The Madison Mallards summer collegiate baseball league contracted Madison-based Planet Propaganda to create the team's marketing campaign for the 2008 summer season. Among the campaign's components are print and radio advertisements, as well as direct marketing materials to promote large group ticket packages.
"In baseball there's a balance between the purity and party, between the love of the game and love of having a good time," observes Dana Lytle, principal and creative director at Planet Propaganda. "With the Mallards, the scale leans more toward having a good time. It's the fun of coming out to enjoy the park and be a part of the festivities. It's a summertime experience that is more fun with more people."
Appealing to large group ticket purchases, Planet especially wanted to remind area companies and organizations about the fun of getting together for a summer game. The company's initial campaign concepts embraced the irreverent with the goal to foster camaraderie that transcends the sport of baseball and the confines of the park.
Andy Brawner, copywriter with Planet, elaborates, "After talking with the Mallards, we realized that each game is a unique, one-time only experience. It's baseball, but it's Mallards baseball, which is its own entity. It's a sort of parallel universe where disparate elements come together in a way that's hard to imagine unless you've been to a game. Imagine Gary Coleman, the guy who played Chewbacca, fireworks, '80s cover bands, and people yelling about wieners -- all happening in roughly the same time and place. That's the thing we wanted to capture in the work"
"Of course, we also wanted to capture the unique feeling of attending a semi-pro baseball game in Madison, Wisconsin," Brawner adds. "It's baseball without the anxiety. It's baseball as entertainment option. It's baseball as it could only happen in this particular place with this particular group of people."