Bobbleheads, T-shirts and headwear remained popular giveaways for MLB clubs this year (even if they may have carried a typo or two), but 2014 also saw a military-based company make its debut among the most-active sponsors of teams’ promotional efforts.
According to SportsBusiness Journal’s annual review of MLB clubs’ promotional calendars, teams for the third straight year were more likely to use a bobblehead to entice fans to the ballpark in 2014 than any other promotional giveaway. Twenty-nine clubs distributed a total of 3.49 million bobbleheads across 146 giveaway dates in 2014. That’s the most such dates in any year since we began tracking teams’ promotional efforts in 2005. It’s also nearly double the number of bobbles that were distributed just five years ago, in 2009.
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GovX.com offers discounted tickets to the military and first responders, and recognizes “local heroes” at games.
Photo by: GOVX
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The Los Angeles Dodgers again led the bobblehead surge, giving away approximately 560,000 bobbles over 12 dates this year. Both marks were tops leaguewide for the third year in a row. The Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies tied for No. 2 with 10 dates each.
Boston, which was the only MLB club not to have a bobblehead promotion in 2013, joined the bobble effort this year. The Red Sox gave out more than 108,000 bobbleheads over three promotional nights.
Boston saw its 820-game sellout streak end in 2013, the longest such streak in major pro sports history, and team officials acknowledged publicly that they would be doing more to attract fans to Fenway Park in 2014.
HOW IS THAT SPELLED?
For several MLB teams this season, promotional efforts became unexpected opportunities to show how they could respond to a challenge.
For example, in Detroit, a typo marred a Miguel Cabrera figurine that honored the Tigers star as the 2013 National League MVP rather than correctly identifying him as the winner of the American League MVP award. A representative from Forever Collectibles, which manufactured the item, took responsibility for the error and tweeted an apology.
The Colorado Rockies were also hit by the typo bug. The second ‘T’ was missing from the last name in a Troy Tulowitzki jersey in a July 26 promotion sponsored by longtime corporate partner King Soopers (who was not involved in the production of the jerseys). The team decided to hand out the misspelled jerseys anyway but told fans they could exchange them in September at Coors Field or the Rockies Dugout Stores.
Fans exchanging the jersey also received a complimentary ticket to a game in 2014 or 2015.
In Texas, Rangers partner Medical Center of Arlington saw its name misspelled on 15,000 Prince Fielder bobbleheads (spelled instead ‘Arilngton’). The club took responsibility for the misprint.
And at Dodger Stadium, shipping delays meant that, on different nights, 40,000 Hello Kitty travel mugs and 15,000 Matt Kemp figurines did not make it to the ballpark in time for their respective giveaways. In these instances, fans instead received vouchers to redeem the items when they did arrive.
San Diego was the only club without at least one bobblehead giveaway this year.
As in past studies, T-shirts, headwear and posters were also frequent giveaways in 2014. Overall on the season, MLB clubs hosted 871 dates on which fans received a free gift, trailing only the 2013 season (886 giveaways) for number of giveaway dates among the annual counts in our study.
Of course, with the number of giveaways going up, the statistical chance of a mistake being made with any of these efforts increased, too — and 2014 did bring its share of slip-ups on the promotional front (see story below). But giveaways remain a key part of the MLB ballpark experience, and both team and league sponsors play a key role in making these efforts happen.
Leaguewide, 78 percent of all gameday giveaways this year had at least one sponsor. That’s down from 80 percent in 2013 but even with 2012.
Coca-Cola was the most-active sponsor for the fourth straight year, although its 79 total promotional dates was down from 92 in 2013.
Most of the companies on the list of most-active sponsors have been similarly
Methodology
For this annual research effort, SportsBusiness Journal downloads each MLB club’s promotional schedule once spring training begins and updates each squad’s list monthly. At the end of the season, each club’s final list is published on its website, and that document is used to reconcile any discrepancies.
In the case of games that are postponed during the season, teams are consulted for the status of the promotions, and counts are updated accordingly.
The information that’s presented here reflects giveaways that were available to a significant number of attendees as opposed to items that were made available only to select groups of fans on a given night. Many games had more than one incentive available for fans. In those cases, each one of the advertised promotions was counted as a unique data point.
There were more than 200 giveaways that were listed on team sites that did not include a sponsor name. For those items, teams were contacted and/or online searches were conducted to confirm the presence or lack of sponsor for each respective item.
active in prior years, including MLB partners Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch and Chevrolet. But a newcomer to this year’s ranking of the most-active sponsors is GovX. The La Jolla, Calif.-based company teamed with seven clubs to sponsor a total of 41 games this year, its first full season in the MLB marketplace.
Launched in 2011, the company operates the members-only GovX.com, a portal where active, reserve, veteran and retired military personnel and first responders can purchase, among other things, discounted tickets. The company screens and verifies the users to make sure the applicants fit those parameters and acts as an online vendor for 15 MLB clubs.
