Red Sox ad campaign to cover all the bases
Team thanks fans, marks highlights in branding blitz
Just in time for the Yankees series, the Red Sox are airing new television ads, one of which celebrates Manny Ramírez's 500th home run.
The team wouldn't seem to need an ad blitz to attract attention - the Sox have sold out every home game since mid-2003, and they attract thousands of fans to ballparks in cities around the country. But perhaps after two recent World Series victories, some followers are becoming jaded. Even the rivalry with the Yankees seems to have lost some intensity.
One of the latest TV spots in "Here," a branding campaign that began in April, features such recent highlights as Ramírez's home run and Jon Lester's no-hitter.
"This is the first time we've put a concerted effort behind a consistent, season-long theme," said Sam Kennedy, chief sales and marketing officer for the Red Sox.
In past seasons, TV ads were often aimed at selling tickets. The new ads are softer as they "look to brand Fenway as a multigenerational place to go and celebrate family," Kennedy said. They're also about celebrating team history and thanking fans.
Several Sox executives have worked for teams with mediocre records, experiences that convinced them of the need to capitalize on Boston's recent baseball glories, said Kennedy, a San Diego Padres alumnus.
Success is fragile, he said. "We need to do everything we can to sustain this current phenomenon."
Professor Stephen A. Greyser, who studies brand marketing and sports management at Harvard Business School, said branding initiatives such as "Here" are "unusual for sports franchises." There are "circles of fandom," he said, and the Red Sox campaign may be an effort to reach beyond hardcore fans.
Kennedy declined to disclose how much the team is spending on the "Here" campaign, which was created by Boston ad agency Conover Tuttle Pace. TV ads are airing on the New England Sports Network, which the team controls. Print ads are running in the Globe, whose corporate parent, The New York Times Co., owns 17 percent of the Red Sox.
Kennedy dismissed the notion that locals need an ad campaign to get cranked up about the 2008 season. Other teams have seen fans grow complacent after winning seasons, but that's not an issue in Boston, said Kennedy.
"Red Sox fans never need to be motivated," he said.
Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.
