How do you make hay with Sunflower seeds in a crowded market with limited money? Come up with a big idea and then pitch it as so. Good example? BIGS Sunflower Seeds.
The privately held Colorado Company has stiff competition in the consumer marketplace, but they took a natural tie…baseball…and came up with a unique national platform, one that doesn’t need an official endorsement from MLB, has a story line in multiple markets, has a charismatic character to tell it, and even has a charity tie, all winning elements that can even go viral..
The company partnered with Zack Hample, a best-selling author and record-setting baseball collector, who will try to snag a baseball at every big league stadium in 2013, raising money for Pitch In For Baseball along the way. In the BIGS Baseball Adventure, Hample, who has collected more than 6,400 baseballs during batting practice and live games, and literally wrote the book, “How to Snag Major League Baseballs”, will attempt to collect a game-used baseball from all 30 baseball stadiums – a challenge that has never been achieved. For every stadium in which he succeeds, BIGS Sunflower Seeds will donate $500 to Pitch In For Baseball, the worthwhile charity which provides equipment at no cost to kids around the world. They recently started a program to help replace equipment lost in the Northeast by Superstorm Sandy.
From a branding standpoint there is no downside for BIGS. They already have product in market, there is no lay out for in store or in stadium promotion, and Hample knows his way around a ballpark. The social world lends itself to some great video which can be exploited should he come up with some amazing catches, or even runs afoul of some people with lighthearted controversy. PIB has no loss on the charity side as any cash coming in is an upside they can promote along with Hemple in every market, and the long baseball season lends itself to hundreds of attempts to get this done. Some teams may also embrace the effort to help promote in stadium, which BIGS can take advantage of on the back end. It may not be a top news story but it has scale and is equipped with all the low cost elements of potential success. It’s simple, and it works for the long haul.
Smart move by BIGS to fit with some right partners…now catch balls and chew some seeds.
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