It’s baseball’s biggest stage. These games mean it all. It’s the dream of every kid who has ever swung a wiffle bat at a ball in his back yard. And yet, at this pinnacle moment in a major league player’s career they are willing to stop the game to hold a cheap handwritten cardboard sign.

What in the name of Abner Doubleday is going on here?

“Major League Baseball, Stand Up To Cancer and MasterCard conducted a special in-game moment, with players, umpires, coaches and fans all pausing to hold up placards with the names of loved ones affected by cancer.”

MLB.com

If we view it through the filter of what it has to do with the game of baseball it makes no sense. But if we view it through the filter of who we are as a community and family, we see that it is more important than just a sport. That’s Brand Value Pyramid stuff don’tcha know.

This campaign’s viral marketing taps into beliefs and values that just so happens to be at the heart of our format, celebrating family and friends, and reaching out to help others. Beliefs and Values is not about sounding religious, it’s about connecting to things that people value.

But let me warn you it will require you to stretch your thinking about programming beyond just categories of songs, deejays, liners, and jingles.

Recently retired player Trey Mancini recalls watching the World Series and the surprise of seeing his own name on a placard being held by a fellow player. At the time he was battling stage three colon cancer. He said that experience was life giving. He is now a cancer survivor.

While the other radio stations are talking about what matters to them, maybe we can be talking about what matters to our listeners.

“There’s singing at people,
There’s singing to people,
There’s singing about how you feel…
Then, there’s singing about how THEY feel”

Tim McGraw