Knock your CX out of the park.
Baseball has been at the heart of American culture for almost 150 years. Giving us icons like Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and most importantly, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. But behind the bravado of men in capris, is a marketing powerhouse. Today we’re doing a deep dive into baseball marketing. Starting with Charles Finley from the 60’s and 70’s to today’s guest, Adam Grossman, CMO of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports. He shares how social media has changed sports marketing, how to be bold and change centuries-old institutions, how to experiment with your marketing, and so much more.
--------
“You have to push yourself to be a little bit nervous and push the envelope, because if you play it safe the whole time—you're just going to have safe results.” - Adam Grossman
--------
Time Stamps
* (0:00) What a donkey can teach us about CX
* (8:20) An inside look at what the CMO of a major league baseball team does
* (11:41) Social media’s impact on CX
* (15:58) Tackling the green monster
* (18:05) Experimenting with the City Connect Jersey
--------
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
--------
Links
Narrator: What do a business meeting, a cocktail party, and a press conference all have in common? They're the last place you'd expect to encounter a donkey.
Unless you're Charlie Finley. He was a bit of a jackass himself. Okay, he was eccentric. The ever charismatic, yet mildly-tumultuous owner of the Kansas City A's baseball team who would do anything to get people's attention. Like bringing a donkey to a formal setting meant for humans.
Like any baseball franchise owner, Charlie knew he had to get fan’s attention. But the question he never seemed to ask was: will having a donkey berating reporters come back to…pun intended…bite him in the ass?
Charlie had worked in the steel mills of Indiana. That plus the life experiences that gave him his impossibly white hair made him a physical force to be reckoned with. If you weren’t intimidated by his energy, his business ideas were sure to do the trick. Once he purchased the team in 1960, he looked for a way to bring in new fans.
It all started with the donkey. Swapping out the old elephant mascot for the new and improved donkey named Charlie-O. As if naming it after himself wasn’t enough, human-Charlie, brought donkey-Charlie everywhere. Much to the chagrin of seemingly everyone. The donkey munched on the field and reporter’s notebooks alike. The press, in turn, weren’t his biggest fans. He quickly learned that owning a team was one thing. Owning a “winning” team was another task entirely.
Eager to make big on his investment, Charlie started experimenting. The donkey helped him gain some attention. But it wasn’t enough for Charlie. He had to keep pushing the envelope. So a few seasons later, Charlie went after the uniforms. Back then, baseball uniforms were subdued and plain. Normally white with maybe a pinstripe thrown in. Which was fine and fashionable. But for Charlie, it was not. He changed the color palette completely. His players now wore bright green, yellow, and white. With white shoes instead of black. One reporter famously commented that "They should have come out of the dugout on tippy-toes, holding hands and singing.”
Needless to say, his efforts were “a swing and a miss”. But he decided to go even bolder. Push the envelope further than anyone in sports history. And so he did what any other marketing exec in the 60s would have done given the budget: he capitalized on Beatlemania.
In 1964, The Beatles were touring the US and wreaking havoc in the hearts of America’s youth. Charlie saw the kids swooning on TV and realized that if they could be that fantastic over one boy band, they could be fanatic over his players too. So he got to work. Tracking down anyone he could to get word to The Beatles, he was willing to break showbusiness spending records to get them at his stadium. He offered them 1.4 million dollars in today’s money for just a 30-minute set. The most anyone had ever been offered. So The Beatles took a detour from New Orleans up to Kansas City.
Never willing to give up the spotlight. The tickets featured Charlie’s name more than anyone else’s and had a huge picture of him in a Beatles wig on the back. John Lennon went on record being famously anti-Charlie and his tactics, but hey, butts in seats.
Despite his reputation, Charlie continued to pull some far fetched ideas out of his hat. He’d host cow-milking and greased-pig contests to get people to attend games. He put a sheep pasture outside of right field and a zoo in the left field. He had Miss USA be a batgirl and put a robotic rabbit behind home plate that would present new baseballs to the umps. There were constant fireworks and balloons to the point that he got cease and desists from the neighbors.
There was no stone Charlie was willing to leave unturned when it came to marketing his team.
His neverending antics; however, left him with a bad reputation on and off the field. He was notorious for never being pleased with management, players, even groundskeepers. Constantly firing, hiring, and trading. All in the name of a better fan experience or a better team. Even if proof of that logic was unseen to others. If someone didn’t like what he was doing. They were gone. And if they were mad about it? Well, they were sued. His reputation was large…and not the best.
