Situation

Sports, and in particular baseball, have always been a way to bring people together. They give us something to root for. They give us a place to escape to. They give us a few hours in which miracles can truly happen. But during the Covid pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of professional sports, fans across the world were left with a void that needed to be filled.

Brief

How can Bank of America leverage its sponsorship of Major League Baseball to help bring America together and help those in need during the pandemic?

Objectives

-Support the children, families, and communities hit hardest by the “double pandemic” of a global health crisis and social injustice

-Leverage partnership for awareness and brand building

One of the most unforgettable moments for any fan is when a team rallies from behind to win. That’s why our strategy was to leverage the in-game Rally moment as a trigger for good.

During the 2020 MLB season, each time an MLB team rallied from behind to win in a late-inning, Bank of America donated $10,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

To inspire optimism, and demonstrate Bank’s commitment to helping communities, “Let’s Rally” messaging needed to be intuitively integrated with media. To celebrate the return of baseball we emphasized Opening Day owning best-of historical rallies on Opening Day broadcasts. “Let’s Rally” ran across Twitter, Snapchat with MLB rally highlights through Twitter amplify.

We leveraged the full MLB media ecosystem, posting rally recaps across MLB's social handles, owning all rally coverage across MLB and team sites, and highlighting the best rallies each week on MLB Network via custom segments.

Bank of America made an impact off the field by selling custom tee shirts designed by the players with proceeds going to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

And when fans needed to talk about social injustice, Bank of America teamed up with players, ESPN, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America with a virtual event on Twitter exploring sports, race, and culture.

Through the campaign, Bank of America delivered on its goals for the community and its brand by raising over $600K in donations for Boys and Boys Clubs of America. The courageous conversation virtual event reached 46% of American Twitter users and had 735k views of the conversation in a matter of days. By highlighting issues that matter and giving back to the community, Bank of America through the MLB campaign extended its reach and amplified their broader commitment to strengthening the communities they're in. We saw a +37% increase in brand favorability among clients who were exposed to consumer offers tied to our MLB campaign. With that along with over +647,000,000 total campaign impressions, Bank of America achieved a deeper affinity with its clients and baseball fans.