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Tyler Pyburn We’re officially at the midway point in the Major League Baseball season, and there’s already one clear cut winner. No, it’s not the Atlanta Braves who currently has the best record in baseball. It’s the 54-35, second place in the AL East Baltimore Orioles. The reason – content.
At the end of May, just two months into the season, they caught plenty of attention for the release of their new City Connect uniforms. Not just because of the look, but because of the way they revealed it to the public.
Four tweets in the span of an hour launched the new uniform concept into the next stratosphere. Here’s a breakdown of how they did it.
We are Baltimore. You can’t clip these wings. pic.twitter.com/4eQAdPtmjy
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 22, 2023
Pictures are great. Videos are great. Infographics, well, those are amazing. Doing all of the above is next level. The O’s rolled out just about every type of well-produced content you can think of to suit their audience. Their long form video (above) served as initial fire starting piece of content. It not only showcases the uniform itself but highlights specific, notable, parts of the city. This made for an almost insider’s only type launch. But with over 600,000 views on twitter alone, that’s a lot of insiders.
5 minutes after the main video dropped, the Orioles followed up with still frames from their media day type photo shoot. The shoot took place on a custom background with all the colors featured in the uniform as well as the initial video. This made it feel like a true content campaign.
Most teams would stop there. However, the Orioles were far from done. Just 30 minutes after the images made it out to the public, Baltimore released what might be my favorite piece of content; a series of images with graphics and text overlaid explaining the meaning of each color, outline, and shape. Basically, if you couldn’t put it togehter by seeing the first two posts, they did it for you. That post has garnered over 1.1 million views alone.
Finally the team capped off their social-spree with yet another video. This one happened to be nothing but hype. The team leveraged the same custom built backdrop that was seen in the images and graphics and got the blood flowing with music.
The fans we’re not only raving over the new uniforms but the content as well. So much so that there were well over a million views on the various pieces of content. From Sports Illustrated to the Washington Post, just about every media organization was posting and re-posting it to their website. (Just like us.) even the players were excited to wear the new uniforms.
“This’ll be the first time I’ve actually worn Baltimore on the front of my uniform — in Baltimore,” said Orioles outfielder Austin Hays in a press release. “It’s going to be special to put that jersey on for the first time and step out in front of the Camden Yards crowd. It’s an honor to be able to represent this city and its people like this.”
There are plenty of people that will say don’t overwhelm your audience with social content. The Orioles clearly took a different approach. By flooding their channels with various types of good content, they were able to capture as many eyes as possible in a short window. Brands can catapult themselves to the top of the algorithm by taking this exact approach. But, as I mentioned, the content has to be good and different in order to standout.
It’s Baltimore versus the world. pic.twitter.com/zk73GPNFjR
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 22, 2023
The brilliance was also in the backdrop the Orioles used in their posts. It was a simple stage with painted brick walls. Very similar to what you would find at your local hardware store. They didn’t have an extravegant studio. They simply leveraged the solid branding and the personalities of their influencers – their players.
Schools, businesses and organizations should certainly take note. Spend a day in the office and create your own media day. Generate a ton of content. Then flood your social channels. If it’s great, your audience will surely notice.
