David Wright, Minor League Baseball’s newly hired chief commercial and marketing officer, calls the affiliated minors one of the sports industry’s “last great white spaces.”
A former top sponsorship executive with Major League Soccer, Wright arrived at MiLB in January and was charged in part with creating a new trajectory for Project Brand, the organization’s initiative to position itself to national marketers. In a matter of just two months, returns have begun to surface, helping turn a corner from a more choppy period that defined Project Brand’s first three-plus years of existence.
MiLB last month announced a partnership with John Deere, just the second current major sports league sponsorship for the agricultural machinery company following one with the PGA Tour. Development of the John Deere agreement began before Wright’s arrival, but activation plans have been enhanced, and individual MiLB clubs will be encouraged to use John Deere equipment in their ballparks.
Another new deal announced last week with Detroit-based potato chip brand Uncle Ray’s places the MiLB logo on more than 100 million bags of chips to be sold nationwide.
Several more new sponsorships are expected this spring before Wright and MiLB shift toward the 2017 sales cycle, with business-to-business categories among the key areas of focus.
“There is so much untapped potential in this property,” Wright said. “We’re in 160 markets. Nobody else at the pro level can say that, and we have an opportunity to really be a progressive leader in the industry in this area and really do some unique things.”
Uncle Ray’s executives said the deal with MiLB represents a vehicle to seek greater national prominence in what is a crowded category while tying into the sport’s key attributes of affordable family entertainment.
“MiLB provides the opportunity for Uncle Ray’s to step onto the national stage in a way that is perfectly aligned
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| Potato chip brand Uncle Ray’s is the most recent company to strike a deal with Minor League Baseball. |
with our values of hometown fun and family orientation,” said Brian Gaggin, Uncle Ray’s vice president of marketing and sales.
Wright also is reorganizing his staff at MiLB’s St. Petersburg, Fla., headquarters, dividing the commercial and sponsorship activity he oversees into four distinct areas: marketing strategy and research, partnership marketing, MiLB media, and business development. A series of promotions, reassignments and new hires still in development will create functional leads in each of those segments that will report to Wright.
While the functional relationship between MLB and MiLB stands at a historically strong level, Wright aims to strengthen the link even more.
Only two players drafted in the last 15 years, and 21 overall in the 40-year history of the MLB entry draft, have skipped at least some minor league play and advanced directly to the majors.
“That means basically everybody in the game has some type of story about their time in Minor League Baseball,” Wright said. “We want to tell those stories and showcase the importance of that experience.”
