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Post image for White Sox Go Virtual with SoxFest

White Sox Go Virtual with SoxFest

January 25, 2010

Sure, pre-planning of the annual White Sox fan convention, SoxFest, included press conferences, media-only events, seminars stocked with current and former players, autograph sessions and thousands of square feet of White Sox merchandise, but it also involved something new.

New on the agenda? To make SoxFest 2010 the most interactive and virtual experience to-date. Intentions were two fold. Adding and making content virtual was one-part keeping out-of-state and international connected, and one part about unifying attendees as not just fans who share a mutual affinity for the same team, but as a tightly connected community.

And virtual it was. Full disclosure, VP of Communications for the White Sox, Scott Reifert, published a detailed list of initiatives that the White Sox had planned with Digital Royalty on his blog a week prior to the event–complete with two namesakes of the Digital Royalty brand: “Hide & Tweet” and “Twitter Tag.” Other specifics included videos of Digital Royalty’s Amy Martin interviewing player Mark Teahan about social media, fan videos, event photos, quotes from seminars, Q&A opportunities, mascot olympics, a Twitter/Facebook booth serving as the social media home base, and day-by-day video recaps–all of which would take place online or be housed on whitesox.com/soxfest. MLB White Sox-branded Flip cameras, iPhone’s and Twitter fingers were all ready to go.

In the two weeks leading up to the event, Reifert and White Sox staff hid SoxFest passes around Chicago and tweeted hints of their wherabouts prior to their location — “Hide & Tweet”. If winners weren’t already waiting for the tickets based on clues, they would arrive just five minutes after the location was divulged. In one case, a fan waited outside in chilly Chicago since 4:00 a.m. to snag tickets that wouldn’t be available via Twitter Tag until 6:00 a.m. The local NBC affiliate even joined the Twitter games and highlighted the activation live throughout the broadcast as their main anchor tweeted in attempt of winning the tickets.

When SoxFest had become sold out, the interactive aspect of SoxFest served a new purpose: to offer value to fans although they weren’t able to attend the event.

In turn, positive results were generated. Official White Sox accounts experienced across-the-board growth in follower counts, as well as interaction rates. Large crowds gathered to watch Chicago mascots (NFL Chicago Bear Staley and NHL’s Tommy Blackhawk to name a few) compete at mini Olympics. And, fans were given social media-exclusive opportunities to win autographed baseballs, t-shirts and bobble heads throughout the weekend.

Rewarding was the amount of conversation and gratitude that was shown throughout the three-day ordeal by fans. Countless tweets and comments such as “I love what you’re doing interactively, 4,000 miles away suddenly doesn’t seem so far.”

Post image for Sports Networker Summit – #NYCSports

Sports Networker Summit – #NYCSports

December 10, 2009

Monday, December 6, the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City played host to the Sports Networker Summit (#NYCSports) co-hosted by Digital Royalty and Sports Networker. The four-panel, half-day summit featured an all-star list of speakers representative of progressive brands using social media within the sports industry. The NY Knicks, Rangers and NHL were represented on various panels while reps from the MLB, NFL and NBA attended. In true social-savvy form, individuals not able to attend the summit were able to follow along in real-time via live stream at http://livestream.com/sportsnetworker.

The panels covered a variety of topics all of which centered around the underlying theme of social media. From sports sponsorship ROI to ticket sales, service and retention. Separate panels focused on the convergence of traditional media and social media, as well as social media marketing and measurement. A lively conversation revolved around Tiger Woods and his level of involvement with social media.

Key takeaways included case studies of fan loyalty and retention via social media, to the value and process of being credentialed for pillars in the journalism industry such as The New York Times, versus bloggers. Discussion also focused on the trend of geo-tagging and the potential use in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

After the summit wrapped, attendees snacked on hors d’oeuvres and mingled with speakers such as New York Times Sports Editor, Tom Jolly, Founder of The Cuban Revolution, Brian Cuban, and Founder of Invoke Media, Ryan Holmes.

Photo Credit (from left): Amy Martin (Founder of Digital Royalty), Jim Bankoff (SB Nation CEO), Brian Cuban (Founder of The Cuban Revolution) and Tom Jolly (Sports Editor of The New York Times).

Post image for Case Study: Chicago White Sox, Tweetup

Case Study: Chicago White Sox, Tweetup

November 3, 2009

Background: The Chicago White Sox organization wanted to set up a meet-and-greet with their fans and followers before the end of the 2009 MLB season. The result was that on September 18, 2009, Cellular Field in Chicago played host to the first official White Sox tweetup.

Approach: Amy Martin, Digital Royalty founder, drew from previous experience as creator and host of the Phoenix Suns first tweetup, as well as fan feedback to hone-in on what elements were necessary to make the one-day event a success. The 31-dollar event took place at a cordoned-off portion of an outfield patio where twitterers enjoyed all-you-can-eat buffet, a fan-designed tweetup t-shirt, a baseball game and time to mingle with the White Sox VP of Communication, Director of PR, mascot and baseball legend Ron Kittle.

Results: A contest for the design of t-shirt for the event was not only exclusively launched on Twitter, but also produced a follower-designed t-shirt for the event. Key takeaways were that tweetup attendees met and took photos with key figures behind all of the White Sox accounts, as well as supplied the vast majority of content that originated from the event. User-generated content was then hyper-syndicated by Digital Royalty across a multitude of channels. All White Sox account experienced a substantial increase in followers, but of particular interest was that Southpaw, the White Sox mascot who had just joined twitter, garnered 1,000 new friends (followers) during this timeframe.

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