White Sox
THE GAME PLAN
We simply focused attention on the way the White Sox play the game – hard-nosed team play. This strategy allowed us to avoid the inevitable issues of wins and losses. As long as the team played the right way, the fans would get what they wanted. We branded the team with “Win. Or Die Trying.” This attitude became a rallying cry for the team and its fans – and a shared bond that reignited the emotional relationship between them.
In support, we developed the “Grinder Ball Rules” to reflect the White Sox unique style of play – with rule number one being “Win. Or Die Trying.” The 2005 “Grinder Ball Rule” campaign was a fully integrated marketing program featuring:
• 20 print ads • 22 television spots • 14 radio spots • 18 out-of-home executions
The “Grinder Ball Rules” campaign became the talk of Chicago throughout the 2005 season. Sox fans went crazy for the campaign, proclaiming the “Grinder Ball Rules” everywhere, often creating their own rules for in-game signs, homemade brochures, and web blogs.
Creatively, the campaign has won accolades from the Chicago Creative Club Awards, the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing and the National Sports Forum. Strategically, it endeared the unique brand values of the entire White Sox organization to all of Chicago.
INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN
The Southside Chicago baseball team had been stagnating in the previous 5 years even though they had built a new state of the art baseball facility the was second to none.
A new coach, new players and a new stadium that people were not going to. All located in a less than desirable location on the City of Chicago’s south side. Oh, and the team had been wiping up the cellar for many years. Did I mention that public transportation was an issue as well
POSTERS
Integrated campaign included custom posters as well.
PRINT ADS
20 different print ads for less than 20K production costs using the stop action game footage we shot on the broadcast shoot. Game changer.
BROADCAST
We had to create a broadcast campaign without using any new footage from the team. We were allowed to shoot stock game footage so we used the SONY Swing Vision camera that shoots 15,000 frames a second and created these for a fraction of traditional media.
YOUTUBE
TSSCBOT, The South Side of Chicago Bureau of Tourism. Started as a viral campaign that exploded on to the national scene and made a star of one of our interns.
ACCOLADES
Chicago Advertising Critic, Lazare, loved the campaign!
