented.

The social media campaign will begin modestly, then ramp up in the middle of the season to keep McCaffrey’s name fresh.

Will it be enough?

Interviews in recent months with a half-dozen longtime Heisman observers, including several with sports marketing experience, indicate the Cardinal’s approach is an improvement over past practice but could use some tweaking.

The consensus:

Change McCaffrey’s hashtag from the dense, forced #WildCaff — a play on his role in the Wildcat formation, which is limited — to something quick and relatable, like #McHeisman. In marketing, simple is usually best: Have a Coke and a smile.

Give the electorate a chance to know McCaffrey and, as best as possible, feel what his season is like. That wasn’t Stanford’s tact in 2011, when Luck’s public appearances during the season were limited and orchestrated, giving the impression that he was part automaton.