Silver: Best Cross-Channel Campaign 2015

Silver
  • Campaign: The Biggest 7th Inning Stretch
  • Brand: T-Mobile
  • Agency: Jack Morton Worldwide

You could say T-Mobile’s efforts to leverage its sponsorship of Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 2014 postseason weren’t a bit of a stretch. Working with agency Jack Morton Worldwide, the wireless communications company homed in on the time-honored tradition of the seventh-inning stretch.

During the World Series playoffs, T-Mobile posted on its social channels and those of MLB videos from athletes, celebrities, and other influencers encouraging fans to make a video of themselves and friends singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Participants could then upload their videos to a custom-built branded web app or onto social media using #TheBig7th hashtag. T-Mobile would feature the best video in a 60-second spot that would air during game four of the World Series. Onscreen graphics during TV broadcasts of the playoff games led viewers to the web app as well.

T-Mobile also sent video production teams to the ballparks and sports bars in the playoff markets to record fans cheering for their teams and, of course, singing during the actual seventh-inning stretch to a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” created for the campaign by electronic dance music star Steve Aoki. When the 60-second spot aired during the fourth game of the World Series, it was accompanied by another custom version of the song, by Bay Area punk band the Phenomenauts. The spot subsequently aired again during the remaining games of the series.

The three-week campaign scored with fans, generating more than 231 million impressions. Twitter alone accounted for more than 40 million, and mentions during playoff TV broadcasts by the likes of Fox Sports commentator Joe Buck reached an average of 12.6 million fans per game.

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