Latest / Presented by Speaking Human / #196: Minor League Heavy Hitters

Transcript

#196: Minor League Heavy Hitters · Presented by Speaking Human

0:00
Speaker 1: Speeding Human.
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Speaker 2: Today, on Speaking Human, we take a road trip through
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Speaker 2: the wild world of minor league baseball branding, uncovering team
0:14
Speaker 2: names and logos that knock it out of the park.
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Speaker 1: Speaking Human.
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Speaker 3: Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
0:31
Speaker 3: marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
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Speaker 3: my co host Patrick Jebber.
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Speaker 2: Welcome, Patrick, Welcome to you, Shad Welcome. What we should
0:45
Speaker 2: be saying tonight is take me out to the bull game.
0:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, buy me some peanuts, crack of jacks and crack
0:54
Speaker 3: a don't care I ever go back.
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Speaker 2: I gotta say, when I was a kid at the
1:01
Speaker 2: ball game, idea of cracker jacks, that box and that
1:06
Speaker 2: little tattoo thing that they would give you inside or
1:10
Speaker 2: you know, prize, but it was it seemed like it
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Speaker 2: was always a tattoo when I was a kid. I
1:15
Speaker 2: don't know.
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Speaker 3: I think it still might be. Do they I don't know.
1:18
Speaker 3: Do they still even have anything in there?
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Speaker 2: I don't know. But here's the thing, like the box
1:24
Speaker 2: and everything had a very distinctive smell. Do you know
1:27
Speaker 2: what I mean by that?
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Speaker 3: I do Cracker Jacks though kind of a scam. It's
1:34
Speaker 3: just caramel popcorn. Yeact like it's something otherworldly or like, eoh,
1:39
Speaker 3: try our fancy you know, candy in this box and
1:43
Speaker 3: then you open it up and you're like, oh, you
1:45
Speaker 3: mean caramel popcorn? No, No, this is actually cracker Jacks,
1:49
Speaker 3: completely different. Do we mention there's a prize inside?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always something small, but it's to be clear,
1:56
Speaker 2: it's caramel popcorn. Did you see the prize though? Did
2:01
Speaker 2: you smell the inside of the box. It's very nostalgic
2:05
Speaker 2: Crackerjacks themselves, this whole idea of a promo item when
2:10
Speaker 2: you go into the ballpark, you know, like I think
2:12
Speaker 2: Crackerjacks are kind of like that. It's this thing that
2:15
Speaker 2: you associate with, you know, with a ball game.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, not a promo though.
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Speaker 2: They're not giving it away the true true. But you know,
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Speaker 2: I was forcing the tie in with my trivia question,
2:30
Speaker 2: so come on.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad I can help you out there anyway.
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Speaker 2: So here's the trivia question for you that I think
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Speaker 2: you'll really like. Which unusual promotion did a minor league
2:43
Speaker 2: team run that offered free admission to fans who showed
2:47
Speaker 2: up wearing what? And here I'll give you multiple choice
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Speaker 2: a backwards baseball caps B wedding dresses, see nothing but
3:02
Speaker 2: underwear or d a mustache, real or fake.
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Speaker 3: So a's out. That's just too normal. Maybe maybe probably underwear.
3:18
Speaker 3: I know that seems like it could get crazy, butts,
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Speaker 3: that's this is minor league. This is the thing about
3:23
Speaker 3: minor league baseball. All of these things could be true.
3:26
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with mustaches, though. Is the kind of
3:28
Speaker 3: thing going on with mustaches in the past, like ten
3:31
Speaker 3: to fifteen years, You know, there's kind of a wave
3:34
Speaker 3: of popularity with mustache. It's kind of become cool in
3:37
Speaker 3: a way. So I'm gonna go with the mustache.
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Speaker 2: All right, No, it was underwear. You should have went
3:42
Speaker 2: with underwear.
3:43
Speaker 3: Ah okay.
3:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Salt Lake Bees once had an underwear
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Speaker 2: night where fans who showed up wearing nothing but their
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Speaker 2: skivvies got in for free. For one, I think that's appropriate.
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Speaker 3: If you are.
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Speaker 2: Only coming in your underwear, you get in for free,
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Speaker 2: if you've got that kind of confidence. But for family
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Speaker 2: friendly entertainment, it could have gotten a little risque.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, do we want to see that? In some cases?
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Speaker 3: And no, I hope shoes were allowed. There's some kind
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Speaker 3: of footwear.
