Tag Archives: Major League Baseball

Google Hits a Home Run with Roberto Clemente Google Doodle

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The Google Doodle for October 12, 2018, honors the legacy of Roberto Clemente. Many remember him as a Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder. But his lasting legacy is his passion for doing good. If you were alive on New Year’s Eve 1972, you didn’t need to be a baseball fan to be moved by the news of his death in a plane crash as he was flying to Nicaragua to help earthquake victims there. Fortunately, Google has kept his memory alive for the digital generation in the best way possible, a Google Doodle.

My Roberto Clemente Story

When I was 12, a friend of my dad’s invited me to spend a week with his family in Puerto Rico. So my mom dropped me off at O’Hare Airport one spring morning, and I flew down to San Juan by myself with in-flight music (mostly tunes culled from the Eagles Greatest Hits) to keep me company.

For a week, I lived in the San Juan area and got a feel for how residents lived as opposed to how tourists experienced the area. Every night, I fell asleep to the sound of kids playing basketball deep into the evening, and during the day, I wandered around the crowded neighborhood watching people live their days. Roberto Clemente’s presence was everywhere. He had been dead for four years at this point, but he was very much alive in Puerto Rico. Not a day went by without someone bringing up his name, perhaps when kids were playing catch in a park, or old men were drinking coffee in a cafe.

What I remember most: he was talked about, but his likeness was not branded on clothing, as if he were more like a god than a rock star. And no one discussed his achievements on the field. Instead, he was remembered for his compassion — the same compassion that inspired him to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve of 1972.

Well played, Google.

Now THIS Is Real-Time Marketing

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f1554450-6d70-11e5-b590-bdfae51969f9_Screen-Shot-2015-10-07-at-8-58-32-PM Gatorade​ must be doing a victory dance in the aftermath of the Chicago Cubs/Pittsburgh Pirates Wild Card playoff game October 7. The sports beverage company is enjoying an avalanche of PR and user-generated marketing created when Pirate Sean Rodriguez pummeled a Gatorade cooler in the dugout during the game. I don’t think Gatorade needs to capitalize on the moment, either (in fact, doing so could put the brand in the dangerous position of celebrating at the expense of an athlete and Pirates fans). The brand already did the heavy lifting by being the official sports drink beverage for Major League Baseball, thus creating its own luck. Now Gatorade can let fans and influencers continue to create authentic marketing and PR.

The one-sided boxing match between Rodriguez and the Gatorade jug occurred in the seventh inning, after Rodriguez was ejected from the game for participating in a bench-clearing spat on the field. With the Pirates on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs, Rodriguez took out his frustrations on a Gatorade cooler with breathtaking passion and fury — conveniently captured on television. My social feeds exploded with memes and articles making light of Rodriguez’s temper tantrum. Here are but a few of the memes that made their way around the digital world in real time:

12122775_1708247396062160_4989769455762429953_n Screen Shot 2015-10-08 at 8.28.04 AM The news media coverage included stories from ESPN, USA Today, WGN, and Yahoo! Sports, which published a parody interview with the water cooler. And in the grand tradition of real-time commentary, Gatorade cooler parody Twitter accounts told their own side of the story. Around the world, Gatorade enjoyed a sharp increase in search popularity during the evening as shown by Google Trends:

Gatorade has been an official supplier of sports drinks to big-time brands for years. It has become a football tradition (and TV cliche) for players to douse their coaches with Gatorade after major victories. Make no mistake: Gatorade pays for all the product placements that occur when TV cameras capture the image of a Gatorade jug on the sidelines, at courtside, or in a dugout. Gatorade received a big return on its investment on October 7 thanks to one baseball player turned boxer.

Major League Baseball shows trust on Twitter

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Major League Baseball trusts its Twitter fans. When Kansas City Royals Hall of Famer George Brett joined Twitter, the @MLB Twitter account posted this tweet:

 

If you’re not a Major League Baseball fan and don’t follow its rich history, the reference to “pine tar above the knuckles” is meaningless and perhaps confusing. But Major League Baseball trusts its fans to get the inside joke without needing to explain it. The 2 million baseball fans who follow MLB understand inherently that MLB is referring to the controversial 1983 “Pine Tar Game,” when Brett slugged a crucial home run against the New York Yankees – only to have the home run nullified by an umpire who ruled that Brett’s bat was coated with an excessive amount of pine tar. Brett’s angry reaction — charging from the dugout like a crazed bull — was captured for history (and would become a viral smash had the incident occurred now):

The Major League Baseball Twitter account informs, entertains, and celebrates baseball with a sense of humor, even with its About section (“We don’t understand the infield fly rule, either”). But most importantly, Major League Baseball trusts its fans by sharing content without overexplaining it. Do you?

