New Balance Marries Red Sox: Match Made in Heaven

Today, while walking with a friend at Fenway Park he declared that "New Balance sneakers are sick," and he wants a pair. Now up until a few weeks ago he had been completely content with his Nike sneakers that were just a few months old.  I had always though of New Balance as the sneakers my dad bought or the my mom wore for comfort reasons. Never had I considered someone my age wearing.  This wasn't a brand associated with jocks or "lax bros."  But now New Balance is being recognized with sports and names like Under Amour and Nike, not quite on the same scale, but not too far off either. So what has sparked this new image for New Balance?


A partnership with the Boston Red Sox.


As a die hard Red Sox fan I know that it's a big deal when any company or brand buys out space at Fenway Park for advertising. So early this season while walking by Fenway, before Adrian Gonzalez himself had even played on the field, I spotted a new sign in the back of the park waiting to be constructed atop the bleachers in right field.  It was a flashy New Balance sign, lights and all.  Of course this meant that I needed to come back and research it.  I learned from good old boston.com that New Balance had been named the official footwear of the Boston Red Sox.


New Balance now joins the ranks of Giant Glass, W.B. Mason, and Dunkin Donuts, as big name in high profile sponsors for the team. Naturally this meant that the company would have a 70ft sign with almost 2,000 LED lights prominently displayed above the new right field high-def scoreboard.  This announcement came on April 4th and it seems to be a very strong partnership.  New ads featuring Dustin  Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis have been running during the Sox games on NESN, while the N's on Pedroia's cleats in the game seem bolder and brighter than any Nike swoosh I've ever seen.


This whole partnership is a brilliant move on the behalf of New Balance, and the Sox have nothing but money to gain from the whole thing.  Now all Fenway park employees such as ushers and grounds crew are outfitted in New Balance gear. The Red Sox also put an emphasis on their green initiative at the park by noting in their announcement that the flashy sign uses energy efficient LED lights.  Also New Balance is a continuing sponsor of the "Run to Home Base" a charity event hosted by the Red Sox Foundation to help support veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The two organizations clearly have their bases covered on this partnership, pardon the bad baseball pun.This is a true example of a win-win situation for both parties in the world of marketing and PR.


Before this partnership I had always been a fan of the old New Balance commercials and campaigns which focused more on the every-day runner and athletes as opposed to high profile celebrities.  But at the same time all I could ever think of when I considered the brand was their tradition white sneakers that my father and grandfather wore, nothing stylish, but built for comfort.  Now however, seeing Dustin Pedroia in these shoes, and associating the brand with a competitive team and athletes has made a world of difference. Within just a month it seems that New Balance has managed to re-brand itself and reach a new type of consumer through a very simple partnership and the use of traditional media platforms.


New Balance, I'm proud of you. And as for you, Sox, keep on trucking you've got some ground to make up and a World Series to win.




Pedroia Commercial that foreshadowed partnership:

This is my life and why you should read my blog...

I figure I should write my first two or three posts about myself, not because I’m self centered and enjoy talking about myself, but because its weird to read a blog when you know nothing about the person writing it.  So this means I’m just going to give you all a general idea of what I’m like and hopefully make you love me just a little bit (more) through this blog.

To begin with in many ways I’m not your typical Emerson College student.  Here at Emerson we have a reputation for being very fashionable, with gay guys and hipsters everywhere and clouds of cigarette smoke in front of all building entries.  I don’t find myself falling into any of the above categories, although I can be very fashionable when I chose (or need) to be, for the most part you’ll find me in a pair of jeans and some sort of Red Sox shirt or comfy rugby shirts. But now when it comes to my work ethic I’m an Emerson Student through and through.  Here we love to be busy all the time. Students throw themselves into everything and are enthusiastic and passionate about the fields they’re in.  Most of us aren’t just here because we need some sort of job at the end of it all, we actually want to learn and can not wait to dive into our field of study.  I’m no different and I love being here at Emerson.

I love being booked and busy all the time.  Even before college I always felt this way.  I love going from class to work to meetings and more meetings.  I write out schedules and fill out calendars like it’s my job.  Currently I belong to four organizations on campus and hold a job at the library here.  I thrive of tight schedules and going non-stop, sometimes it gets stressful, but in the end I feel so accomplished, and to be honest not having something to do usually stresses me out even more.

So as this semester wraps up I keep thinking of how much I’ve managed to do by keeping this busy schedule, and I’m pretty happy with it all. So now we head into Summer where I plan to keep my job working at Pizza By Alex, which I truly love doing.  I actually really like working with the public, I mean there are certainly customers that I find myself frustrated with, but overall I’ve become really friendly with a lot of the regulars after being there for three years.  I’ll miss Boston like crazy but I love Maine in the summer, the beach is nice and business is great at the pizza house so it keeps things fun, not to mention that there are very few things that I love more than orange pineapple ice cream on a sugar cone.  With almost 2 weeks left and summer around the corner I’m ready to keep this busy pace going and embrace a Maine summer.

So here’s to the final push, and my final meetings for the semester. I just finished a pretty major paper on Red Sox Nation and the commercialization of the team…so look out for a link to that on here, twitter or my LinkedIn!

Just a little blogger in this big blogging world

So here I am, finally with a blog.  I’m Kelsey Doherty and I’m delving into the world of blogs.  As a marketing major at Emerson College I’ve been told many times that I need to start this up and now here I am, typing my very first post. When it comes down to things professionally I am finishing up my first year of college and looking to get into sports marketing.  Overall I really enjoy anything marketing and PR related and keep myself highly involved including several organizations at Emerson and in the Boston marketing community. But when it comes down to it my passion lies in the sports industry, especially baseball.

I want to lay out my goals and provide direction in this blog.  First off I will most likely have several entries pertaining to the Boston Red Sox and baseball in general, in terms of my thoughts and look at the marketing aspects of the sport.  Also on occasion I will explore some of the different aspects of the marketing industry that I am researching in my classes and possibly create links to presentations I have put together on re-branding and recommendations with a competitive analysis. I’m in love with the creative aspects of marketing, the aesthetics of brands.  Creating a new image for a brand or company is exciting and fascinating to me.  This is certainly something I want to become more involved with.

It’s clear that I have many goals listed in this entry and there is so much more I hope to write about and share with you all.  This is an exciting new endeavor for me and I hope you’ll join me.  I promise to be an interesting person.

Let the blog begin!

Oh and check me out on Twitter! @kelseyedoherty