In July 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) sponsor Bank Of America shifted away from awareness and brand building during the pandemic and instead focused its activation on a social good campaign supporting Boys & Girls Clubs of America with their food and education programmes.
Territory: USA
Agency: GroupeConnect
Objectives
A long-standing MLB partner (and its Official Bank), Bank of America usually leverages its rights through activation strategies based around awareness and brand building, but during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 the brand re-examined its relationship and changed tack to use its baseball tie-up as a catalyst for change.
The focus of its campaign during the second half of 2020 was to support Boys & Girls Clubs of America (a long-time brand and MLB partner) and their ongoing Covid-relief programmes focused on food insecurities and virtual learning.
The primary objective was to leverage the return of baseball (through a truncated 60-game season starting at the end of July and running until late October) to help support children, families and communities across the USA and help them ‘move forward’ during a year dominated by a health crisis and social injustice.
The aim was for Bank of America not simply to accomplish its traditional business goals, but more importantly to positively impact those hit hardest by the pandemic.
Activation
Developed in partnership with GroupeConnect, the initiative was based on several pandemic linked insights.
Firstly that sports in general and baseball in particularly have always been a way to bring Americans together: to give people something to root for, to escape to and to offer a few hours in which seeming miracles can actually happen.
Secondly that during the pandemic and the linked cancellation of so much sport, fans had been left with a void that they ached to be filled.
And thirdly that when the MLB finally became one of the first US professional sports to return to action in late July 2020, the shortened season would take on even more significance as it gave fans hope that the recovery was starting and the Opening Weekend was positioned a symbolic moment: a form of a rally when a team that was suffering could overcome the challenges and come back and win the game.
Building on these three thoughts, the activation idea was simple: own the rally in baseball.
So Bank Of America set out to become the first brand to use this in-game return moment as a way to help bring the nation together through ‘Let’s Rally’: a campaign which also acted as ‘a nod to the resolve for both baseball and the nation to stage a comeback’.
The mechanic was straightforward too: throughout the 60-game, delayed 2020 MLB season, each time a team rallied from behind to win in a late inning, Bank of America donated $10,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The campaign itself was spearheaded by a hero spot featuring empty stadiums preparing for a return to action set to Elvis Presley’s ‘Always On My Mind’ which ran across national television and online channels.
An additional ‘Wear It Forward’ strand of the campaign saw Bank of America work with some of the biggest MLB stars to make an impact off the field in two key ways.
A group of player ambassadors – one from each of the 30 teams – designed a collection of custom tee-shirts and proceeds from their sales went to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The bank leveraged these players’ own social feeds, plus BoA channels, plus CRM and online advertising to build awareness of the shirts and drive sales.
For each tee-shirt purchased by Bank of America customers through 30 November 30, Bank of America donated $7 per shirt (up to $200,000) to Boys & Girls Clubs of America with the initiative hubbed around a microsite at www.bankofamerica.com/rally.
Plus, when fans felt a desire/need to talk about the social injustices across the country, Bank of America teamed up with sports broadcaster ESPN and Boys & Girls Clubs of America to host a virtual event on Twitter and YouTube which aired on 28 August – ‘Jackie Robinson Day’.
The resulting social discussion explored the intersections of sports, race, and culture and the role sports can play in furthering the dialogue of racial equality and social justice in America.
The campaign was created by a group at GroupeConnect which included Creatives Liz Taylor, Sam Shepherd, Sue DeSilva, Alex Fuller, Mark Philip, Pete Lefebvre, Caio Batista, Andre Santa Cruz, Ryan Stotts, Garam Park, Jason Ziehm, Brian Noyes, Thom Crowley, Austin White, Eli Perez, James Errico and Randy Rogers and Accounts Team members Debbie Myszynski, Audra Curran, Erika Gammon and Allison Flack, plus Project Managers Kerrie Bourque, Emily Cerra, Sara Hill, Creative Resources Nancy Parnell and Sarah Whinnem and Strategists Nicole Hayes, Bethany Bayer, Clayton Conness, Sarah Marren and TJ Klink, plus Social Strategists Julia Agger, Allie Wassum, Patrick Ferguson, John Stier, Rebecca Bailey and Sarah Mitus.
Production was also handled by GroupeConnect where the team included Mike Davidson, Amber Harris, Ashley Geisheker, Kylie Loeffler, Shivang Chopra and Reed Holtzman, while the media group on the project included Douglas Salmon, Nicole Fosco, Victoria McKissack, Ross Treiber, Sydney Lacey, Curtis Loughran, Alyssa Gallagher and Lilly Hillstrand.
Print Production at GroupeConnect was handled by Greg Rogers, Duncan McCulloch, Pam Rogers, Catalina Sanchez and Alberto Mendoza and DNA by Garrett Lyons, Kathleen Metzger and Alisha Cargill.
Outcome
According to the brand itself, Bank Of America not only highlighted issues that matter and gave back to the community, but also used its MLB partnership to extend its reach and amplified its broader commitment to strengthening the communities that it lives and work in.
The activation programme was measured not simply by content engagement and brand favourability metrics, but also by donations to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Through the campaign, Bank of America raised more than $600,000 in donations for Boys and Boys Clubs of America and drove a +37% increase in brand favourability among clients.
Through these in-game rally moments, Bank of America donated $580,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The ‘ESPN Breaking Barriers’ virtual event reached 46% of US Twitter users and generated more than 735,000 views.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.