After seven years in corporate and ad sales with Major League Baseball, MLB Network Senior VP/Marketing & Promotion MARY BECK moved over to the league's TV channel ahead of its launch at the start of '09. Since that time, Beck has been responsible for building MLBN’s brand and overseeing its advertising and on-air promos. The Cornell grad and history major recently took time to speak with Staff Writer William Cooper about her marketing philosophy, her favorite things in baseball and what motivated her to work in the sport.
Favorite ballpark: AT&T Park. It’s very similar to Coors Field, but you have the background of the Bay Area instead of the Rocky Mountains. My husband was living in San Francisco when we met and started dating, so I also have fond memories from that and going to many games there.
Favorite team growing up: Yankees.
Favorite New York restaurant: Sushi Samba.
Favorite historical topic to study: I enjoy American history a lot, particularly the Colonial times and also the Civil War era. The MICHAEL SHAARA book about Gettysburg, “THE KILLER ANGELS.” And I was a big fan of the “LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE” books when I was growing up. I’ve been reading those with my daughter lately.
Q: How many baseball games do you watch on a weekly basis?
Beck: I usually watch a lot of the West Coast games because I have young kids, and that’s what’s on after they go to bed.
Q: How would you quickly summarize your typical day?
Beck: Mostly I spend my days coming up with ideas to engage our constituents with the MLB Network brand, whether it’s from a social media perspective, or reaching directly to fans, or working with our ad sales and our affiliate marking team on different ideas for partners and advertisers. I also spend a lot of my time working with all of our clubs, with MLB.com and with the league to figure out what's the best way that we can use assets that they have to promote the network, and in return how we can support programs that they are working on.
Q: When you think about marketing the game of baseball, what are some of the things you are focusing on?
Beck: We all look to JACQUELINE PARKES as the CMO to sort of be the vision of the brand of baseball, and where we can augment that. I think certainly the whole theme of “Epic” this year and trying to really get at the storytelling, and talking about the players, is something that we try to do as well.
Q: In one sentence, your philosophy when it comes to marketing and promoting a product is…
Beck: The first rule is really to try to understand your customer, and to know the strength of your product.
Q: Is there a particular marketing campaign that you admire?
Beck: The way P&G has been activating Head & Shoulders and doing their new JOE MAUER spots this year. Or the “Diamond & Dreams” promo that Chevy has going on, where they have been able to integrate Scotts and Rawlings I really like, because it’s tying three of our sponsors or licensees together.
Q: Was there something that you drove you to seek out a job in baseball?
Beck: I was always a fan of baseball. … From an advertising sales background, getting to work with the partners was something that was interesting to me as well. Working with the MasterCards, the Pepsis, and today the Scotts, the Holiday Inns, who are the corporate partners of baseball, and how you activate that brand with the brand of baseball.
Q: Who have been some of your mentors?
Beck: Certainly at MLB Jacqueline Parkes and TIM BROSNAN without question are sort of the reason why I’m sitting here talking to you today. They have been great supporters of mine and offered me many opportunities to work on new projects, to keep involved and keep interested. And to have the ability to work with TONY (PETITTI) has been great. Prior to coming here, while I had worked on advertising at the league, from a television standpoint on-air promos wasn’t anything that I had worked on before. Tony gave me the opportunity to take on that department as well, which has been a challenge and a lot of fun.
Q: Has working for a league-owned net been different than what your expectations were going in?
Beck: Because I was at the league it was less of a surprise coming here. … Being seven-and-a-half years at the league and knowing this was something the Commissioner supported and that Tim Brosnan had conceived, made me extremely comfortable that there wasn’t going to be a lot of surprises, that it would be a success from day one. Tony was the only person that I hadn’t worked with before, but it’s really his vision and his creativity that is what has shaped and built the network into what it is today. I wouldn’t call it a surprise, but that’s been a great aspect of the job, getting to work with him and see how he thinks, and have what he thinks actually come to life on TV.
