A Major League Slump : Baseball Faces a Challenge in Boosting Its Image Among Fans

When troubled Major League Baseball was scouting for an ad agency last year, one of Madison Avenue’s top image makers concocted this simple slogan: “Welcome to the Show.” He suggested that baseball develop an image campaign focused entirely on the allure of its stars.

“I wanted to help baseball turn around a big image problem,” said Cliff Freeman, founder of the New York agency Cliff Freeman & Partners. “But all they cared about was how to sell baseball caps.” Freeman’s agency, which was summarily snubbed by the league, was lauded last week for creating the most popular ads of 1992--not for baseball, alas, but for Little Caesar’s pizza.

With Opening Day less than three weeks away, baseball has more than pizza on its face. A torrent of image problems is vexing Major League Baseball. The game is increasingly perceived as being too slow. And there is growing disenchantment among fans with players viewed by many as crybabies or lawbreakers--and owners who are regarded as greedy if not racist. Jesse Jackson is still threatening a league boycott if front-office minority hiring doesn’t improve.

As a result, experts say the task of promoting baseball to fans in 1993 may be a marketing minefield.

How bad are things? Well, baseball executives have powwowed with top brass from Creative Artists Agency--the Beverly Hills firm that Coca-Cola also turned to for some sorely needed image oomph.

If paid attendance is a fair measure of popularity, baseball is in a serious slump. Attendance was off by nearly 1 million fans last year compared to the year before, and 18 of 26 clubs reported attendance drops. In a recent Gallup Poll, when men 18 to 29 were asked to name their favorite spectator sport, only 12% said baseball--compared to 20% who picked basketball and 42% who named football.

“Major League Baseball has a major-league image problem,” said Al Ries, chairman of the Greenwich, Conn.-based corporate image firm Trout & Ries.

Nobody believes that anyone in baseball cares about the fan anymore, said Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports. “The average paid shortstop, who bats .250 or .210, makes about a million dollars a year. But when was the last time you heard about a baseball player signing an autograph for a kid, except at a show where you have to pay $25 to get in?”

The league must devise a better way to make ballplayers “bigger than life,” Ries said. Baseball, he added, must anoint a Michael Jordan.

The problem is, baseball doesn’t have a Michael Jordan to anoint.

“In basketball, there is one guy--Michael Jordan--who embodies the game,” said Brett Shevack, president of Partners & Shevack, which creates ads for Major League Baseball. “But that’s not the case in baseball. Baseball is a game that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.”

Big marketers routinely give baseball players the thumbs-down. “Baseball is simply not hot anymore with advertisers,” said Dave Burns, a Chicago-based sports marketer.

Only a few baseball players appear in ads for products unrelated to sports. Pitching ace Nolan Ryan, 46, is in ads for Advil, and Bo Jackson, whose ailing hip and hamstring have left him questionable for the season, has been in Pepsi spots. While Jordan can command millions for long-term contracts with Nike, Hanes and McDonald’s, Ryan reportedly is paid just $300,000 for his two-year contract with Advil and about the same for his deal with Wrangler jeans.

“The phone certainly doesn’t ring as much as we’d like it to,” said Brian Cohen, vice president of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, which represents numerous top baseball players, including such big names as sluggers Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco.

That could change. For the first time, Major League Baseball is considering a campaign that would place the players alone in the limelight, said Len Coleman, who was recently named to the newly created post of executive director of market development.

“Baseball has been slow to develop its marketing on a national level,” Coleman said. “Historically, most of the marketing has been done on a franchise level, but that strategy is presently under review.”

For the time being, however, Major League Baseball will stick with the same slogan it used last year in its ads: “Catch the Fever.”

Shevack insists that the tone of the league’s upcoming campaign will not be swayed by baseball’s troubles. “Negative press makes our job tougher, but it doesn’t guide our efforts,” Shevack said. “We’re cognizant of baseball’s problems, but that’s not something that the advertising needs to address.”

Despite all the fan complaints about baseball, “if you make too many changes to the game, it won’t be baseball anymore,” warned Ries. Still, earlier this month, team owners gave preliminary approval to doubling the number of playoff teams and realigning the leagues into more logical geographic divisions. But these changes wouldn’t take effect until 1995 or so.

Baseball has also begun to target African-Americans by hiring a minority-owned ad agency, and this summer it will help underwrite the first inner-city World Series. Major League Baseball also plans to increasingly target Latino consumers, Coleman said.

To bolster fan interest, baseball might want to take a tip from the San Francisco agency that creates ads for the NBA--and for baseball’s Oakland Athletics. That agency, Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein, is about to unveil a new campaign for the Athletics that tries to “humanize” the players, said Rich Silverstein, co-founder of the firm.

Athletics ads will show the silly sides of players, Silverstein said. “I know these guys are viewed as millionaires who drive fast cars and get into trouble, but the trick is to take them out of the superstar status and make them people again.”

Briefly . . .

Hakuhodo Advertising America, which once employed more than 50 people in Los Angeles, will close its Los Angeles office within a month, and Managing Director Tom Burr is moving to the New York office. . . . Twentieth Century Fox is talking to Los Angeles ad shops about its $60-million media buying account, according to Adweek. . . . The Los Angeles agency Bowes Dentsu & Partners, which already handles direct marketing for Air New Zealand, has also been handed all consumer and trade advertising for the $3-million account. . . . Torrance-based Saatchi & Saatchi has picked up the $2-million account for the Connecticut Toyota Dealers Advertising Assn. . . . Creative Artists Agency of Beverly Hills is talking to TV production firms about converting the animated polar bear characters from a TV spot it created for Coke into a TV sitcom. . . . CAA has also held discussions with American Express about developing event sponsorships. . . . The Los Angeles firm Ellis & Ross Advertising & Design will produce the program book for the 65th Academy Awards. . . . Special effects wizards from Industrial Light & Magic will show how they do their film tricks at the March 24 noon meeting of the Advertising Club of Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Swinging and Missing? Last year, paid attendance at baseball games was off by nearly 1 million from 1991, with 18 of 26 clubs reporting a drop in attendance. Paid attendance in millions 1991: 56.8 1992: 55.9 Source: Major League Baseball