Stadium Promotions: Sink or Swim

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Stadium Promotions: Sink or Swim

As summer begins to wind down and the race for the postseason starts to heat up, America is filled with baseball. After all, it is our pastime. But over the course of the season, how do the clubs fill the seats? With promotions of course.

The latest buzz surrounding a recent giveaway got us thinking about successful promotional efforts versus disastrous ones, so we thought this was a great opportunity to discuss how organizations fill their seats, offer a great experiences for their fans, and walk away with their public relations efforts unscathed.

The recent buzz that jump-started this post revolves around the Ryan Howard garden gnome given out by the Reading Phillies, the AA affiliate of the major league club of the same name. August 3rd marked the day that the R. Phils would giveaway the 8-inch lawn ornament– with full beard and pictured above -- to the first 2,500 fans in attendance. By 2 p.m. there were 1,500 fans in line for a 6:05 start-time. To solidify it’s popularity, ESPN named the garden gnome sporting the likeness of the former Rookie of the Year and MVP as the best promotion in the minors.  It is also worth mentioning that the (free) giveaway is being sold on eBay for a significant amount of cash.

Of course, anything noteworthy will come under fire, and some people have been citing signs of racism, but the Reading Phillies are doing the right thing. According to the general manager, Scott Hunsicker, it’s just a garden gnome and regardless of the player personified, it would have been the same. We have to agree.

A minor backlash is nothing when coupled with a great turnout and major buzz about the minor league club (not to mention the approval of the Big Piece himself). But other clubs have not been as successful in their promotional efforts.

In late June of this year, during a Marlin vs. Rays game, the PR people decided to capitalize off the World Cup and hand out vuvuzelas to the crowd. The offer got people in the seats, more than doubling traditional attendance from 7,000 to 15,000.  More people? Sounds like a good game plan, but the problem was they didn’t anticipate the amount of noise the giveaway would make. So much so that it caused one team to bat out of order because the lineup change wasn’t heard.

Another unanticipated failure occurred when the Yankees teamed up with Pepsi to give away 250 free tickets to Opening Day at the Bronx Bomber’s new stadium. Fans came out in droves to snag the free tickets only to find out that the location had changed about 10 minutes before the promo (due to lack of permits). To make matters worse, Pepsi didn’t have as many tickets as they said they did and falsely advertised stubs to the season opener– which in reality where tickets for some random game in June.

The next example goes pretty far back, but is almost too classic to ignore. In 1974, Cleveland decided to host a 10 cent beer night against the Rangers. Over 25,000 fans came out, leading to a lot of the foamy stuff floating around the stands. Fans got rowdy with a woman running out to the on-deck circle to flash the crowd, a father-son duo mooning players, and culminated with a 9th inning theft of a Rangers outfielder’s glove and subsequent rushing of the field. The game ended in a forfeit by the hometeam.

If there are any lessons learned from baseball’s attempt to fill the stands and enhance fans’ experiences at the ballpark, it’s definitely that they can be an unexpected success or unexpected failure. Be sure to be creative with the giveaways, as the Ryan Howard garden ornament proves, but be prepared to deal with all the circumstances surrounding them. Think of all the possibilities and make sure to take into consideration noise level, danger and increase of and effect on of patrons. If you are not prepared to handle any possibly outcome, the crowd or the press surrounding the promotion can get out of control quickly. Another piece of advice: if you decide to partner with another corporation, communication is key! Each group comes with baggage, meaning their services and yours are equally affected – so choose carefully.

If well-planned, creative, and desirable, promotional events and stadium giveaways can be huge for your company, whether you are a baseball team or private business trying to draw up customers.


~Mia

Tweet