Internet Marketing Case Study

BlueClaws – Minor League Baseball Team

Company Background

The Lakewood BlueClaws, a Single A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies located in Lakewood, NJ, have numerous amenities to offer their fans in addition to exciting minor league baseball action. A beautiful home stadium, FirstEnergy Park, first opened in 2001. It offers fabulous food courts, corporate meeting facilities, an executive conference center, and many opportunities for group recognition, fundraisers, promotions, children's birthday parties, family gatherings, special events and more. For the last four years, the BlueClaws have been ranked #1 for attendance not only in the South Atlantic League, but also for all minor league parks in the state of New Jersey.

The Challenge

BlueClaws management recognized, however, that a wide segment of the population remained unfamiliar with both the BlueClaws and minor league baseball in general. Additionally, while walk-up ticket sales were adequate, they sorely lacked a fan-friendly system for purchasing game tickets directly from the website, and online merchandising fell far short of expectations. Management decided that in order to correct these shortcomings they needed a more effective way to reach out to those planning family activities or day trips in New Jersey and let them know who the BlueClaws were, inform them of the many special family-oriented activities and promotions scheduled on a daily basis at FirstEnergy Park, provide a hassle-free way to purchase game tickets online, and increase promotion of the online sales of BlueClaws merchandise.

The Solution

In order to meet their goals, BlueClaws management decided that the implementation of a new Internet strategy was required. They contracted with Internet marketing specialists, Single Throw, Inc., of Wall, NJ, and assigned them the task of completely redesigning and launching a new website that would be optimized for online purchases of game tickets and improve and enhance sales of BlueClaws merchandise. Additionally, Single Throw would undertake an initiative to develop a highly targeted online marketing campaign and e-mail marketing solution that would tie in the BlueClaws' existing fan base to the website for news and upcoming events. The new website would also need to expand the reach of the team and the allure of the ballpark not only to families planning outings in New Jersey, but corporations and businesses looking for a new and intriguing way of entertaining clients and staging company gatherings.

The Strategy

To achieve the goals the BlueClaws' managerial staff set forth, Single Throw's talented team of Internet Marketing consultants, technologists, marketers, industry experts, and business process professionals implemented Single Throw's patented “From Search to Success”® methodology, a process for identifying and targeting potential customers and delivering them the right message at the right time. “From Search to Success”® incorporates five strategic deliverables including:

• Identifying imminent buyers with purchase intent
• Targeting potential clients
• Capturing their attention
• Converting them into customers
• Properly retaining them, providing life-time value

As part of the complete Internet strategy developed for the BlueClaws, Single Throw also integrated a fully functional shopping engine and banner ad system into the new, easy-to-navigate, fan-friendly website.

The Results

As a direct result of Single Throw's integration of the new banner ad system and user-friendly shopping engine for the purchase of BlueClaws game tickets and merchandise, and as a result of the implementation of extensive Internet marketing programs designed expressly for the BlueClaws organization, the new site has realized a 20% increase in net revenues. Additionally, although the new site didn't launch until April of 2005, the website recorded over one million visitors by year-end, compared with just 400,000 total visitors for all of 2004.

Statistical results in search engine queries are equally impressive subsequent to the launch of the new website. In Google, the BlueClaws consistently place on page one for the phrase, “corporate event centers NJ,” which has a competition base of 4,110,000. Other competitive phrases under which the BlueClaws show up well include, “family fun activities NJ,” “corporate conference center NJ,” “meeting and event space NJ” and “NJ baseball.”

The Wrap-Up

As a result of their immensely successful design, development and marketing of the BlueClaws' new website, Single Throw was the recipient of the Jersey Shore Public Relations & Advertising Association's 2005 JASPER award in the Electronic Communications category for business website development, and the New Jersey International Association of Business Communicators 2005 IRIS award in the Electronic and Interactive Communications category.

Ben Wagner, Director of Media and Public Relations for the BlueClaws, is ecstatic over the new site, which he says, “Definitely exceeded all of our expectations.” He is particularly impressed with the content management system that easily allows BlueClaws management to make changes to certain areas of the site, such as the schedule and promotions sections. Also, the ability to see concrete statistics allows management to see what is working and what isn't, and helps the BlueClaws front office from an advertising and marketing perspective to focus on what their market base is looking for.

Geoff Brown, General Manager of the BlueClaws, agrees. “We have been thrilled with the new website since its launch in April 2005. I think the ability to buy tickets online has been the biggest success overall. The process is easy and extremely user friendly, and has definitely exceeded our expectations for being the first time we implemented this service online. The increase in visitors has been overwhelming and the feedback from the fans and the industry has been nothing short of great.”

For more information on Single Throw services, call them at 732-451-0820, or visit their website at www.singlethrow.com.