A Sports Biz Look at the 2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan Fest

On July 8-10, 2016, Major League Baseball hosted its now
annual Fan Fest at its All-Star Game weekend, this year in
San Diego.
The event featured a ton of activities, experiences, and
merchandise; attended by fans and families for an admission
fee. Of course, there was a lot of marketing and sponsorship..
This is a look around some of the event, capturing most of the
branding seen in and around the event. For more content,
visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me on Twitter @njh287.
2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan Fest

All around Petco Park
and the Convention
Center in downtown San
Diego were balloons
featuring emoji smileys
bearing team caps, as
well as some giant Pepsi
balloons, too.

Fox, which has the
broadcast rights for
the MLB All-Star
game, had a huge
building wrap one
could not miss
promoting the FS1
show Speak For
Yourself, featuring
Colin Cowherd and
Jason Whitlock.

Chevy was all over,
including out at the
entrance, offering test
drives on location.
Nice idea and lots of
eyeballs with all that
foot and car traffic.

Chevy was also part of
these t-shirts several kids
were wearing (giveaways at
an earlier youth event),
made in tandem with
playball.org.

Upon entering, all fans
were handed these
business cads from
Papa John's offering a
surprise offer for fans.
Quite the long alpha-
numeric code.
I'm sure Papa John's
captured countless
interested fans. Simple
can work.

All fans were given a
map, which prompted
fans to register on a
website and scan QR
codes provided to
them throughout the
event earn surprise
prizes.
A fairly effective way
(sans app +
beacons/geo) to track
foot traffic for brands,
activities and
locations.

An example of the check-in
promotional signage, the
areas to check in, and, if you
zoom, things you can win as
you earn points for checking
in at the stipulated locales.

Some cool, huge
video screens inside
the entrance,
showcasing the
biggest game, the
biggest stars, It
became a photo-op
for many, too. No
brand prominently
featured with the
screens.

Right inside the
entrance was a
giant basbeball
autographed by
baseball stars,
past and present,
part of Fan Fest.
Definitely a share-
able photo-op.

Another giant
screen and check
out the simple
“This” standup in
front. A great
offline display of
their #This social
media campaign!

Becoming a best practice at
events and conventions, there
were T-Mobile branded free
device charging stations. Leave
it there locked up, pick it up
with some juice.
Useful, awesome activation
with batteries draining at these
busy events.

More surprise and
delight prizes, this time
with New Era one of a
few brands with the
chance to spin a prize
wheel. Sports fans
love to try their luck fir
any free...well, crap.

Inside their primary
merchandise area, the All-Star
Game's presenting sponsor,
MasterCard, offered a nice
purchase incentive for fans
that are their customers. Good
way to encourage purchases,
while showing a little VIP-ish
love to customers, reinforcing
the partnership with MLB to it
loyal fans.

Self-service, simple
frictionless build-your-
jersey setups from
Majestic in the main
merch area. It's
inviting and, by letting
fans create their
would-be jersey, it
makes them tat much
closer to not being
able to leave without it!

Majestic also had a neat setup with a green screen in the
merch area that would superimpose Majestic All-Star game
jerseys on fans in a stadium background. Cool, memorable,
and to get your free photo/video...they email you.

Baseball and Star Wars. As
American as apple pie and
apparel like this was part of
the merch selection at Fan
Fest.

Awesome activation
from New Era (cap),
letting fans make a
diving catch as they
snapped a photo with
the fans and wall in
the background.
Memorable, free,
irresistible for fans and
kids. A keepsake and
share-able memory.

Social media
aggregation via the
#FanFest hash tag
was on screens
throughout the venue,
some of which
included brand
sponsors (but not all).
Not sure which
platform was being
used for the
aggregation.

Scotts Lawn Care did what
they could to be relevant, with
this spacious setup and free
handouts of various seeds for
fans to start their own garden.
A unique idea and something
to take home.

A great youth HR Derby
setup included a big
screen showing the
hitter live (hitting off a
tee), Gatorade-branded
dugouts, and kids
shagging balls wearing
Boys & Girls Club t-
shirts. A lot of fun, too!

Chevy will once again give
the All-Star Game MVP a
free car. Chevy was having
fans at Fan Fest vote on
which one they should give
the MVP.
Simple enough, but why not
have fans enter-to-win one
and have them pick which
they'd rather own? (and give
them more reason to share
data, while learning their
product preference)

Some players from the
All-American Girls
Professional Baseball
League (yes, a la A
League Of Their Own),
were there answering
fan questions, telling
stories.
And they even sang that
song from the movie!
“We are the members
of the All-American
league, we come from
cities near and far...”

Former MLBer Steve
Finley was among
the other guests in
this Q&A area,
complete with photo-
op worthy player
lockers, prominently
displaying their
Majestic jerseys.

Some sweet corn hole
games were set up in a kids
activity area, with sacks to
toss showing logos from the
MLB teams. Cool and fun!

This kids area was fantastic with lots of fun ways to participate in
baseball-related activities. And devoid of any branding with the
exception of USA Baseball.

Great way to get kids playing the game, while creating photo-ops
for doting parents, anxious to capture some cute pics to post on
Facebook and Instagram (and Snapchat, but there was no Fan
Fest geo-filter!). MLB knows the importance of creating fans and
players as early as possible.

