Teams, Leagues, and Brands Take a Community Focus...
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 10:33PM Are you looking for new ways to demonstrate a commitment to the local community? Are you looking for ways to honor local citizens for their dedication to helping others?
Here are a few examples of ways that teams, leagues, and brands are stepping up to reward those making a difference in the local community:
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball and Fox are teaming up to create a "giving back" message around the 2009 MLB All-Star Game. Prior to the game, President Obama will appear alongside former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in a 7-minute video stressing the importance of goodwill and community service.
Major League Baseball is hoping that this message will help boost the morale of millions of Americans around the nation who have had to persevere through trying economic times. The league will honor people who have done goodwill in each of baseball's 30 markets at the game as well as the video shown prior to the live broadcast of the game.
This activation will complement the All-Star Charity Concert (presented by Pepsi) that features a live performance by Sheryl Crow under the Gateway Arch on Saturday, July 11th.
Home Depot
Home Depot is leveraging is partnership with Major League Soccer to host a promotion that enables Utah residents to nominate their community All-Stars for a chance to win a $1,000 Home Depot Gift Card and a 2009 MLS All-Star Game Prize Pack that includes two (2) tickets to the game. The promotion provides consumers the chance to tell why in 3,000 words their nominee should win the select award (based on their contributions to the community).
Tampa Bay Rays / Beef O'Brady's
The Tampa Bay Rays and Beef O'Brady's recently teamed up on an initiative to honor All-Star moms in the local Tampa marketplace. From July 7th to July 29th, kids of all ages can go to one (1) of 54 Beef O'Brady's locations across Tampa to register their moms for an array of prizes that include a personalized jersey, a private meet-and-greet with a Rays player, four tickets to an upcoming game, and a $100 gift card. The collaborating parties will choose five (5) lucky moms from hundreds of recipients to win the select prizes.
Reader Comments (1)
Community-building is one of the greatest ways to promote your team and drive ticket sales. Supportive and passionate fans are the platform of any successful team… and pretty much any business. It’s great to see that some teams are taking the lead in community building. However, using traditional channels is just one piece of the puzzle. Today, fans spend a lot of time online. And reaching them through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums and more can greatly enhance any other marketing initiative. And what about investing into branded social networks where teams can interact with fans in a controlled environment and generate additional revenue in the meanwhile? We actually just had a post about it, check it out: http://endavomediablog.typepad.com/endavo_media_blog/2009/07/web-communities-and-social-media-theres-more-to-life-than-facebook.html