SCC Blog

A “Best Buy” for the MLB Playoffs

Watching the telecast of Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series in which the Philadelphia Phillies clinched a World Series birth offered a little inspiration for this latest blog post.  Late in the fifth inning, Phillies’ outfielder Shane Victorino went crashing into the outfield wall to chase down a long fly ball.  As he crashed into the wall, he bounced into an outfield sign advertising the electronics store Best Buy.

Shortly after the play, the announcer who was calling the game made a comment about the play, making a not-so-subtle reference to the company’s advertisement on the outfield fence.  The reference was to “how fitting” it was that the player making the catch (Victorino) crashed into a Best Buy sign, suggesting that Victorino himself was a “best buy” for the Phillies.  Philadelphia certainly seems to have gotten a bargain when they signed Victorino as a free agent in 2005 when apparently no other teams had an interest in adding him to their roster.

While the plug wasn’t planned, it clearly provides additional value for a company investing in sports marketing.  According to Sports Business Daily, the game received 6.1 rating.  What does that mean?  Basically, 6.1 percent of all U.S. televisions were tuned into the game that night.  Based on a loose figure of around 100 million Americans owning a TV set, it would be a safe estimate to say over 6 million people were tuned in to the game.  In other words, over 6 million people’s attention was drawn to the Best Buy brand during the telecast, a bonus for Best Buy because the exposure was unexpected.

As for the company broadcasting the game, TBS has certainly made a splash in the sports market.  In an effort to attract viewers and position themselves as a broadcast company with sports coverage worth watching, TBS spent a reported $45-50 million in rights fees to broadcast the MLB playoffs.  The broadcasts are offered in 1080i (higher quality than Fox and/or ABC with their 720p coverage) and feature more camera angles than a typical broadcast to bring viewers even closer to the action.  TBS also offers improved audio by shooting the games in Dolby Digital 5.1 which improves the sports fans’ viewing experience by bringing more crowd noise into the living room.

Unfortunately for TBS, the broadcasts have seen several glitches.  During several games, the audio has been out of sync with the visual.  In several instances, you’d hear the ball hit the bat before the player even took a swing.  Most problematic for TBS however was the coverage of game 6 of the ALCS.  The game was on the heels of one of the most improbable finishes in league history, when the Red Sox stormed back from being down 7-0 in the 7th inning to win the ballgame.  Unfortunately for TBS, a “technical difficulty” prevented the network from showing live coverage of the first inning (and the game’s first home run) of game 6.  Needless to say, many viewers now have a significantly lower opinion of the network’s ability to cover the baseball playoffs (unless of course they are BIG Steve Harvey fans, in which case they were treated to a re-run of his sitcom).  A quick google search would give you a pretty good indication of consumer perceptions.  Whether they determine a way to improve on those perceptions remains to be seen.  As they say, there’s still a lot of baseball to be played…

*** Questions for Classroom Discussion ***

1) What is media?  How does it relate to your business or marketing class?

2) As it relates to the concept of sponsorship, what specifically do we call advertising on an outfield fence?  Why do you think companies advertise at ballparks?

3) TBS clearly will be impacted by the negative publicity surrounding the technical difficulties surrounding game six.  How will that influence consumer opinions of the network?  Discuss as a class.

Posted in Advertising, Media, Sponsorship |

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