Rolling out from 25 March, hyping the 2024 season’s official 28 March ‘Opening Day’, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) annual new season marketing burst was spearheaded by a hero spot starring award-winning actor and baseball super fan Bryan Cranston.
Last season, it was Cranston who helped introduce rule changes – including the pitch clock – and this year sees the Emmy, Tony and Olivier Award winner pitch a ‘new and improved’ message familiar to all marketers.
The ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Malcolm In the Middle’ star fronts the league’s umbrella new season ‘Anything Can Happen’ campaign: a joint marketing push by MLB’s internal marketers and Jimmy Kimmel’s Kimmelot production company.
As well as running across the usual MLB owned platforms and partner media channels, the campaign is splashed across paid media: including during NCAA March Madness broadcasts, entertainment programming, paid digital and social channels, and connected TV, podcasts and influencers.
Simultaneously, celebrating, championing and hyping ‘new and improved’ MLB, ‘Dream With No Limits’ spearheaded a multichannel new season ‘Anything Can Happen’ campaign that began with a social media Opening Day countdown content strand which focused on blending ‘days left to go’ with ‘iconic players who wore that number’.
This is not a drill ‼️#OpeningDay is one week away! pic.twitter.com/0rGkrjQi7K
— MLB (@MLB) March 21, 2024
Only 7️⃣ days remaining until #OpeningDay! pic.twitter.com/UjYYinzGdh
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) March 21, 2024
The countdown is down to six! #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/1ng4VO0CgL
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) March 22, 2024
We're getting so close! #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/SIKCpWRh69
— MLB (@MLB) March 23, 2024
The anchor ‘Dream With No Limits’ spot dropped across TV, and owned and paid digital and social platforms from 25 March. Targeting avid fans and casual supporters simultaneously, Cranston’s message about the MLB is “It’s Not Just Exciting, It’s Better.
Recorded at Dodger Stadium, the home of his beloved LA Dodgers, the Cranston-fronted lead ad highlights many of the game’s leading stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr, Corbin Carroll and Elly De La Cruz.
Dream with no limits. #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/yHzmpDlvq5
— MLB (@MLB) March 25, 2024
The flagship film was backed by supporting social content across the league’s Instagram, TikTok and Twitter channels. This included a series of promos rolling out through the week which showcase MLB talent: including MVPs Ronald Acuña and Shohei Ohtani, 2023 National League Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and Cincinnati Reds phenom Elly De La Cruz. While an accompanying set of 10-second spots focus on baseball’s famously generational nature and on the impact of Latino players.
Give us your champ! ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7OLLZGq6C8
— MLB (@MLB) March 26, 2024
@mlb dream with no limits. #OpeningDay
@mlb i would have demolished that pitch but look i get it #baseball #shocked #funny
♬ Creepy and simple horror background music(1070744) – howlingindicator
@mlb dang who hurt the organist #funny #baseball #omg #curbyourenthusiasm
@mlb scale of 1-10 how mad would your dad be about this catch lmao #baseball
A further digital/experiential strand rolling out in April will see an MLB-branded ‘Ballpark Bites’ baseball-inspired menu available on popular food delivery apps – such as Uber Eats and DoorDash – in nearly 400 US markets. Menu items from this will include Philly Cheesesteaks, LA Street Dogs and The Ball Bucket.
MLB is working with Virtual Dining Concepts on the program and is also negotiating sponsor tie-ins for ‘Ballpark Bites’. The food will be delivered in ‘MLB Ballpark Bites’ packaging and supporting marketing elements like ‘Ballpark Bites Trucks’ will drive across the country to be present at MLB venues and other high-traffic MLB market spots and areas ‘to remind people that we’re back and how much they love ballpark food’.
Subsequent official MLB rights owner promotions will also be launched throughout the season as the league will continue to push player storytelling through on-field and lifestyle-focused influencers.
“Here I am at 68 years old and I’m walking around this citadel of my childhood,” Cranston said during the campaign launch PR event. “The first games I attended were at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum back in 1961 and then when I first went to Dodger Stadium, it was this monolith, this magnificent, huge place. This is my Citadel. This is where I feel happiest, ever since I was 6 years old coming here in 1962, when it opened. I’ve grown up with this place. It means something to me. When I die and I’m cremated, I want my wife to figure out how to drop the ashes on the pitcher’s mound or home plate.”
Cranston’s own production company is named Moonshot Entertainment after Dodgers star Wally Moon (whose opposite-field drives over the Coliseum’s short left-field wall were dubbed ‘Moon Shots’ by former Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully).
“Cranston is perfect for the role because he is an absolutely authentic, true fan and that shows in the campaign.”
MLB Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Karin Timpone
Cranston also fronted last season’s Opening Day campaign which dropped on 11 April 2023 and was led by the lengthily titled spot ‘It’s The Best Game In The World. Now, It’s Even Better’
Following these ‘new rules’, the 2024 MLB season – which actually pitched off with a two-game overseas series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres in Seoul (South Korea) – starts with the sport on a metric upswing.
Fans are coming back to baseball with the sport showing solid growth in several statistical areas after the league made major changes in recent seasons (including the 2023 pitch clock) that have succeeded in speeding the game up: the average length of a (standard nine-inning) game in 2021 was 3 hours, 10 minutes and 7 seconds, while in 2023 it was down to 2 hours, 39 minutes and 49 seconds.
Last season the MLB’s total attendance rose by 9.6%, plus some of the ‘softer’ measures of fandom are also trending up. For example, a recent YouGov brand index said MLB ‘brand relevance metrics jumped 20% last year’ and January 2024 data rose a further 5% jump.
Perhaps even more important is the fact that ticket buying among Gen Z and Millennials is also on the rise.
“Some of that is still post-pandemic unlock, which we’re seeing everywhere, but those sectors increasing is really meaningful, especially since we’ve been spending more on balancing out on new platforms to grow those younger casual and avid fans. Our broadcast and streaming partners are chasing those groups also, so hopefully we’ll build up a national audience together.”
MLB Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Karin Timpone