To build buzz ahead of the new season and generally broaden the game’s popular appeal and its place in the cultural conversation, Major League Baseball (MLB) teamed up with the League’s new agency of record Wieden+Kennedy (Portland) to launch an integrated campaign called ‘Baseball Is Something Else’ and a new digital platform titled ‘MLB Life’.
Objective
Leveraging the start of the new 2023 MLB season – which sees the league introduce new rules to speed up the game (including a pitch timer, defensive shift limits and bigger bases and which saw average game times reduced by 26 minutes during Spring Training) – the campaign aimed to redefine the ‘incomparable fan experience for a new generation’ by modernising nostalgia through digital platforms, cultural relevance and a dose of Hollywood pizazz. The campaign aims to connect as much to MLB’s casual fans as to its avid ones by celebrating the game’s quirky charms and its on-field thrills and is intended to build the game’s brand over time.
Activation
Blending attitude and tradition with vibrant, quick-cut visuals backed by eclectic soundtracks, the work showcases the endless ways everyone everywhere loves baseball as it repositions traditional baseball tropes – mascots, stadium food and the excitement of Opening Day – by updating the game experience through speed, social and contemporary music.
Launched to leverage the 2023 season’s 30 March ‘Opening Day’, the campaign spans TV, online video, print, out-of-home, social and experiential activations.
The initial set-up phase began on the league’s social channels from 21 March with a collection of fun creative executions outlining the new MLB rules which are aimed at speeding up the pace of the game and generating more on-field action. Fronted by actor Bryan Cranston, comic Sebastian Maniscalco, a team of Little Leaguers and several MLB stars, this entertaining series of spots was produced with Still Films, Wheelhouse Labs & Kimmelot.
“It’s the best game in the world. Now, it’s even better.” – @BryanCranston pic.twitter.com/1E1uNlL6Dv
— MLB (@MLB) March 23, 2023
The spots included ‘Rule Changes 101’, ‘Let The Kids Play Faster’ and ‘What Is The Short Stop Doing In The Outfield?’, plus a ‘Quick Question: What are MLB’s big rule changes?’ video on 27 March.
The core ‘Opening Day’ phase of the ‘Baseball Is Something Else’ brand campaign launched with a trio of films dropping from 29 March in New York City’s iconic Times Square and across broadcast and cable television, digital media, virtual MVPDs and in ballparks across the league.
The campaign links to a new content and experiential platform called ‘MLB Life’ which spans an anchor website, social channels, lifestyle events and an ongoing series of real and virtual activations and initiatives centred around baseball’s connection to art, culture, fashion, food, gaming and music around the world.
According to the MLB, the new platform aims to highlight the intersections between baseball and culture around the world.
The league also put together a short film featuring many of the most memorable Opening Day highlights on the field, while additional campaign creative and activations will roll out through the season.
The league also unveiled an enhanced and upgraded MLB App for Opening Day, and teamed up with Nike to reveal the six teams participating in Season Three of the ‘City Connect Uniform Series’.
“We hired Wieden+Kennedy on the basis of having provided good insights in pitch discussions and the league and agency built further on this with in-depth research to define the MLB brand, examine baseball’s audience and the game’s emotional and functional benefits. This led to the key attributes of ‘charming’, ‘communal’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘purposeful’ and the campaign seeks to express those attributes through stories illustrating the ‘tension between the expected and unexpected’ that marks baseball. When you see the tagline of ‘Baseball Is Something Else’, we’re going to tell a story about all the various elements that make that up. That’s going to take many seasons to fully tell,” commented Timpone. “We believe that by making an investment in our brand, it will make it more clear how to be more welcoming to fans wherever they are in their journey, whether or not they’re already expert, or they’re newer.”
MLB Chief Marketing Officer Karin Timpone
“The sights, sounds and smells of baseball are a potion that takes hold of us. So, we just let the game, with its unique elements, speak for itself. There’s nothing in the world quite like baseball. It’s a game that we think can absolutely speak for itself. It runs the spectrum of tones: it is charming. It can also pull on the heartstrings. And it can also show elite athleticism. So it runs the spectrum. And because that’s true about that game, that can also be true about all of our work. What holds it all together, is authenticity. We don’t need to make anything up to show the greatness of this game. We’re really just holding up a mirror to everything that it is. Baseball can be dynamic, quirky, or pull on the heartstrings. So the music choices are as varied as the game,” continued Bogdan. “It can be 2 Chainz’s ‘I’m Different’ over a celebration of the League’s craziest hot dogs. And it can also be Cameron J’s a-cappella version of ‘The William Tell Overture’ over an ode to the rituals of Opening Day.”
W+K Creative Director Josh Bogdan
Outcome
The Opening Day launch campaign provided a strong springboard to driving long-term consideration: with consideration to atend games up 7% over the previous year. It also helped boost viewer numbers with a 6% rise in the national TV broadcast audience and a 42% rise in digital/streaming viewers.
The initiative also generated the most social Opening Day ever with a 160% rise in measureable MLB social media mentions with a 10% increase in ‘positive sentiment’ and a 56% rise in traffic to the MLB website on Opening Day compared to 2022, as well as the largest ever online merchandise sales day in MLB history.
It’s not quite a whole new ball game, but rather an attempt by the league to modernize baseball nostalgia whilst it tweaks the rules to speed up play.
A subtle brief and a tricky challenge!
But something surely needs to be done as the league known as ‘America’s Pastime’ and ‘The Show’ – one steeped in 150 years of history and tradition – remains massively popular amongst aging die-hards, but is seeing its attendance and audience dipping.
The 2022 World Series drew 12m average viewers per game – making it one of the least watched championship series in history.
Facing media and entertainment fragmentation, baseball in general and the MLB in particular are losing their place in the national conversation and in the sport and entertainment spotlight to the NFL’s corporate juggernaut, the NBA’s cultural relevance and soccer’s global omnipresence, as well as gaming and eSports.
The creative certainly pops as it treads a fine line between repositioning and parody as it offers fresh perspectives on established values.
Some have even suggested that this might be the MLB’s last attempt to catch up. At Activative we doubt that.
But long-term, socio-cultural shifts usually reflect a confluence of complex factors and are often organic in nature and therefore almost impossible to reverse. However good the campaign creative, digital outreach and cultural relevance might be.
But a faster game and 63 homers by Aaron Judge this season might hold the line a little longer.
All 30 clubs played on 2023 ‘Opening Day presented by Chevrolet’: the first season since 1968 that every team across the MLB opened the season on the same date.