FOX Sports has quite the job ahead of them moving consumers over to FS1 on Saturdays, but their latest campaign pushing “MLB Saturdays” seems like it is a great start. The campaign has been rolled out over the past month or so and features MLB stars such as Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, and Big Papi. Instead of the usual quick hitting highlights, FS1 has taken a more humor oriented approach which is necessary and fits the brand quite well (not to mention the current digital landscape).
The good folks at Ad Age sat down with Robert Gottlieb, exec VP of marketing for Fox Sports Media Group, and got some good nuggets of background on the campaign.
The message: the best day of the week just got better with the Saturday baseball games on FS1.
“Every Saturday you can just sit back and feel like a great old captain,” says the narrator flashing a picture of “cool” captains such as James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Finally, we see the coolest captain of all: Mr. Jeter nodding and smiling in his Yankee pinstripes.
The FS1 ads will serve primarily as an “awareness campaign,” said Mr. Gottlieb.
“People don’t know, necessarily, that Fox Sports 1 is going to be broadcasting baseball. So we really wanted to make something that communicated, very clearly, Saturday Baseball on Fox Sports 1 as a destination. We definitely wanted to use baseball star players to help carry the mail for us and deliver the message. But we wanted to cut through the clutter. And do something other than clips of baseball players, which can kind of get lost in the wash.”
It remains to be seen if viewers will flock to FS1 on Saturdays for the MLB, but we should find out soon enough.
