Kellogg Inspires MLB Fans to 'Never Miss a Game'

Battle Creek, Mich. — The Kellogg Co. activated its official sponsorship of Major League Baseball through a “Never Miss a Game” campaign promoting its snack brands and leveraging MLB legend Cal Ripken Jr. The national effort, which runs throughout the 2014 MLB season, kicked off in April with custom packaging, in-store displays and social media outreach.“It’s a significant promotion for us because it expands our existing partnership with Major League Baseball by allowing us to further tap into the passion point that millions of fans have for the sport,” says Melissa Pawlowicz, senior director of snacks promotion at Kellogg. “We’ve complemented this partnership by bringing it together with local club team sponsorships and a national campaign ambassador in Cal Ripken Jr. These relationships enable us to feature the MLB brand and Cal on more than 40 million packages of snack products and at the point of purchase.”Kellogg delivered thousands of P-O-P materials to grocery stores in May, including roller-base shippers, promotional hutches, dump bins, pallet displays and standees. Participating brands are Kellogg’s Fruity Snacks, Cheez-It, Rice Krispies Treats, Frosted Flakes, Nutri-Grain, Club (crackers) and Keebler (sandwich crackers).Pawlowicz says the displays, many of which feature Ripken’s image, would remain up through the beginning of July. “The activation has been phased in a way so that we can partner with our customers to deliver an in-store program through the middle of the summer, with the social media component lasting through the end of August. We are then providing additional support tactics in key markets for the duration of the season.”The “Never Miss a Game” theme is intended both literally and figuratively: Baseball Hall of Fame member Ripken is best known for his record of 2,632 consecutive games played, and many MLB fans are passionate to the point of going above and beyond what is typically necessary to support their teams.Kellogg invited these fans to use a #nevermissagame Twitter hashtag and the Cheez-It Facebook page to post examples of their commitment, such as having a big screen TV at their wedding reception, or searching far and wide for a broadcast of the game while in a remote vacation spot. “Having Ripken as a spokesperson gives us some unique opportunities to discuss the extremes people will go to never miss a game,” says Pawlowicz.Open to members of Kellogg’s Family Rewards program, an instant-win game requiring online submission of on-pack codes offers a grand-prize four-pack of 2015 season tickets for the winner’s favorite team.“Avid baseball fans are not only tech savvy, but they also have fun, colorful stories about how far they’ll go to ensure they get to see their favorite team play,” Pawlowicz says. “We’ve combined these two points by supporting the in-store effort with a social media campaign on both Twitter and Facebook. Beyond the social media, we’ve also supported the campaign with paid display media on MLB.com as well as other digital vehicles.”Kellogg did not reveal if there was any account-specific retail activity, nor the vendors it worked with on the program.