a sports biz look at the 2016 mlb all-star weekend fan fest

On July 8-10, 2016, Major League Baseball hosted its now annual Fan Fest at its All-Star Game weekend, this year in San Diego.

The event featured a ton of activities, experiences, and merchandise; attended by fans and families for an admission fee. Of course, there was a lot of marketing and sponsorship..

This is a look around some of the event, capturing most of the branding seen in and around the event. For more content, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me on Twitter @njh287.

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan Fest

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All around Petco Park and the Convention Center in downtown San Diego were balloons featuring emoji smileys bearing team caps, as well as some giant Pepsi balloons, too.



Fox, which has the broadcast rights for the MLB All-Star game, had a huge building wrap one could not miss promoting the FS1 show Speak For Yourself, featuring Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock.


Chevy was all over, including out at the entrance, offering test drives on location. Nice idea and lots of eyeballs with all that foot and car traffic.


Chevy was also part of these t-shirts several kids were wearing (giveaways at an earlier youth event), made in tandem with playball.org.

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestUpon entering, all fans were handed these business cads from Papa John's offering a surprise offer for fans. Quite the long alpha-numeric code.

I'm sure Papa John's captured countless interested fans. Simple can work.

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestAll fans were given a map, which prompted fans to register on a website and scan QR codes provided to them throughout the event earn surprise prizes.

A fairly effective way (sans app + beacons/geo) to track foot traffic for brands, activities and locations.


An example of the check-in promotional signage, the areas to check in, and, if you zoom, things you can win as you earn points for checking in at the stipulated locales.


Some cool, huge video screens inside the entrance, showcasing the biggest game, the biggest stars, It became a photo-op for many, too. No brand prominently featured with the screens.


Right inside the entrance was a giant basbeball autographed by baseball stars, past and present, part of Fan Fest. Definitely a share-able photo-op.


Another giant screen and check out the simple “This” standup in front. A great offline display of their #This social media campaign!


Becoming a best practice at events and conventions, there were T-Mobile branded free device charging stations. Leave it there locked up, pick it up with some juice.

Useful, awesome activation with batteries draining at these busy events.


More surprise and delight prizes, this time with New Era one of a few brands with the chance to spin a prize wheel. Sports fans love to try their luck fir any free...well, crap.


Inside their primary merchandise area, the All-Star Game's presenting sponsor, MasterCard, offered a nice purchase incentive for fans that are their customers. Good way to encourage purchases, while showing a little VIP-ish love to customers, reinforcing the partnership with MLB to it loyal fans.


Self-service, simple frictionless build-your-jersey setups from Majestic in the main merch area. It's inviting and, by letting fans create their would-be jersey, it makes them tat much closer to not being able to leave without it!

Majestic also had a neat setup with a green screen in the merch area that would superimpose Majestic All-Star game jerseys on fans in a stadium background. Cool, memorable, and to get your free photo/video...they email you.



Baseball and Star Wars. As American as apple pie and apparel like this was part of the merch selection at Fan Fest.


Awesome activation from New Era (cap), letting fans make a diving catch as they snapped a photo with the fans and wall in the background. Memorable, free, irresistible for fans and kids. A keepsake and share-able memory.

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestSocial media aggregation via the #FanFest hash tag was on screens throughout the venue, some of which included brand sponsors (but not all).Not sure which platform was being used for the aggregation.

Scotts Lawn Care did what they could to be relevant, with this spacious setup and free handouts of various seeds for fans to start their own garden. A unique idea and something to take home.


A great youth HR Derby setup included a big screen showing the hitter live (hitting off a tee), Gatorade-branded dugouts, and kids shagging balls wearing Boys & Girls Club t-shirts. A lot of fun, too!


Chevy will once again give the All-Star Game MVP a free car. Chevy was having fans at Fan Fest vote on which one they should give the MVP.

Simple enough, but why not have fans enter-to-win one and have them pick which they'd rather own? (and give them more reason to share data, while learning their product preference)

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestSome players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (yes, a la A League Of Their Own), were there answering fan questions, telling stories.And they even sang that song from the movie! “We are the members of the All-American league, we come from cities near and far...”

Former MLBer Steve Finley was among the other guests in this Q&A area, complete with photo-op worthy player lockers, prominently displaying their Majestic jerseys.



Some sweet corn hole games were set up in a kids activity area, with sacks to toss showing logos from the MLB teams. Cool and fun!

This kids area was fantastic with lots of fun ways to participate in baseball-related activities. And devoid of any branding with the exception of USA Baseball.


Great way to get kids playing the game, while creating photo-ops for doting parents, anxious to capture some cute pics to post on Facebook and Instagram (and Snapchat, but there was no Fan Fest geo-filter!). MLB knows the importance of creating fans and players as early as possible.



