When America’s pastime kicks off its post-season tomorrow, even a long suffering NY Mets fan could stay passionate about the game in October, thanks to a unique social media campaign by Major League Baseball. Jackie Parkes, CMO of MLB says.
”Fans love to talk baseball to other fans. So social media was a natural solution for us to facilitate engagement and extend the conversation.”
However, Ms. Parkes went a step further by creating social currency through content and integrating it with pop culture.
The hub of the activity is the “MLB Fan Cave”, a 15,000 square-foot location in York City. Major League Baseball has transformed this space into an exciting arena by mixing baseball talk with band performances, video content creation of visiting players, interactive technology, and art, all designed to attract young adults. Ms. Parkes gave me tour of the space, designed by ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Paul DiMeo. The Fan Cave features a wide array of fun items including six PlayStation 3s loaded with MLB-licensed games and an 18-foot-tall statue of Willie Mays that has its own Twitter feed.
The league ran a contest, searching for a couple of die-hard fans willing to spend practically every waking moment there watching all 2,430 Major League Baseball games this season on a massive wall of 15 televisions, and sharing their experiences with other fans. Contestants submitted 10,000 videos of themselves, and among the 10 finalists was a Mormon minister, a doctor, a lawyer, an off-Broadway actor, and a guy who was earning in the seven figures and was willing to give it up, possibly redefining the meaning of the term “a baseball nut.” A lead singer of an LA band, and an ex-actor, won the contest. The two chronicled everything that was happening during the games and at the “Fan Cave” by tweeting, posting to Facebook, blogging and starring in a web series. They have sent more than 12,000 tweets since Opening Day and have written more than 300 blog posts, while visits by more than 120 celebrities and MLB players were documented in more than 200 videos, like the one below with R.A. Dickey spoofing “Star Wars.”
With its commitment to social media, MLB is transforming its equity from a sport label to an entertainment brand. “We’re not looking at marketingdifferently, we’re looking for all sorts of content,” Ms. Parkes said when asked how MLB’s marketing approach has changed. “We used to be about 30-second TV spots. Now it’s about connecting and sharing more through social media.”
If only the Mets could change magically that fast, too.
COMMENTARY: On March 30, 2011, Major League Baseball opened the New York MLB Fan Cave on the corner of East 4th and Broadway, in the space where the old Tower Records was in Greenwich Village.
Fans had an opportunity to be paid to watch all 2,430 regular season MLB games, plus the playoffs, as part of MLB's Dreamjob program. Out of a a pool of nearly 10,000 applicants, two men were chosen for the job: Mike O’Hara, and his "wingman", Ryan Wagner. The space will be host to a multitude of fan activities, including visits from MLB players, personalities and celebrities, parties, and musical performances. The cave was designed and created in part by Extreme Makeover star Paul DiMeo, and includes a pool table, bar, 50s diner, memorabilia museum, fantasy baseball counter, and pitch-speed tester.
O'Hara and Wagner were paid to watch every single game on 15 TVs in the cave, tweet their thoughts, be interviewed by MLB sportscasters, and have their "daily adventures" chronicled in online videos. O'Hara, a smalltime actor and member of "punk" band The Mighty Regis, won the contest with his video submission, which included his impressions of Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken while wearing his Yankees jacket and cap sitting in his old Yankee Stadium seats in front of his at-home wall of fame. O'Hara, who grew up in Yonkers, currently has a girlfriend, but we'll see how that goes after thousands of hot dogs and beers to wash down miserable Baltimore Orioles games.
The MLB Fan Cave Finally Closes As MLB Season Ends
Mike O'Hara and Ryan Wagner just finished watching 2,429 Major League Baseball regular-season games.
There is no record of anyone else ever doing that. It would have been all 2,430 (162 times 30 clubs), but there was no need to make up a Dodgers-Nationals rainout. On Wednesday night, September 28, 2011, a night for the ages, maybe one of the most exciting nights of baseball you ever saw, the regular season came to a booming end at the MLB Fan Cave and the green manual scoreboard over the front door was changed to show zero games remaining.
O'Hara said.
"It feels like Senior Day in high school. You go out and play your game for the last time. Your family's there. These people in this building have become our family. We had some cake and watched baseball with all the people who worked every day to put this thing together. It's neat to see it all culminate in a pinnacle with some great baseball tonight."
Wagner added.
"Even though it's only been seven or eight months since we got in here, it's nostalgia. You can't help but think about all the different people we met. The first time Mike and I got to hang out all the way to now. It's a bit of a blur. At a moment like this, you try to sit down and remember all of it and enjoy all of it, and still look forward to the postseason."
Indeed, this was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president of business, presented them with a celebration cake and staff badges for October as he gave a speech to the two fans and assembled family of MLB employees.
In conclusion, I think it was a great idea to combine social media marketing and the MLB Fan Cave together in the same promotion. MLB was able to put an actual face on the MLB brand in the form of Mike O'Hara and Ryan Wagner, to rabid baseball fans if there ever was.
However, I think it was a mistake for MLB to close the Fan Cave at the end of the regular MLB season. You still have the playoffs, and you could generate a huge amount of public relations value out of it. Squeeze it for all its got. New York will play in the ALCS and could end up in the World Series. If MLB were smart, it would open more MLB Fan Cave's in other popular baseball cities like San Francisco, L.A., Chicago and Boston, and use them as local PR and social media hubs. Let's rotate them year round. I would love to see a MLB Fan Cave in San Francisco, the home of the San Francisco Giants. We didn't make the playoffs this year, but I am still rooting for the NL.
Courtesy of an article dated September 29, 2011 appearing in Forbes, an article dated March 31, 2011 appearing in Zimbio and article dated September 29, 2011 appearing in MLB.com
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