Jan

30

How the MLB pitched its new network

Filed Under Sports PR 

The January 5th issue of PR Week included an article about how the MLB pitched “key and online media for its network launch.” As many of you know, the MLB Network was launched on New Year’s Day 2009 at 6pm EST and was expected to reach around 50 million U.S. homes.

The article talked to Matt Bourne, the VP of business PR for the MLB, about what they focused their announcement efforts on and mentioned that they had two phases of PR.

“We’re launching during the offseason, [so] we’ve been reiterating that this is the largest launch in cable television history,” Bourne said. “We’re releasing news items every day because [we're] launching at a time when a lot of people are out with the holidays.”

So not only did the MLB release a press release each day in the 10 days leading up to the launch with new tidbits of information in each one, but they also reached out to the online community via a Facebook fan page and pitching announcements and tips prior to a release to bloggers. By doing so, they were able to reach out “to the ‘hardcore’ online baseball community of fans, who are ‘rabid in terms of info.’”

But the MLB did not stop after the successful launch of the network. The next PR phase will coincide with spring training when fans start really gearing up for the baseball season.

“We plan on making on-air talent widely available in the lead-up to the start of [baseball] season to both promote the network and offer their analysis and expertise with a variety of media,” Bourne noted.

It’s encouraging to see the league actively reaching out to the usual suspects (general interest, sports, and media trade publications), but also to the bloggers and the online community of baseball fans. PR agencies are frequently using blogger outreach in their work, but the professional sport leagues seem to finally start realizing the benefit of doing so especially as newspapers start cutting their coverage of the game.

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