The all access world we live in gets us scores and news updates on mobile phones, pda's, talk and news radio, online all-sports stations and on and on and on. However even with all the access, a core audience of older, multitasking, more traditional sports fans sometimes miss what first adopters and more tech savvy fans are getting, especially for those who are casual fans and aren’t focused on the immediacy of long sports seasons. That need for mass media exposure is one of the big reasons why traditional media…print, radio and TV…still remain a part of an all-encompassing media and fan outreach, especially in ultra competitive major markets. Fish where the fish are. However the White Sox have taken that approach of immediate updates and combined it with locking in a traditional space, by creating scoreboard billboards that give fans live updates on games as they travel around the busy highways and byways of the Windy City (Ed Sherman did a nice piece on the project) The move by the White Sox makes sense for a lot of reasons…it reminds the casual fan of the relevance of the Sox in a Cubs-crazed market, it gives people a great tune-in reminder if they are heading home, especially if it is a close game on the billboards, it presents the opportunity for other immediate calls to action for the Sox in the future, even perhaps some digital promotions tied to radio tune-in (“If you are on the Dan Ryan now tell us what the message is on the billboard and win xxx…”) and can even be used as a newsbreaker to get people to tune in to radio. A great extension of the Sox brand and ballpark all over the city. Great marriage of technology and traditional.
Some other good reads…with the baseball draft ongoing, Dan McGrath of the Chicago Tribune has a great piece on midwest baseball scouting... USA Today's Ron Shandler has an interesting look at how baseball call-up's effect fantasy play…and Florida Today has another extensive look at the UFL and the efforts they are making for a fair and solid fall launch
