MollyCule3

Photo: 2010 Hopkins Raspberry Festival Royal Court at the Minnesota Twins game.

The seasonal sport of baseball leaves no wiggle room for the Minnesota Twins baseball team in the arena of marketing. With 81 home games for fans to attend, they have to make the most out of every marketing second. According to Bloomberg Newsweek, “A call challenged by a manager would be reviewed by umpires watching replays in New York—a process MLB says would take a minute and 15 seconds. There’s a potential commercial upside to the controversial move: That pause, like every other bit of spare time in baseball, represents a chance to sell advertising.” 

The Twins would be able to create more revenue for the organization by utilizing the added opportunities to each game. Personally, I don’t think it would make a bit of difference to me or sway me one way or the other to purchase a certain brand just because I saw it flashed on a screen at a sporting event. There is no personal connection to the advertisement when blasted across the jumbo-tron for me to take action.

On the other hand…keeping the advertising locally may make me go to a game here and there. When my daughter was the reigning Hopkins Raspberry Festival Junior Queen, the court was invited to sing the national anthem during the seventh inning stretch and the Queen and her Princesses were asked to throw out the first pitch to open the game. By involving the surrounding community, the family’s of each royal court gladly purchased a ticket to see their child in a unique “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

I will admit that the marketing efforts aimed at involving the community directly benefit the Twins brand whereas the additional time added to the baseball game itself benefits the advertising purchaser. It will be up to the Twins as to which way they want to concentrate their efforts. I see a mix of both having a positive affect on their revenue bottom line.

Another marketing pole that the Minnesota Twins have in the water has been leveraging strategic partnerships with local charities. In a press release by the Prostate Cancer Foundation last summer, “The Minnesota Twins today announced plans to take part in the Prostate Cancer Foundation Home Run Challenge from Sunday, June 9 (2013) through Father’s Day on Sunday, June 16 (2013). In addition to pledging $10,000 to the Prostate Cancer Foundation Home Run Challenge for every homer hit by a Twins player, the Twins organization will donate $1,000 for every strikeout recorded by a Twins pitcher.” The foundation created the partnership with the Major League Baseball in 1997 and has since raised over $40 million for prostate cancer research. The union of the two organizations speaks to fans who are also passionate about the issue leading to, hopefully, increased ticket sales to games.

Last, but not least, is the ever faithful Facebook campaign. We’ve been trained to think that by having a presence on Facebook will automatically lead to people knowing about our brand, service, or product which will then turn into sales. Marketers seem to be failing on understanding the purpose of their online presence.  i2Marketing states it clearly , “There is substantial evidence arguing that social media consumers are the most valuable Internet consumers to have. They are far more interactive and influential than those who do not use social networking, as people who use social media have a unique and intense desire to connect. They are eager to interact with businesses who reciprocate and, therefore, more likely to purchase what you offer.”

I, for one, ignore the bombardment of Facebook’s marketing efforts to me for products and services. When I want something, I’ll ask for opinions before I make up my  mind.