And here’s the pitch!

There I was, sitting in the barber’s chair getting a haircut the other day, when I overheard a couple of guys raving about some of the new commercials that are running promoting the start of baseball season, especially those highlighting our local reigning World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants.  A particular favorite, one said, was this commercial based on the “inspiring” John Belushi speech in the movie Animal House.  And here it is as a side-by-side comparison, in case you’ve never seen this classic.

Pretty clever, wouldn’t you say?

Being a student of integrated marketing communications, I decided to take a deeper dive and explore how Major League Baseball overall is promoting America’s pastime this year.  They have a new marketing campaign, referred to as “I play” designed to reach new, younger fans and attract them to the ballpark by highlighting young superstars (in their early to late 20s) from various teams such as the Giant’s own Buster Posey (Elliott, 2013 March 22).  Check it out here.

This approach takes a “serious, earnest tone rather than the lighthearted tack that Major League Baseball sometimes uses in its promotional efforts” (Elliott, 2013 March 22).  According to an executive with Hill Holliday, the advertising agency that created the campaign, the goal was to communicate passion and give people an idea of what the players are thinking about (Elliott, 2013 March 22).  I also learned that the “I play” campaign is well integrated with a strong social media component.  It invites fans to submit video clips on Twitter’s Vine video sharing capability talking about their favorite teams and players and why they watch and/or play baseball.  You can visit www.mlbfancave.com for more details.

Now that I think about it, the guys talking baseball in the barbershop that day were probably in their 40s and 50s, and interestingly there was no mention of the “I play” commercials.  Perhaps they just hadn’t seen them yet.  As for me (I’m in my 40s), I am a fan of both approaches, utilizing a combination of serious/historical and lighthearted, because I think this game should have something for everyone.  Which approach do you prefer?

References

Elliott, S. (2013, March 22), M.L.B Turns to Young Stars to Reach New Fans.  New York Times, Retrieved from: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/m-l-b-turns-to-young-stars-to-reach-new-fans/