Data-Driven Insights From “Cerealized” Fans At Twins, Marlins Stadiums
BY ADAM GROSSMAN
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC) has been known to add irreverence to its marketing and advertising campaigns. Its current Pinned Tweet on its Twitter profile states, “Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a top 2 cereal and it's not 2.”
CTC’s cereal ranking, however, appears to be not the only place where it is using both irreverence and data. CTC squares now serve as cardboard cutout fans in the left field seats of the Minnesota Twins and the Miami Marlins ball parks.
The “irreverence” comes from the expressions on the squares’ “faces” and the idea that the squares can be fans of the teams. The range of expressions is familiar to anyone that has used an emoji in a social media post or text message.
However, there also appears to be a significant amount of data analysis that comes from this activation. One of the primary goals of brands in the current environment is to maximize sentiment, engagement, and awareness through sponsorship activations.
When it comes to baseball, having signage behind home plate is typically the most valuable activation because so much of the action happens between the pitcher, catcher and batter. More specifically, almost the entire television broadcast showcases the fans behind home plate.
The most exciting play in baseball, however, is the home run. Increasingly (in large part due to on-field analytics) players are trying to hit home runs. As the Chicago Sun-Times noted, “home runs, strikeouts and walks [are] dominating again” with home runs accounting for 44.21% of runs in the 2020 season.
If a partner cannot have its cutout fans behind home plate then placing its fans where the most home runs would occur is the best strategy. A Beyond The Box Score analysis in 2013 found that there were far more right handed than left handed batters in baseball and that 78% of pull hitters’ home runs went to left field.
This percentage has likely increased because players are trying to hit home runs more frequently in 2020 than in 2013. That means that the CTC squares are in the part of the baseball stadium most likely to be where the most exciting action of a baseball game will occur.
In past posts, we have discussed how the specific way that Block Six Analytics values sentiment and awareness has a strong and statistically significant relationship to revenue growth. Essentially, a company that achieves a lift in sentiment and awareness from a partnership activation is more likely to achieve a lift in top-line revenue growth.
However, lifts in sentiment typically have a greater impact in achieving probabilistic revenue lifts than lifts in awareness. Therefore, CTC maximizes the likelihood of increased sentiment because it focuses on the highest “quality” play (the home run) rather than focusing on the “quantity” play (standard pitches to batters).
In addition, the squares appeared to have been designed to maximize their value when they are featured on camera (whether via linear, digital, or social activations). Both the Twins and the Marlins have dark colored stands in left field.
Our Media Analysis Platform uses machine learning technology to analyze the value of partnership activations in video. Creating clear contrast between content and location is critical for activations to be seen on screen.
CTC squares are bright orange where the Twins and Marlins seats are dark green and dark blue, respectively. This means that the squares should be more clearly visible to audiences given this color contrast and maximizes the value of these activations.
We do not know if CTC, the Twins, or the Marlins used any of this type of analysis when deciding on adding the squares as fans to their venues. If any (or all of them) did, however, it is a clever use of on-field and off-field analytics to maximize sponsorship value in the current environment.