SAN FRANCISCO, CA – San Francisco Giants fans were perplexed, and somewhat angered, when billboards began popping up around town early in March that read, of all things, “Go Dodgers.” On March 27th, the ominous billboards were transformed – defaced with images of food scraps and spray paint. While many have speculated on sports-talk radio, in area newspapers, and in online message boards about the people behind these billboards, the mastermind is only now about to be revealed.
On Monday, April 10, the day before the opening of Pacific Bell Park, FOX Sports Net in the San Francisco Bay Area will step out from the shadows and reveal themselves as the creators of this innovative, six-week marketing effort.
The final transformation of the “Go Dodgers” billboards will include further “mock” defacement (tomatoes, eggs, mud, ice cream, lettuce, and a funny spray-painted message), and will read at the bottom: “FOX Sports Net: We Know the Feeling.“
FOX Sports Net kicked off the six-week outdoor campaign, developed by San Francisco’s Wolfe/Doyle Advertising, to highlight their season-long coverage of the Giants, and to capitalize on the rivalry between Northern California’s beloved Giants and their arch rivals in blue, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“On the day the first billboard went up, I was incensed and was ready to start firing mud and eggs at it myself,” said Tom Pellack, Director of Marketing at FOX Sports Net Bay Area. “When I finally calmed down I remembered we were the ones who put the thing up in the first place!”
On March 13th, a simple white billboard with black type saying “Go Dodgers” sprung up near the Giants new ballpark, Pacific Bell Park, and throughout the city. The campaign featured five billboard locations: Harrison & 2nd, Folsom & 6th, 3rd & Army, Harrison & Fremont, and 3rd near the Lefty O’Doul Bridge.
The billboards were a hot topic on local sports-talk radio, Giants internet chat rooms, and Bay Area newspapers. KRON-TV, the local NBC affiliate, and BayTV, featured the mysterious messages on their newscasts.
Then, on March 27th, the “Go Dodgers” billboards were strewn with mock images of tomatoes, eggs, mud, ice cream, and lettuce. The night before the second phase of the billboards went up, some unknown Giants fans had taken matters into their own hands by vandalizing the Folsom & 6th billboard with orange paint.
The final phase of the campaign, which goes up on Monday, features the FOX Sports Net logo and new tagline, “We Know The Feeling.”
“We’re passionate Giants fans, so this campaign really came from the heart,” said Jeff Krolik, Senior Vice President and General Manager, FOX Sports Net Bay Area. “We had a feeling that there would be a groundswell about the billboards and the campaign evolved just as planned.”
Daniel Wolfe, Agency President of Wolfe/Doyle Advertising, noted: “The fact that we were taking a tongue-in-cheek shot at the Dodgers gave us added creative inspiration.” Wolfe/Doyle’s client list includes AT&T Cable Services, KTVU Channel 2, The Gale Group, AT&T Labs, AlphaDog, Medem.com and Piatti Restaurants.
FOX Sports Net, the cable home of the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s since 1990, will once again deliver more Major League Baseball coverage than any other Bay Area television outlet. This season FOX Sports Net will offer viewers a comprehensive schedule of 59 Giants games (48 home, 11 road) and 59 A’s contests (39 home, 20 road), plus a weekly schedule of key national games.
FOX Sports Net’s bases-loaded schedule includes coverage of 118 Giants and A’s games, 23 regular season Baseball Thursday battles, FOX Sports Net’s national, weekly MLB game of the week, and 30 pre-game shows.
FOX Sports Net is a service of National Sports Partners, a 50/50 joint venture between Cablevision’s Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., and News Corp.’s FOX Entertainment Group. Equally owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. and FOX Entertainment Group, FOX Sports Net now reaches more than 68 million homes nationwide.
Rainbow Sports, a division of Cablevision’s Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., has dedicated itself to “Home Team” fans for more than 20 years. Rainbow Sports incorporates all of Rainbow Media’s sports assets, including its 50 percent ownership of FOX Sports Net and FOX Sports National Advertising, majority ownership of the Madison Square Garden Properties, and the ownership and management of FOX Sports Net regional networks in six of the nation’s largest markets – Chicago, New York, New England, Florida, Ohio and San Francisco.
Contact:
Jay dela Cruz
FOX Sports Bay Area
415-296-8900