With the new baseball season in full swing (pun absolutely intended) I recently had the chance to catch up with these MLB digital and social leaders to gauge what’s next after the success of the Opening Day “Caps On” Snapchat filter, the plan for Live content and why one team put a cat in the dugout:
- Nathan Rauschenberg- Digital Marketing Manager, Seattle Mariners
- John Prewitt- Social Media Manager, Arizona Diamondbacks
- Caitlin Moyer- Director of New Media at the Milwaukee Brewers
- Becky Biniek- Social Media Manager, San Francisco Giants
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1.Caps On with Snapchat
Twitter nabbed the NFL.
Instagram reigned it in with the NBA and it’s top athletes.
Snapchat, the once emerging platform with the most question marks, remained.
The MLB went all in.
Since May 2015 Snapchat produced global live “Our Stories” for the MLB every Wednesday. With the latest updates (3D lens, custom geo-filters and story sharing), the stakes were even higher for 2016 Opening Day.
Activating fans nationwide started with the most identifiable piece of baseball life- the cap.
Snapchat released a 3D lens on Opening Day for fans to digitally wear their favorite team’s cap varied by location. It got people’s attention.
Opening day @Snapchat @Brewers filter #CapsOn #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/gxmv3eq9rW
— Claire (@bellamills) April 3, 2016
“We saw a huge spike on Snapchat, especially with our snaps that were incorporated into the MLB Opening Day Story on Snapchat,” said Caitlin Moyer, Director of New Media at the Milwaukee Brewers. “ People really seemed to enjoy our Opening Day Snapchat lens.”
Highly-profiled players are getting on-board with Snap too. Just this week All-Star short-stop Brandon Crawford joined getting more brand exposure for the San Francisco Giants.
“He’s going to be fun to watch — on the field, behind the plate, on Twitter — and now on snapchat too,” said Becky Biniek, Social Media Manager for the Giants.
2. Visual Game Strong
MLB teams are going beyond crisp Instagram filters and calls for selfies to get engagement from fans. For Arizona Diamondbacks, they went for a cat. .
Grumpy the Cat, who has 323K followers on Twitter, is said to love baseball when not chasing her favorite cat toy.
“[We] has been in contact with Grumpy Cat for a while now and invited her to attend her first game last September where she threw out the ceremonial first pitch,” said John Prewitt, Social Media Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. “On Opening Day [2016], we gave her and a few of our celebrity fans the chance to hang out on the field and in the dugout before the game.”
Grumpy Cat at @Dbacks #OpeningDay #HappyBirthdayGrumpyCat pic.twitter.com/SWyOIyYAjJ
— Grumpy Cat (@RealGrumpyCat) April 5, 2016
A Cat in the Dugout? Dbacks fans ate it up. But that wasn’t all Prewitt and his team tried experimenting with. During pre-game ceremonies, the Dbacks used aerial mapping to capture a 360° moment inside Chase field. After spending a solid 10 minutes playing with this interactive visual despite (not knowing anyone in Phoenix), I want to play with more 360° content.
Diamondbacsk Example (Only click if prepared to detour your day).
And fans are in luck. More teams are experimenting with this type of interactive content.
“[The Giants] have also started experimenting with 360° video and virtual reality. Fun stuff coming in 2016,” said Biniek of the SF Giants. YES!!! Fans are eagerly awaiting.
3. We’ll Do It Live
Snapchat and Twitter were once the two main platforms duking it out over real-time content, Facebook’s Live is fixing to be a major disruptor in the space. The MLB is already becoming the feature’s biggest champion.
The Seattle Mariners gave fans an unpolished and unfiltered look into being a Pro ball player on Opening Day.
“We’re always looking for ways to use social to give fans access,” said Nathan Rauschenberg, Digital Marketing Manager for Seattle Mariners. “A good example of that would be using Facebook Live to broadcast from the Mariners dugout as they were being introduced on Opening Day.”
The quick set-up and behind-the-scenes feed has been one of the Mariners’ most engaged pieces of content, racking up 134K views and nearly 1K shares April 4th.
“Video is the hot thing in social media right now,” said Prewitt of Dbacks. “We’re also going to do more there, especially with live video on Facebook where we’ve seen some very impressive results so far.”
The more the social content feels like fans are seated in the stadium, smelling the grilled hot dogs, the sun beating down on their temple- the better. Fans will connect better to the team, players and most importantly- the game.
“While communication across our digital platforms is our main job, we like to connect with our fans in person whenever possible—whether that is through a scavenger hunt, a special promotion at the ballpark, or via a community event,” Moyer of the Brewers said. “Be on the lookout for some surprises from us this season!”
Baseball fans should be liking what they’re seeing and it’s only Week 2.