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Speaker 2: In most cases, No, but I would imagine most people
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Speaker 2: were pretty conservative. You know. I'm sure there was some
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Speaker 2: people who were on the on borderline inappropriate. I'm sure
4:28
Speaker 2: there were you know what I mean, because there's gonna
4:30
Speaker 2: I mean, if you get enough people together, of course,
4:32
Speaker 2: but most of the I would say attendees were probably
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Speaker 2: keeping it clean. So now I got to go back
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Speaker 2: one more. Since we were talking about cracker jacks, I
4:43
Speaker 2: had a trivia question. I was going to ask you
4:44
Speaker 2: which is which of these is a real stadium food item? Okay, okay,
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Speaker 2: and I'll give you multiple choice. A the Porcoppoli. Its sorry,
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna have the porcallipse, pork porkopolyps, porkalypse, porkalypse. I
5:07
Speaker 2: would say, it's the porkalypse, like apocalypse, but a porcalypse.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, porcopolypse.
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Speaker 2: It's called the the called the pork Porkalypse. Now, oh,
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Speaker 2: b the churo dog, see the Soggy Slammer or d
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Speaker 2: the triple bypass biscuit.
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Speaker 3: Which one of these is real or which one of
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Speaker 3: these is not real?
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Speaker 2: Is real? Yeap?
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Speaker 3: Oh man, they all sound real. I'm gonna say the
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Speaker 3: cheuro dog is real.
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Speaker 2: That's a good guess. That's a good guess. That is
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Speaker 2: the correct answer. The truro dog. Oh okay, what's better
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Speaker 2: is when you hear what the truro dog is, it's
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Speaker 2: chio on a bun. So. This is served by the
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Speaker 2: Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League affiliate. The churo dog is a
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Speaker 2: churo stuffed inside a chocolate glazed donut, topped with frozen yogurt,
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Speaker 2: whipped cream, caramel, and chocolate sauce. I mean it's like
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Speaker 2: a heart attack.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I was into the chiro inside the donut and then
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Speaker 3: the frozen yogurt part lost me.
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Speaker 2: No frozen yogurt for you, huh, Well, it's just too
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Speaker 2: much at that point.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 2: I think if you coated it and whipped cream and
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Speaker 2: caramel and chocolate sauce, that's fine. The frozen yogurt, it
6:27
Speaker 2: seems although for you know, a hot baseball game, that
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Speaker 2: might actually be pretty good because it'd be refreshing. Maybe
6:35
Speaker 2: I don't know.
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Speaker 3: So the poor Coppo lips, Now, poor coppol is not real. No,
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Speaker 3: not real, doesn't exist anywhere.
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Speaker 2: I'm sure the triple bypass biscuit does exist, But it's
6:47
Speaker 2: not should should, but you know they're not as famous
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Speaker 2: as the Cracker Jacks. I will say that they haven't
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Speaker 2: caught on.
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Speaker 3: The smartest thing Cracker Jacks ever did was let's tie
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Speaker 3: ourselves to baseball. Let's get in this song. Yeah, because
7:03
Speaker 3: if it didn't happen, I don't know if Cracker Jacks
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Speaker 3: are still going strong. No offense. Crackerjacks, you got that sailor,
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Speaker 3: but I don't know if it's gonna be lasting if
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Speaker 3: you didn't have this forever tie to this historical game.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the song helped them, and then also the giveaway
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Speaker 2: the prize inside.
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Speaker 3: So we should clarify at this point this episode is
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Speaker 3: not about Cracker Jacks. It is about minor league baseball.
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Speaker 2: Minor league, big bold letters, minor minor league.
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Speaker 3: You know, the majors get all the glory, but the
7:39
Speaker 3: minor league it's where it's really happening. So let me
7:42
Speaker 3: take you back a little bit. Minor league baseball dates
7:45
Speaker 3: all the way back to nineteen oh one, whoa over
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Speaker 3: one hundred years ago, when it began as a way
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Speaker 3: to organize professional teams that couldn't financially compete with the
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Speaker 3: powerhouse clubs in the National and American leagues. Over the years,
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Speaker 3: minor league baseball evolved a little bit into a fully
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Speaker 3: affiliated system, so they were connected to the big leagues.
