NASHVILLE EXPERIENCE CAMPAIGN DATE PROPOSED
13 June 2019
01
SITUATION ANALYSIS
ABOUT THE FRANCHISE Founded in 1978 by head coach of the Vanderbilt commodores and country musician Conway Twitty, Nashville Sounds now is a Triple A Minor League Baseball team located in Nashville, Tennessee. Having been played in the Pacific Coast League since 1998, the Sounds has previously affiliated with Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees etc, and now has been affiliated with the Texas Rangers since 2019. In 2015, Nashville Sounds changed its mascot Ozzie since 1997 to Booster the Rooster, an anthropomorphic rooster, and his name “Booster” refers to “boosting” and building enthusiasm for the team. However, the change of mascot generated controversies since some old fans thought Ozzie the cat could represent more of the team instead of a “hot chicken”. Nashville Sounds has played in the First Tennessee Park since 2015. The ballpark has a capacity of 10,000 and is located in the heart of Nashville near many local restaurants, bars and music venues, and the average attendance of Nashville Sounds rose from 7,099 in 2016 to 8,741 in 2018, making the franchise rank at the 4th among all Minor League Baseball teams. Moreover, the scoreboard in the ball part has a guitar shape, which indicates the importance of music industry in Nashville as well as its connection with the franchise. However, limited parking and more expensive parking price make it difficult to compete with all the surrounding events in Nashville.
Ozzie
Booster the Rooster
IN THE COMMUNITY As the capital city of Tennessee, Nashville is the home of country music, and it is the second-largest music production center after New York in the United States. The city has a population of 1,903,045 around the Metropolitan Area in 2017. Although more than 65% of the population are white, Black and Hispanic individuals also take a huge part of the demographic. Additionally, Nashville has an equal gender division, and most population in Nashville are aged from 20 to 35, with the median age 34.1. Baseball is historically the American sports and remains a large appeal across many target markets and demographics. However, baseball has seen a decline because of generations passing away that encompassed the demographic of baseball viewership, and many younger generations find baseball to be a long and sometimes boring sports compared with other sports activities. Despite all of the past changes with the Nashville Sounds and the overall trend of baseball, the cheap tickets have remained, which is a big appeal to the Sounds franchise.
BRAND ANALYSIS Baseball is a historically known as America’s sports and comes with great nationalism. Individuals attend baseball games mainly for entertainment, loyalty to the team, family outings and promotions at the ballpark. Nashville Sounds is a community-based, entertaining, affordable and engaging franchise, which provides audience more of the fun experience rather than professional baseball skills. To convey the brand image, Nashville Sounds hosts various events that pertain to different demographics such as Senior night, Military night, themed weekends, family fun day, firework show on Friday’s, dog related and food/drink specials.
To convey the brand image, Nashville Sounds’ logo features double red circles complete with navy blue "Nashville" and "Sounds" composed in the new "NASH" font in the outer circle. The inner red circle shaped like a baseball features a bold navy blue "N" with subtle characteristics derived from the F-hole of a guitar or violin. The Sounds also changed its mascot to an anthropomorphic rooster named Booster, and he is bright red with yellow legs, beak and comb, and red, yellow and orange tails feathers represent flames. Furthermore, with the theme colors of navy, bright red and white, the team’s jersey has a white background with navy blue "NASH" emblazoned across the chest. The "A" and "H" feature distinct custom crossbars angling up from left to right to pay respect to the unique shape of the right field hill at Sulphur Dell, the original home to professional baseball in Nashville. Additionally, the sleeves feature a stylized "NASH" pick in front of six guitar strings.
CURRENT STRATEGIES Nashville Sounds already has a series of promotional events to create a fun and engaging baseball experience, including Tito’s Tail Waggin’ Tuesday for dogs, Fox 17 News Friday Fireworks and Sunday Family Fun Day. These events encompass all demographic groups, from folks who have dogs to those who value families. To support the events and activities, Nashville Sounds partners with both nationally well-known enterprises and local companies such as Hyundai, Vanderbilt Health and Martin’s Famous Potato Rolls.
