RJsFro has a post up about a possible Padres marketing campaign for this year. iHook Creative's campaign pitch is "SD stands for San Diego" or maybe, more appropriately, it should read "SD" Stands for San Diego, because they use the logo and I'm guessing they don't literally mean for us to think that we don't get what the SD stands for. Rather, they want to remind people that the Padres play for the people of San Diego within city limits. It's a symbolic thing.
Or something.
Nevertheless, because that's what it sounds like (that maybe people don't get what the SD stands for), I'm in agreement that it's not the best slogan, but the creative is nice.
Now, the old ownership never did take to my first marketing campaign pitch and I don't recall them using any of Gaslamp Ball's slogans last season but this is a new ownership that seems to just try out any idea thrown their way at least twice, so it's time to revisit the idea of how Gaslamp Ball would market the Padres.
So, I'm putting my marketing hat back on. I'm churning and I'm coming up with some killer campaigns. I'm talking rock star campaigns.
Here's the first one:
San Diego Padres 2010: FUTUREBALL
As in, this is how baseball will be played in the future. As in, this team is doing futuristic types of things. As in, if you're hoping for a true World Series bid, it will be sometime later in the future after the Padres rework their cable deal to actually take into account things like the future. As in, in the future the raw talent you see here will be doing amazing things for other teams.
Here's the second one:
San Diego Padres 2010: pwning it
So all the kids are texting and Tweeting and facebooking and there's things like that. And now that this type of slang is being used by people's mothers and what not (thanks to lolcats and stuff), let's take it all the way and attach it to the marketing plan of a mid-market major league baseball team. (Note that this is totally compatible with the SD stands for San Diego thing. You'll see.)
Commercial 1: Kevin Correia is pitching to Manny Ramirez. Fastball, strike 3. Freeze the frame on Manny's goofy face looking annoyed at this no name pitcher striking him out. In huge Rockwell font, the word "PWNED" appears on the screen, then cutting to the boilerplate stuff.
Commercial 2: Adrian Gonzalez at bat. Fastball inside, Adrian drives the ball high and hard. Freeze the frame on Adrian looking up at the ball. In huge Rockwell font, the word "GTFO" appears on the screen, cut to the boilerplate.
Commercial 3: Everth Cabrera makes an insane diving stop to turn a double play. Freeze the frame and put like, "MOAR" or "OMG" or "OMGWTF" up on the screen in those Rockwell letters.
Now, the idea behind this campaign being that we are now tied into social media. You have all these Padres Twitterers both official and unofficial and you want to get it so that when anything good happens for the Padres, all of these people at the same time Tweet, Facebook status update, text something like "GTFO ball! #Padres" or "Dodgers just got PWNED by #Padres".
It's a viral thing.
Anyways, if that doesn't work then lets come up with a bunch of random slogans.
Here's my contribution:
- Return of the funk
- Bring the noise
- Be thankful we had relations with your mom.
- 20-10 is a score you'll never see at Petco Park in a billion years.
- The Speed Dating team of the MLB (meet some players very briefly and maybe one of them you'll see again next week)
etc. etc.