MLB hires Boston team for ad account, will emphasize social media

10/15, Boston Globe: "Major League Baseball has drafted a local team to handle its advertising lineup.

• The league hired Boston-based Hill Holliday as its official ad agency for the 2011 season to handle all of its creative and media duties. The account is a huge win for the agency: An estimate by Nielsen Co. found that major media spending by the league was about $20 million last year, and a league official said that figure was close but did not include online spending.

Hill Holliday officials would not discuss the specifics of their upcoming marketing strategies for the league, but said that

• social media would play a prominent role in reaching out both to fans and to those who don’t consider themselves fans of the sport.

“The approach is based on sharing stories, the lore, the drama of baseball, and more than just among the avid crowd of enthusiasts, but among a broader population,’’ said Baba Shetty, chief media officer at Hill Holliday. “In the era of social media and modern entertainment, we see a huge upside for baseball.’’

• The account will be the only one for Hill Holliday that is sports-related, which helps diversify the agency’s roster. Its big-name clients include Dunkin’ Donuts, Bank of America, and Liberty Mutual Group....

Hill Holliday replaces the ad agency McCann Erickson, which handled the account for eight years. The New York firm, which like Hill Holliday is owned by Interpublic Group of Cos., worked on the league’s recent campaign, “Beyond Expectations,’’ focusing on players’ athleticism....

• League executives spoke with a dozen firms before whittling the list down to six shops that competed in the review. The league said that it chose Hill Holliday because of the way the agency pitched the sport as a social concept and how it could be integrated into various social-media platforms."...

"Major League Baseball hires Hill, Holliday for ads," Boston Globe by J Diaz

• 10/13, Adweek: "MLB's broadcast work runs on networks that carry league games, including Fox, ESPN, TBS and the MLB Network.
• As such, the broadcast media outlets are largely pre-ordained."...

"MLB plays ball with Hill, Holliday," Adweek, by A. McMains

• via Biz of Baseball

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