Tuesday's Tito's Tail Waggin
Sunday Family Fun Day
Additionally, Nashville Sounds connects with the community through various cause-related marketing strategies. For instance, the franchise created Hometown Heroes Program as a way to honor veterans and military members, and it also has Charity of the Game to spread awareness of charitable organizations among Nashville community. In 2004, the Sounds established the Nashville Sounds Foundation to positively impact the community through emphasizing education and social responsibilities. In 2016, the players and staff in the Sounds have dedicated almost 3,000 hours in community services, and in 2018, the foundation raised $71,000 to impact non-profit organizations.
Nashville Sounds also utilizes online and social media platforms to publicize its promotions. The website is clean and easy to navigate, and it categorizes different informations into groups such as “Ticket and Groups” and “Schedule and Promotions”, and it also presents the promotional schedules on the website, which clearly offers audiences references. Besides, they also leverage social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to advertise events as well as promote individual players, with hashtags such as “#SoundsRemastered” and “#Sounds”.
COMPETITOR RESEARCH Location: Charlotte, NC Characteristic: Minor League Baseball Team Average Attendance: 8,980 Strategies:
Charlotte Knights
Moved to BB&T stadium in 2014, which is located in central charlotte. low ticket price and sales constant merchandise promotions in themed events. (“Friends” themed t-shirt) conduct community programs at the stadium with events such as Pink Knights night. Location: Indianapolis, IN Characteristic: Minor League Baseball Team Average Attendance: 8,845 Strategies: Updating facilities in Victory Field made it recognized as
Indianapolis Indians
“Best Minor League Ballpark in America” in 2015 Changed 1,000 seats to picnic lawns and sell lawn ticket with no chairs at a even lower price Constantly holding theme nights in the stadium, such as Wine Wednesday, Father’s Day, Marvel’ Super Hero Night
Give back to community through programs such as donating unused season tickets to charitable and military organizations and nominating military members as Hero of the Game Partnership with big companies such as Toyota, Pepsi and Holiday Inn to get more funds
Location: Nashville, TN Characteristic: National Hockey League Team Average Attendance: 17,307
Nashville Predators
Strategies: Planting seeds - having kids signing up for youth hockey program and offered them free logo gears. Established different social media accounts - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, Pinterest and Snapchat, to build fan community. Built Nashville Predators Foundation to give back to community as well as hold events related to hockey. Having “Stand With Us” banners, flags and signs all over Nashville to remind individuals that the Predators represent the city.
Location: Nashville, TN Characteristic: National Football League Average Attendance: 65,651 Strategies:
Tennessee Titans
Partnered with Nissan, and rebranded stadium, which opened more franchise opportunities Promoted the brand through community activities such as Titans Tuesday and Youth Football Outreach. Establish fan zones such as Women’s Fan Club and Kids’ Club, which further promote ticket and merchandise sale through membership coupon and discounts.
local organizations and companies  could request the appearance of the mascot-T-Rac in their events, which not only generates revenue, but also increases brand loyalty. Location: Memphis, TN Characteristic: NBA Basketball Franchise Average Attendance: 15,569 Strategies:
Memphis Grizzlies
commit to community services in education, health and youth basketball, which creates a caring brand image among communities and creates brand loyalty. Partnered with the Memphis International Airport to gain more revenue and to increase brand awareness through advertising in airport. Partnered with big brands such as Nike and Ford to hold various community programs, which increases brand awareness among communities.
CONSUMER ANALYSIS People who aged from 25 to 29 and above 50 are most likely to be interested in baseball and attend baseball games. Individuals who have college degree or above would be more likely to be interested in baseball. People who have household income of $50,000 or more would be more likely to attend baseball games. Individuals who are married are more likely to attend baseball games. Families with two children engage in baseball the most. White individuals engage more in baseball.
