If Spider-Man is on First, Who's on Third?

After reading some of the comments to my original post and after reading an article that appeared in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, I have some more HMOs.
(HMOs = Hot Marketing Opinions.)

Major League Baseball’s overall objective with this Spider-Man 2 promotion is to (a) attract younger fans and (b) accommodate sponsors wanting greater visibility .

I seriously question MLB’s strategy of in-stadium publicity stunts promoting blockbuster movies as a way to achieve objective (a). It will take more to attract younger fans to the game of baseball than pulling the trigger on a movie tie-in that reeks of a McDonald’s gimmick to sell more Happy Meals.

As for objective (b) … outfitting stadiums with Spider-Man decorative on-deck circles and logo emblazoned bases will achieve this objective. But at what cost?

I’m not playing the “baseball is a religion and denigrating it with on-field advertising is a travesty” card. I’m bemoaning the fact that my fellow marketers believe that is meaningful marketing … that activity like this will create consumer preference for Spider-Man 2.

Money is a motivator for why baseball teams have agreed to participate in this promotion. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will each receive $100K to participate and the other teams will receive around $50K. ($50K isn’t that much money, but for small market teams like the Expos and the Royals … the incremental $50K will go a long way.)

Let’s look at this from the Columbia/Tri-Star's perspective. According to the Wall Street Journal, they are spending $3 million to $4 million on this promotion (including television ad buys).

Question, if Major League Baseball openly admits they are not attracting enough younger fans, why then does Columbia/Tri-Star decide to reach younger fans through promoting Spider-Man 2 with Major League Baseball?

Question two, what attributes does Major League Baseball have that Columbia/Tri-Star need to borrow to successfully launch Spder-Man 2?

This promotion will generate publicity … I have no doubt about that. But is this marketing that meaningfully tells the Spider-Man 2 story? Or is this another case of marketers disrespecting consumers by engaging in gimmicks and tricks to gain fleeting attention?

Comments

[Wayne (from Cutting through...)]

I thought Who was on first and What was on third? :-)