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Speaker 3: It's where the big league clubs would send their top
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Speaker 3: prospects to develop across five distinct levels rookie league, Single A,
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Speaker 3: High A, Double A, and Triple A. So players move
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Speaker 3: up the ranks as they hone their skills, with the
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Speaker 3: ultimate goal of making it to the show, the Show,
8:30
Speaker 3: the Show. You got to get to the show, I mean,
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Speaker 3: that's what we're trying to do, get called up to
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Speaker 3: the show. In twenty twenty one, minor league baseball underwent
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Speaker 3: a major transformation, streamlining to one hundred and twenty teams,
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Speaker 3: with each major league organization now affiliated with four minor
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Speaker 3: league clubs. But what really sets the miners apart is
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Speaker 3: the color and charm, quirky team names, offbeat promotions, family
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Speaker 3: friendly atmosphere. It's baseball with a local twist, with some
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Speaker 3: teams throwing out some truly wild marketing and branding pitches.
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Speaker 3: And on today's episode, Patrick, we're gonna talk about some
9:14
Speaker 3: of those branding curveballs that we get from some of
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Speaker 3: these minor league teams. We're gonna share our favorite minor
9:23
Speaker 3: league baseball team names and logos. Are you ready to
9:28
Speaker 3: slide into this?
9:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna take it home.
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Speaker 3: You can't take it all the way home.
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna take it all the way home. I'm gonna
9:35
Speaker 2: knock it out of the park. I'm gonna slide to first, second,
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Speaker 2: and third base.
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Speaker 3: You know what they say though, when you're sliding into
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Speaker 3: first you feel something burst.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what's that your spleen? Yes. In our case,
9:52
Speaker 2: this is a fun exercise to think of our favorites
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Speaker 2: because there are a lot of minor league team names. Yeah,
10:00
Speaker 2: got one hundred and twenty in the running. Yeah, they're
10:02
Speaker 2: not all super catchy. I mean, there are some in
10:07
Speaker 2: there that are just kind of like uh ho hum. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: but there are some insanely good ones in there as well,
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Speaker 2: especially because I think a lot of the teams have
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Speaker 2: rebranded themselves in the most recent years. I would say, like,
10:21
Speaker 2: for instance, you know, the Akron Arrows, which are close
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Speaker 2: to us, rebranded into the Akron Rubber Ducks, changing it
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Speaker 2: up a little bit, trying to be more family friendly,
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Speaker 2: being a little crazy with the name and having fun
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Speaker 2: with it. So stuff like that's happened, I think in
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Speaker 2: the later years.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think teams have gone for it a little
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Speaker 3: more in the past like decade or so to try
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Speaker 3: to kind of drum up some more interest. And that's
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Speaker 3: what makes this, you know, a little more fun. We've
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Speaker 3: done some I think we talked about like favorite NBA branding,
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Speaker 3: and I don't know if we did it for the
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Speaker 3: NFL or professional Baseball, I forget would be even done
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Speaker 3: in the past. This is a lot more interesting and
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Speaker 3: fun and varied in what we get in the major leagues.
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Speaker 2: And one of the things I've really loved about the
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Speaker 2: minor league, you know, like as you if you look
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Speaker 2: into the minor league teams, the names and everything are
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Speaker 2: all very closely related to the immediate geography or location
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Speaker 2: of the team. Like the name has a ties to
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Speaker 2: the community. There's history there typically.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, or at least a lot of the best ones, right,
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Speaker 3: and they're a little riskier than what you typically see
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Speaker 3: with you know, major corporate marketing, right.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So let's get to it.
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Speaker 3: First thing we're going to do is we're going to
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Speaker 3: do our two favorite minor league team names. Do you
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Speaker 3: want to share your first one?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: This is hard because we're doing our favorite names and
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Speaker 2: doing our favorite logos, and a couple the two that
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Speaker 2: I have for my logos, I really wish I could
11:52
Speaker 2: just actually use them for my names too, because they're
11:55
Speaker 2: they're really good. But I had to choose, so I
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Speaker 2: would go like my first one for the names would
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Speaker 2: probably be the Hartford yard Goats. Okay, so this is
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Speaker 2: a double a affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, so Hartford, Connecticut.
