Technology and Baseball =>and Marketing of Course!

Over the last ten years, baseball in Canada has performed a 180 degree turn.  Look no further than the 2006 MVP Justin Morneau, a B.C. native, and most recently, the 2010 MVP Joey Votto, an Ontario native.  There’s no doubt that hockey is still Canada’s sport, but in the current value-based marketing era that we live in, we understand that companies’ goals are to turn mere first time customers, or even window shoppers (metaphorically speaking) into advocates for the long haul that we call life.

http://www.daylife.com

Where exactly am I going with this, you ask?  Well, with the recent successes of homegrown Canadian talent, these players are rapidly becoming, and if not, have already become, icons (marketing equivalent: aspirational indirect social reference figures?) for the young and youth (and yes that includes tweens!) of our nation today.  This episode of social influence has sparked more Canadian baseball fans from coast to coast than any instance since the mid 1990’s.  As a result, baseball teams are starting to reach out to this young fan base, whom eventually, will be turned into advocates (well, let’s at least hope so for the sake of the sport).

Let’s look at the Toronto Blue Jays, Canada’s lone (and my favourite) Major League Baseball team.  Prior to the 2010 season, they were easily accessible on Facebook, but the 2010 season was a revolutionary one in terms of digital marketing.  The Blue Jays shifted their marketing strategy, and embraced various social trends, such as a twitter fan page, a blackberry messenger (BBM) insider information contact, various online chat rooms and forums, and yes, even BLOGS to appeal to their, and Canada’s, young demographic fan base.

Click here to view Justin Morneau’s player bio.

Click here to view Joey Votto’s player bio.

-Faiz