How to win over a new era of fans?
Major League BaseballLondon Yards
London Yards was a three-day festival celebrating all things baseball that ran from the 28-30 June 2019 at the Truman Brewery. It involved digital and physical baseball activations, screenings of the London Series, ballpark-inspired food and drink, and live music and DJs.
12.3m
reach on social media
550k
engagements
1.3m
live broadcast viewson Twitter
90%
would recommend the event to a friend
Reaching new fans
Building on the success of the 2017 Battlegrounds campaign, in 2019, Major League Baseball played their first ever regular season games in Europe between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Demand for tickets was huge, and the games sold out instantly.
London Yard is essentially our fan park, our fan festival. It's a take on traditional baseball's challenges and activities, but with a modern twist.
Gulraj Purewal
Head of Marketing EMEA, MLB
A targeted audience
However, MLB knew that the true value of London Series was reaching out beyond those avid baseball fans in the stadium. Launching in a new market meant MLB could communicate in new ways and speak to a new generation of baseball fans. Our mission was to create a London Series fan festival that engaged a millennial audience.
Baseball beyond the ballpark
To engage this group we had to create an experience that was authentic to baseball but also appealed to the cultural passion points of our audience. The festival had a programme of events, from the world’s first indoor Home Run Derby that was live streamed on Twitter, to performances from UK grime artists Lady Leshurr and Nadia Rose.
The look and feel, content programming, and partner integration has set a new standard for our events domestically and internationally.
Charlie Hill
VP International Strategy, MLB
Hands on activations
A number of baseball activations, such as the Spin Cycle baseball game to the VR batting cages, allowed a new generation of fans to experience the game. On top of this, a great array of food inspired by the culinary heritage of Boston and New York was provided by local street food vendors.
Value for the audience
The guests at the experience were able to truly immerse themselves in a mashup of British and American culture, with over 90% saying they would recommend the event to a friend.
London Yards was a perfect distillation of everything we are trying to make MLB stand for. It’s not easy moving a brand as entrenched as ours is into new territory, but Imagination has done so with grace and skill.
Charlie Hill
VP International Strategy, MLB
Value for the brand
This experience delivered on both depth and reach, meaning that the people who attended the experience in person connected to the brand, and the experience content was able to let 12.3 million people on social media know about the event. 550,000 of those people engaged with the content.
Read about our other Major League Baseball campaign with the live event 'Battlegrounds.
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