On Major League Baseball (MLB) Opening Day, we’re reflecting at Greenfly on how we’ve come full circle with MLB and their pioneering Player Social Program that delivers short-form content to players so that they can engage fans directly on social media. Starting with Greenfly’s founder Shawn Green, a 2-time MLB All-Star who played with the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets, our roots with the league run deep. Our partnership powering the real-time delivery content to players and then to social media continues to deliver impressive results.
As a former player, Shawn understood the importance of fan connections and the rise of social media as the place where fans experience and share unforgettable moments in sports. MLB had the vision to drive deeper fan connections on social with the teams and players they love. Greenfly is working with MLB to dramatically speed and scale its ability to capture and deliver the best, most relevant social content, driving engagement with its hundreds of millions of fans around the world.
VIDEO: How MLB Shares Content with Players
The MLB Player Social Program, Powered by Greenfly
In 2018, Greenfly helped MLB and the 30 Clubs route nearly 250,000 pieces of content that were collected from every ballpark. Through the Galleries content collaboration and distribution hub within the Greenfly platform, MLB’s Live Content Creators were able to distribute multiple forms of media assets directly to team and league social editors for near real-time multi-platform publishing, ultimately giving fans the unique perspectives of the game and its players they cherish and share.
MLB is expanded their use Greenfly galleries in the 2019 season to create a personalized gallery for each players to give them a choice of media. With more media, players posted more frequently, created even more direct fan connections, and grew their engagements and following. Players can now access the breadth of the league’s content creation workflows and have the tools to post or request content as soon as they come off the field. MLB fans quickly receive unique baseball content, deepening their connection to the league, their home team and their favorite players.
Sports Business Journal highlighted this partnership in a recent article, quoting MLB Senior Vice President of Marketing Barbara McHugh:
“We want to give players content they haven’t had access to before, and give them more flexibility and the tools to express themselves more fully and have a bigger voice. We want to be a resource to the players, and mine an opportunity we think has yet to be uncovered. It’s not going to be one size fits all. The idea is to customize this to the individual players.”
Barbara McHugh, SVP of Marketing at Major League Baseball
Good luck to all of the MLB clubs and players this season, and now it’s time to “Play ball!”
Are you looking to gather and distribute the short-form content that drives fan engagement? Let’s talk!