Does winning matter in Major League Baseball?

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Recently Forbes updated its ranking of the most valuable Major League Baseball teams from a financial standpoint.  The top 5 teams — the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs — had zero World Series appearances in 2008.  But we should not be surprised.  Relying on a successful product on the field to obtain financial success is a risky strategy.  Superstar players win batting championships by getting on base only a third of their at-bats.  The The New York Yankees, arguably the most successful team in baseball history, haven’t won a World Series since 2000.  The Atlanta Braves defined the standard for excellence in the National League in the 1990s yet struggled with fan indifference.

No, success in Major League Baseball is all about locking in lucrative media deals and providing an experience (not necessarily a great product) for fans and corporate sponsors at the stadium.  Going to a ball game really isn’t much different than going to a rock concert anymore with exploding scoreboards, slick merchandise, and an element of theater keeping fans entertained.

As we all know, the baseball world has been rocked by allegations of abuse of performance enhancing substances by its marquee players, which calls into question the validity of their successes and their teams’ successes.  In other words, fans are probably not getting an authentic product on the field, anyway.  But really, do the fans care?  Banning beer sales from Wrigley Field or removing the swimming pool from Chase Field would be far more damaging to the future of the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks than substance abuse scandals.

Baseball, as it turns out, is just one more option in a world awash with video games, personal devices, a proliferation of TV channels, and many other forms of consumer experience.  Competing to win is one thing; competing to survive financially is a different beast altogether.

Why steroids won’t hurt the Major League Baseball brand

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majorleaguebaseball.png

As expected, the Mitchell Report, released on December 13, implicated several Major League baseball stars like Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada in the use or posession of steroids. Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey reacted by lamenting that “We were robbed of an entire era of baseball.”

But were we really?

I think the Major League Baseball brand is doing quite well, thank you.

Even as rumors of rampant steroid abuse have intensified year after year, fans keep coming to the ballpark. In fact, regular season attendance in 2007 broke the overall single-season record for the fourth-consecutive year. Why?

Because MLB long ago redefined its brand, that’s why.

MLB doesn’t even bank on player appeal anymore — MLB sells an experience now, witnessed by the explosive growth of stunning new stadiums and relentless merchandising. It’s not enough to merchandise “home” and “away” jerseys anymore to the fans — now its all about vintage merchandise and alernative contemporary uniforms to complement any fashion style.

What would really hurt the MLB brand? Not revelations of steroid abuse. Try banning beer sales from he world’s largest outdoor bar, Wrigley Field, or remove the swimming pool from the stands in Chase Field, where the Arizona Diamondbacks play. The fans would scream bloody murder. Why? Because swimming pools and beer are part of the experience that MLB sells.

The baseball players on the field are just fodder for fantasy league statistics.

Why steroids won’t hurt the Major League Baseball brand

Posted on by
1

majorleaguebaseball.png

As expected, the Mitchell Report, released on December 13, implicated several Major League baseball stars like Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada in the use or posession of steroids. Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey reacted by lamenting that “We were robbed of an entire era of baseball.”

But were we really?

I think the Major League Baseball brand is doing quite well, thank you.

Even as rumors of rampant steroid abuse have intensified year after year, fans keep coming to the ballpark. In fact, regular season attendance in 2007 broke the overall single-season record for the fourth-consecutive year. Why?

Because MLB long ago redefined its brand, that’s why.

MLB doesn’t even bank on player appeal anymore — MLB sells an experience now, witnessed by the explosive growth of stunning new stadiums and relentless merchandising. It’s not enough to merchandise “home” and “away” jerseys anymore to the fans — now its all about vintage merchandise and alernative contemporary uniforms to complement any fashion style.

What would really hurt the MLB brand? Not revelations of steroid abuse. Try banning beer sales from he world’s largest outdoor bar, Wrigley Field, or remove the swimming pool from the stands in Chase Field, where the Arizona Diamondbacks play. The fans would scream bloody murder. Why? Because swimming pools and beer are part of the experience that MLB sells.

The baseball players on the field are just fodder for fantasy league statistics.