In two suites at Game of 3 of the World Series in Philadelphia last November, Major League Baseball chief marketer Karin Timpone gave a glimpse into the future of the league’s marketing plans. In one suite sat some of baseball’s most outgoing rising stars—Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, budding TV personality Jazz Chisolm and Triston McKenzie, who wants to build a business empire like LeBron James—and celeb fans like Miles Teller, who clocks in a bit younger than the average celebrity TV broadcasts typically highlight during an MLB game.
In the other suite stood Timpone’s team (with various baseball personalities and celebrities like Roberto Clemente’s family, former Yankees manager Joe Torre and celeb couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill), who are plotting the next generation of baseball marketing. With rule changes that should make the game more-fast paced and higher scoring, Timpone has hired Wieden+Kennedy Portland as the league’s first creative agency of record in eight years. While every game can’t feel like the raucous party for 46,000 fans like Game 3 served for Philadelphians, Timpone wants to drive loyalty as she’s rethinking fandom and how that impacts the way fans interact with the game of baseball.
“We wanted the right partner to be able to work with us not only on filmed creative, but across a variety of different things,” Timpone said. “And the work that you’re going to see unfold this season will definitely point to the breadth of the opportunity here.”
A multiyear campaign
From year to year, Major League Baseball has released an Opening Day campaign, but it has not turned those campaigns into brand platform ideas. With Wieden+Kennedy at the helm of its creativity, that will change this season as the league will unveil the start of a year multiyear platform. This year’s work will be released closer to Opening Day, and Timpone isn’t ready to reveal the tagline. The campaign won’t just be a singular spot, but a series of ads that will run throughout the season laddering up to the brand platform.
Timpone and Karl Lieberman, global CCO, Wieden+Kennedy both cautioned against saying this is a new MLB. Both are committed to tapping into the history of the game to connect with current and new fans.
“The balance with the work is tapping into the things that make [MLB] so universal and so special to so many people,” said Lieberman. The work will use the deep collective memories fans have of the game as a stage to introduce younger players and show how the game is evolving. “Hopefully it doesn’t feel like we’re doing something that overtly changes the notion of what the MLB is, but amplifies it in a way maybe people haven’t thought about.”
The league is also striving to make the game more accessible through technology and rule changes. MLB.TV and the MLB app will carry more minor league games and tell stories behind the scenes that will help fans get more familiar with the next generation of stars.