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Speaker 2: The Hartford yard Goats. Yard goat is a railroad slang
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Speaker 2: for a small engine that moves train cars around in railyard,
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Speaker 2: a nod to Hartford's railroad history, and they leaned into
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Speaker 2: the literal meaning of the goat the animal for the
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Speaker 2: mascot and the branding. The logo features this fierce goat
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Speaker 2: chewing on a baseball bat. Naturally, I think that you'll
12:36
Speaker 2: find a lot of the logos have something where like
12:40
Speaker 2: if the mascot has it, it's either chewing on it
12:43
Speaker 2: or smashing it or I don't know, doing something weird
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Speaker 2: with a baseball bat. Of course, with the names and
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Speaker 2: the logos, you know they draw from the community. A
12:52
Speaker 2: lot of these names. What's really fun is that they
12:56
Speaker 2: have public contests, so like for the naming or for
12:59
Speaker 2: the a lot of times. So for the yard Goats,
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Speaker 2: they did the same thing. At first, I guess it
13:05
Speaker 2: was pretty divisive. Then merch was flying off the shelves
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Speaker 2: because you know, it's fun and it's this goat chewing
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Speaker 2: on a bat.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And one of the I guess one of the reasons
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Speaker 3: for the name was the team stadium was built on
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Speaker 3: the site of an old railroad yard. To kind of
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Speaker 3: jump in, this is one of mine too, is it
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Speaker 3: the name? I yeah, I really like the heart. I
13:27
Speaker 3: mean this to me might be the most minor league
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Speaker 3: team there is in terms of branding. You know, they
13:34
Speaker 3: just completely have the right vibe. I think the name,
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Speaker 3: the logo, everything kind of down the line for all
13:41
Speaker 3: the reasons you stated, you know, as you kind of
13:44
Speaker 3: explained it. You know that the Double a affiliate of
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Speaker 3: the Colorado Rockies in Hartford, Connecticut, and you just, you know,
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Speaker 3: yard Goats is just such a name that just feels
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Speaker 3: very minor league baseball to me, I like the use
13:57
Speaker 3: of slang term. Yeah names my close second. It's not
14:02
Speaker 3: necessarily my second pick, but the in this same category.
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Speaker 3: Along that, I also liked the Amarillo sod poodles. Oh yeah,
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Speaker 3: a sod poodle being a slang term for prairie dogs, yep,
14:16
Speaker 3: which is pretty hilarious.
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Speaker 2: I battled with that as my second and here did
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Speaker 2: you and I? And what I really liked about it
14:23
Speaker 2: was that they both are slang and if you look
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Speaker 2: at them, they're both very similar in terms of the logo. Now,
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Speaker 2: I know we're not picking for note logos, we're picking
14:33
Speaker 2: for the names. But the prairie dog has I think
14:37
Speaker 2: the bat is in his mouth. But he's got you know,
14:40
Speaker 2: like the Texan hat on which I love.
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Speaker 3: And he's got like alfalfa or something.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, that's alfalfa. It looks like a bat.
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Speaker 3: I could see why he say that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I really liked I liked the idea
14:53
Speaker 2: because it's odd and you know, catchy, just like the
14:57
Speaker 2: yard goats, you know what I mean?
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Speaker 1: M hm.
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Speaker 3: Regional, very regional, right.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very regional. I mean, how do you like
15:04
Speaker 2: even say sad poodles without kind of smiling a little
15:08
Speaker 2: bit like what is this sod? This is why I
15:10
Speaker 2: I you know, I was thinking about it as sort
15:12
Speaker 2: of a duo in my lists because This is the
15:16
Speaker 2: one thing about the minor league teams that I think
15:18
Speaker 2: they do so well. It's this like family friendly environment,
15:21
Speaker 2: you know, where they do weird things, but they're all
15:23
Speaker 2: kind of fun and they're trying to make baseball lively
15:26
Speaker 2: and get people really excited, which you know in Major
15:31
Speaker 2: league baseball. I mean it happens, right, but there's more
15:34
Speaker 2: seriousness to those games, yeah, whereas like minor league teams
15:37
Speaker 2: seem to have like a little bit more kitschy fun,
15:41
Speaker 2: you know.
15:42
Speaker 3: So that's not your second pick.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I think I kind of want to.
15:47
Speaker 2: You know, it's been sitting there on my list, kind
15:50
Speaker 2: of like going up and down in the second and
15:53
Speaker 2: third spot because I you know, I had backups.
15:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, I mean there's so many you got it.
15:59
Speaker 3: So it is your second pick.
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Speaker 2: I think that's my second pick. It was either that
16:03
Speaker 2: or the Modesto Nuts.
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Speaker 3: Another good one. So my second one. This is, you know,
16:10
Speaker 3: kind of doing a different thing. I also like names with,
16:13
Speaker 3: as we know from everything we do on the show. Alliteration. Yeah, yeah,
16:17
Speaker 3: you know, it's a little off the beaten path. It's
16:19
Speaker 3: got some alliteration. The name's probably gonna win for me,
16:23
Speaker 3: so I liked the Cannapolis Cannonballers.
