In Washington DC, the arrival of spring means two things:
cherry blossoms and baseball.
Nike approached us in the spring of 2020 with the opportunity to partner in the second year of their City Connect program. The idea behind it is to create a uniform that would deeply resonate with the city, and be nothing like what already exists in the team’s closet. Don’t tell Nike, but even before that very first meeting, we knew it had to be gray and cream and be cherry blossom themed. What followed was a two-year labor of project management love that spanned multiple companies (Nike, Fanatics, MLB, Stance, New Era) multiple departments (retail, legal, promotions, concessions, sponsorship, ticketing, marketing, strategy, baseball ops). It was all hands on deck.
We meticulously planned a social media drip campaign before the season started to create a good amount of buzz before our go-live date. This plan garnered over 7.8 million impressions and a 6% engagement rate, ranking us first out of all 2022 launches. (launch plan available upon request). What boosted our launch was a cross-town partnership with the Washington Wizards, who have a fall 2022 cherry blossom uniform launching. And also, the Clydesdales.
To say this was a successful launch is a modest understatement:
$1.8m in sales
Wide Local and National coverage
61% email open rates
Highest first-day sales for all 2021 & 2022 City Connect launches by 60%
Creative direction | Design | Marketing & Launch Plans | Social Media | Project Management