“Our verification technology is embedded on the team sites as well as the sites of their respective ticket vendors,” said Tony Farwell, executive chairman and founder of GovX. ”Our game sponsorships usually included a branded in-game recognition event that honored a local hero, so there is a commercial and a corporate responsibility aspect.”
Farwell said 310,000 tickets were sold via GovX’s 15 MLB team-level partnerships this year.
Totaling all teams’ efforts leaguewide, there were 2,316 non-giveaway promotions this year, counting efforts such as fireworks, college nights, festivals and health awareness events. That total was up 29 percent from 2013.
| Rank (2013 rank) |
Category / No. of participating teams |
No. of dates (2013 dates) |
| 1 (1) |
Bobblehead / 29 |
146 (108) |
| 2 (2) |
T-shirt / 25 |
99 (100) |
| 3 (4) |
Headwear / 26 |
86 (73) |
| 4 (3) |
Wall hanging / 23 |
56 (92) |
| 5 (5) |
Backpack/bag / 28 |
53 (63) |
| 6 (7) |
Magnet schedule / 26 |
45 (46) |
| 7 (10) |
Jersey / 19 |
42 (28) |
| 8 (6) |
Retail coupon / 11 |
36 (48) |
| 9 (8) |
Toy / 15 |
34 (33) |
| 10 (9) |
Beverage item (cup/mug/koozie) / 19 |
27 (32) |
Source: MLB clubs
| Rank (2013 rank) |
Category / No. of participating teams |
No. of dates (2013 dates) |
| 1 (2) |
Fireworks / 24 |
205 (205) |
| 2 (3) |
Concession discount / 11 |
192 (152) |
| 3 (1) |
Ticket discount / 10 |
180 (263) |
| 4 (7) |
Charitable causes / 17 |
147 (115) |
| 5 (4) |
Autographs / 9 |
145 (138) |
| 6 (5) |
Student day / 12 |
129 (135) |
| 7 (6) |
Festival / 19 |
103 (119) |
| 8 (9) |
Run the bases / 15 |
97 (98) |
| 9 (14) |
Military day / 17 |
87 (54) |
| 10 (11) |
Family day / 9 |
79 (81) |
Source: MLB clubs
Ranked by total number of 2014 team-level activation dates
| Rank |
Brand (No. of participating teams) |
No. of giveaways |
No. of promotions/events |
No. of dates* |
| 1 |
Coca-Cola (10) |
21 |
58 |
79 |
| 2 |
MillerCoors (5) |
8 |
58 |
66 |
| 3 |
Pepsi^ (11) |
18 |
42 |
60 |
| 4 |
GovX (7) |
0 |
41 |
41 |
| 5 |
Chevrolet^ (11) |
9 |
15 |
38 |
| 6 |
Budweiser^ (9) |
1 |
17 |
33 |
| 7t |
AT&T (6) |
12 |
18 |
31 |
| 7t |
Time Warner Cable (2) |
6 |
25 |
31 |
| 9 |
MLB Network (27) |
27 |
0 |
28 |
| 10 |
KeyBank (2) |
3 |
15 |
21 |
Note: Among sponsors that activated with two or more teams.
* The sum of giveaways dates and promotions/events dates does not always equal the listed total number of dates because some sponsor activations fall outside those two particular categories, such as the June 13-15 series between New York and Oakland, which was billed as the “Yankees vs. A’s Series Driven by Chevy Silverado.”
^ Official MLB sponsor
Source: MLB clubs
GRAB BAG
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Photo by: CHICAGO CUBS
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■ The team that had the most giveaway dates: the Minnesota Twins (47). The Chicago Cubs (44 dates), New York Yankees (43), Los Angeles Dodgers (42) and St. Louis Cardinals (41) were next in line.
■ The team with the fewest giveaway dates: Boston Red Sox (4).
■ There were 147 charity-themed promotions in 2014, led by the Twins’ 66 dates. Those efforts included a Twins Split the Pot Raffle, benefiting the Twins Community Fund and the Ted Williams Museum. One winner each game took home half the net proceeds from that day’s raffle ticket sales.
■ The Miami Marlins hosted the league’s only Lawyer Appreciation Night, a promotion that included an ethics course taught by representatives of The Florida Bar.
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The Angels proved to be tops in the headwear category.
Photos by: LOS ANGELES ANGELS
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■ The Cubs celebrated the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field with a series of promotions and giveaways throughout the season. Those included never-before-produced bobbleheads honoring key individuals and events from the ballpark’s past, such as Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers. (The Bears played at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970, a period that encompassed Sayers’ entire career except for one home game played at Soldier Field in 1971.)
■ As in past years, the Cubs did not host any fireworks
shows, making them one of only six clubs to go without that offering in 2014. The other five this year: Tampa Bay (who plays in a domed stadium), Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston and the Yankees.
■ The Los Angeles Angels led the headwear giveaway category, with seven such offerings, including the Yokohama Tire-sponsored “1/2 Way to Christmas Santa Hat” on June 25 and a “1/2 Way to St. Paddy’s Day Hat” promotion underwritten by the Alzheimer’s Association on Sept. 17.
