THE OAKLAND A'S
As former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig once said, "The Oakland A's? They're a Goddamned aberration." As told in Michael Lewis' best-selling book "Moneyball," nobody plays the game like the Oakland Athletics. Nobody innovates like the A's. Nobody challenges baseball's conventional wisdom like the A's. That's been true since they came to Oakland in 1968 -- from Charley O. Finley, Reggie Jackson and the "Swingin' A's" dynasty, to Billy Martin and his unique brand of "Billy Ball," to the World Champion Bash Brothers, to Billy Beane's "Moneyball" approach.
THE SITUATION
Playing in the shadow of the San Francisco Giants, the A's of the mid-2000's didn't have a gleaming new ballpark, baseball's greatest homerun hitter (Barry Bonds), a state-wide mega-watt radio network, or a broadcast contract with the Bay Area's #1 TV station. Despite winning 4 World Championships, 7 American League Pennants, and 7 MVP's since coming to Oakland, the A's were considered a second-tier, "small-market" team that couldn't afford to keep their top players, couldn't fill MLB's largest stadium, and couldn't capture the imagination/interest of the country's 4th largest metropolitan area.
THE CONCEPT
Rather than re-marketing the team each year, based on the personalities of the individual players, we embraced a decades-long, on-going narrative that began in 1968 and continues to this day: The Oakland A's are "a different brand of baseball." From white shoes, to handlebar mustaches, to the designated runner, to a catcher batting lead-off, to the first one-inning closer, the A's are baseball's most iconoclastic, most non-conformist organization ... who happen to play in the country's most iconoclastic, non-conformist market. In contrast to the corporate, stodgy Giants, the A's win with flair, with style, with an irreverence that fits the Bay Area's personality. Our goal was embrace that irreverence and give fans on both sides of the bay a reason to love the A's.
Rather than stay "on our side of the Bay," we launched a major outdoor campaign on the streets of San Francisco to spread the A's story from one end of the bay to the other. On Opening Day we taunted Giants fans by showing up on the region's highest profile billboard (the west-bound entrance to the Bay Bridge) to celebrate the A's four world championships. During the two team's inter-league series at AT&T Park we sailed our own A's brand boat into McCovey Cove to trivialize the Giant's fascination with "splash hits."
At the Oakland Coliseum we rebranded all the concessions and souvenirs as "A's Brand" products. We invested in new signage that brought the "different brand of baseball" story to life during the games, with video content and banners inside and outside the stadium.
Extending the different brand of baseball story into the community meant guerrilla marketing, new ways to distribute tickets, A's Brand products that could be sold in grocery stores throughout the region, and new merchandise that could be sold in A's souvenir shops.
The 2005 attendance total of 2,109,118 was the tenth highest in franchise history and reflected an increase of almost 50% since 1999. The A’s drew better attendance at the aging Oakland Coliseum than six teams with newer, retro-style ballparks. Just as importantly to the bottom line, the Athletics increased the number of corporate sponsors to approximately 120 over the course of the campaign. In almost every instance, ease-of-integration with the A’s Brand campaign was cited as a major reason the sponsors chose to partner with the team.
According to Forbes, A’s revenue was $146 million in 2006, up from $96 million when the A’s Brand campaign first launched. The magazine valued the team at $292 million, a number that was rising twice as fast as the cross-bay rival Giants, and third fastest among all major league baseball teams.
In 2006, A’s management made a decision to close the third deck of the Coliseum and reduce seating capacity to 35,000 in an effort to reduce operating costs and create a more “intimate” setting. The decision resulted in a drop in attendance to 1.9 million, however, increased corporate sponsorships, ticket prices, and merchandise sales led to a 5% increase in revenue.
The campaign was chosen “best sports marketing campaign” in consecutive years by the National Sports Forum, a peer-review group of marketing directors and executives from all MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, PGA, and NASCAR teams.
THE RESULTS
CREDITS: CCO: Jeff Huggins CWs: Michael Bettendorf, Mark Krajan, Mark Jobson, Jeff Huggins AD’s: Kevin Gammon, Cris Logan, Ken Cook PRODUCERS: Steffny Wallace, David Voerhoff, Lauren Bayer DIRECTORS: Frank Samuel, Jeff Reed EDITORS: Tim Fender, Doug Walker