After years and years of thinking outside the box and making larger than life marketing campaigns, Charlie was at a loss. Kansas City people just weren’t fans of the A’s. His team was bottom of the barrel, and no gimmick or circus act was going to change the number of wins they got. Which weren't many…and then in 1968 all of his work paid off. Charlie was about to make it big…
So buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks, because today we're knocking this episode out of the park.
Welcome to Often Imitated, a podcast about remarkable experiences from the past, and how they inspire people to create great customer experiences today.
This episode is all about being willing to experiment and pushing the envelope. How Charlie Finley made a name for himself through seemingly absurd marketing tactics that brought the Kansas City and Oakland A’s decades of success, and what CX leaders can learn from him today. Today we’ll hear from Adam Grossman, CMO of Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group. He’s going to give us a deep dive into what marketing in the major leagues is like. And trust me, you won’t wanna miss it. But first, a word from our sponsors.
Often Imitated is brought to you by the generous support of our friends at Oracle. Make every interaction matter with Oracle Advertising and CX. Connect all your data and empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences from acquisition…to retention…and everything in between. Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at oracle.com/cx.
In the late 60s times were changing in the minor league. There was starting to be some serious talent and Charlie was making all the right deals. Which ended up getting the franchise moved to good ole Oakland, California. The headquarters of yours truly, the Often Imitated team. It was a fresh start for a fresh team, and their fortunes quickly changed. They went from a lackluster showcase in Kansas City, to winning three straight World Series from 1972 to 74 and five straight division titles from 1971 to 1975.
Suddenly, some of Charlie’s far fetched ideas started gaining traction. It helped that now he was the face of a winning franchise…but he also was just starting to figure things out. For every mechanical rabbit and donkey at cocktail parties, he’d come up with something stellar. He championed the idea of having a designated hitter—which is now an MLB standard practice. And it was his idea to start having World Series games at night so more fans could attend. Even more teams are now wearing brightly colored uniforms.
Charlie’s never ending desire to push the boundaries of sports marketing helped cement the legacy of the A’s. He continuously made seemingly absurd choices, yet time and time again they paid off. And now, he’s a household name.
Baseball is an old game. But fan experience is ever changing.
Today, we’re speaking with someone who’s also revolutionizing baseball. In a sport that’s nearly 150 years old, it takes a lot to move the needle. And fortunately for us, today’s guest is doing just that.
Adam Grossman is the CMO of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group. He has spent his time there consistently pushing the envelope and innovating their approach to marketing. Later on, he’ll share a behind the scenes look at Red Sox marketing. But first, what does the CMO of a major sports franchise even do?
Adam: we are the kind of are the connective tissue between the club. And the fans. And what we want to do is develop the relationships on a variety of different platforms and technologies, um, to be as strong as possible to try to make sure that the next hundred years for the red sox, In terms of the fanaticism, the passion for the organization, the ballpark of the game is as strong as the last hundred years have been.
And at a high level, that's what, that's what we, we, we do. Um, in addition, and as part of that, you know, re focused a lot on how our brand is. We're sort of quote, unquote, export the brand, um, to our fan base, our extending it work with major league baseball to expand the, and extend the footprint of baseball and the red Sox.
Um, and then also be innovative and to try to figure out again, how do we grow the next generation of red Sox fans? So that's at a, at a high level, I think at, uh, you know, when you get into the weeds, it's social media of. Digital media or digital advertising strategy. The other piece for us that's big. And, uh, in addition to the brand is just obviously the business.
And so that's one thing from marketing. We want to make sure that we are part of the revenue function and not only just establishing connections with fans, but also driving revenue and growth. And so we partner with ticket sales. Our corporate partnerships team and also our analytics team to present ourselves on a day-to-day basis to drive our, our largest revenue streams, which are principally ticketing, but also in, in, in our sponsorship, uh, in our sponsorship world as well.
So for us as a department, our principle focus is driving people to the ballpark as a, as a revenue initiative. It's to get people here to the ballpark. Part of that is we believe that if you. To one game at Fenway, go on a tour of Fenway. You will be a fan for life, and it is a destination. It is an incredible, incredible experience.
Narrator: With an institution as infamous as the Boston Red Sox, it can be even harder to push for innovation. Charlie Finley was a little erratic in how he approached innovation in the sport, but he still brought about some significant change. Adam and his team are taking a more measured approach.
Adam: I think there have been experiences and, and other teams where we say, well, you know, we're all we just flip the lights on and people will come.
