Blog 5 Slovacek

Parker Jenkins

Blog 5

Slovacek Sausage Sponsorship

“Let’s MEAT tonights contestants!” The immense crowds at Blue Bell Park roar with excitement as the fifth inning annual sausage race is announced to begin. Antsy in their seats, the passionate Aggie baseball fans cheer on their favorite pick of the three Slovacek's sausages: Summer sausage, Jalapeano sausage and the fan favorite Beefy sausage. Snook, Texas graciously shared The Slovacek Company with the rest of us in 1957, resulting in sausage enthusiasts from all over. Later, partnering with Texas A&M Baseball, The favored meat producers decided to creatively express their meats to the hot dog craving, baseball loving fan base while also providing mid-game refreshers by the now famously known Fifth Inning Sausage Races.  

Holding the spot as the 5th team in the country for the past two years, Aggie baseball has been attracting growing numbers to their seats. By engaging the baseball fans, the  Sausage Races increase the attention on the field. The company activated their sponsorship by slowly launching their meats around campus at smaller events such as Big Event. Formulating ways to increase their brand, by using Jalapeno sausage, Summer sausage and Beefy sausage as racing competitors allows an introduction to their meat produce. Slovacek's fifth inning races was finally a technique that produced positive results. Taking this method a step further, The Slovacek Company could potentially gain more revenue by taking polls before the fifth inning and passing out coupons to the lucky winners that guessed the champion sausage of that race. Also, the staff of this company could be present at the games, working hard to inform incoming fans and passing out lists of locations currently selling their products. Watching the advertisement every fifth inning, The Slovacek Company is expanding their name as the crowd itself expands. Its a tied ball game when it comes to the Sponsorship Title between Texas A&M baseball and The Slovacek Company. 

With the variety of yells, chants, hand gestures and other Olsen traditions, being involved in the action is almost impossible to escape. Adding to the ballpark amusement, Slovacek’s meat has added a spark through a game that gets the entire crowd excited about the last out in the top of the fifth inning.  A sponsorship should be emotional, relevant, immersive, efficient but most importantly, interactive and Slovacek does just that. Interacting the crowd with the ballgame essentially leads to higher percentages in interaction in the between inning trivias, games, and more. In The Slovacek Company’s case, they allow three of their most popular  flavor sausages to race around the bases. When the jumbotron shows these three competitors lined up at home plate the fans immediately react. Shouting out the name of which sausage they believe will reach back to home plate first, the Slovacek brand definitely creates certain favoritism for themselves. Interacting with the crowds has lead to the fan favorite: Beefy Sauasge. Twitter was even brought into the picture by having an account created for Beefy to interact even more with people who may not be present at the baseball games.  The upbeat music, bright colors and the quick process grasps the attention of the fans patiently waiting to see what the remainder of the inning will bring. 

Personally, attending an Aggie baseball game would not be complete without one of the delicious Slovacek hotdogs sold at Olsen Field’s concession stands. These hotdogs are a prime example of how Slovacek is using their products in the most efficient way possible for sponsorship. Having these products be sold within the field allows the fans and guests to have first hand experience in trying these flavorful sausages. By selling out at Olsen, Slovacek is gaining more business by providing samples of their meats. Although they only really advertise through a few number of organizations and events, they make every one of them count. However, I also feel as if it hurts the  company by only advertising at very few things. Since Slovacek is only a meat factory based company it limits people to only have their product at a major event such as a baseball game or big event. Slovacek is now a widely known popular brand around the Brazos that it’s almost a given that you’ll find someone cooking one of their meats at either their home or at a tailgate.

Sponsoring is the most effective way to progress a business. Boosting the visibility of your brand is the number one way for you to stay successful. I feel as though the way Slovacek goes about their sponsoring tactics is extremely smart. They discovered a way to connect with the Aggie baseball audience while also providing a way for the fans to taste their products through selling hotdogs within the concession stands. Slovacek partnering with Aggie baseball was a fantastic way to keep their business fresh and raise recognition. 

Play Ball Campaign

MLB “PLAY BALL” CAMPAIGN

Given the title America’s greatest pastime, baseball has not only been a traditionally loved sport, but also creates building blocks towards learning experiences within the players. Our country’s youth presents dominance when shaping our futures, thus giving us a strong belief that in addition to providing recreational fun, baseball also demands a healthy and nutritional lifestyle. Major League Baseball realized the connection between the fire built in young athletes hearts and the much needed motivational direction and crafted the idea to create their famous “Play Ball” campaign.

