So I want to start out by saying I stand firmly by my previous post’s statement that inviting President Obama to throw out the first pitch of the season opener is a tremendous idea. However, upon further review and an e-mail conversation with Benjamin Hill, from the Ben’s Biz Blog at MLB Blogs, I’ve come to the realization that a great idea doesn’t always translate into a successful promotion. The most important aspect of promotions happens to be execution. You can take a mediocre promotion and execute it perfectly, making it a huge success. Conversely, you can take an incredible promotion and execute it poorly, making it a mediocre success. The case we have here seems to fit the latter category.
Below is some commentary on the Charlotte Knights’ idea by Benjamin Hill from an e-mail conversation earlier today:
“While I agree completely that it is an effective, low-cost way to generate a little pre-season publicity, I do think the team could have been a bit more creative in their approach. A three-paragraph press release with one uninspired quote isn’t exactly going to get the local media revved up for the story. I think the team should have provided a bit more substance, and a bit more levity. When it comes to this kind of stuff, nothing is too corny…the team could have tied Opening Day into Obama’s message of “hope” and “change”, bribed him and his family with team merchandise, publicized their own “economic stimulus” plan, etc. etc. etc.”
Now that Mr. Hill mentions it, I couldn’t agree more that the idea is a great one, but would have loved to see the team take it even further, making it even more likely to gain some traction in the media. Both the Knights and Obama have a Twitter account (I’m SURE the President is who controls his account, too! 
So a simple way to get Twitter users aware would be to send a public invite over Twitter. Furthemore, I’m still waiting for the Twitter account to post something about the promotion in general.
When reading the press release, I had hoped to find out some more concrete details about what exactly the team was doing in terms of inviting him. This would have been a simple way to get some extra interest built up around the promotion.
Moral of the story: execution is everything. Also, be sure to check out Ben’s Biz Blog for insight and coverage on the latest happenings around Minor League Baseball. It’s one of the blogs I regularly read and you will surely see some links to his posts in my upcoming weekly reading list segments.
