The Croix De Oracle and other ways the Giants can market an underwhelming product
The lean years of an organization are when the true fans come out and feast. Like crows after a bloody battle, or perhaps a metaphor we actually understand, like seagulls in extra innings. The lean years give us cheaper seats, a lower blood pressure, and even the opportunity to hang out with friends on a game night without having to check your phone every five minutes. Hell, you might even get to enjoy the pure ecstasy of using the empty row below you as a foot stool.
Ahh, the lean years. Do we ever want to have a good team again?
Well yes, winning is fun too. And more for the purposes of this article, winning is easier on the marketing department.
The marketing department will have their work cut out for them in 2020. Bumgarner is gone. Bochy is gone. Posey, Belt and Crawford are showing their age and the rest of the on-field talent is mostly unknown and definitely underwhelming. Plus this is all coming off of a season where the attendance dropped below three million for the first time since leaving Candlestick Park.
But it’s not all bad news because an underwhelming team can allow the marketing department to get a bit weird. It’s even given me some ideas of my own. Some go beyond marketing but they all focus on how the organization should be presenting itself to the fans in a season where fan expectations are in the mud.
Bring back the Croix
The first idea is a much needed reboot of one of the most memorable and still-talked-about pieces of fandom in Giants history. There was a time before I was born where things were truly lean. I’ve only heard about these times through family legend and the ramblings of some guy named Grant. These ramblings often speak of a trophy, in the form of a little orange pin, that true fans could acquire during the terribly terrible early 80’s.
The pin is The Croix De Candlestick. It was a marketing idea by Patrick Gallagher, the Giants Marketing Director. Starting in 1983 it was handed out at the end of any home night game that went into extra innings. Candlestick Park was famously cold and windy at night and this pin was a badge of loyalty for fans that stuck it out watching a blah team in crappy weather. Only the die-hards could get it. It was genius.
Well it’s time to bring it back. And not because Oracle Park sucks, but because the team does. And because there is that one weird quirk of Oracle Park that shows up late at night when much of the crowd has trickled out.
The damn seagulls.
Extra inning night games at Oracle Park in 2020 are ripe for a Croix-like promotion.
I’ve even designed the pin already!
I love a promotion like this because it is specially designed for fans that stick it out through the tough times. 2020 is going to be full of tough times. I’ve seen enough comments on social media(why the hell do I read those comments) of fans bemoaning how crappy the team is going to be and how Zaidi has ruined everything and how they aren’t giving this team any money this year. Good riddance. The Croix De Oracle isn’t for fans that hold their fandom hostage only to be ransomed when the team is good again. The fans that stick it out this year should be rewarded with a memento to be shown off on their hats for decades to come.
If the product on the field doesn’t inspire hope then fans need to be force-fed hope through the minor leagues.
A big tenant of Farhan Zaidi’s plan when he took over as VP of Baseball Operations was a focus on player development and rebuilding the farm system with more depth and high-end talent. For most of the last decade the Giants had a terrible farm system that held back their ability to execute trades and rejuvenate their run of success. When you are winning championships in a beautiful stadium nobody is too worried about a thin farm system but it’s damn hard to have sustained success without a player development machine churning out talent. The Dodgers have been pooping out top 30 prospects for years now, all during a time when they aren’t even getting top draft picks(because they’ve won seven straight division titles). It’s ridiculously impressive and Zaidi was brought over to help cultivate that same prospect manure in SF.
The early returns on Zaidi’s tenure have been promising and there are multiple prospects in the Giants system worth getting excited about right now. By most accounts the Giants have a top 15 farm system; a vast improvement over a system that was consistently in the bottom five for much of the decade.
Heliot Ramos(Left) and Joey Bart(Right). Two consensus top 100 Prospects that could debut in 2020 or 2021. (photo courtesy of NBC Sports Bay Area)
Whether watching a Giants game on TV or at Oracle Park fans need to be informed of some of these up-and-coming players. There always needs to be hope at the ballpark and when the hope for a 2020 postseason birth is farfetched the hope needs to transition further into the future.
There should be prospect updates in the game guides showing minor league box scores and write-ups on the top prospects. The replay board could even show prospect highlights between innings. On the broadcasts, sideline reporter, Amy G can report about prospects the same way she does injuries. They could even have a daily segment where color commentator, Mike Krukow, talks about a recent performance from a pitcher in the system.
