Dear A’s Marketing Team and Management,

Pay some attention to your fans.  You have A’s fan stats posted on your website, they’re interesting.  It may be worth a read or two.

Good luck in 2009!

You’re Buddy,
Mae

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What I loved most about Money Ball is that it challenged me to see the game of baseball in a new light.  Baseball was no longer just about imagining what the managers had up their sleeves or how many home runs a player hit.  It was about innovation.  Applying new stats to the way a team was created and played together.  I finished Money Ball rethinking the way I did everything.  I studied the most efficient ways that vitamins are digested and absorbed in the body and worked on my core strength so I could run faster and longer.  At work, I applied new ways to approach demographics both online and through community events.  Money Ball single handedly set me on fire, and it made watching A’s games a lot more fun too. 

It’s been a few years since I’ve read the book, and now that the season’s coming to an end maybe I should pick it up again to deal with some of my A’s “frustration”.  A comes from different aspects of Bean’s 2008 rebuilding.  It’s not about trading my favorite players or having to hear about our young team doing things like diving into shallow pools or Frank Thomas going on the DL shortly after turning the big 4-0.  It’s more about style.  Finesse.  When Money Ball was written, Bean’s ideas were so new (relatively speaking) that the book didn’t have to dwell on refining technique.  Here was something innovative and inspiring.  How a team fares once the secret is out is a different book altogether.  One that needs to be written, and one I hope that A’s are champions of although it doesn’t seem likely.

Heading into the fall of 2008 we are forced to see RENOVATION in big gaudy letters everywhere we look.  We’re walking into  a new economy whether we like it or not, and we’re doing it with a new president.  Each candidate has flip flopped on so many issues so many times, I can hardly tell them apart (if the democrats pushing the offshore drilling bill so much, why are the republicans chanting drill mantras?).  The Yankees are moving next door and somehow Madonna was able to break up a marriage and hold hers together in one summer.  The A’s aren’t alone, the world is rebuilding.  Why is it then that Madonna is the only one coming out of this looking good?  We know its not from high album sales or significant talent (unless you count yoga).

The A’s need to take on some of their own innovation when approaching fans and the media.  Players come and go, that’s great as long as they help us win or we know who they are.  I didn’t know a few guys on the team at the last game so I asked one of the aisle attendants.  He said, “No one knows who’s playing for the A’s anymore.”  This from an employee?  The best part of the game, unfortunately was when Stompers head fell off in a dance routine – at least I know who Stomper is.  The A’s need to take some time and acquaint fans with new players.  Give them a blog, schedule more interviews, create some personas.  This doesn’t have to be expensive.  We, the fans, need something. 

That said, why remind us of who we lost?  Why waste advertising money for TV spots that say “Swish is back” when we play the White Sox?  Don’t get me wrong, I love Nick Swisher, but I also know how to manage a productive marketing budget – and this is just frustrating to see. 

Another moment of frustration happened about 2 weeks ago when I was riding the BART.   First, let me say that I love pouring over old and new Oakland A’s ads.  Many are eye catching and made on a tight budget; I give the Oakland A’s Ad Department of 2002 a lot of props for that.  Um, it’s 2008 — and the 40th anniversary of the A’s in Oakland, what the heck happened to their advertising?  At the very least, bring back the billboards.  I know, it’s expensive, but suck it up, write the check, and watch your fan base increase.  Next, I’m 26 years old with perfect vision and I can’t read any of this year’s ads unless I get up from my BART seat and stand in front of the ad.  I like pictures of dude I don’t recognize pouring champaign over their heads just as much as the next person born after 1974, but what the hell should I be taking from these ads?  Who in advertising would put a potential customer through having to stand up and walk to an ad just to read what it says?  It’s inefficient in so many ways.

While on the BART, I see an A’s ad in the distance that looks new and clear.  I can’t make out the details, but I don’t have to.  The ad is green with white letters.  I don’t remember what it said, but I got a huge grin on my face when I did read it from a distance.  “wow,” I thought, “now there’s a great ad – glad to see they’ve finally gotten their advertising acts together.”

Because I’m cheering for the A’s, I really am. 

I walked up to the ad to read the details and take in it’s beauty for a bit, before I realized in horror what was going on.  It was an ad, it turns out, from 2006.  It was about Barry Zito.  WTF?  Recycled ads?  From 2006?  About old players?  No really, what the heck are the A’s thinking?  I’m stumped.  Are they thinking that anyone who sees this will have also read that Sunday’s edition of the New York Time’s Sports Magazine where they feature Zito, and that they get the joke of how Zito only played well for the A’s -  ha ha ha, Giants suck?  Because if that’s what they’re going for — shoot.  I mean, I talk all kinds of sh*t about the Giants any chance I get, but I see this as and don’t appreciate negative advertising.  I mean, at least make fun of the Giants in a clever way.  Make fun of the seal.  Make fun of the sushi they serve to the elitist fans.  Make fun of the splash hits.  But run an old ad?  Granted, I could read it from more than a foot away, but — it’s an old ad!!!  Young team, old ad — really now, WTF are they thinking?  I can’t help but think maybe they hate having fans.  They hate the city of Oakland, which is reasonable  and really, what Oakland resident doesn’t kinda  hate  Oakland a little bit too.  But to hate the fans?  Fans who get up to read ads only to be slapped with the glory of 2006? 

It hurts.  I’m not frustrated.  I’m hurt.  And not in a Bay Area, go cry into your tofu kind of hurt, but in a hey, my family’s from Milwaukee and at least they have a winnie slide at the games, I don’t care if that makes me a fair weather fan kind of hurt.  And judging from the game attendance, I’m not the only one a little hurt.

So as this season ends, I will probably read Money Ball again while watching the Rollie Fingers bobble head increase in value for months and months on Ebay, dreaming of gold and green at the coliseum.  In those dreams, I’ll be able to keep up with who our players are.  The stands will be filled with people cheering, and no one will care who’s winning because it’s the team that inspires them.  It’s the team they know and love.  The team they smile at on their morning commute and wear on their T-shirts.

Until then…