And, you know, we're lucky because we have. Massive history and iconic ballpark. And we have a lot of sort of natural resources from a brand and a sports standpoint that a lot of other teams don't have. And that's something that we inherited. I think what we've tried to do is extend that, augment that, innovate that, and really take that bedrock of history and evolve it into what fans want and demand and need today.
Incredibly powerful. It's been incredibly fun to do that, but at the core of this is about relationships and knowing that at the end of the day, uh, you know, we are, we are here for our fans and that this is a public trust. Isn't it? As much as it is anything else.
Narrator: One of the biggest changes in fan experience that Adam and his team have inherited is social media.
Adam: We've been incredibly fortunate to have four world series championships and the way we've covered, those have been all different. And part of that is an oh four social media. Really wasn't a thing. And you know, we still had millions of people here for the parade.
And you sort of had to be literally had to be there to feel it and experience it. And there still is no substitute for that. But when you fast forward to remember, especially in 2013, because we are, our social channels were stronger than our team. Our marketing team was stronger than our whole point going into that October was we have to be where fans can't be.
And that was all about. In the club house in, on these road trips, you know, kind of giving them the experience of what an October, even for a front office member feels like and just to be there. And that was the first time for us that we could really run. And I think provide a window into our fans about what October really feels like.
Narrator: Social media is a massive landscape for marketers to tackle. Adam knows that getting the attention of a possible fan and maintaining it is key. So they have a segmented approach to up their odds of success.
Adam: the transformation for us has been. Looking at content that is platform specific. So what we put on Twitter, a lot of that is going to be information related baseball information related it's in it's information is sort of the key on Instagram as an example, it's about individuality player personality.
Emotion. Um, and so there will be, it's not like we're only focusing on one particular player, but the idea around going into what our players may be wearing at the, you know, coming into the ballpark, how they're getting to the ballpark, the cultural relevant elements that go beyond the white lines of a baseball field.
Instagram is that, is that platform Facebook. Little bit of both. Um, but, um, and there's a lot of advertising and marketing and targeting that we're doing across platform as well. And our spends and also the advertising that we're creating is also customized to that platform and that segment as well. So what we have gone from is looking at content as sort of just a general bucket to say.
All right. That's not good enough anymore. How do we specialize and target the segments that we're looking for or the, again, when we know that there's. Superstar elements. There are some highlights that everyone's going to want to be a part of, but what those look like, how those, how the length of those, the feel of those can differ from platform to platform.
And that's really where our growth in the department and our skillset has been, is to make sure that we are across platform, um, and putting the right content on the right platform to meet the demands of our.
Narrator: Now all of this social media promotion is amazing, but at the end of the day…just like Charlie…Adam needs butts in the seats. But he realizes that pushing great online content is supplemental and integral to having a personalized fan experience.
Adam: you're a very different fan than I am. And so we want to make sure that you're getting the information and the content. You want that sparks your attention and that I get the experience and the content that I want, which can be very different things. Now, the unifier going back is the brand is the dynamic around Fenway park and the red Sox and competing and championships, but the experience itself and what I'm looking for on a day-to-day basis may be very different.
And that's what we're trying to figure out. Right. To frankly, be, be even better at which is to deliver the content on the right platform, to the right segment on our fans terms and being as specific as possible.
Narrator: With the advent of social media, Adam has been able to completely transform the traditional Boston Red Sox fan experience. But there was one aspect of Fenway Park that seemed too sacred to innovate. Yet in 2003, they decided to push the envelope, and experiment with the most famous baseball landmark in the world.
Adam: putting seats on top of the green monster was a huge, huge deal. In 2003 and
Tom Warner had this concept of, you know, you see a fly ball over the monster that becomes a home run and it lands into it.
There's a better experience there to be had. And, you know, you take that concept and then you put the monster seats there and there was very much intentionality around. What do those seats look like? Because it is the literally the biggest landmark in baseball. And you want seats that blend in with the natural look feeds.
And texture of the ballpark in this landmark. And so those, that vision of what it could be, the details of what it ended up being, and sort of having the guts to say, you know what, like we have to evolve this and we're going to go right at the biggest landmark and in baseball and do something completely different and having that bold ambition to do it.
Those are all things that I think again, as. An intern basically when that, when that project was underway. But I think, again, those tent poles are still relevant for CMOs and for organizations today, which is it has to keep constantly moving.
Narrator: Having that bold ambition is a critical character trait of a successful CX leader. Say what you will about Charlie Finley…the man was bold and that helped him build an institution. When we let ourselves take risks and experiment amazing things can happen. Even if it seems a little scary.