There were some Baseball Hall of Famers there signing autographs and taking photos in exchange for tax-deductible donations to the Baseball the Hall of Fame. Excellent way to drive donations, of course.

And I got to speak with Rollie Fingers and Gaylord Perry! (Fergie Jenkins was nearby, too)

2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestPharamceutical giant Pfizer had a booth there at which they were exhorting fans to grab some small freebies and to share their prostate cancer stories using the hash tags displayed. This was not integrated with MLB's well-known “Stand Up 2 Cancer” campaign


Very cool activation from Under Armour, creating posters for fans that mimicked real posters featuring some of UA's baseball superstar athletes. Great memento and share-able digital content for fans, enticing for kids.


The official tire of MLB had a very cool remote control car racing area for fans. Not sure about the tie to baseball here, but tires are indeed more known for cars and most sports fans and kids can't resist a remote control car.

It's not easy for banks to activate, but Bank of America some excellent interactive setups there, including an area to capture share-able video of yourself sharing a baseball memory set with a stadium background. Fans got to feel like broadcasters, in a way.



In addition to a place where Bank of America customers could scan their card to enter to win, they could also play the Three Pitch Challenge trivia game to win prizes.

While some fans didn't understand this at first, Esurance was helping fans crate 360-degree photos of themselves hitting a ball in the stadium. That is some sweet, unique, share-able content.


There was a local nod to parts of Fan Fest, including a San Diego Padres area and a part of that section showing off University of San Diego alum [and MLB All-Star] Kris Bryant in cardboard form, an info booth, and, yep, a prize wheel. The Bryant standup encouraged fans to take a picture with him!



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The World Series Trophy was on display, offering photo-ops for fans, surrounded by branding for Tiffany & Co.


Part of the Padres area was a great photo-op for fans, with cardboard stand-ups of team legends Tony Gwynn, Randy Jones, Trevor Hoffman, and Dave Winfield. A popular pic for all the San Diego fans there.

More activation from Chevy, including sponsored social aggregation and MLB content displays and a studio backdrop that encouraged fans to “Snap a Selfie,” pretending they're at their big press conference.


More Chevy, where fans would hit off the tee and see advanced stats about their swing. Pretty neat for fans, especially those geeky, stat-driven fans (who probably have more money than you! Ok, maybe)


One last Chevy activation, in case you hadn't engaged with the brand yet – register to get a free MLB souvenir.


Topps was there, predictably (but still good) helping fans create personalized digital cards of themselves, generating some earned media and branded memories.


Topps was also heavily promoting their suite of apps, including iPads there for fans to try. Clearly, mobile apps are a big priority for the trading card company.


A pretty unique souvenir and collectible for fans was there to show fans how they could quickly create figurines of themselves in their favorite team's garb. I did not stick around to “3D Me.”


Oxi-Clean wanted to make sure fans knew they “strike out stains” by allowing fans the chance to pitch for strike outs to win. A play on words, but fun and memorable for fans.And well-known pitchman Anthony Sullivan was greeting fans!


T-Mobile and Papa John's were featured with more activities for kids to get on the field and turn a double play and take part in their own HR Derby. (T-Mobile sponsors the MLB HR Derby)


Besides the business card handout at the entrance and this area here, not a lot of salient Papa John's branding for MLB's official pizza partner.


2016 MLB All-Star Weekend Fan FestFans seemed intrigued (but not overly crowded) to try out T-Mobile and Samsung's virtual reality experience “at” the HR Derby. It was done with Oculus VR headsets. Plenty of impressed faces, as is typical with VR activations.

The Blast smart bat was being marketed there and what better way to showcase than to have a batting cage on-site to show fans the value it could bring!? A crowded line for this one, too.


Rawlings was there selling, well, commemorative baseballs and also showing fans what is inside a baseball.


And, of course, Rawlings gave fans a nice photo-op.


Franklin was selling its batting gloves, including custom ones for the All-Star game, and also had a screen where fans could build gloves with design and colors of their choice.


While Majestic and New Era dominated the main merch area, “other” brands, including Nike, Under Armour, and lesser know Antigua and “47” were in a large, secondary area.


Also featured in this area were the popular, much discussed Stance-branded socks, popular in the NBA and now MLB, too. Oyo Toys, ubiquitous in baseball especially, it seems, also had their toy figures there for purchase, using their MLB license.


Fans couldn't miss, and couldn't resist, MLB The Shoe '16, a setup from Sony Playstation 4, where fans could hang out and play the video game at several consoles set up in a trailer.


Overall, a great event filled with activities, museum-like setups, autograph opportunities, and more. While this presentation didn't capture all of it, it represented some of the major branded setups...


And I had a great time, making my own memories! I hope you enjoyed the deck. For more, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me on Twitter @njh287.


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