OK, now we know: the Great Falls White Sox are now the Great Falls Voyagers – that was what the WeMakeContact campaign has been leading up to.
So we’ve got a new name, new logo, new mascot for our semi-pro baseball team. Was the overall marketing effort effective, and worth the buildup?
GOOD: Effective use of all media — billboards, TV, radio, internet, even clothing. Got people talking, wondering. Tied in to local history (Mariana incident). Gave a specific date – a deadline for people to focus on. Clues were ambiguous enough to keep the speculation going. Additional clues were released to give folks more to chew on, with updates on the site giving credit to the folks who figured out some of the hints.
BAD: the “reveal!” I think most people were hoping for something new – not just a “re-branding” of an existing product. Yes, I think the name Voyagers is better than White Sox (or Dodgers, etc), but a new name, logo, and mascot for a baseball team that is already here might be a little less satisfying than introducing something new – something that Great Falls didn’t already have. Of course, since I’m not a sports fan, my opinion is slightly skewed. I’m sure that some of the local baseball fans are excited about this!
Still, I’ve got to give credit to the folks behind the marketing campaign – well done! And kudos to Jason for being the first one (here, anyway) to correctly guess that the “invasion” was about baseball!
Yawn. And that’s before it was announced.
Whew, no Space Ants…
Well, it made for an interesting couple of weeks. Not sure they needed to spend all of that money marketing a name change for our minor league baseball team though.
I wonder, will the mascot be a martian?
I’d give them an ‘B’ for the effort but it did not make me want to run out & buy season tickets.
I remember going to a GF Giants game as a kid. I never made it to a Dodgers or White Sox game though.
Not as lame as it could have been!
A bit of a letdown, I agree. I am amazed that they spent as much as they did … billboards aren’t cheap nor is TV … to make a name change. I guess I don’t understand the economuics of small market minor league baseball, I wouldn’t have guessed the expense “pencils out” to make sense.
I personally think it was great to do this. I don’t know if any of you have been following the viral marketing campaign for the upcoming “Dark Knight” movie, but this was a lot like it. It gave the feeling of importance to Great Falls that they would be willing to spend the money, time, and effort to do this for the community. If they are willing to make baseball this much fun during the winter, I can only imagine what kind of fun evenings that they have planned for this summer (can you say Nick Mariana bobbleheads?!!) This gave a lot of people something to do for a few weeks and stirred up excitement. Kudos to the marketing people over there, even if everyone thinks this is a let down. It’s a lot better than a traveling, in-your-face christian ministry showing up.
Was visited today at work (N.E.W. 321 Central) by HOMELAND SECURITY, who verified that I was the one who had put up the Billboard Revealed google page, then took off their dark sunglasses and said they were from Banik Communications (http://www.Banik.com) and shook my hand, took lots of press photos, and said they had fun “working” with my wen postings about their viral marketing campaign.
I found it to be an interesting attempt at a local viral campaign. Probably they spent more money than they needed to, but you’ve got to try new things now and then.
I enjoyed it…and yes, I’m a baseball fan. After the release today I did a little research on the Nick Mariana UFO film from 1950 that they based their ad campaign. Kind of an interesting story…an interesting bit of our history.
I think the Invaders would have been a cooler name.
Ron- Did they at least give you a t-shirt??
LAME! Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I really enjoy going to the games and will continue to do so. But I was hoping for a lot more than a renaming of a stinking minor league baseball team.
Oh well. Such is life.
Go Voyagers!
They said they changed the name to fit the city a little better. But I had no idea about this UFO story and im sure alot of you didn’t either. Why not go with a lewis and clark or CM Russell theme. Makes sense to me not many people can’t relate to UFO’s in Great Falls. I have 4 season tickets to the park which went from $600 to $900 in one season so i think they may have spent a little much on ads I don’t think this will help there sales at all I have three Great Falls White sox shirts and I’m not gonna want to have to buy all new stuff plus i’m were some UFO shirt. I didn’t mind the name change but they could have picked a name that actually related to the city
OK, I’m getting a different handle on this now … maybe it didn’t cost so much. I’m hearing the ad agency perhaps donated much of their expense so they could have such a high-profile campaign in their portfolio to show others and maybe win awards. Makes sense.
I’m sure the ticket prices going up wasn’t totally because of the name change they are remodeling the park also which i’m sure is alot of it. But cost aside you have to agree voyagers is a pretty lame name and really has nothing to do with Great Falls when you have to show a movie and explain your new name to the people of the town that means you didn’t think it through to well. I can see in New Mexico havings that name but here it is just stupid.
I think that Voyagers relates more than L&C for us long-time locals…I had never heard of the UFO thing…before my time I guess.
I hope I will still be here to attend a game this season!
I’m actually thrilled that they didn’t go with the whole Lewis and Clark/CM Russel theme. Imagine if every Pittsburgh team related to Steel, or every San Francisco team had to do with the gold rush, it’d get pretty bland. I think that this name is awesome because it’s one more think that residents of Great Falls can talk about. There seems to be a lot of cynicism about all of this, but really, in the end, it’s all for fun and enjoyment. I can’t wait to make contact in the spring (and I’m not even that big of a baseball fan!).