Nashville Demographic
SWOT ANALYSIS
02
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
OBJECTIVES The ultimate goal of our campaign strategy is to reaffirm the brand image and raise the brand awareness of Nashville Sounds through consistent, integrated creative, to keep individuals’ interested in the team, and to further build connections between the franchise and Nashville community. We want to promote our game-day experience as well as outof-season activities that engage a diverse fan base, which makes Nashville Sounds a part of the authentic Nashville experience.
TARGET AUDIENCES Primary Target Audience Age: 20~30 Gender: Male and female Race: White Education: College degree or above Other: no kids Our primary target individuals have graduated from college and started their first careers. They value friendships and enjoys hanging out with friends. They’re probably married but they don’t have kids yet, so they have plenty of free time during weekends to have fun outside.
Secondary Target Audience Age: 45+ Gender: Male Education: College degree or above Other: Kids are grown up; has steady income Our secondary target audiences are white males above 45, who have college degree or above and live a stable life with steady income. Their kids are already grown-up, and they don’t need to worry about babysitting, therefore, they have a lot of free time to enjoy baseball games with their friends.
Tertiary Target Audience Families Have steady income Have kids Our tertiary target audiences are Nashville families with steady income and value family time. They have multiple kids and love to go out together during weekend, because the parents want their kids to have a happy and loving childhood.
BRANDING STRATEGY To meet our objectives, we want to reaffirm the brand identity with our audiences during this campaign to create more entertainment and ensure more brand loyalty in the long run. We want to target at different age groups so that all individuals can gain authentic Nashville experience through our events.
First of all, we plan to update the brand logo, to reinforce the connection between the franchise and Nashville community. As shown below, the new logo represents the incorporation of music from the large industry the community has in Nashville by the use of the guitar in our logo. As well as the color scheme of red, white and blue to represent America’s team. The font choice represents similar ones used in recognition with Nashville and the wavelengths of sound in music. Moreover, we also plan to build a physical hall of fame and statues of players in the stadium, and incorporate distinguished players that contributed to the team or have gone on to be star players in the major league. This could show the team’s competition and make audiences proud of the team, introduce the brand and increase Nashville Sounds’ brand awareness among younger generation, and further make the Sounds a part of the Nashville experience.
Furthermore, we also want to leverage online and social media platforms to spread and enhance brand personality, such as creating hashtags for fans to use, which could engage a more diverse community and have them connected to the game. This allows audience express their emotion, such as the pride with a win and sadness with a loss, which could enhance the fan community, as well as increase consumer interactions. Additionally, it can also help sell special merchandise after a winning game to earn profit for the franchise and to make audience memorize the proud moment.
ADVERTISING PLAN
The Nashville Experience We want to incorporate the Nashville experience by including the diverse community by bringing in famous local food and drink. As well as providing entertainment from the large music industry surrounding the city and bring more of a connection to the name, The Sounds. The Nashville Experience campaign is all-encompassing. It includes the creation of a brand image and personality, it will show how the team is a part of the community and has a connection to Nashville. The Nashville experience at a Sounds baseball game will also include local food, drink, and artists. All of these factors will help in generating a diverse crowd and advocate for inclusion of all.
Objectives Make connections between the Sounds and Nashville city, and show the brand image of Nashville Sounds that the brand cares for communities and all groups of individuals. Increase brand awareness among Nashville city and online platforms Promote events and theme days, to increase the sales of tickets as well as merchandises
Target Audience Individuals who love Nashville, as well as tourists who visit Nashville and want to have authentic Nashville experience. People who enjoy the baseball. People who values family and friends.
We want to have billboards targeting at specific audiences, especially our primary target group on his commute to and from work. The first billboard generally makes connections between audiences and the team, since it shows two players at the ballpark pointing at somewhere and says “We want you, (to)help make a sound”. This not only could be promotional advertisements for individual players, but it can also increase the interactions between the franchise and audience. The second billboard ties the team together with Nashville local experiences, such as food and the city view, which shows the team’s connection with the community, thus reaffirm our brand identity among audience. The third billboard promotes specific events such as the Tito's Tail Waggin' Tuesday, with a cute puppy wearing earphone, and the slogan “Nashville sounds so great” has multiple meanings, which corresponds with the puppies’ image and creates hook for the audiences.
