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MLB Sponsors on Social – The Top 10 Brands From Opening Day

April 10, 2019 | by

With the start of the new season, MLB’s Opening Day was a big day for the league and on social media. With fans excited for a new season of Baseball, Brands and Advertisers saw an opportunity with many brands partnering with the league, individual teams, or even just activating on social.

Social Summary

To track activity surrounding Opening Day Weekend, we monitored the hashtag #OpeningDay from 3/28-3/31 as well as mentions of & posts from the league and teams. We also tracked their new emoji hashtags as well. Here are some insights we discovered  

  • Nearly 530 thousand tweets were shared over the course of the weekend, bringing in over $74.1 million in impression value on Twitter for the MLB.  
  • The Dodgers generated more Twitter mentions than any other team this weekend (27K), followed by the Phillies (25K), Yankees (24K), and Cubs (19K). 
  • The new emoji hashtags were a hit on social. The top ones were: 
    • #LGM (Mets)
    • #RingTheBell (Phillies)
    • #PinstripePride (Yankees)
    • #ChopOn (Braves)
    • #EverybodyIn (Cubs)

Top Sponsors 

For sponsorship activations, owned brand activity is not the sole way to measure and assess the value. Brands have earned value through long term-relationships with teams and positive interactions with fans. As a result, we looked at brand activity, brand mentions, and any unique hashtags and terms used to incorporate the brand into the social conversation.  
Sorted by total social activity, which is the total number of posts and social interactions generated around a brand, here are the Top 10 brands and sponsors surrounding the MLB’s Opening Weekend.

Anheuser-Busch

As an official partner of Major League Baseball, A/B and Budweiser played a big role in opening weekend. From custom retro cans for each team, to sponsored activations with teams like the Athletics, to having Budweiser Clydesdales appear at Nationals Park, the brand’s impact was felt all over the baseball world. 

  • Impressions Value: $71K 
  • Total Social Activity: 4.7K 
  • Projected Reach: 5.8M

Globe Life

The naming rights partner for the Texas Rangers’ stadium, this upcoming year is the final season at the current Globe Life Park. As a result, Opening Day had a little more meaning this time around. The team and day got plenty of love from local news as well as teams like FC Dallas. 

  • Impressions Value: $75K 
  • Total Social Activity: 2.2K 
  • Projected Reach: 3.2M

MillerCoors

The naming rights partner for the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium, it was a busy weekend at the park. Last year’s MVP Christian Yelich had an exciting start to the year. Fox Sports Wisconsin provided good coverage on social media during the weekend. On top of that, an old Miller Lite commercial surfaced in honor of the start of baseball. 

  • Impressions Value: $76K 
  • Total Social Activity: 12.1K 
  • Projected Reach: 5.3M

Mastercard 

An official partner of Major League Baseball, Mastercard used social media to advertise new promotions and technologies for the season. From chances to win rewards by using Mastercard at stadiums to Snapchat filters in honor of Opening Day, Mastercard got involved in the MLB conversation well while creating plenty of brand advocates along the way.  

  • Impressions Value: $81K 
  • Total Social Activity: 630 
  • Projected Reach: 630K

Suntrust 

The naming rights partner for the Atlanta Braves’ stadium, the Braves and fellow brands showcased the best the ballpark had to offer around Opening Day. From Waffle House advertising beer at their stand to SunTrust encouraging fans to stop by their bank before the game, all parties got involved. 

  • Impressions Value: $101K 
  • Total Social Activity: 3.5K 
  • Projected Reach: 3.3M

MLB The Show

The newest installment of “The Show” video game franchise was released just before the start of the baseball season. With the heightened attention around Opening Day, there were game giveaways through MLB Network. MLB The Show generated nearly 2x more Twitter activity than its competitor, RBI Baseball 19, despite RBI Baseball getting promoted posts from the Yankees and Rockies. 

  • Impressions Value: $128K 
  • Total Social Activity: 2.7K 
  • Projected Reach: 7.6M

Chevrolet

As an official partner of Major League Baseball, Chevrolet paired up with MLB for promoted content encouraging fans to be the “loudest in baseball” by using the new emoji hashtags. MLB and every team posted about it. Sponsoring something that initiates that much social interaction is going to get attention for your brand. 

  • Impressions Value: $140K 
  • Total Social Activity: 6.6K 
  • Projected Reach: 17M

Papa John’s

An official partner of Major League Baseball, Papa John’s sponsors a video every time a grand slam is hit (which they call a “Papa Slam”). On top of that, fans can celebrate grand slams by entering a promo code when one occurs for a food discount. By associating with an event (like Buffalo Wild Wings and overtimes), fans will start to anticipate and want things to happen so they can reap the benefits. Plus, this gets fans into their stores in a seamless way. 

  • Impressions Value: $150K 
  • Total Social Activity: 6.0K 
  • Projected Reach: 11M

Petco

The naming rights partner for the San Diego Padres’ stadium, it was a busy day at Petco Park. The biggest news on social was the unveiling of a new Anchorman race to take place in stadium. On top of that, there were frequent brand mentions from the team and a new superstar was introduced. When a team thinks of creative & innovative ways to make their stadium a truly entertaining destination, it’s a big opportunity for naming rights’ partners. 

  • Impressions Value: $167K 
  • Total Social Activity: 15.9K 
  • Projected Reach: 13M

T-Mobile 

Not only is T-Mobile an official partner of Major League Baseball, they are the new naming rights partner of the Seattle Mariners. From CEO John Legere getting involved in the conversation, to Macklemore performing on site, to the team performing well against the reigning World Series champs, T-Mobile saw more social impressions and Twitter activity than any other brand during Opening Day weekend. Check out this post on our blog for more on T-Mobile and baseball! 

  • Impressions Value: $360K 
  • Total Social Activity: 21.6K 
  • Projected Reach: 13M

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