There were some Baseball
Hall of Famers there signing
autographs and taking photos
in exchange for tax-deductible
donations to the Baseball the
Hall of Fame. Excellent way to
drive donations, of course.
And I got to speak with Rollie
Fingers and Gaylord Perry!
(Fergie Jenkins was nearby,
too)

Pharamceutical giant
Pfizer had a booth
there at which they
were exhorting fans to
grab some small
freebies and to share
their prostate cancer
stories using the hash
tags displayed. This
was not integrated
with MLB's well-known
“Stand Up 2 Cancer”
campaign

Very cool activation
from Under Armour,
creating posters for
fans that mimicked
real posters featuring
some of UA's baseball
superstar athletes.
Great memento and
share-able digital
content for fans,
enticing for kids.

The official tire of MLB had
a very cool remote control
car racing area for fans. Not
sure about the tie to
baseball here, but tires are
indeed more known for cars
and most sports fans and
kids can't resist a remote
control car.

It's not easy for banks to activate, but Bank of America some
excellent interactive setups there, including an area to capture
share-able video of yourself sharing a baseball memory set with a
stadium background. Fans got to feel like broadcasters, in a way.

In addition to a place where
Bank of America customers
could scan their card to enter
to win, they could also play
the Three Pitch Challenge
trivia game to win prizes.

While some fans didn't understand this at first, Esurance was
helping fans crate 360-degree photos of themselves hitting a ball
in the stadium. That is some sweet, unique, share-able content.

There was a local nod to parts of Fan Fest, including a San Diego
Padres area and a part of that section showing off University of San
Diego alum [and MLB All-Star] Kris Bryant in cardboard form, an info
booth, and, yep, a prize wheel. The Bryant standup encouraged fans to
take a picture with him!

su
The World Series Trophy
was on display, offering
photo-ops for fans,
surrounded by branding
for Tiffany & Co.

Part of the Padres area
was a great photo-op for
fans, with cardboard
stand-ups of team
legends Tony Gwynn,
Randy Jones, Trevor
Hoffman, and Dave
Winfield. A popular pic
for all the San Diego
fans there.

More activation from Chevy, including sponsored social
aggregation and MLB content displays and a studio backdrop that
encouraged fans to “Snap a Selfie,” pretending they're at their big
press conference.

More Chevy, where
fans would hit off the
tee and see
advanced stats
about their swing.
Pretty neat for fans,
especially those
geeky, stat-driven
fans (who probably
have more money
than you! Ok,
maybe)

One last Chevy activation,
in case you hadn't engaged
with the brand yet –
register to get a free MLB
souvenir.

Topps was there, predictably (but still good) helping fans create
personalized digital cards of themselves, generating some
earned media and branded memories.

Topps was also
heavily
promoting their
suite of apps,
including iPads
there for fans to
try. Clearly,
mobile apps are
a big priority for
the trading card
company.

A pretty unique souvenir and collectible for fans was there to
show fans how they could quickly create figurines of themselves
in their favorite team's garb. I did not stick around to “3D Me.”

Oxi-Clean wanted to make sure fans knew they “strike out stains”
by allowing fans the chance to pitch for strike outs to win. A play on
words, but fun and memorable for fans.
And well-known pitchman Anthony Sullivan was greeting fans!

T-Mobile and Papa John's were featured with more activities for
kids to get on the field and turn a double play and take part in
their own HR Derby. (T-Mobile sponsors the MLB HR Derby)

Besides the business
card handout at the
entrance and this area
here, not a lot of salient
Papa John's branding
for MLB's official pizza
partner.

Fans seemed intrigued
(but not overly
crowded) to try out T-
Mobile and Samsung's
virtual reality
experience “at” the HR
Derby. It was done
with Oculus VR
headsets. Plenty of
impressed faces, as is
typical with VR
activations.

The Blast smart bat was being marketed there and what better
way to showcase than to have a batting cage on-site to show
fans the value it could bring!? A crowded line for this one, too.

Rawlings was
there selling,
well,
commemorative
baseballs and
also showing
fans what is
inside a baseball.

And, of course,
Rawlings gave fans a
nice photo-op.

Franklin was selling its
batting gloves,
including custom ones
for the All-Star game,
and also had a screen
where fans could build
gloves with design and
colors of their choice.

While Majestic and New Era dominated the main merch area,
“other” brands, including Nike, Under Armour, and lesser know
Antigua and “47” were in a large, secondary area.

Also featured in this area were the popular, much discussed
Stance-branded socks, popular in the NBA and now MLB, too.
Oyo Toys, ubiquitous in baseball especially, it seems, also had
their toy figures there for purchase, using their MLB license.

Fans couldn't miss, and couldn't resist, MLB The Shoe '16, a
setup from Sony Playstation 4, where fans could hang out and
play the video game at several consoles set up in a trailer.

Overall, a great event filled with activities, museum-like setups,
autograph opportunities, and more. While this presentation
didn't capture all of it, it represented some of the major branded
setups...

And I had a great time, making my own memories! I hope you
enjoyed the deck. For more, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow
me on Twitter @njh287.

A Sports Biz Look at the 2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan Fest

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