One way this could be done to increase transparency with the front office is have Zaidi in the booth for an inning once a homestand just talking with Kruk and Kuip about player development from his perspective. If the Giants show us that they are excited about the future, it will rub off on the fan base.
The key with all of this is that there needs to be highlights. It’s 2020 and the Giants have plenty of video being captured at the minor league level. We need to see these players to truly start salivating. Guys like Marco Luciano, Joey Bart, Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos need to be household names for all Giants fans, not just the prospect nerds.
2010 Postseason Fog Globes
When I first scanned the Giants 2020 promotional schedule I was a bit surprised at the lack of promos built around the ten year anniversary of the Giants first World Series in San Francisco history. Of course there is the much talked about reunion on August 16th, but that’s it. No other giveaways for the rest of the season. I also noticed there are no snow globe(or fog globe) giveaways this season. So I decided to kill two seagulls with one globe and combine the two absences into one mega promotion.
Three different fog globe giveaways will take place over the course of the season. Each globe, once the fog settles, will reveal a famous moment from one of the three 2010 playoff series. For example, The NLDS Globe against the Braves could show Timmy throwing a pitch in his stellar 14 K Shutout that opened the playoffs. The NLCS Globe against the Phillies could have Juan Uribe pumping his fist around first base after hitting the series clinching homer. Finally, the World Series Globe could show Brian Wilson celebrating the final strikeout as the players mob around him.
The beauty of this promotion is it adds three new days to the promotion calendar that celebrates the 2010 World Series. Making it easier for fans to soak up some nostalgia this season if they can't make it to the reunion celebration.
Grandpa Posey Teaches the Young guns
This is a series of ads built to highlight the fact that there is still a legend on this team, even if he’s past his prime. Obviously there is a built in self-deprecation to these ideas which Posey would have to be okay with. Assuming he bounces back to being at least a league average hitter with continued plus defense I don’t think he’ll have a problem being the wise old legend.
Each ad would be a different vignette of Posey teaching something that he is famous for from his career.
The ads would open with Posey walking up, possibly in poorly done aging make-up and a cane. Followed by a quick shot of the “Young Guns” sitting cross-legged in a semi-circle(Dubon, Duggar, Slater). As Posey begins to speak, a black title card appears revealing the lesson while Posey also says the title as a voice over. The rest of the commercial is a montage of Posey teaching said lesson as well as necessary highlights of Posey in action.
Examples:
Grandpa Posey Teaches the Young Guns how to slide headfirst
This one starts with Posey awkwardly explaining how his famous headfirst derp was actually strategic. By the end of the ad players like Duggar and Dubon can slide headfirst perfectly, much to the disappointment of Posey. “You guys just don’t get it.”
Grandpa Posey Teaches the Young Guns how to perform a Buster Hug
Buster overseas long hours of training montages of the young Guns running towards each other to perform a buster hug. He critiques form and gives laser pointer film analysis of various buster hugs.
Grandpa Posey Teaches the Young Guns how to hit a homer off of Mat Latos
This ad consists of a cardboard cutout of Mat Latos, in a Reds jersey, positioned behind a pitching machine that Posey is feeding balls into. “Pretend I’m not here. It’s just you and Latos.” The Young Guns tee off and hit tons of bombs. Eventually Duggar smashes the Latos Cut-out with a ball, ending the training session as Posey has a big smile on his face.
I like these ads as a microcosm of what 2020 will be. The fans get to sit back and enjoy the twilight years of Posey while also enjoying and learning about the next generation of Giants talent. Posey is possibly the only Hall of Famer to come out of the dynasty years and the years of Buster Posey as an everyday player are dwindling fast. Last year Buster Posey’s decline slapped us all right in the face and this year we need to pour a bit of humor on that decline to keep as all sane. We are all aging just as quickly as Posey, after all.
It’s important to remember that these are just ideas of a random Giants fan. So I’m sure there are reasons why these won’t happen, like “money” or “red tape” or “this is stupid” but until I actually work in the marketing department for a baseball team I’m not going to let silly reasons like that stop me.