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Speaker 2: Mmm, okay, all right.
16:29
Speaker 3: This is a single a affiliate of the Chicago White
16:32
Speaker 3: Sox based in Cannapolis, North Carolina, which I was like,
16:37
Speaker 3: where is that? Twenty five miles northeast of Charlotte. So
16:41
Speaker 3: this is like a lot of the teams we mentioned
16:43
Speaker 3: kind of has had a lot of names. They were
16:46
Speaker 3: the Piedmont Phillies and then they kind of moved, and
16:49
Speaker 3: then they were the Cannapolis Intimidators, a name inspired by
16:53
Speaker 3: NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who was a part owner, and
16:57
Speaker 3: then in twenty twenty they became the Kannapolis Cannonballers. The
17:03
Speaker 3: name comes from James William Cannon and the textile company
17:09
Speaker 3: he founded, the Cannon Mills Company, which the town is
17:12
Speaker 3: actually basically named from. So the original suggestion I think
17:18
Speaker 3: came from fans was the Cannons. Some copyright issues there
17:22
Speaker 3: as well as the weapons connotation. They went with the Cannonballers.
17:27
Speaker 3: Interesting thing about their mascot I mentioned the Dale Earnhard connection.
17:31
Speaker 3: Their mascot has kind of a baseball head and a
17:34
Speaker 3: Dale Earnhardt mustache. It's kind of like a stuntman with
17:38
Speaker 3: a baseball head a Dale Earnard mustache. Pretty cool. I
17:41
Speaker 3: like this name, the Cannapolis Cannonballers. They sound a little.
17:44
Speaker 2: Nuts, like the Modesto nuts. One of the things I
17:47
Speaker 2: think is really cool about you know, the names. They're
17:51
Speaker 2: so hyper local, you know what I mean to being
17:55
Speaker 2: like you were saying this company created the town, right,
18:01
Speaker 2: and that people probably worked at that company from the town,
18:05
Speaker 2: and then that led to somewhere down the line a
18:09
Speaker 2: minor league team, you know, to play baseball because it's
18:12
Speaker 2: an all American sport. And you get to this point
18:16
Speaker 2: where that is the root of how something is named
18:21
Speaker 2: is So it's a beautiful thing, you know what I mean.
18:25
Speaker 3: It's wild, but it's also logical. It follows a clear
18:29
Speaker 3: line of history, Yeah, and logic to get to this
18:33
Speaker 3: like kind of goofy name.
18:35
Speaker 1: Right.
18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, So we've got our list OF's favorite logos.
18:40
Speaker 2: This is gonna be I have a feeling we have
18:43
Speaker 2: the same exact ones.
18:44
Speaker 3: For this, do you think so? I doubt it.
18:47
Speaker 2: There's so many, Yeah, that's true. There there's a million
18:50
Speaker 2: of them. What's your first? Your favorite?
18:53
Speaker 3: So my first you mentioned it? I doubt you have
18:58
Speaker 3: this one. You mentioned this name this team before you
19:01
Speaker 3: mentioned their name. You threw it out there just offhandedly.
19:04
Speaker 3: It's a single, a affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. It's
19:08
Speaker 3: the Modesto Nuts.
19:10
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
19:11
Speaker 3: Now, I generally like when the logo is alive and
19:14
Speaker 3: weird and angry. Another kind of honorable mention in this
19:18
Speaker 3: category is the Hartford Hops, which is the neatest looking
19:22
Speaker 3: hops you'll ever see. But the nuts. In this logo
19:27
Speaker 3: of the Modesto Nuts, you got a peanut who just
19:30
Speaker 3: has a great scale in which looks like a very
19:32
Speaker 3: hard chin and sort of a very uh, not too
19:36
Speaker 3: bright looking walnut. I think as idiot is, you know,
19:39
Speaker 3: holding a baseball. There's actually three of them, three mascots.
19:44
Speaker 3: I think there's only a couple of them that appear
19:45
Speaker 3: in their logo. But there's al the almond, Wally the walnut,
19:48
Speaker 3: and Shelley the pistachio. But it's just the logo itself,
19:53
Speaker 3: very old timey with the font. You know, the name
19:57
Speaker 3: sounds screwball, but the logo kind of looks sinister a
20:01
Speaker 3: little bit, like these are some tough nuts hanging out
20:05
Speaker 3: on the corner who might come after you. So I
20:08
Speaker 3: just really went for this one. It felt very baseball
20:10
Speaker 3: to me.
20:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think it does. And honestly, it's a
20:14
Speaker 2: dead ringer for Jay Leno. Honestly, I mean he does
20:21
Speaker 2: kind of look like.
20:23
Speaker 3: I mean, he's got the chin.
20:25
Speaker 2: I like that he's wearing a baseball cap with the
20:28
Speaker 2: M on top, you know what I mean. That's good touch,
20:32
Speaker 2: that's good stuff. A solid pick. Here's here's one that
20:35
Speaker 2: I couldn't deny myself, The Rocket City trash Pandas M. Madison.
20:43
Speaker 2: It's a double a affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.
20:46
Speaker 2: Rocket City is a nickname for Huntsville, Alabama, home to
20:50
Speaker 2: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and a rich history in
20:54
Speaker 2: US space exploration. So that's where the Rocket City comes from.
20:59
Speaker 2: Trash Panda is the internet's lovingly sarcastic term for a raccoon,
21:04
Speaker 2: as we might all know from Guardians of the Galaxy.
21:06
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it was a reference in there. It's
21:09
Speaker 2: basically a fuzzy little band who lives for rating garbage cans.
21:12
Speaker 2: So how did it come to be that this is
21:15
Speaker 2: the name for the team and a contest In twenty eighteen,
21:19
Speaker 2: the trash Pandas ran away with the vote because it
21:23
Speaker 2: was hilarious, for one, but because it merges local pride
21:27
Speaker 2: rockets with a pure marketing cast of raccoons. That's sort
21:31
Speaker 2: of basically what it came down to, was, you know,
21:34
Speaker 2: a contest. The reason why I chose it is it's
21:37
Speaker 2: got this raccoon in a trash can, rocketing like there's
21:42
Speaker 2: jet propulsion, and he's got this like grin on his face,
21:47
Speaker 2: not like a happy grin, but kind of like a
21:49
Speaker 2: little bit of a menacing grin. You know, he's ornery
21:54
Speaker 2: if you will. I don't know, it's brilliant to me.
21:57
Speaker 2: I think what's interesting too, is in the contest in
22:00
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen came right after I think Guardians of the
22:04
Speaker 2: Galaxy two, so one had been out two and I
22:08
Speaker 2: wonder a little bit if in that contest, the trash
22:11
Speaker 2: pandas had you know, like the public you know, consciousness,
22:17
Speaker 2: they thought that would be fun, because I don't know
22:20
Speaker 2: if that would have been as delightful if it wasn't
22:24
Speaker 2: for Rocket the raccoon, you know what I mean. Because
22:26
Speaker 2: it's also like he's in a rocket trash can, which
22:31
Speaker 2: is you know, again pays homage to their history. But
22:36
Speaker 2: I think it might have had something to do. This
22:38
Speaker 2: is just my theory.
22:40
Speaker 3: It was the first thing I thought of when I
22:43
Speaker 3: saw it. It was the first media connection I made,
22:46
Speaker 3: and I thought maybe that was just me.
22:48
Speaker 2: You know.
22:49
Speaker 3: You look at all these different logos together and you
22:51
Speaker 3: see some of the ones that are more design wise
22:55
Speaker 3: well done than others, you know, and this is like
22:58
Speaker 3: a very like nicely done logo. Yeah, very like nicely
23:02
Speaker 3: put together. I do wonder though, if this logo and
23:07
Speaker 3: the logo of the Quad City River Bandits have beef
23:11
Speaker 3: because they are both raccoons.
23:13
Speaker 2: I mean it might, it might.
23:16
Speaker 3: I do take a little issue with the trash Panna's name.
23:18
Speaker 3: It crossed a weird line where I was like, I
23:22
Speaker 3: don't know, this is like almost like two chintzy, even
23:25
Speaker 3: for minor league baseball.
23:27
Speaker 1: I don't know.
23:28
Speaker 2: I like that. It's kind of like what people felt
23:31
Speaker 2: when they first came up with the Rubber Ducks. They
23:34
Speaker 2: were like, it's kind of cheesy and dumb. But then
23:38
Speaker 2: you're like, but it's fun, and the visual for it
23:42
Speaker 2: is really exciting, Like little kids and adults can be
23:46
Speaker 2: like this is silly fun, And I think that's the
23:50
Speaker 2: brilliance of it.
