The Blue Jays 2003 print advertising campaign, prepared by Toronto agency MacLaren McCann, won the 2004 National Sports Forum ADchievement Award last week in Chicago as the best in sports. The other finalists, from more than 100 submissions, were the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Toledo Mud Hens, Ohio State University and Russell Athletic. Jim Bloom, the club's Director of Consumer Marketing, says, "The Baseball North campaign was designed to strike a chord and connect Toronto fans with the players and the team. The success of the creative arranged through MacLaren McCann was validated by increased game attendance, as well as a surge in television ratings and traffic on bluejays.com. To have an award of this nature to cap off these results is quite an honour."
Asked by Kris Johnson of Sports Business Daily if he had any regrets about the notorious "Boo Matsui" ad, which featured bird droppings on a Yankees cap, Bloom was unapologetic. "Our job is to get the highest possible impact for the lowest possible cost. If you look at the results of that ad -- and baseball interest at the time in Toronto was dormant, we were still going into the hockey playoffs, there was a lot to battle there -- by the time the smoke cleared, we had our first 50,000-person crowd since 1995 and our highest TV rating in four or five years. It got people back into the Blue Jays."
Some of us liked the campaign more than others, but it was certainly effective; we discussed it here at length more than once, and non-fans also took notice. I thought many of the TV spots were brilliant, especially the weight room argument between the now-departed catchers over Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr. Interestingly enough, a few ads that missed the mark with me were Mrs. Coach's favourites. I don't expect to see the Cy Young winner in a frilly dress this season, but I hope they don't lose that irreverent sense of humour as the focus shifts for 2004. Though it may still be a different kind of game up here, this year's tagline is "Baseball North: You've Gotta See These Guys Play."
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