Nike’s Retail Brand Marketing division and their partner Dick’s Sporting Goods wanted to own Major League Baseball’s All Star Game weekend with a call that rallied the city of Pittsburgh and positioned both companies at the heart of baseball culture. That was a tall order given the hype and media frenzy surrounding the event. To stand out, our campaign, “Beware the Long Ball”, hit the street with a grass roots effort inspired by government public service announcements of days past — warning citizens of the danger of having baseball’s biggest sluggers in town launching high-velocity baseballs upon the citizens of Pittsburgh.

The campaign launched with a radio commercial in the style of a Federal Emergency Broadcast Warning. Then came transit shelters, bus boards, newspaper ads, handouts, wild postings, street teams and a raving lunatic. These executions allowed the campaign to live apart from the busy environment of more traditional, big budget advertising — enabling the message to connect with the local citizens in an immediate and personal way. The urgency and local focus of the creative made it easy for people to share the message with friends, family and co-workers. Ultimately, purchased media served to support the more important and effective word-of-mouth.

The immediate effects were clearly visible -neighborhoods embraced the cause, placing handouts, stickers and posters in windows and establishing new “Long Ball Shelters” daily. The entire line of clothing Nike and Dick’s had created for the event sold out city-wide. With just a $171k media budget, the message reached hundreds of thousands in a few short weeks and was mentioned in newspapers and on television news. Beyond the sales revenue, both companies succeeded at a higher level: Dick’s further entrenched itself within the Pittsburgh sports scene and Nike solidified its position as a leading provider of baseball gear and apparel.