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
|
Credits
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