23:51
Speaker 3: See my style of name. I'm like, you gotta be
23:54
Speaker 3: able to like get behind it a little bit. And
23:56
Speaker 3: there's some names that are just like slightly over the
23:58
Speaker 3: line where I'm like, I don't know. That's kind of
24:01
Speaker 3: one of them, the trash pandas. Let me give you
24:04
Speaker 3: another creature, Okay, because a lot of these, there's a
24:08
Speaker 3: lot of these better animals, especially kind of insane menacing animals.
24:13
Speaker 3: So my next pick is the Double a affiliate of
24:17
Speaker 3: the San Francisco Giants. The Richmond Flying Squirrels. Really like
24:24
Speaker 3: the shape and colors of this logo, but mostly I
24:27
Speaker 3: love how hard they made the squirrel look. You know,
24:30
Speaker 3: we're just talking about the kind of raccoon. They just
24:32
Speaker 3: made this squirrel look like some of you don't want
24:35
Speaker 3: to mess with. This is something I would want on
24:37
Speaker 3: a shirt or a hat. He looks like he's coming
24:40
Speaker 3: at you.
24:40
Speaker 2: And a cool.
24:42
Speaker 3: Interesting note on this one, the squirrel. The flying Squirrel
24:47
Speaker 3: is meant to look like the outline of the state
24:51
Speaker 3: of Virginia and the R patch on he's like. On
24:55
Speaker 3: the Flying Squirrel, he has an acorn with an R
24:57
Speaker 3: over it over his heart is where Richmond is located
25:01
Speaker 3: in Virginia. Just a nice little Easter egg.
25:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that you picked that because that is
25:06
Speaker 2: my second pick.
25:08
Speaker 3: Oh it's not your second pick too, So we did
25:10
Speaker 3: have an overlap.
25:11
Speaker 2: You did have overlap. But here's what I will say
25:13
Speaker 2: about that, both of my picks in the name and
25:16
Speaker 2: in the logo both have some overlap and similarity too,
25:21
Speaker 2: because the flying squirrel not not only are they flying,
25:23
Speaker 2: like the raccoon and the squirrel are flying. Yes, I
25:26
Speaker 2: get that, but if you look really close, like even
25:29
Speaker 2: though the facial expressions of the squirrel and the raccoon
25:32
Speaker 2: are super super close, they're very similar, you know where
25:37
Speaker 2: they've got this like kind of menacing so you could
25:39
Speaker 2: kind of see how, you know, if they use it
25:41
Speaker 2: in certain ways, it feels tough. I also really like
25:45
Speaker 2: the logos that they use in different ways depending on
25:49
Speaker 2: the medium. So like if you look at the flying squirrels,
25:52
Speaker 2: you know, like it looks one way on the hat,
25:55
Speaker 2: but it's kind of stylized a little bit different for
25:58
Speaker 2: like the tickets, or they just use like the head
26:00
Speaker 2: and the face of the squirrel on certain things like
26:03
Speaker 2: the JumboTron and stuff like that. Same thing with the
26:06
Speaker 2: trash pandas you don't always see all of that logo.
26:10
Speaker 2: You Sometimes you just see his face, and his face
26:12
Speaker 2: can be used in a cute way but also kind
26:15
Speaker 2: of be somewhat aggressive, And so both mine were connected
26:19
Speaker 2: in that way.
26:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think too, going back to our you know,
26:22
Speaker 3: kind of conversation about you know, you're talking about the
26:27
Speaker 3: logo you want it to be not too cute, and
26:30
Speaker 3: I'm kind of saying the same thing about the name.
26:33
Speaker 3: There's probably a balance there too, Like maybe if you
26:36
Speaker 3: have a cute name, a slightly more aggressive logo or
26:40
Speaker 3: vice versa, you know, modesto nuts, you know, you have
26:43
Speaker 3: kind of a wacky name, and then you get kind
26:45
Speaker 3: of an aggressive logo, and we're kind of like balancing
26:49
Speaker 3: the scales a little bit. You get an aggressive nut,
26:52
Speaker 3: you know, you bring in an aggressive nut to balance
26:56
Speaker 3: things out, you know. Interesting on the honorable side. I
27:00
Speaker 3: don't know if I like it or not, but I'm
27:02
Speaker 3: very drawn to the Sugarland Space Cowboys logo. I find
27:07
Speaker 3: it's just super interesting, though it's kind of strange and
27:10
Speaker 3: it slightly scares.