Adam: You got to push yourself to be a little bit nervous, um, and to be able to push the envelope because if you play it safe the whole time, You're just going to have safe results and you're not going to have the powder kegs of opportunity.
Narrator: A powder keg of opportunity sounds like something we don’t want to miss out on. And it’s only done by being bold, and pushing forward. Adam and his team struck gold again with another experiment they did. Which actually takes a page out of Charlie’s handbook.
Adam: last year we launched and we were the first team to launch this city connect Jersey and uniform with no. Nike, we've been working with Nike for about three years. And when they did their deal with major league baseball, to be the uniform provider, we raised our hand and said, you don't know us that well, because this is a new relationship, but you may think of us as.
Traditional 95 year old brand. It just wanted to make sure that you know, that we are willing to experiment and to push the envelope, to do something very different than, um, you may, you may think. And so we ended up launching in April of last season, our city connectors, which was all yellow and had no red and no white.
And it was a complete departure of anything that we had ever done. And we weren't sure about what, what the take was going to be from our fans, but it was meant to represent, we launch it on Patriot's day because Patriot's day weekend is something that is unique to Boston. Uh, the whole weekend of the marathon and honoring Patriot's day is something that it's really Boston's weekend.
And what we also did was. We wanted to use it in a way and sort of use this yellow to kind of shatter this traditional glass and mentality that some people may think about us and we'd launched it on a campaign with local diverse influencers and cultural catalysts that really represented the new Boston.
And so.
We were overwhelmed by the response, um, because the social content actually eclipsed what opening day was, um, which is sort of unheard of, uh, for us, you couldn't find the merchandise cause it's sold out so quickly. Nike sold out. On their channels, uh, in a, in a matter of hours, I mean, it was, it was really an extraordinary launch and I think it helped sort of pave the way for a mentality of we're always pushing the envelope.
And we're so lucky to have these, this tradition and this 98, it's a hundred year old footprint, but we need to continually evolve it. And that goes from an experience standpoint at Fenway. What our players are wearing, um, how we're approaching content and how we're opening up the organization to the next generation.
And that's before you get into, again, whether it's it's gaming and web 3.0 and all and sports, sports betting, and all the other sort of elements that are, we're now seeing and experimenting and trying to figure out. But there are some things now that we're really focused on that I think are pretty prime examples of how important it is to push through tradition.
Narrator: Adam and his team were bold enough to take action on a new partnership and a widely out of the box idea. And the results speak for themselves. When we give ourselves and our marketers the freedom to explore and experiment, we can make each and every customer experience a home run.
Adam: the continuity of experimentation and knowing that you just can't stand still, no matter how strong a brand, no matter how many wins you have, you have to keep pushing forward is something that's really been fundamental to our, our growth.
Narrator: Creating a culture of experimentation has been crucial to Adam and his team’s success. To close out, he has some more advice for marketers.
Adam: I would say there's maybe two pieces of advice. One is just, even as a marketer, you have to love your product. You know, you're really, you have to believe in what you are marketing and be emotionally connected to it. That's the first piece. Second piece of advice is to. And, you know, that could be listening to fans, listening to employees, listening to outside experts.
I think from, from marketing understanding, and being able to take a step back and listen to what people's experiences are, what their aspirations are, what, what didn't go well is critical to devising impactful marketing initiatives. On a systemic basis. And so I think both of those are having a real passion for your company, your product, your venue, um, and then also having a real open mind in which to listen and be nimble and to really understand what fans or consumers want and are going through is critical to being effective in marketing.
Narrator: Armed with a love for our product, the investment from our fans, and a commitment to experiment…there’s only a path to success ahead. Charlie and Adam are both examples of bold, innovative leaders who have taken on huge institutions and actually changed them. Sometimes we can feel like cogs in the machine at legacy companies, but both of these men prove that that doesn’t have to be the case. The needle can be moved…it just requires a little bravery.
So this week, your homework is to be bold. That idea you’ve had scribbled on a post-it? Share it in the next meeting. Experiment, take up space, and push the envelope. Because if you don’t…the Yankees might.
This podcast is brought to you by the generous support of our friends at Oracle. Make every interaction matter with Oracle Advertising and CX. Connect all your data and empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences from acquisition…to retention…and everything in between. Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at oracle.com/cx.
This is your host, Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios. Thank you for listening to another episode of Often Imitated. If you like what you’re hearing, tell one friend. This podcast was narrated by me, Ian Faison, written, produced and edited by Mackey Wilson, Jon Libbey, and Ezra Bakker-Trupiano. You can learn more about our team at CaspianStudios.com.