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Last Wednesday, I took in a game at Nationals Park in some boffo seats -- and while the food was tasty, the beer cold, and the ballpark just as nice and clean as it was last year, the on-field play was, as has been the norm, less than optimal. That evening, the home team lost a 1-0 game on a bases loaded walk in the top of the ninth inning; the crowd over the course of a run-less opening eight innings, as you can imagine, was not quite awash with excitement. But still: it was the ballpark. There's just something about being there to hear the crack of the bat and the monotonous chant of the beer man, to stand for the seventh inning stretch, to eat like garbage and not care, because that's just what you do. Being in that atmosphere, it's just...a good thing.
Therein lies the challenge for Nats broadcaster MASN -- how is the network supposed to make watching a god-awful baseball team appealing to viewers without the amenities that the ballpark atmosphere can use to draw people to watch? You make some promos, and hope for the best, that's how. This year, the network enlisted the strategy of featuring "real" Nationals fans from around the area, talking about memorable moments from last season's campaign as said moments (as shown on MASN) play in the background. Judging from the commercial below, the network seems like it could be able to make viewers think that watching the Nats on television is exciting.
Not bad -- it does what it's supposed to do, in that, yes, last year's Opening Day was pretty fun to watch on the tube. Unfortunately for MASN marketing department, the following 161 games of the 2008 Nationals campaign wasn't exactly chock full of enthralling source material for killer thirty second blips. In fact, one could make the argument that outside of Ryan Zimmerman's walkoff longball at last year's opener, nothing of note really happened.
Obviously, MASN couldn't simply replay the Opening Day promo every single commercial break. They had to make others. This, obviously, caused some problems.
Take this one, for example. We're not the first to have seen this commercial and wonder how this, in any capacity possible, would make anyone want to watch a Nationals game on television:
Just for the record, the commercial actually promotes the fact that rising star Elijah Dukes "doesn't try to be a hero." Charming.
A walk-off walk? Can you taste the excitement yet, Nats fans?
Oh, but there's so much more.
In this promo, George from Burke, VA -- who may or may not moonlight as a Koopa-squasher -- talks about one of the Nationals' big hitters: Wil Nieves. In the ad, Mario George introduces Nieves' only real career highlight like so:
And who comes up? Wil Nieves. Who? Wil Nieves, who in twelve years, has never hit a home run in the majors.
Yes, who? Oh, that guy who can't hit at all! Whether it was twelve years, six years, whatever -- the important part is that he got the story right: that, yes, you should watch Nats baseball on MASN, because you never know when a backup catcher who has played less than 140 games in his "twelve year" career will somehow scrap a home run from nowhere.
Moving on:
I'm sorry ma'am, I must have missed the line in your haiku about about "hitting .167 in the leadoff role and being demoted to Triple-A Syracuse to open the 2009 season."
I went ahead and took the liberty of rewriting this one:
Alright, it's September, and the Mets are in town...and in first place. I mean, sure, even though we won two games from a team that didn't end up making the playoffs, we won! That's gotta count for something, right?
Man, I hate the freakin' Mets. Our record after these two wins was what? 58-93? [groans] Where's my half-smoke? Hey, just thinkin' out loud here -- didn't we go on to lose the next two games in this series? Uh, oh yeah, go Nats. Watch MASN. Please?
Hmm. Perhaps it wasn't the best promotional idea to base this year's ad campaign around memorable moments from last season, when said memorable moments were practically non-existent. It's not as if there aren't successful baseball promos out there to take example from. MASN, please don't make the few fans who can tolerate watching the team watch commercials featuring walk-off walks, backup catchers, and minor-league leadoff hitters all summer -- it's just making the insufferable losing even worse.
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Aaron, I hear where you're coming from, but come on. What the hell else are they supposed to do? You are basically saying that because there are no highlights from last year, they should just give up on promoting the team and encouraging fans to watch on television. When you have a bad season, what else is there to do but focus on the highlights, especially if they had some particular resonance with a fan. I don't think it's the case, but from this post I would have to assume you are anti-baseball in DC and looking for ways to tear it down, piece by piece a la Martin.
