Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Rays Stick with Marketing Campaign that Sold 17,857 Tickets/Gm Last Year

"If it's a winner, why switch?" Tampa Bay Times business columnist Robert Trigaux rhetorically asks, in describing the Rays' recently-unveiled 2015 marketing campaign, which will once again feature the "Rays Up" mantra.

Trigaux reports how "Rays Up" seemed to resonate with fans in 2014; which, after another last-place attendance finish, begs the question of what would attendance have looked like with an unsuccessful marketing campaign?!?

Jokes aside, there's something to be said for sticking with a single campaign and reinforcing what you want fans to take away from it.  With all the other changes Rays fans will see on the field this year, at least the message from the front office will be familiar.

Among the tidbits revealed in Trigaux's piece:
• Watch for the Rays (sunshine) "burst" graphic that appears on player hats and shirts to gain an even higher profile. "It's kind of our Nike swoosh," says Brian Richeson, Rays vice president of sales and service. Also watch for more "Carolina blue" on Rays uniforms rather than the darker cobalt blue so commonly used by some other teams. And fans that purchase "flex pack" games (three, six or nine games, for example) receive their tickets on a Rays card, introduced in 2014, that this year will feature parking at the Trop at half price.

• More than two dozen promotional giveaways at games this year will range from a Rays cowboy hat (6/26) and fedora (8/8), to a Rays camo tank top (5/24), an intense looking Chris Archer bobblehead (4/25) and, for comic relief, a Longoria-styled rubber duck (4/19).

• Noting the 10-year anniversary of the Rays under owner Stu Sternberg, Fernandez and Rays Foundation head Suzanne Luecke want to leverage the "Rays up" message in the team's expanding community involvement, with projects ranging from Take Stock in Children education scholarships, Chris Archer's involvement in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program and a Be Water Smart effort to help reduce child drownings, among other campaigns.

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