Can Cliff Young Win Fans Back Post-COVID-19 – 2020 The Year to Think Differently
By Ken Troupe
I originally wrote the below article late in 2018 with my suggestions focused on saving baseball but rereading it I think it also applies to bringing fans back after COVID. So, I figured it was would be a great article to add some additional thoughts and share it to our SportsBiz Builders SportsBiz Bits.
Enjoy and look for more insights on how to bring fans back post COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months. #ThinkDifferentPostCOVID
Can Cliff Young Save Baseball?
Before I explain some thoughts on how Cliff Young can help save baseball and bring fans back post COVID-19, I should first explain who Cliff Young is. Cliff Young was a 61-year-old Australian Potato farmer who, in 1983, forever changed the world of long-distance running. In 1983, Cliff entered the Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon, a 544-mile race from Sydney to Melbourne. Before Cliff, the typical approach to running an ultra-marathon was to run for 18 hours, sleep for 6, and repeat this process until the race was over.
Cliff took a different approach. You see, Cliff had no preconceived ideas of how to run the race. All he knew was he would often spend 2-3 days running around his farm herding his sheep. He never slept. He just kept running until all the sheep were safely corralled back in the barn. So, on race day, Cliff showed up wearing his overalls, work boots, and just kept running. While his fellow competitors where taking the typical 6-hour break from running, Cliff just kept going. By the end of the race, Cliff had a10-hour lead, won the race, and broke the old record time by more than 2 days. While other finishers completed the same distance, Cliff Young had managed to win by thinking differently. He ran a new race.
Cliff Young is a great example of how one can think or look at things differently to achieve an objective. This got me thinking about how his win could be applied to developing strategies designed to bring fans back to games post COVID. Here are a couple of thoughts on how to run a new race:
1. Marketing Staff Development: After the 2018 MLB All-Star game, I read an article that basically stated baseball had an issue marketing their stars. Mike Trout may be their #1 star, yet you rarely, if ever, seen him used to promote the game (Trout Article). From all accounts, Trout seems to be a quiet, introverted, and play the game type of player. His main focus seems to be playing the game he loves over helping the game grow. So, the question becomes is Mike Trout a quiet, shy guy or is he a potential baseball marketing star who simply has never been trained on how he could help grow the game?
What if we applied the Cliff Young style of thinking to building better baseball marketers not just at the MLB level, but at the MiLB level too. Currently, MLB clubs spend a lot of money to make their players better on the field, but what about working your MiLB marketing staff members on how they can help become better at their jobs and not only promote the team but grow the game. What if MLB clubs developed marketing training programs and then sent their staff members out to visit their affiliates to provide training? As a result, MiLB marketing staff would be better equipped to work with players as they rise through the system and train them on not only building their personal brand, but also help them become better equipped to help market the game at all levels.
Post COVID New Race Thoughts: This pandemic has given us the perfect excuse to break ourselves from all the old habits and build new ones. As we review our staffs and make the difficult decision of who to furlough and who to cut, we need to put more of an emphasis on what staff members can do to win over fans. Similar to my comments above on how players need to have a better understanding of how they can help grow the game. Club employees need to be impowered to hit their neighborhoods and local coffee shops with swag or surprise and delight buying of coffee. Fans are hurting right now, and club employees need to wake up everyday and think about how they can bring joy to a fan’s life today.
2. Better use of Player Generated Content: Another thing happened during the mid-summer classic that would have caught Cliff Young’s eye. During the player introduction, most of the players had their phones and were collecting content to share on their social platform of choice. But, what happened to this great player generated content? Where did it go? The Fox broadcast team was continually pointing out the players who had their phones out, but what if they had a list of all of the player's social handles, so they could have directed fans to go check out the player's point of view in real time?
In addition, how could teams do a better job of making this content available to fans when they are in stadium? Teams can make it easier for fans to find player content by placing player social media content kiosks around the ballpark. The kiosk can be a resource for fans to find out the best of the best players to follow. To ramp up the exposure of your players content even more, consider replacing the kiss cam or cap shuffle with the playing of top trending player generated content? Fans want to see the players behind the scenes point of view. Let’s make it easier for fans.
Post COVID New Race Thoughts: During COVID the same above comments still apply for player content. In addition, let us get those ticket sales reps who are dying to feel relevant involved too. Allow reps to live stream from their season ticket members seats on their various social channels. This will provide the sales rep a super easy way to stay connected with your best fans and have a little fun too. Please do not tell me that we need to protect media rights fees and blah blah blah. During COVID times and there are no rules for fans engagement. Just like the old saying goes, it is easier to engage and ask for permission later. (or something like that) You can bet Cliff Young would have live streamed his race back in the day if Facebook were around back then.
3. Staff size and focus: At the SportsBiz Builders we kick around the topic of post-COVID office dynamics often. We have a simple question for clubs that will be looking to rebuild a staff. Are you just going to keep the status quo and simply rehire furloughed staff, or look to compile the best staff possible regardless of where they had been working before? Are you going to look to build in some work from home options for this new reenergized staff? Are you looking at bringing back a staff of a combo of W-2 and 1099 sellers? Bottom line, are you going to take this opportunity to reimagine your staff?
Cliff Young was a successful runner because he did not know any better. His mind was free and was not bogged down by the past thoughts of how the race had always been run. He just showed up a ran.
If your mind were free and not bias by all the marketing efforts of the past……what would you do to grow the game? What would you do to bring fans back? How would you run a new race?
Love to hear your thoughts.