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How brands discover a natural fit inside SunTrust Park

At kiosks inside SunTrust Park, fans can pick up a Mizuno glove (for free) to take to their seat.
Photo by: RICH VON BIBERSTEIN
The goal of brands plastering their names inside a ballpark is to achieve some level of recognition and recall with fans.

So how about this opportunity for Mizuno inside SunTrust Park: catching your first foul ball with a Mizuno glove. You think a fan might remember that moment?

For many baseball fans, it’s like remembering the first car they owned.

The sporting goods company has two kiosks — The Mizuno Glove Experience — inside the Braves’ new stadium where fans can check out (for free) a glove to take into the stands for the game. Even if the fan, young or old, does not catch a foul ball or home run, they will feel the leather of the Mizuno glove for nine innings, or roughly three hours.

If fans like the feel of the glove, fans can become buyers. They can walk outside the stadium into The Battery, the retail center adjacent to SunTrust Park, and buy a glove inside the first Mizuno retail store in the Western Hemisphere. Mizuno is a Japanese-owned company with its North American headquarters in metro Atlanta.

The ballpark is all about raising the profile of a worldwide sporting goods dealer.

“The reason we made such an investment and partnership with the Braves in The Battery is we are located in Atlanta, our North American headquarters is located in Atlanta, we’ve been here for over 35 years, and we wanted to let people know we are in Atlanta,” said Mike Puccini, senior director of business and brand management at Mizuno USA.

“Also, Atlanta is a hotbed of the sports in which we compete: baseball, softball, golf, running, volleyball. We really wanted to own this part of the country.”

Mizuno not only can team up with the Braves. It could even find some synergy with another prominent brand inside SunTrust Park, which is Gas South. Atlanta pitcher Jaime Garcia uses a Mizuno glove to hold a baseball he throws 91 mph. That’s right. Garcia brings the gas, brought to you by the official natural gas partner of the Braves, Gas South.

When a Braves pitcher throws a swinging strikeout, the scoreboard replay of that third strike will be sponsored by Gas South because the pitcher is “bringing the heat,” which is one of Gas South’s signature taglines.

“We try and associate our brand with exciting moments in a game,” said Kevin Greiner, president and CEO of Gas South. “High-impact, high-energy moments align well with who we are as a company.”

Gas South, which has its name on a left field LED board that provides fans with in-game statistics, also owns the most popular between-inning experience in any ballpark: the Gas South Kiss Cam. Nothing engages fans, physically or emotionally, more than the camera broadcasting fans smooching on the big screen.

Gas South has upped its commitment and relationship with the Braves with a suite for some games and eight tickets in the Delta 360 Sky section of the ballpark.

“We’re really excited about these new club areas in SunTrust Park because we think they will really enhance the hospitality experience and allow us to build a much better rapport and a much better relationship with our customers,” Greiner said. “We had eight seats at Turner Field, but they did not come with any additional benefits.

“All the food and beverage [in these seats] is complimentary [at SunTrust]. We can have all these benefits built into the tickets.”

Greiner said Gas South also wanted to get itself in position to do business with the 20 restaurants and 40 retailers inside The Battery. Outside The Battery, Gas South will have an LED board on Interstate 285 announcing the pitching matchup for that night’s game.

Mizuno is also in on the food and beverage bonanza at the new 41,000-seat ballpark. The legs for the Coors Light table tops in The Chop House restaurant are made of Mizuno bats. A beer served inside The Chop House, Terrapin’s Chopsecutioner, is aged on wood chips from Mizuno bats.

Ray Glier is a contributing writer for the Atlanta Business Chronicle, an affiliated publication.

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