“Play Ball” was created by the MLB with the intentions to target young athletes that are beginning their baseball career to modify their lifestyles. Promoting a Lifestyle of Activity for Youth or the Play Ball campaign takes many different routes when it comes to marketing and promoting their initial idea behind the campaign. Through advertising in ballparks, during MLB game broadcasts, the creation of a mobile app, their website and many other ways, “Play Ball” had begun boosting baseball participation all over. Recently I have started coaching a Spring Little League baseball team. Working with the prime ages of 10 to 11 year-olds, I get the privilege of seeing the passion for the beautiful game in the attitudes of these kids at such a young age. It is truly a motivating experience and when I heard of MLB’s campaign, I couldn't help but to agree with their dedicated vision to educate today’s youth in all the different aspects and beauty that baseball has to offer starting right now, with their age groups. USA Baseball and the MLB came together to not only help the kids get active in participating in baseball, but, helping with coaches with little experience at providing the proper way to teach the game. The Play Ball coaching app provides hundreds of drills to use at practices, charts of what each age group should primarily focus on, and videos that demonstrate how each exercise should be done. Play Ball also allows parents to get their children involved in baseball-playing opportunities through an outlet called “Baseball Near You”. The parents use this tool by entering their zip-code and it shows them the closest league they can be apart of. There are over 10,000 leagues in the databases and they provide everything needed to know in signing their child up. 

As most major marketing campaigns, “Play Ball” is no exception in going through  the roller coaster to success. Kids all around the country idolize themselves to be like their favorite player, so, one example would be that MLB sent Miami Marlin Giancarlo Stanton to New York to promote the campaign by playing wiffle ball with the kids next to Yankee Stadium. Rob Manfred stated that kids can still play, develop their skills, and enjoy the game without having the essential items to play such as a uniform, two teams, and umpires. One of the biggest weaknesses is that MLB can’t get around to every teams city to spread awareness within the year. Especially the lower income cities such as Detroit and St. Petersburg. They are making efforts to improve that by giving free tickets to the game, and meeting players. So therefore they raise awareness for Play Ball and try to fill the seats for the game. 

Major League Baseball is beginning to partner with their clubs and outside organizations to fulfill their goal of reaching out to the kids to about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and provide encouragement for their aspiring dreams to play professional baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks and their head trainer hosted 50 kids at their field to discuss these issues. They divided them into groups to talk about eating right while also having fun by participating in baseball drills on the diamond. The main  focus was consuming fruits and vegetables, eating consistently throughout the day, keeping hydrated, eating healthy snacks like fruits or whole grains and getting enough fiber. Meyers, who is an executive of an advocate group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities said “I think it's probably not foremost in their mind that what they're engaging in here is living out the message of PLAY, but you see in the kind of energy they're devoting to it, you see in the excitement they're feeling about it that what they want to do is be active.”  A similar situation happened with Elvis Andrus and the Texas Rangers. Elvis explained his path to the big leagues and how he felt intimidated by everyone else because he so much smaller than they were. When he signed with the Atlanta Braves at 16, he only weighed 160 pounds. Trying to give the sense that you're not always going to be the best or the biggest but to do everything you can do to give yourself the opportunity for success through having a healthy lifestyle. Ryan Rua, an outfielder of the Rangers added “At younger ages, you're always just excited to get out there and you're not really worried about your body. So these kids learning this at this age is going to benefit them.” 

Through the Play Ball campaign, and the different outlets such as “Baseball Near You”, Major League Baseball is engaging in every opportunity for kids in America to play the game while learning the keys to living a healthy life. 

Sources

Newman, M. (19 June, 2015) "MLB and USA Baseball Launch Play Ball." Major League Baseball. Retrieved from http://m.mlb.com/news/article/131434516/mlb-and-usa-baseball-launch-play-ball

Korona, C. (2 May, 2015) “Elvis Andrus, Rangers Join PLAY Campaign." Major League Baseball. Retrieved from http://m.mlb.com/news/article/121979242/elvis-andrus-rangers-join-play-campaign

Lichtenstein, A. (25 June, 2014) "PLAY Campaign Makes Stop at Chase Field." Major League Baseball. Retrieved from http://m.mlb.com/news/article/81619334/play-campaign-makes-stop-at-chase-field