Minor League Baseball this week is starting a multiyear Hispanic marketing campaign that is the first of its kind for the affiliated minors.
Es Divertido Ser Un Fan builds upon the “It’s Fun To Be A Fan” marketing effort MiLB debuted at the start of the 2017 season, with the words translating to the same tagline. Both initiatives tie into MiLB’s broader goal to expand from its current annual attendance of about 42 million to 50 million by 2026.
The campaign will include a series of outreach efforts, special theme nights, and customized jerseys and hats. Four teams — Class AAA Charlotte and Las Vegas, and Class A Visalia (Calif.) and Kane County (Ill.) — will serve as pilot clubs for the multicultural effort that will go national in 2018.
The teams will change their respective nicknames to Latin-themed ones at various points. The Visalia Rawhide are pursuing a more permanent change and will become the Visalia Toros, while the Charlotte Knights will become the Charlotte Caballeros, and the Las Vegas 51s will shift to the Reyes de Plata (Silver Kings), on a temporary basis. Kane County will remain the Cougars but use a new all-tan uniform with a special Es Divertido Ser Un Fan logo.
MiLB’s broader intent is to engage with a Hispanic audience that makes up more than 17 percent of its fan base, as well as a growing segment of its player pool. And like the English-language version of It’s Fun To Be A Fan, the Project Brand commercial partnership effort, and pooling of MiLB’s digital rights, the campaign marks another step in unifying the affiliated minors’ public message.
“This is a big and important segment of our audience, and the key thing for us is to do this in a meaningful, sustained and authentic way, and not as a one-off,” said David Wright, MiLB chief marketing and commercial officer.
The four clubs that will be the initial part of the campaign were selected on a range of factors including geography, population density and demographic makeup.
“You look at each one of these teams and there are a lot of analogues to them across the rest of the minors and can serve as models for the rest,” said Kurt Hunzeker, MiLB vice president of marketing strategy and research.
The financial spend behind Es Divertido Ser Un Fan was not disclosed, but Wright termed it “significant” and said costs will be shared between MiLB and the individual clubs.
