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scott reifert

Post image for D.C. or Bust!

D.C. or Bust!

June 17, 2010

By Alana Golob

It may only be my sixth week at Digital Royalty, but I’ve been deployed on a three-day road trip from Chicago to D.C. riding side-by-side in a small confined area with a giant green-dino looking thing. Yeah, you read that correctly. Yesterday the MLB Chicago White Sox along with Southpaw the mascot, kicked-off the D.C. or Bust Road Trip. Southpaw and the crew (me included) are traveling from Chicago to D.C. for Friday’s series against the Washington Nationals. The Road Trip includes several fun, and slightly awkward stops along the way. Given that the Chicago White Sox are President Obama’s favorite baseball team, we may just have to pay him a visit when in D.C.

What do you pack when heading out on a three-day adventure with Southpaw? Here’s what I brought:

  • Laptop
  • Flip Camera
  • Digital Camera
  • Video editing software
  • iPhone battery pack
  • Chargers
  • 3G Wireless Card
  • Red Bull and a loads of Pop Chips

I am riding along with Southpaw capturing all of the crazy moments throughout the trip, through the use of Flip video, Twitvid, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media touch points. Digital Royalty developed the road trip concept and the idea to leverage the presence of social media throughout the trip, as a way to engage with fans and give them the ability to be apart of the road trip experience, by following along on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (@Southpaw, @InsidetheSox, @DigitalRoyalty and @AlanaGolob), and the MLB Chicago White Sox Road Trip website. Fans can also follow our path via Twitter Search with #SoxRoadTrip in the field. Fans have already helped contribute to the Road Trip Cooler and we have a feeling they will be picking our playlist along the way too.

Without giving out all of our secrets, here is a sneak peak at the agenda for the next few days and expect some surprises along the way:

Day One (Wednesday):

Day Two (Thursday):

  • Heading to Pittsburg, PA
  • Duquesne Incline
  • Living Treasures Animal Park
  • Pittsburg Pirates vs. Chicago White Sox at PNC Park

Day Three (Friday):

  • Heading to Harrisburg, PA
  • Special Statehouse meet-and-greet
  • D.C. sightseeing tour with Southpaw
  • Washington Nationals vs. Chicago White Sox
  • Presidents’ Race featuring Southpaw

Check back for our daily “From the Road” posts and videos and follow along by following Southpaw, InsidetheSox and Digital Royalty, and myself Alana Golob on Twitter.

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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.”

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