Majoring In The Minors: Goldklang Group Takes A New Route With Leaders And Fans…

March 8, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

We have often talked about how minor league organizations often outpace the major league teams in terms of year round innovation and brand building.  The minors, especially baseball, never have the big star to rely on for long and more than their major brtheren, have to rely on the core fan and the overall game experience to keep the bottom line steady, maintain marketshare and keep fans coming back when they don’t know what the on-field product will look like.  One of the best groups at fan engagement has always been the Goldklang group, led by Mike Veeck and Marv Goldklang, and a legion of passionate and energetic fulltime staffers, interns and volunteers from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Hudson Valley, New York and many points in between. They have set the standard for fun, fan engagement and brand growth on the minor league level for years.  Now in an effort to connect and grow their fans, and find new business and branding opportunities, the company has launched Be Your Own Fan TV, a bi-monthly look at key influencers not just in the markets the teams play, but in sports overall.  The episodes are a combination of insiders look and in-depth interviews with many boldface names, or rising stars, in sports, and will give both a fan or a person interested in learning more about the business of sport some good insight into best practices and success.  So what does this do for the Goldklang Group?  Does it help sell tickets for the Charleston River Dogs? Not directly, at least not in the conventional sense that most minor league teams do things.  Then again, these guys usually set the standard and don’t follow the conventional.

Majoring In The Minors…Hudson Valley Goes To The Ladies…

June 23, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Ladies Day has long been a baseball tradition…women arriving at the ballpark get discounts and promotions tailored to them, and MLB has gone to great lengths in promoting and raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness. However the Hudson valley Renegades, again showing the advantage the minors have to be effective and creative, will take Ladies Day one step further in July, banning men (those off the playing field anyway) from the stands for the first five innings of their July 7 game.</a> The salute to women, will allow women in while keeping the men outside until the fifth inning, effectively showing that the Rens’ female fan base is both important and recognized by the organization. The night will of course have the usual fun promotions and music that the minors always have, but it sends a smart message to those decision makers in the household…we appreciate all you do in bringing the kids here and to the games, and lets have some fun just with you. Not a huge departure from the ordinary, but it should make for a fun night, a good promotion, some additional brand extensions and some good old fashioned PR which will probably be copied by others along the way.

From The Hot Stove…Rens’ Serve Up A Tribute To Steph…

December 18, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As we have noted before, minor league baseball, even with their affordable prices, constantly look year round to keep the brand relevant in the community and continue to reinforce brand.  many times it can be done with the offbeat, the latest example is the Hudson Valley Renegades, who took the opportunity to create Benchwarmers Tribute Night in 2009, in deference to Knicks exiled guard Stephon Marbury.   The Renegades will give fans a chance to ride the pine near the dugiut, will hand out faux  wood seat cushions, and who knows may even get an appearance from the mercurial Marbury himself.  The  game will be in June, but by taking advantage of their ticket onsale and the extended coverage the Knicks-Marbury feud has gotten, the promo has gotten great advance legs for the team in the offseason.  Come June tickets will be sold, it will be a fun look back at the issue and most importantly it is creative and takes advantage of a very topical event in the area for the casual sports fan.  Nice way to land some hits for Hudson Valley.

Making A Raquet With A Branding Campaign…Tennis, NHRA and Lacrosse

June 20, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With The Championships, Wimbledon, the third leg of tennis’ Grand Slam almost upon us, the WTA Tour made not just a loud branding statement, but a loud financial branding statement with their announcement of a $15 Million multi-year international branding campaign designed to re-introduce the casual sports fand to the stars of women’s tennis. It is the latest in a series of very bold moves by the WTA to find ways to set themselves apart and bring in the casual fan, and the sponsor dollar, that is very necessary in returning the sport to even its heyday of the late 1990’s. The move by CEO Larry Scott makes a great deal of sense…it shows the players, their title sponsor (Sony Ericsson) and other second tier sports that the WTA is putting serious dollars into brand building. Now are the dollars serious enough to make a dent? Some of that will have to be proven by the PR commitment and effort the Tour makes to put its top stars in highly visible and aggressive and unique PR campaigns, and in individual sports (the Tour learned this with a very public tiff with Maria Sharapova in Rome earlier this year) the player schedule and outside comittments can sometimes make that difficult. The biggest way for this to succeed, much in the way NASCAR has its success, is to make sure that all parties…athletes, agents, tournaments, staff…are ALL pulling in the same direction and with a level of cooperation. The game is good, now the stories have to be told better.

Taking A Peek Inside…Bobby V., The Riverdogs and Chicago High Schoolers…

May 14, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

For those looking to get an insiders look at how select sports brands operate, we have found a few good recent examples.  The first one was ESPN’s documentary that aired last night, “The Zen of Bobby V,” which as most know is the NYU student produced film that followed Bobby Valentine for seven months in Japan’s Pacific League.  From a branding standpoint, the 90 minute film gave Americans a real insight into the inner workings of Japanese baseball in addition to Valentine’s unique personality…showing what promotions work, the degree of fan loyalty and most importantly the struggles that can occur on the business side when American marketing principles are attempted to be adapted in another culture.  We have talked on many occasions about American companies successes and failures in trying to take the American sports experience overseas, and the film touched on many of those issues that Valentine has tried to work with in his Japanese stay.  Also on the insider look, check out the Charleston River Dogs blog on a day in the life of GM Larry Hawkins.  It lays out pretty clearly all that goes into the work behind the scenes, and although the daily life of someone like Mets GM Omar Minaya may be different, the commitment to excellence remains the same.  Also on a look inside, the Chicago Tribune ran a great piece this week on the great prep program that Chicago public schools are running to get high schoolers interested and motivated in journalism called HoopsHIGH.   Even for those a little older, the piece gives some solid insight into what needs to be done to be a success in broadcasting.  Great example for other municipalities as well.