It's Magic Inside - World Series Championship a Fitting End to San Francisco Agency's Campaign

Online, November 22, 2010 (Newswire.com) - When Swirl Integrated Marketing, a San Francisco marketing agency, created the "It's Magic Inside" campaign for the San Francisco Giants' 2010 season, no one could have imagined just how true that phrase would become. After a season filled with highs and lows that concluded with the Giants winning their first World Series championship since moving to San Francisco in 1958, it's hard to refer to the season, and its accompanying marketing campaign, as anything but magical.

In 2006, the Giants debuted the "Your San Francisco Giants" campaign, developing a feeling of ownership of their local baseball team in San Francisco residents. Each year, the marketing and advertising would build upon the previous year's campaign, and this year, the goal was to focus on the experience of going to a ballgame at the ballpark, and the magical feeling that you get as a fan that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

The magical feeling was brought to life with TV spots that Swirl created with help from Dwyer Productions and Ntropic, which used high speed cameras and post production to slow down time and have the players interact with the fans during in-game moments. The print, online and out of home assets also focused on the ballpark, with a graphical treatment that used elements to signify the magic that emanates from the ballpark during a game.

"There's no place in the world I'd rather take my family than inside that park when the Giants are surging. The look in my kids' eyes, their screams of excitement; it really is magic. I just wanted to create something that could live up to the experience. And it was just so much fun to turn iconic slow motion sports footage on its ear. Did we ever dream the season would turn out like this? Well, we do believe in magic." said Brian Bacino, Swirl's Executive Creative Director.

In support of the campaign, the Giants focused heavily on social media for the 2010 season, giving fans the chance to form an online community, and engage directly with the team through exclusive content and timely media. This focus included an active community on Facebook and Twitter, which saw substantial growth in activity during the season. With Swirl's help, the Giants became the first MLB team to create an official Foursquare account, offering ballpark visitors a chance to further engage with the team while visiting the ballpark. Tips range from where to get the best food and drink to facts about the ballpark and how to watch a game for free, and the goal is to make the experience of visiting the ballpark even more magical for Foursquare users - a natural extension of this year's "It's Magic Inside" campaign. Despite limited promotion, the account grew rapidly in popularity through word of mouth, and now boasts an average check-in ratio at each game of greater than 1% of those in attendance.

According to Tom McDonald, Sr. Vice President of Marketing for the San Francisco Giants, "The early emphasis of the 'It's Magic Inside' campaign was the marketing of Season Tickets, and the Giants organization was able to meet and exceed its goal of 22,000 Season Tickets for the 2010 campaign, including over 2,000 new seats sold as Season Tickets. Additionally, the Giants surpassed 3 million in attendance in 2010, a significant milestone in Major League Baseball and a prime indicator of a successful marketing campaign reaching the target audience for Giants baseball. When we chose "It's Magic Inside" as our marketing theme for 2010, we had no idea how true those words would be as the Giants achieved the ultimate baseball success: World Series Champions."

Next year, Swirl looks to continue the momentum that was created by the 2010 campaign, and the magic of a World Series winning season.

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