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MLB Sponsors and Brands Hit It Out of the Park in the 2019 World Series

October 31, 2019 | by

While they found themselves down, they never folded. From starting the season 19-31 to late-inning magic in the National League Wild Card game, it’s hard to say they weren’t a team of destiny, but nonetheless, the Washington Nationals are World Series Champions. There was surely no lack of excitement from this seven-game series, but in part to one of America’s favorite sports activations and one great moment, this year’s World Series hit just as hard on social.

Social Summary

As expected for any major sporting championship, especially one that goes to a game 7 and spans nine days, the social metrics for this year’s World Series were astronomical. From data tracked from 10/22 at 12:00 am through 10/31 at 8:00 am, those values are shown in the graphic above.

Taco Bell: Steal a Base, Steal a Taco

America didn’t have to wait long this year for the “execution” of Taco Bell’s “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion, as Washington Nationals’ shortstop Trea Turner gave the people what they wanted in the top of the 1st inning in Game 1. On the night of Game 1, activity around Taco Bell generated over $176K in social value, through 28B impressions. 

Would the dreaded wait between the night of Game 1 and the day of Game 7, the day people could get their tacos, hurt Taco Bell’s activation? Of course not! On Wednesday, 10/30, social numbers were nearly identical for the Taco Bell conversation. Again over 20B impressions, the total social value for this day was over $118K with everyone sharing that they picked up their taco. Tremendous social execution here from Taco Bell. Altogether, social posts about Taco Bell during the World Series generated over 68.4M impressions worth over $411K in social value

Bud Light: Don’t drop the…beer?

Bud Light could not have drawn it up any better. Not even an official sponsor of the World Series, Bud Light was one of the biggest brand stars on social during the series. During Game 5, an unforeseen event happened when Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez hit a home run to centerfield. The Nationals fan who was in line to catch the ball had one issue… he was busy holding a Bud Light in each hand. So what did he do? Exactly what very few others would do; took the ball right to the ribs.

Immediately, Bud Light sought out help to track the fan down through social, and social media achieved that for them. Bud Light found their fan and they ran with it. Their idea? Send him to Game 6 in Houston, create him a custom t-shirt, supply him with Bud Light, and then run a commercial during the broadcast.

From Game 5 on, Bud Light was able to generate a social value of over $460K from over 400 organic posts. Additionally, the engagement value was nearly in match with the impression value, showing how well Bud Light executed at this moment to drive fans to talk more about it. In total, tweets about the viral moment generated over 49.9M impressions on social, calculated with Zoomph’s Social Impression value at over $462K.

Whataburger

Ultimately, Whataburger fan’s wishes didn’t come true, but they gave their effort… all 31K+ of them. On the afternoon of 10/30, the day of Game 7, the Texas-based fast-food chain sent out a bold tweet. 

While the Astros didn’t win, it’s impossible to say Whataburger didn’t. What Whataburger did is a perfect example of how to organically drive social engagement and awareness through social media for brands, ultimately resulting in 13.1M impressions, 44K engagements, and over $117K in social value.

For more sport and brand insights, check our blog on Zoomph.com and follow us on Twitter.

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