Frost Advisory #523 – What We Can Learn From A Piece Of Cardboard

There’s a pandemic going on. Perhaps you’ve heard about it.

It’s affected almost every area of our lives, from what we wear and where we go, to our work, to school, to church, to getting together with Fred and Ethel for a game of Pinocle, to attending sporting events.

While it’s true that the pandemic has forced the major league baseball season to be played in front of NO living, breathing fans that does NOT mean there are no fans.

“Every medium carries within itself inherent limitations, and every artist also comes with limitations. True creativity is not the outflow of a world without boundaries. The creative act is the genius of unleashing untapped potential and unseen beauty with the constraints and boundaries of the medium from which we choose to create. Creativity not only happens within boundaries and limitations, but in fact it is dependent on those limitations.”

Erwin McManus, “The Artisan Soul”

If you watch a major league game, you’ll see the stands littered with cardboard cutouts. There are season ticket holders, there are celebrities, and at Petco Park in San Diego, true to their brand identity, there is a section of cardboard cutouts made up of strictly pets.

Baseball teams understand that:

  • There are passionate fans that want to show their loyalty to their team.
  • Fans will pay good money to fill the void of the fan experience they are missing.
  • Look at me! Look at me! People seek out brands that reflect their identities.

“We’re attracted to art when it
stands for something we believe in,
shows us a reflection of our own values,
gives us a glimpse of our own inner face.”

Roy Williams

Seems that Christian radio stations could learn a lot from this. So, where are the cardboard cutouts of your fans? I hear they’re willing to pay for them.


John Frost

John has been a successful major market DJ and Program Director for such companies as CBS, Gannett, Cap Cities, Westinghouse, Multimedia, and Sandusky and publishes the Frost Advisory.

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