As with most other sports, it has been the strangest (and most stressful) of season throwing up an array of creative and strategic challenges for baseball marketers right across the rights-holder, broadcaster, team, sportswear and sponsor space.
From the delayed start, through a truncated 60-game season, an expanded 16-team playoff and culminating in the first ever World Series to be played entirely in a neutral venue bubble (Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas), marketers were forced to scramble and switch from in-stadium to virtual, from ballpark tailgating to at-home viewing and from physical to digital experiences.
We analyse some of the most notable ads, campaigns and activations from the end of the season Playoffs to the World Series.
MLB ‘October: The Remix’
The league’s own postseason marketing campaign, which ran from late September through to late October, was spearheaded by a linked pair of videos voiced by popular entertainer DJ Khaled with added animation from Emmy Award-winning artist Mike Perry.
The creative flagged up the changes: “We’ve never done it like this before. Get ready for an insane Postseason. It’s October: The Remix. Music: Mic Drop. With BTS + Steve Aoki’.
Leveraging the start of the season’s knock out stages on 28 September, the ‘October: The Remix (Postseason 2020)’ spot ran across the brand’s broadcast partner channels, plus on its own digital and social platforms and promoted the fact that “this year we invited a few extra friends” referencing the pandemic-influenced, 16-team expanded Playoffs.
Like much of the MLB’s recent marketing, it continued to target a younger demographic by showcasing the league’s emerging young stars: including featuring 21-year-old San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr and 22-year-old Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette (among many others).
“Anything can happen. That’s right. Anything,” said Khaled in the spot. “These kids are different. They are young, loud, hungry. Same game. Whole new attitude.”
This first postseason version of the spot generated more than 1m social views.
Then, at the start of the World Series itself – when the LA Dodgers took on the Tampa Bay rays in ? Texas on 19 October a revised ‘October: The Remix (World Series Edition)’ was released across the same platforms: “After an October unlike any other, we finally have our World Series showdown. Watch to see who takes it home.2
ESPN ‘Fall Frenzy’
MLB broadcast partner also rolled out its own postseason promotional campaign to drive awareness of its MLB playoff coverage which included seven of the eight initial Playoff series (a bounty of 14 of 21 games).
Launched on 23 September, ‘Fall Frenzy’ set out to raise awareness of the new, expanded playoff format and drive home a message that with so few fans able/allowed to attend games, television was the baseball lover’s best option.
The hero commercial aired through 2 October across multiple ESPN platforms (including television, digital and social media) and affiliates. The ad’s placement included high-profile events such as NFL Monday Night Football, the NBA conference finals and marquee college football events on the network.
It was also promoted via emails and in-app alerts (through the ESPN app and ESPN+) and there were also ‘tune-in drop-ins’ across ESPN and Disney.
The ad itself features many of the league’s biggest stars – including Clayton Kershaw, Nelson Cruz, and Bryce Harper – and many of the teams which haven’t made the playoffs for several years (such as the Chicago White Sox) all set to The Raconteurs ‘Bored and Razed’ track featuring Jack White.
“We’re proud to share ‘Fall Frenzy,’ the final chapter of our season-long ‘Give Us Baseball’ campaign, aimed at building awareness and anticipation for this one-of-a-kind event,” said ESPN VP Of Sports Marketing Michelle Bella. “The campaign aims to bring into focus all the elements that make up the ‘Fall Frenzy’ of the 2020 postseason: more teams, more players, more excitement and more of the unexpected.”
Scotts Lawn ‘Four Communities. Four Fields’
October 2020 again saw MLB partner Scotts Lawn launch a campaign promoting its annual ‘The Scotts Field Refurbishment Program’ which awards modern, playable youth baseball and softball field refurbishments to local US communities in need each year. By July, Scotts and MLB announced that they has received nearly 500 grant applications from more than 400 cities in 48 states for the 2020 instalment of the programme. Following its usual review process by what it describes as a ‘Blue Ribbon Baseball Judges Panel’ (which included three-time MLB All-Star & 2008 World Series Champion Ryan Howard, Olympic Gold Medalist & MLB Youth Softball Ambassador Jennie Finch and members of the MLB and the Scotts executive and management teams, four winning organizations were selected. The winners – Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana (Gary, Indian), City of Memphis Parks and Neighborhoods (Memphis, Tennessee), Ferguson Parks & Recreation (Ferguson, Missouri), and the Oakland Athletics Community Fund (Oakland, California) – were featured in the brand’s 21 October TV and social spot.