27:11
Speaker 2: Me which logo because they have like the sl.
27:15
Speaker 3: I was thinking more of the Spaceman space where it's
27:17
Speaker 3: like stars yeah, you know the Space Cowboy. What about
27:21
Speaker 3: the El Paso Chihuahuas. I think that that dog on
27:27
Speaker 3: the hat, I mean we're talking about balance. I think
27:30
Speaker 3: that scale is tipped in the favor of logo aggression
27:33
Speaker 3: because that dog looks angry. I do like Also the
27:38
Speaker 3: Altuna curve. I enjoy obviously a good chin on a logo.
27:42
Speaker 2: Hmm okay, yeah, there's a ton where I'm like the
27:46
Speaker 2: problem that I had. There's so many where it's just blah.
27:51
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, there's nothing, there's nothing visual for you
27:54
Speaker 2: to pull from. So I think the ones that are
27:57
Speaker 2: very successful immediately and you say it, you have a
28:01
Speaker 2: visual of it. So a lot to take away from this.
28:05
Speaker 2: Here's the marketing takeaway.
28:07
Speaker 3: What do you got?
28:09
Speaker 2: Minor League Baseball proves that when it comes to branding,
28:13
Speaker 2: weird works.
28:15
Speaker 1: This is it.
28:16
Speaker 2: Weird works. From outrageous food to over the top promotions.
28:21
Speaker 2: The names these teams embrace bold, local and often laugh
28:26
Speaker 2: out loud ideas to stand out in a crowded entertainment market.
28:31
Speaker 2: The lesson don't be afraid to swing for the fences
28:33
Speaker 2: with your brand personality, because memorable beats safe every time.
28:39
Speaker 2: Do you like that?
28:40
Speaker 1: I do.
28:41
Speaker 3: I think that stands up too, because I think if
28:43
Speaker 3: you think about baseball as a game, and especially minor
28:46
Speaker 3: league baseball, there's a small percentage of people who go
28:50
Speaker 3: there for the games.
28:52
Speaker 2: Mm hm.
28:53
Speaker 3: Most people go there for the atmosphere and the vibe
28:56
Speaker 3: and you know what, you're kind of like selling this
28:58
Speaker 3: like a family good time where you know, something to
29:00
Speaker 3: do for a night and experience. Yeah, so it's you know,
29:04
Speaker 3: folding it up in this thing like let's get weird,
29:08
Speaker 3: let's get interesting, let's do these giveaways, like all these
29:10
Speaker 3: things going on around this thing that's going on in
29:13
Speaker 3: the field, which can be exciting, can be fun. Some
29:17
Speaker 3: people think it's slow, not everybody's sitting there and watching
29:19
Speaker 3: every pitch. Yeah, but it's this is the center of it,
29:23
Speaker 3: and you know, let's have all this stuff going on
29:25
Speaker 3: around it and kind of like make that exciting, make
29:28
Speaker 3: that fun, and sell you on it. And that's kind
29:30
Speaker 3: of in essence what you have to do with marketing,
29:33
Speaker 3: especially for companies on an everyday basis, where you're not
29:37
Speaker 3: going to sell every person on you know, this central
29:39
Speaker 3: thing all the time. It's not going to be like, oh,
29:42
Speaker 3: let me talk technically about these things that we can
29:45
Speaker 3: do and people would be like, well, I'm already asleep,
29:47
Speaker 3: so let's you know, build a fun brand around that.
29:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, And to your point, it's the experience, right, It's
29:53
Speaker 2: like the whole thing is the experience when it comes
29:56
Speaker 2: to branding. That should also be the point, you know,
29:59
Speaker 2: of your branding is sure, the weird stuff works, but
30:03
Speaker 2: it's about that whole experience. It could be your marketing,
30:06
Speaker 2: could be whatever. It could be your messaging, it could
30:08
Speaker 2: be how you treat people, you know, when they're at
30:12
Speaker 2: your company, how do you make them feel like family,
30:15
Speaker 2: almost like the family environment that they're trying to create
30:17
Speaker 2: in the minor league teams.
30:19
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, and you know your family's a little weird.
30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, we hope you enjoyed this look at the
30:28
Speaker 2: minor league team's names, brands. But that's it for today's episode.
30:33
Speaker 2: You can find current and past episodes of the podcast
30:36
Speaker 2: on Speaking Human dot com.
30:39
Speaker 3: We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of
30:42
Speaker 3: Speaking Human. Catch you then Yard
30:44
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