When Tom Ricketts kicked off the convention 10 days ago he wore a Cubs’ blue t-shirt with “Let’s Go” and a Cubs logo across the front, and in the process announced the theme of the team’s marketing campaign for the 2015 season.
Danny Ecker was on top of the story and provided the background as to why the Cubs and Schafer Condon Carter, the team’s ad agency, chose the slogan as the theme for the season.
For the first time in three years, the Cubs will use current players to advertise the team and not nostalgia and the “Let’s Go” slogan “declares the next phase in a baseball rebuilding process that began in 2012 and reflects an off-season marked by aggressive talent acquisition.”
According to the report from Crain’s Chicago Business, the Cubs will launch the campaign in February that Alison Miller, the Cubs Senior Marketing Director, told Danny Ecker “captures the momentum that’s going on with the organization on and off the field.” The marketing department sat down with baseball operations and worked together on the team’s new tagline.
Anthony Rizzo, Jon Lester, Joe Maddon, Starlin Castro, Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant and Kyle Hendricks are some of the players that will be incorporated in to the campaign.
Theo Epstein said he’s done tempering expectations about his team during the convention.
“You guys deserve to get excited. You’ve been through the long, cold winter with us for three years and it’s going to be a lot of fun. I don’t know how many games we’re going to win. Hopefully we do win the NL Central. Hopefully we win the World Series. We’re going to be real exciting, really fun to watch.”
“It’s baseball. There’s going to be ups and there’s going to be downs. So at a moment like this when you guys are all getting excited. We’re excited,” Epstein said. “Probably, most importantly the players themselves are giddy and working extremely hard this winter because they know they have a chance to be part of something special. Let’s let it ride and try to roll that momentum out to April and get off to a great start.”
Wrigley Field Video Boards
The Cubs announced Jan. 16 that Daktronics was selected to manufacture the left and right field video boards, along with the ribbon displays down the first and third baselines.
Daktronics is the same company the team used for the video boards at ‘Cubs Park’ in Mesa last year. The Cubs’ Spring Training home has since been renamed ‘Sloan Park.’
During the business update session at the convention, the Cubs said the left field video board would be installed and operational by Opening Night, April 5, but the video board in right field would not be operational until late-May when the right field bleachers open.
The team’s plans call for a 42 feet high by 95 feet wide video board in left field and a 29 feet high by 71 feet high board in right field. The team will also install two 180 feet long ribbon displays on the upper fascia down the first and third baselines and two pitch displays measuring 3 ½ feet by 14 ½ feet along the first and third baselines. And there will be a wall display (six feet by 74 ½ feet) installed on left field bleachers to mirror the board in right field that was installed several years back.
Left Field Rendering – December 2014
Right Field Rendering – December 2014
According to the report from Crain’s Chicago Business, both video boards “will feature variable content zoning on their displays, which allows them to show one large video image for live video and instant replays or break up the screens into zones to show scoring, information, statistics, graphics and advertising.”
Danny Ecker also indicated Daktronics will “provide standard scoreboards with control systems for local youth baseball fields through Cubs Charities’ Diamond Project.”
Crain’s Chicago Business, in a different report, mentioned a majority of the content on the video board will be produced by Banner Collective.