Being one of the six teams in the newly re-formed Australian Baseball league, The Melbourne Aces suffered from low awareness amongst sport fans, which unfortunately led to poor attendance figures and a lack of season memberships.

Our objectives were three fold: 1) To put Australian Baseball on the map, and increase awareness of The Melbourne Aces, 2) Increase individual ticket sales to the 2013/14 season and 3) Increase memberships for the 2013/14 season.

With a limited budget, we needed our audience to create our reach for us, so our campaign comprised of 3 unbelievable trick-shot videos featuring Aces players hitting, pitching and catching baseballs on the golf course, at the bowling alley and on the hockey field at a skill level never seen before anywhere in the world. Essentially we targeted other popular Australian ball sports and showed the Aces players beating them at their own game.

We then launched the videos into the social-sphere where they were picked up by the Australian media causing the videos to go viral. Before long the whole world was talking about Australian baseball (and The Melbourne Aces).

Upon reviewing our results at the end of the campaign, it’s fair to say we hit our objectives out of the park:

• Opening weekend attendance increased 104% from 2012/13 season

• 2013/14 season ticket sales increased by 34% from 2012/13 season

• Increase of 39% in membership sales from previous 2012/13 season

All for a campaign with no paid media, produced for under $30,000.

Because Aussie sports fans love trick shot videos, we were able sneak baseball under their radar by pitting it against the sports they love. Fans got a shock when they saw Aces players easily executing the hardest plays in their favourite sports - and with baseball equipment.

They responded by sharing their opinions across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums.

The arguing amongst fans caused the videos to go viral, reaching 192 countries in total.

Suddenly the whole world was talking about Australian baseball. Even the home of baseball gave us

‘Play Of The Day’ on the 1 sports show, ESPN SportsCenter.

Not bad for a $30,000 campaign with no paid media.

We generated a huge response resulting in:

-Opening game attendance increasing 104%

-Membership increasing 39%

-Season ticket sales increasing 34%