As His Number Is Retired By The New York Yankees, Budweiser Salutes Jeter with #ThisBudsFor2

MLB beer partner Budweiser rolls out a stirring and emotional tribute to New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter as the Bronx ball club retires his famous number 2 jersey.

The activation accolade is led by a long-form commercial called ‘This Bud’s for 2’, launched on 12 May to coincide with Friday’s Yankee Stadium number retirement ceremony – 962 days after the former team captain [played his last game for his beloved Yankees.

The Yankees honoured Jeter in a pregame ceremony that saw his uniform number retirement and the unveiling of his Monument Park plaque.

Jeter, a 14-time All-Star who played 20 seasons for the team, becomes the 22nd player in Yankees history to have his number retired.

The two-minute spot opens with Jeter’s last at-bat at Yankee Stadium, in which he famously and appropriately belted a walk-off RBI-single against Baltimore, and then takes viewers on a tour around New York City as residents place number two signs across the urban landscape: removing it from a subway sign and the side of a fire truck, as well as from a taxi and from a Second Avenue street sign.

The numerals are all then replaced withJeter’s 2 in Yankee pinstripes.

The “Bud’s for 2” campaign, created by VaynerMedia, is also running on the beer brand’s social channels,

If it’s retired here, it’s retired everywhere. To the Captain that transformed a city, Derek #ThisBudsFor2 pic.twitter.com/44BXLMszLr

— Budweiser (@Budweiser) May 12, 2017

There will always be a cold Bud with The Captain's name on it. #ThisBudsForYou https://t.co/mpujBRAQ3U

— Budweiser (@Budweiser) May 12, 2017

and in paid digital.

“I’m honoured MLB and Budweiser chose to celebrate my jersey retirement this way, and I’m really looking forward to being back at Yankee Stadium this weekend,” said Jeter in a Budweiser statement linked to the campaign launch.

Indeed, the former super star even returned the favour by posting his own personal letter to the city of New York on the social channels of , the sports publishing site he founded after his retirement – The Players’ Tribune.

The Players Tribune is a new media company, founded by Jeter and others in 2014 and which has already raised $58m in funding, that aims to provide athletes with a platform to connect directly with their fans, in their own words.

Activative Comment:

Jeter’s retirement in 2014 spawned some standout sports spots: including Jordan Brand’s “Re2pect” campaign (see case study),

Gatorade’s ‘Made In New York’,

Marketers clearly saw his jersey retirement as yet another opportunity to celebrate one of baseball’s most marketable players.

And, if the social media metrics are anything to go by, the beer brand’s tribute is certainly generating some solid brand engagement.

On Budweiser’s YouTube channel the spot has notched up 2,648,600 views in its first 48 hours.

While according to Brandwatch, the campaign hashtag #ThisBudsFor2 generated more than 1,400 mentions on 12 May (all with completely positive sentiment) and in total the hashtag has notched up more than 26.2m impressions.

Most mentions stemmed from the spot and from retweets of a tweet from Budweiser which itself had over 11.7m impressions.

If it’s retired here, it’s retired everywhere. To the Captain that transformed a city, Derek #ThisBudsFor2 pic.twitter.com/44BXLMszLr

— Budweiser (@Budweiser) May 12, 2017

The statistics suggest once again that few brands do baseball as well as Budweiser.

Its previous baseball campaign which generated serious engagement was its celebratory spot marking the Chicago Cubs World Series win (see case study).

Links:

Budweiser

https://www.youtube.com/user/budweiser

http://www.budweiser.com/

https://twitter.com/Budweiser

https://www.instagram.com/budweiser/

https://www.facebook.com/Budweiser

New York Yankees:

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/

https://twitter.com/Yankees

https://www.facebook.com/Yankees

https://www.instagram.com/yankees/