Only about a week ago, Adobe and Major League Baseball announced their new and improved partnership that “reimagines” fan engagement. The partnered campaign features personalized promotions and notifications for individual fans, improved functions that highlight the best way to enter a ballpark and how to get access to VIP parking promotions or concessions discounts. One of the coolest parts of this Adobe/MLB campaign is the program that allows fans who live outside their favorite team’s locale to be able to receive alerts when their favorite club or player is in town, or get free trials for MLB.TV so they can watch games from the comfort of their couch or on the go.

One of MLB’s issues with fan engagement that limits revenue in comparison to other organizations such as NBA and NFL is the fact that many people enjoy the immersive experiences that professional football and basketball have to offer rather than Major League Baseball. Overall, less people are involved with MLB than other professional sports leagues, which calls for PR and media campaigns that will improve engagement. From the perspective of MLB’s PR department, the best way to do this is to launch new programs that allow fans to be more in tune with a team and a ballpark. By partnering with Adobe to accomplish this goal, it benefits both organizations because the new improvements are likely to increase engagement among MLB fans that have better options in terms of watching games and going to live events.

The personalized promotions are a good PR tactic because it personally targets individual fans and makes them feel more engaged with the league as well as their favorite teams. Nowadays, people want to feel connected to an organization, and when an organization creates personable messages such as the ones used through the Adobe and MLB programs, it makes people feel more involved with the organization and more willing to participate in events or watch games online/on TV. The special promotions aspect of the partnership is also helpful because it influences fans to get more involved due to the personable aspect and the idea of getting promotions for ballpark entertainment or access to MLB TV and in-app functions.

I think the Adobe x MLB partnership is a well thought out PR campaign, and the partnership will benefit both organizations by targeting MLB fans and throwing promotions, free trials, and personalized messages at them that influence them to be more engaged and involved with the organization or their favorite team.

https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-adobe-and-major-league-baseball-partner-to-create-next-generation-

Last week, former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs was arrested for DUI after crashing his corvette at 156 mph into the back of a woman’s Toyota Rav-4, ultimately leading to the woman’s death. Ruggs is now facing charges of driving under the influence, causing death or a substantial bodily injury, and reckless driving. This was huge news for the football community because not only is Ruggs a young 22 year old athlete that made a mistake that can potentially change the PR plans of the NFL forever.

This is not the first incident of an athlete drunk driving and accidentally killing someone. For this reason, leagues already have systems in place to try to prevent these tragic events from happening. Sports leagues PR departments attempt to create programs and amenities that will hinder their players from making bad decisions and ruining their reputation as well as bruising the league’s reputation as a whole. The NFL has a system in place that allows 24/7 chauffeur service to all players, anywhere in the country. This idea was specifically put into place after a similar drunk driving crisis in order to prevent it from happening again.

NFL’s PR department wants to do anything they can to plan ahead of these crises and make sure players do not act in ways that hurt the wellbeing of the organization. It is crucial to protect the reputation of the organization, which is deeply impacted when a prominent athlete that is idolized by young fans across the nation makes a bad decision. When things like this happen, it makes the public wonder what the NFL is doing wrong that causes history to repeat itself.

Now that Ruggs did not use the services that the league offers to all players to influence them not to drink and drive, it is time for the NFL to come up with a new plan that will prevent players from drinking and driving in the future. As a PR professional, it would be a good idea to implement mandatory classes and programs that players must attend that teaches them the importance of being held accountable for actions. By teaching players the dangers of drinking and driving and drilling information into their heads, the NFL can scare players into following the rules, therefore protecting the goodwill of their organization.

Whether it is a string of learning programs, a complete ban of drinking for all players, or a complete ban of driving for all players, the NFL is looking at a tough decision that needs to be made in a timely manner to appease the public and prevent similar crises from occurring again in the future.

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/04/1052238615/prosecutors-say-henry-ruggs-raiders-player-involved-in-deadly-crash-las-vegas

Last night, the Atlanta Braves came out on top during the 2021 World Series Championship. However, a lot of fight when into the Braves win this year, both on the field and off.

Braves fans are known for their Tomahawk Chop gesture during games that gets the whole stadium involved, similar to the Kansas City Chiefs and Florida State University football fans. In previous years, they had to get rid of their “Chief Noc-A-Homa” mascot because it was considered demeaning to Native Americans. They have gotten increasingly worse backlash from Native American communities for years since the tomahawk chop first originated, however PR directors for Atlanta have played it off saying that it is an expression of unification and family.

I think this idea of Native Americans fighting against the tomahawk gesture can be titled a case of crisis communications. The issue has arisen multiple times over the past two decades, and the PR response was not great for Major League Baseball’s reputation and trustworthiness. The commissioner of MLB in 1999, Rob Manfred, responded to the problem years ago by saying that the Native American community is completely supportive of the Braves program and the chop gesture by fans.

This goes to show that anything stated by the leader of an organization or a PR director can come back to haunt the organization, even if it is more than a decade later. Manfreds response to the situation was clearly not planned out in a crisis communications plan, and it seems like he had to make something up on the spot to defend the organization. However, in crisis PR lying is the worst thing an organization’s representative can do.

This year, before Game 1 of the 2021 World Series featuring the Atlanta Braves vs. the Houston Astros, the National Congress of American Indians responded to Rob Manfred’s assertions and said that his words were far from the truth and that the chop is demeaning to many groups of Native Americans within the United States. The Congress asked Fox to abstain from highlighting fans during the chop.

A lot of public relations goes into this situation because it is all about looking out for all types of audience members that could be affected in different ways by certain traditions. MLB should have a PR response plan for every possible situation that could cause harm to the organization. As the current MLB commissioner, I would apologize to the Native American community for any miscommunication or confusion in the Native American Community to represent my organization in good light.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/2021-world-series-timeline-of-braves-tomahawk-chop-and-calls-for-the-team-to-stop-using-it/