Winning Opening Day and Beyond

Graphic of a baseball player swinging a bat in a video game

Brand

Sony Playstation

Harnessing the All-Star Potential of a Big-League Gaming Franchise

As Playstation’s best-selling baseball game, MLB: The Show, returned for an eighth edition, Sony called on Amp for some bullpen relief to keep its game in the game a little longer.

Here’s how we helped Sony Playstation capitalize on timely passion points to sustain success into the regular season.

Challenge

Marketing with the Bases Loaded

As another baseball season approached, Sony found itself in the marketing equivalent of a bases-loaded jam. Each March, the release of MLB The Show led off with huge buzz and massive sales at launch, but then quickly slumped by the end of spring training.

Insights

Capitalizing on Optimism

If MLB: The Show’s brand proposition is being “So Real It’s Unreal”, there should be no delineation between the game and Major League Baseball itself. And, since both were launching near-simultaneously, an opportunity existed to capitalize on the fans’ optimism and passion, which is never higher than at the start of the season.

Solution

Leading Off the Season with a Home Run

To establish a sustainable connection between MLB: The Show and the game of baseball itself, we laid out a bold directive for social media communication: Own Opening Day.

Content

Activating Influencers with Vine Baseball Cards

To command the attention of social influencers, we invented a first-of-its-kind content tool: The Vine Baseball Card.

Using MLB: The Show’s advanced player creation tools, we crafted perfectly lifelike versions of leading baseball and gaming tastemakers and inserted them into the game as playable characters. We then created personalized Vine baseball cards, featuring each influencer in action for his favorite team, and presented them as an Opening Day surprise.

Content

Fantasy-Ready Projections to Excite “Seamheads”

We also created a series of content using MLB: The Show’s advanced in-game technology to engage fans with statistical predictions for the upcoming season – a bonanza for the stat junkies and armchair pundits who were just gearing up for their fantasy baseball drafts.

Content

Rivalry Cinematics to Drive Engagement

We used the game’s ultra-realistic graphics engine and in-game recording features to create epic highlight clips for the upcoming season and then used geo-targeting to enable fans to share them with their rivals just before first pitch.

REal-Time
Content
Updates

Shareable Victory Celebrations

We created a massive online event, setting up a real-time content studio at PlayStation headquarters. From there, we delivered an all out slugfest of up-to-the-minute content that enabled Opening Day’s real-life winners to share some good-natured smack-talk with their rivals..

Media

Opening Day Response That Keeps the Rally Going

In the days following Opening Day, we connected with writers from digital outlets to promote MLB: The Show‘s innovative approach, using features that illustrate the game’s “So Real It’s Unreal” proposition and showing fans what it’s like to truly be in the game.

Ecosystem

Platform Planning

Product Launch Awareness
Boosted via in-game action content and socially connected fantasy baseball apps.

Influencer Campaign
Our Vine baseball cards got the attention of key influencers who rewarded MLB: The Show with massive earned reach using their digital channels

Earning a seat at the pop-culture table helped MLB: The Show achieve a second wave of interest in the game that stemmed the tide expected from previous years’ trends. Just as in baseball, the stats don’t lie.

+10x

Social Engagement from Past Years

+3.5%

Percent of all Opening Day Conversation tied to MLB the Show

+20MM

Social Impressions

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