The ads accomplish what there are meant to do - speak to the more casual fan or the uninitiated potential future fan and try to generate what interest they can. These are not aimed at you or I, so just ignore them.
Krisa: Thanks for the comment, but I respectfully disagree. I didn't say MASN shouldn't focus on promoting the team. There are plenty of angles MASN could take for these commercials that don't involve what are -- at best -- marginal highlights. MASN wasn't forced to go with this strategy of highlighting last year's memorable moments. What about something funny involving the players, like the Rockies commercial I linked to? That would accomplish just as much as using a walk-off walk would to get people to tune in, plus give people around here a peek into the personality of the Nats -- personality which this ballclub is frankly lacking.
Regardless of who they are aimed at, here's the question: do these promos really accomplish what they are meant to do? After watching them, are you (or anyone) more likely to watch MASN's coverage of the Nationals? I, personally, am not. (Also, as you can't "ignore" these ads; they run during most commercial breaks on the station.)
As an aside, I'm as far from "anti-baseball in DC" as it gets. I hold a small season ticket package. I like the Nats, and want them to succeed here -- my opening paragraph is proof that even though the team is down right now, I still love going to see the Nationals play.
Like I said, I hear where you're coming from, but nitpicking the ads just struck me as a relatively unimportant facet of what the Nationals are doing right now. I think for you and I, we're much more concerned about on the field issues such as team defense, the bullpen, and taking better advantage of scoring opportunities. Winning accomplishes what even the best ads can't. For advertising, I'm open to whatever improves general interest, attendance at games, and television/radio listeners. I don't expect to like it all, or even expect that it's all aimed at me, but anything that demonstrates they are trying to generate interest is a good thing in my mind. Plus it directly attacks the misconception that DC isn't a baseball town by displaying real fans communicating their favorite moments. So, they aren't perfect, but certainly better than nothing.
So if he wasn't talking about the ads, there would be no story...get off his back. There are only a handful of stories to follow on this team:
1. When will we get better?
2. When will the owners give a shit about the team they put on the field, especially after landing a huge profit?
3. Flores, Dunn, Zimmerman and Zimmermann: new firm in town or the only good players on the team?
4. The Nats' ads on tv expose the true loser team and dork qualities of our fans.
All, but number 3 have been addresses by articles on DCist so far. #3 will be coming shortly, I assume.
I don't agree that the campaign as a whole is a bad idea. I watched nearly all of last year's games and, while there weren't many things to cheer about, the Nieves walk-off WAS one of the feel-good moments of the season. I do sincerely loathe the "Mets are no longer in first... YEAH!" commercial, though. Whoopee... we suck, but at least you're no longer in first! Nyah nyah! It grates every time in comes on. Today I muted every commercial break, before the repetition of these and that stupid Amstel Light commercial drove me totally insane. I know they only have like three sponsors, so they've repeat a lot... and obviously most viewers aren't watching every game (or they'd have more than three sponsors), but still...
Oh and LOL at the Super Mario Bros. reference. My bf said, "Where's Luigi?" when we first saw that one.
Take a clue from the Twins. Back when they were rebuilding and about to launch their current streak of winning seasons, they had some great ads - one including current Nat Christian Guzman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP47OQy7bzk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxnOudKdvj8
And some later ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8iI5zo6sk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW8YnEobznw
Granted, these are team ads and not TV ads, but still. I guess we can tack marketing on to the list of things the gnats do poorly.
Although I live and work in DC, my family lives in Baltimore. When I was there this weekend, I saw these MASN TV spots play for the O's featuring their fans, and thought they were quite effective on me as a casual fan. I don't think these spots alone will have me pulling out of my driveway (which is across the street from Nationals Park) and driving to Camden Yards.
If the O's can manage to hover around .500 (they dipped below over the weekend), that plus the fact that I, at least, "know" who plays for them (as opposed to the Nats) will get me in my car to the Yards instead of walking 50 yards across South Capitol to any Nats game. Aaron is right about team personality.