We are less than a month in for return to play, and with MLS heading back to stadia and the NFL starting their great training camp experiment, we thought it would be good to ask some of those on the front lines what the lessons…the positive ones…that have been learned around the one non bubble sport so far…baseball.
We have seen some of the fun and engaging innovations teams have done…the cutouts, Tom Hanks as a vendor with the A’s, the Pirates creative letter to fans who WOULD have caught a foul ball…and many other examples. We have also seen endless adjustments to sound, event format, interactivity, branding that are literally happening in real time as teams tweak and refine what presentation without fans looks, feels and sounds like.
With that in mind we asked a few senior communications peoples in both leagues to share some thoughts on lessons learned so far. Here’s a quick look at some of those positive answers which again may be helping accelerate the inevitable in terms of media availability, the better use of technology and some long held traditions that may or may not have been really necessary during a long baseball season.
ACCESIBILITY ON THE FLY: One thing we have seen across business and personal life is the quick adoption many have has to streaming video, be it ZOOM or Microsoft teams or any other of a dozen platforms. If you have good connectivity, the ability to see, hear and respond to colleagues, friends and associates in real time has never been easier or more quickly adapted to the lives we lead now. That accessibility has opened new doors for coverage across live sports, especially around baseball thus far. Whereas in the past news outlets, especially broadcast, were dealing with a law of diminishing returns with regard to crew accessibility to trudge to a stadium or arena and get sound and video, the use of streaming has changed all that. Teams can now make players, officials, and others available at a set time with quality video that is interactive, which opens up a wider number of outlets to get custom video for use on their platform. Media outlets who are granted access can record from far and wide and also get the ability to ask questions…in a group setting or in one on one sessions after general access is over, to help the teams story tell better. Want to let in hometown media for a player, just invite them. Someone is doing a national story and needs the POV of a coach in a pinch but is nowhere near the area, let him or her get the question in. The effective use of streaming video has been one of the best aspects of increased and vibrant communications thus far.
NO LACK OF SLACK: Accessibility on the fly has also necessitated teams to identify better and more efficient communications tools to connect with media far and wide. No longer can a PA announcement in a press room alert those sitting around that a player or coach is available in a location in five minutes. Now teams have resorted to either a designated media only twitter feed they can be given log in to, or a slack channel where they can get real time access and prompts. The same thing holds true for official scoring decisions and rules changes and weather delays. Many of those people are working remotely, so to see and receive the announcement in real time, media and others have access to designated social channels, which they can also ask for clarifications or other information on. It is not the same as asking someone to your right or left, but it gives access to a wider audience and solves a key part of real time communication when deadlines and decisions need to be communicated.
LOCKERROOMS NO MORE: This was a source of great debate as we entered COVID19. Access to locker rooms was being shut down, the Olympic style use of Mixed Zones where socially distanced access was becoming an idea being played with, and eventually all was being moved to on demand interview setups, which many media feared would be the end of access as it was known in North America for team sports. The scrum would go the way of the blacksmith…or the fax machine at least. While no one can predict the rules going forward, it does appear that the use of technology, especially with video, has actually helped facilitate more access for some media now, as athletes at least around MLB seem to have a better handle for time commitment and need. Now media members will still find ways to get access to players away from the traditional setting…phone numbers, third party emissaries, agents and the like…but the mass gatherings in locker rooms, especially closed, cramp spaces, seem to be gone forever. Now several communications executives have said that the search for neutral ground…rooms outside a locker room, space that was wasted or empty…in addition to better organized and thought out areas like a mixed zone or a lounge…will probably factor into the formula once things clear up. However, tech has trumped cramped, and the jostling for position has been replaced by a clean video feed.
TIME MANAGEMENT: This may seem self-evident but the use of video conferencing has also freed up time for executives to actually better manage their time and their focus, and as several mentioned, has given them back time to be more thoughtful, creative and engaged. If you can use Zoom or teams to hold a staff meeting at eight and save time on a commute to get to an office, why not? Does it free you up to maybe get to the office or the field at 10 or 11 and not cost you anything in terms of efficiency? Then why not have that flexibility. While communications is still very much a hands on business of storytelling and relationships, being able to mix effective tools in with face to face meetings and be more productive of all is yet another way that this “new normal” may improve the quality, and the engagement, of communications in and around a team, at least from a meeting standpoint.
RATTLE AND HUMMM: Many of the senior staffers oversee other areas from community relations to business comms to digital and social as well. Managing the quiet, managing the fan connections and helping balance the sound are also areas of lessons learned. Fans Watching on TV are quick to social or even to DM teams if music is too loud, crowd noise too contrived, conversations to involved or not involved enough and many times the teams comms person is the monitor to adjust, not just for the fans but for the dialogue with the players as well and how the ambient sound is, or isn’t effecting the players as well. The use of second screen access for fans…chat rooms, group video sessions during games, even fan-specific slack channels…are all seen as invaluable to real time fan engagement, something which was developing and now has been accelerated, all for the better and all aspects which will probably stay in the narrative when fans return in various stages.
LASTLY, LEARNING: To a person, every one of the team communications people I spoke to said that this experience has forced them to think, forced them to learn and forced them to try, and actually enjoy, parts of their jobs that they took lightly or didn’t have much use for before. As one said to me, “It’s easy to get into a routine for years and chalk it up to the rhythm of the game, or the way things are done. We have all been uncomfortable now, and frankly, we may have needed this push a long time ago. I forgot how much I like learning.”
There are probably many who are not enjoying the learning…there are many who welcome back the old ways…there are many, rightfully so, who are worried that the scope or the means of one’s job may limit the role, and the power one might have had in an organization and there are some who frankly aren’t good at adapting in senior roles.
We understand that. However as a primer in innovation, it was really good to listen and to earn from several team communications pro’s on what will rise when the smoke clears…lots of it may be good, innovative and helpful to whomever comes next, be that the NFL in a few weeks or other sports or big events like the US Open or the Olympics down the line.
Learning…being uncomfortable…and evolving is better than sitting back. It’s a business of storytelling, and maybe the stories to be told can go wider, easier, and better, because of lessons learn literally in the field this month.
Keep playing, learning, and adapting.
