Major League Baseball’s season-long 2015 campaign – ‘This Is Baseball’ (or simply #This) – takes a real-time approach and already features hundreds of content pieces offering an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the players, managers and fans.
The campaign, which is the debut effort by new MLB agency Anomaly, plays on the widely used social media term ‘#This’ (a phrase often used when sharing something that needs no further explanation).
In fact, it is something of an ode to the great things in baseball that need no explanation.
‘We want to introduce baseball to America. Not the old America, the new America. Not the old baseball, the new baseball,’ outlines Jason DeLand, a founding partner of Anomaly.
The first spearhead network TV ad, which debuted during the season-opening game on ESPN Sunday night between the St Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, includes Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter in a riff declaring that:
‘The game is being played better than it ever has in the history of it. These are the good ole days.’
Rolling out across multiple platforms in early April, the other early content pieces were created during spring training.
They aim to tap into the emotion of the sport and its teams and to drum up the appropriate new season excitement and include:
‘Mariners Ace Hernandez Is Ready’
‘Meet New Cubs Manager Joe Maddon’
‘Talking With Your Favourite Player’
The MLB campaign will evolve and update throughout the season: if a pitcher throws a no-hitter or a slugger hits a bases loaded homer then fans will see an ad about it the next day.
There will be two to three pieces of creative developed every week and the campaign will deploy across all MLB assets and channels: some will be on TV, other will live in Vines, there will be GIFs, Instagram posts and tweets.
#THIS. The sweet sounds of baseball. https://t.co/9PC7j2UufX
— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2015
#THIS. It’s only the beginning. #ForeverRoyal pic.twitter.com/XtcFid6bEg
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 10, 2015
While some content will utilise footage from broadcast partners and every MLB team, the league will also periodically deploy cameras solely dedicated to gathering footage for the campaign.
‘The campaign is celebrating the things that are authentic and real about the game, most notably the players,’ explains MLB Chief Marketing Officer Jacqueline Parkes.
‘It is built around the ideals of credibility and originality.’
Comment
Of the major US sports, baseball is the one that has so often lived in its glorified past, but this fresh approach is one that looks to the future – both in attitude and in media approach.
And, of course, nothing builds excitement or engages fans quite like the impact of tapping into authentic emotions.
But maintaining this conversation’s excitement levels is an even tougher task – so it’ll fascinating to follow whether the MLB achieves this as the work evolves through baseball’s long, long season.
The MLB also created a series of #FirstPitch15 graphics with a unique phrase for each team: the idea was that everyone starts out undefeated.
Of course, the league wasn’t alone in drumming up 2015 season excitement.
The teams themselves also offered support of their own.
Social media led ‘countdowns’ and ‘celebrations’ are a popular and simple way to build pre-season excitement and several clubs activatied around these themes.
For example, instead of using basic numerical graphics, the Kansas City Royals ran countdown videos, While the Arizona Diamondbacks found content from voices on their own roster and turned tweets and quotes into graphics.
While several other MLB teams took advantage of the GIF trend to showcase their feelings about Opening Day, a few clubs also brought out Snapchat ‘geofilters’ for Opening Day (see a list of the teams on Snapchat here).
Geofilters are a smart and easy way to engage fans and enlist ambassadors by helping them spread brand love for your team.
One imaginative approach came from the Milwaukee Brewers who released Opening Day Excuse Notes for fans that were written by players (view all the notes here).
Remember: If you're looking for a way to free yourself up on Monday, we've got your back. http://t.co/mN2JgEl9T1 pic.twitter.com/IsDSaks82u
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) April 5, 2015
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