Message Placement To reach out to the most population, we plan to place these billboard on highways, airport, bus stations, and as buswraps, so that people could see these advertisements on their way home, to work or even travel. They could also be used as online banner ads on the team’s website, twitter and facebook, to establish the team’s brand image online, to increase the awareness of the events and to generate buzz and increase audience interactions
EVENTS PLAN Since the ultimate goal of our campaign strategy is to raise the brand awareness of Nashville Sounds and build connections between the franchise and the community, we it is essential that we strengthen and solidify the emotions and values linked to Nashville Sounds – high energy, entertainment and a devout sense of community.
In-Game Events
Bachelorette Party
Nashville has become a prime spot for bachelorette parties, therefore, for in-game events, we plan to launch a Bachelorette Night, and the goal of this event is to attract our primary target audience, younger generation, to attend the games, to promote ticket and merchandise sales, to create a entertaining game experience and to connect baseball games with Nashville traditional experience. Hosted by tinder. there will be a singles section for single men and women to meet in the ballpark. Furthermore, the sounds can handout red cups, yellow cups, and green cups, which will signify the individuals dating status. There will also be special bracelets for sale in the gift shop.
In-Game Events
Food Cart Night
The culture around food trucks in Nashville is a staple item because of their unique and renowned food. Therefore, we want to hold a Food Cart Night to bring in both tourists and locals of all ages to experience the Nashville food. We want people to associate the ballpark with the great food and ambiance of the city. We will give them an opportunity to engage in a night market atmosphere that has all kinds of foods and trinkets for people to explore while being at the field. The event will be held on the ball field, where all of the food trucks, food carts, and restaurant booths will be set up. Food will obviously be covered by these factors. Tickets will be pre-sold, and can be bought at the door depending on how many are left. The tickets will also first be advocated to season ticket holders. Beverages will be sold by the people at the stadium that walk up and down the rows with the beverages around there neck (gives the baseball feel). There will be a T-shirt’s sold at a booth, as well as the Sounds regular merchandise. A potential sponsor of this event will be Choice Food Distributors, a wholesale food distributor. They will have the opportunity to have advertisements around the stadium and on their shirts. Sponsoring this event can get them to be known by the local restaurants as a food supplier. This could be a potential business opportunity for them.
CRM INITIATIVES In this campaign, we also want to utilize cause-related marketing to build the brand image for Nashville Sounds that the franchise connects with and cares about the community.
Everyday Hero Nomination Based on the existing “Hometown Heroes Program” that Nashville Sounds already had, we plan to further create a “Everyday Hero Nomination” that every game will honor an “Everyday Hero” someone who has done well within the community by allowing them to come on the field to be on the jumbotron and meet the fans and players. We hope to utilize this program to further establish the brand image of Nashville Sounds, and encourage everyone to care and support the community. This program will be sponsored by Jackson Life Insurance, a locally known and successful insurance company in Nashville area. It could help cover the costs of events and care packages for the affected people. It would benefit from this partnership because their name would be associated with doing positive things within the community they are very present within. Another potential sponsor could be Dollar General, and they could benefit from this partnership because it is not only their community but the promotions and events we will be doing are helping out lowincome families and the homeless which are who their products are geared towards. For every nomination, Dollar General will donate money for The Nashville Rescue Mission, and Jackson Life Insurance will provide funds for events and care packages.
To raise funds for “Everyday Hero Nomination”, we plan to donate 5% of the revenue from ticket sales and merchandises from every out-of-season events, such as concerts and Food Cart Night, we hold in the ballpark. For the concerts, the ticket prices are from $50 to $75, and season ticket holders can have a priority for tickets. In order to publicize this initiative, we want to partner with our sponsors to create serious of billboards, which could be put on highways, bus stations or as bus wraps. We will put banner ads and online posters on Nashville Sounds’ website, our sponsors’ websites, as well as on social media platform.
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