With the 2013 World Series starting this week, Major League Baseball (MLB) corporate sponsors are rolling out their Fall Classic activation led by the corporate patron (and sponsor of both competing teams) Bank Of America’s ‘Express Your Thanks’ cause-related initiative supporting service families and veterans.
The official bank of MLB will provide miniature American flags to all fans at Boston’s Fenway Park for Game One’s sponsored gate premium and Bank Of America will ask fans to wave them during God Bless America (before the bottom of the 7th inning) to highlight the campaign and act as an expression of thanks to the troops.
Bank of America’s work will donate $1 on behalf of each participating fan at Game One of the 109th Fall Classic between the American League Champion Boston Red Sox and the National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals (23 October) to the MLB’s ‘Welcome Back Veterans’ and ‘Wounded Warrior Project’ which aim to help veterans succeed once back home in the USA.
This Game One initiative will also include an on-field, pre-game ceremony featuring three Medal of Honor recipients (who will be joined on the mound by Hall of Famer and Boston Red Sox Legend Carl Yastrzemski for the ceremonial first pitch), plus a visit with veterans at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The sponsor’s programme dovetails with the MLB’s own ‘Welcome Back Veterans’ initiative. Launched in 2008, MLB’s ‘Welcome Back Veterans (www. WelcomeBackVeterans.org) has thus far committed $28m to military programmes.
The initiative also has a tie-in with the Game One home team’s own work, as the joint Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital ‘Home Base Program’ is supported by the MLB’s Welcome Back Veterans scheme.
Bank Of America’s wider ‘Troop Thanks’ runs across its campaign web platform and its social media sites including Facebook and the Twitter hashtag #TroopThanks.
On these platforms consumers are invited to express their own thanks and for each photo, video or message shared by the public via these channels, the bank will donate $1 to the initiative.
The bank is also running TV work as part of the campaign – again driving viewers to the digital sites to express their personal Thank You messages.
The bank has also bought space on New York’s Times Square LEDs to show some of those consumer support messages.
Furthermore, Bank of America has also used some of its other sponsorship assets to drive the cause-related programme.
As well as activating earlier in the year at MLB’s All-Star Game in New York, and through its NFL partners (which include the Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins), the Bank Of America also leveraged its rights as the official bank of NASCAR by again promoting its ‘Express Your Thanks’ initiative on Memorial Day at its Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway
Indeed, Bank of America has supported various veteran programmes for more than 90 years, helping service men and women return to civilian life by providing safe and affordable housing, training and job opportunities.
‘With more than 250,000 service men and women leaving active duty this year alone, raising awareness of the unique challenges they face as they integrate back into the workforce is more important than ever,’ said Jeff Cathey, senior military affairs executive at Bank of America.
‘Through our ‘Express Your Thanks’ campaign, we’re helping foster a real connection between the public and our military in a meaningful and easy way while supporting programs like Wounded Warrior Project and Welcome Back Veterans, which help these heroes make their transition back to civilian life.’
Comment
2013 is the fifth consecutive year that the first four games of the World Series are dedicated to raising awareness of cause and charity programmes of the MLB and its partners.
‘As a social institution, it is a privilege to use the worldwide platform of the World Series to highlight causes that are essential to Major League Baseball and our fans,’ says MLB Commissioner Allan (Bud) Selig.
‘The enormous global audience that our Fall Classic attracts gives us a unique opportunity to draw attention to the significant initiatives by MLB and our partners to support our military, help our youth and fight cancer.’
Game Two will focus on two long-time MLB charitable partners in Boys & Girls Clubs of America (which aims to enrich the lives of young people) and Habitat for Humanity (which focuses on providing safe and affordable housing in partnership with low-income families) and the sponsored gate premium will be a Taco Bell-branded lanyard/ticket holder.
Game Three is planned to highlight MLB’s community-focused ‘Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)’ programme and its ‘Breaking Barriers’ education work and fans entering the stadium will get a Chevrolet branded ‘rally towel’.
Game Four aims to inspire fans to join MLB’s ‘Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)’ partnership and at the turnstiles supporters will receive a MasterCard underwritten ‘Stad Up To Cancer’ silicone bracelet .
Links
Bank Of America Troop Thanks Website
http://www.bankofamerica.com/troopthanks
Bank Of America ‘Troop Thanks’ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BankofAmerica/app_516029535127748
Bank Of America Troop Thanks On Twitter
Welcome Back Veterans
http://web.welcomebackveterans.org/index
MLB Website
