Viva Beisbol

When State Farm was considering a promotional strategy to reach Hispanic consumers, the home and car insurer settled on a core cultural interest for Americans and Latinos alike: baseball.

Wave, the multicultural practice of agency The Marketing Arm, devised a traveling show, dubbed in Spanish as “Fiesta del Jonrón,” that is currently making stops at major Hispanic cultural festivals around the country.

The 16-city tour celebrates the enduring contributions of Hispanic ballplayers with a mobile museum tribute. It includes displays of players’ uniforms and video footage of Latino stars ranging from Puerto Rico’s legendary Roberto Clemente of Pittsburgh Pirates fame to contemporary standouts such as Dominican slugger David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox.

Along with the memorabilia, the exhibit offers visitors an interactive component, including a global map that identifies the home countries of favorite Hispanic ballplayers. Trivia games and famous home runs called in Spanish are part of the traveling show as well.

The exhibit also features a simulated home run competition, modeled after State Farm’s sponsorship of the annual Home Run Derby that precedes Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. The “Jonrón” tour takes its name from that annual competition, typically dominated by the best Hispanic home run hitters in the professional game today.

A 65-foot Sharp monitor outside the exhibit will carry live MLB games.

“They’re a leader in their category,” Michael Rodriguez, account leader of Wave, says of State Farm, “so we wanted to do something that was relevant and engaging.”

Rodriguez says the idea is to use baseball as a “passion point” to generate good will and prospective State Farm clients by taking the “Jonrón” exhibit to events where thousands of Hispanics are in attendance celebrating a fiesta. “We created a fiesta within a fiesta,” Rodriguez says.

Reaching Hispanic-Americans, who now comprise 15% of the U.S. population, is a coveted demographic for all businesses. “It’s definitely a growing priority for us,” says Todd Fisher, State Farm manager of national sponsorships.

He views the “Jonrón” tour as the opening innings of a gambit to score Hispanic consumers: “We look at it as part of a strategy that will be a focus for us for a long time to come.”

In another promotion related to the Home Run Derby, State Farm is running a “Call Your Shot” sweepstakes, offering a fan a chance to predict where David Ortiz will hit the ball into the stands preceding the Home Run Derby. The fan who correctly predicts the spot will win a Chevrolet Tahoe and four tickets to the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game.

State Farm views the “Jonrón” tour primarily as a “branding experience,” notes Bailee O’Brien, State Farm sponsorship coordinator, adding that it’s also a vehicle to collect leads.

Visitors to the exhibit can answer a few questions about themselves on an electronic tablet to receive a branded keychain or cooler, or tickets to a baseball game. Spanish-speaking State Farm agents then use that information to mine prospective clients.

The first stop on the tour was the AT&T Fiesta Broadway in Los Angeles on April 27, which annually draws more than 500,000 Latinos. It was an early observance of Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that marks Mexico’s independence from Spain.

At each stop in the tour, the “Jonrón” exhibit brings out a famous Latino ballplayer to greet fans and sign autographs. In Los Angeles, retired Dodgers slugger Pedro Guerrero, the 1981 World Series most valuable player, participated. At the Cinco de Mayo Celebrate Culture Festival in Denver on May 3, Colorado Rockies star Willie Taveras was on hand. When the tour hit the Carnaval San Francisco on May 24, Hall of Fame outfielder Orlando Cepeda was the featured beisbol star.

Participating Hispanic baseball heroes are yet to be announced for upcoming stops at festivals in Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and New York. The tour will hit two New York festivals and the All-Star Game festivities at Yankee Stadium on July 11 through July 15 before making its final stop in Washington at Fiesta D.C. on Sept. 28.

On another sports front, State Farm is tapping into Latinos’ love of soccer by sponsoring the annual Inter-Liga, Super-Liga and CONCACAF tournaments that pit Mexican professional clubs against U.S. teams in various domestic stadium venues.

That activation includes stadium signage and a pre-game presence with a virtual soccer experience that gives fans a chance to play goalie and stifle penalty shots. A face-painting promotion and giveaways are also part of State Farm’s soccer scene.

In a musical vein, State Farm is sponsoring a series of concerts this year in a partnership with Live Nation in 22 venues for general market and Hispanic audiences. Dates, locations and performers are yet to be determined.

“It’s something that’s more right now about driving intersections with the Hispanic market,” says Fisher.

Meanwhile, State Farm has initiated a traditional electronic media intersection as well. It began running TV spots in Spanish on the Univision and Telemundo networks in mid-March in a campaign that will continue indefinitely.

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