T-Mobile & MLB ‘Little League Call Up Grant’
Launched to leverage its rights as a sponsor of Major League Baseball as the 2020 World Series got underway on 20 October, MLB partner T-Mobile rolled out a cause campaign promoting its commitment to making Little League sport more affordable for kids and families across America.
The integrated initiative – which runs across multiple platforms under the tagline ‘Helping Kids Play America’s Game’ – introduced its ‘Little League Call Up Grant’.
The program is aimed at raising money to help keep our kids playing America’s game which will see the telco brand donate $10k for every home run scored by the Dodgers or Rays during the World Series and for every fan/viewer who texts ‘Little League’ to 313131 T-Mobile will donate $5 (up to $5m) to Little League programmes in the texter’s community.
A parallel partner activation saw MLB fans given control of some of Fox’s in-game cameras, while long-term partner T-Mobile installed 5G-enabled cameras into players’ helmets for the production of the T-Mobile 5GBP show which debuted prior to Game One.
Final testing complete ! – don’t miss the MLB pre-game show today with high def 360 degree and player view cameras, all streaming over T-Mobile’s 5G network! #ilovetmobile pic.twitter.com/d79LCdNoVm
— John Saw (@JohnSaw) October 20, 2020
Plus, amongst other World Series activation strands, the telco also ran a 5th Inning #iLoveTMobile5G sweepstakes which saw it give away 5 iPhone 12 Pros with 5G & a year of free service.
Another night another big game!! Tonight is Game 5 of the World Series. It’s also Game 5 of our sweepstakes — We’re giving away 5 iPhone 12 Pros with 5G & a year of free service!
Reply with #Sweepstakes and #iLoveTMobile for your chance to win!
Rules: https://t.co/UIo3CsucSw pic.twitter.com/tPEzkeUizz
— T-Mobile (@TMobile) October 26, 2020
T-Mobile also ran an online ‘Beyond The Bases’ content series.
Are you ready? Episode 6 goes live NOW!
Register here to watch the new episode of Beyond the Bases featuring @tatis_jr and @TaylorRooks.
— T-Mobile (@TMobile) October 20, 2020
MLB & Snapchat ‘Ballpark App’
MLB teamed up with partner Snapchat to create an AR, mixed reality function within its ‘Ballpark App’ which enabled fans to take World Series ion-stadium selfies and insert themselves into video from a virtual ‘Globe Life Field’.
With the pandemic meaning a maximum of 11,500 fans were permitted in the ballpark (Globe Life Field) for the series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays for this year’s title, Snapchat integrated its platform’s augmented reality (AR) functions into the league’s ‘Ballpark’ mobile app for the World Series which saw eight different AR filters introduced to the app to allow users to take selfies and videos that make them appear to be in the stadium.
This AR app initiative, which marked the climax of the MLB’s efforts to boost digital and virtual fan engagement through the Covid-19 curtailed season, builds upon Snapchat’s existing five-year MLB relationship which has included the creation of a range of digital baseball-specific content during the postseason, plus a weekly highlights show.
“We are always exploring new ways to increase access to the game and players, bringing them close to our fans and this year that is more important than ever,” said MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden. “Throughout our partnership, T-Mobile has continually brought innovation and creativity to their MLB promotions, and this 5GBP streaming show is yet another great example of that.”
Checking out MLB’s Photo Booth AR camera in their Ballpark app, built with Snapchat’s kit.
Good lenses, nice interactive game. Expected to find it MLB’s main app for better discovery, but only in Ballpark.
. #smsports pic.twitter.com/shZQp3q2lX— Neil Horowitz (@njh287) October 24, 2020
Links:
MLB
http://mlb.mlb.com/mobile/atbat
http://mlb.mlb.com/mobile/attheballpark
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