Title	LONDON YARDS
Brand	MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Product/Service	MLB LONDON SERIES 2019
Category	C02. Live Shows / Concerts / Festivals
Entrant	IMAGINATION London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	IMAGINATION London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	IMAGINATION London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Jiri Bures	Imagination	Creative Director
Wesley Richardson	Imagination	Design Director 2D
Brendon Cleaver	Imagination	Designer
Seb Bailey	Imagination	Designer
Colin Rivett	Imagination	Design Director 3D
Nick Blenkarne	Imagination	Creative Strategy Lead
Alex Beazley-Long	Imagination	Creative Strategist
Adam Kimsey	Imagination	User Experience Designer
Matt Mood	Imagination	Content Director
Alex Graham	Imagination	Content Producer
Louis Leeson	Imagination	Photographer
George Schon	Imagination	Digital Creative Lead
Chris Green	Imagination	Sound Designer
Myriam Zahi	Imagination	Creative Producer
Alison Giles	Imagination	Creative Producer
Max Hatamian	Imagination	Technology Director
Mark Holland	Imagination	Developer
Matt Rose	Imagination	Production Director
Ben Raby	Imagination	Production Manager
Andrew Davies	Imagination	Production Manager
Rob Day	Imagination	Client Services Director
Hannah Patrick	Imagination	Client Services
Kiley Leong	Imagination	Project Director
Ruth Burton	Imagination	Digital Producer
Louise O'Reilly	Imagination	Project Manager

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Baseball as a spectator sport has always been about more than just the action on the field. America’s pastime has always served as a great place to have a beer, catch up with friends When MLB brought their first ever regular season games to Europe, they wanted to make sure that fans new and old could fully experience the cultural side of the sport as well. To achieve this, we created London Yards, a 3 day festival that involved baseball activations, screenings of the London Series, ballpark inspired food and drink, and live music and DJs.

background

In 2019, Major League Baseball made history by playing their first ever regular season games in Europe. The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees faced off at London Stadium in Stratford. Demand for tickets was huge, and the games sold out instantly. However, MLB knew that the true value of London Series was reaching out beyond those avid baseball fans in the stadium. Increasing the popularity of the sport amongst younger fans, along with growing the game globally, are important objectives for the league. Launching in a new market meant MLB could communicate in new ways and speak to a new generation of baseball fans. Our brief was to create a London Series fan festival that engaged a new, millennial audience.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Teams such as the Red Sox and Yankees have such strong historic and cultural ties to their cities that they represent them on a global stage. So the London Series gave us the opportunity to present not just the best of baseball, but also the best of Boston and New York culture to a millennial audience in London. London Yards was a 3 day festival of 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. From a creative perspective, we used the fierce rivalry between the two London Series teams as inspiration, having Boston and New York face off across the space in terms of environment, branding and programming.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The audience we were looking to engage with were ‘New Gen Fans’, an incredibly valuable target group for MLB in Europe. They are 18-34, and have a high interest in sports, but are not currently followers of baseball. They represent the future fans of the league, but in all likelihood would not be attending the games at the stadium. To engage with this group we had to create an experience that was authentic to baseball and appealed to the cultural passions of our audience. Our insight was that what makes baseball so unique is what happens in addition to the action on the field - ‘beyond the ballpark’. Our approach to reaching this audience was to consider both the ‘depth’ and ‘reach’ of the festival: ensuring that visitors had a deep and meaningful experience in person, whilst also creating content that could be broadcast out to a much wider audience.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The festival utilised two interconnected venues within the Truman Brewery: U Block and Brick Lane Yard. U Block contained our hero baseball experience: the world's first indoor Home Run Derby, along with 4 VR batting cages. Brick Lane Yard contained analogue baseball activations, inspired by the historic nature of the sport. It also hosted live screenings of the London Series. With tickets to the stadium in high demand, London Yards the best place to watch the games if you couldn’t make it to the stadium. Internet radio station NTS and streetwear brand Champion soundtracked London Yards, with DJs playing across the weekend. Two of London’s upcoming stars Nadia Rose and Lady Leshurr took to the stage in performances supported by MLB partners Sony, ‘47 and High Snobiety. We also collaborated with street food vendors to create brand new menu items that were a unique London take on classic ballpark fare.

List the results (30% of vote)

- 13,115 visitors attended over the 3 days - 46% were aged 18-34 - 42% were casual fans of the sport - 90% would recommend the event to a friend - 12.3M reach on social media - 550k engagements - MLB Network live broadcast from London Yards viewed 1.3m times on Twitter