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Overview
In 2007, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) was blindsided by a misguided New York City Council vote to ban aluminum bats from use in all high school and youth league baseball games. Ignoring scientific evidence to the contrary, the Council’s Minority Leader led a quickly assembled coalition that effectively used the media to pressure a vote on the ban. While the SGMA scrambled to understand the political motivations behind this effort, they were further stunned to learn that state legislators in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania were leveraging the New York City law as precedent to introduce similar bans from all youth baseball leagues in their respective states. On the defensive, with no plan moving forward, the SGMA turned to The Herald Group to develop and implement an integrated, multi-state grassroots campaign aimed at swaying target legislators.
Objectives and Strategies
The Herald Group developed and implemented a strategy to leverage average citizens to engage targeted elected officials to thwart potential state legislative action. While the scientific research showed that aluminum bats posed no more additional risk than wood bats, it was critical to humanize this effort and place it in a political context. As such, developing the right messages to motivate everyday citizens to take action was critical. Through research, The Herald Group learned that parents and coaches were motivated to act against politicians who wanted to bring the weight of government bureaucracy on an issue they deemed local. Working with youth baseball organizations, including Little League International, The Herald Group created the “Don’t Take My Bat Away” coalition. The campaign began by activating key grassroots influencers – coaches, parents and youth baseball players – through a web-based recruitment effort, to contact elected legislators through targeted phone calls and emails, public events, and letters to the editor.
Results
Following the grassroots launch of the “Don’t Take My Bat Away” coalition, over 4,000 parents, coaches and players signed onto the coalition in three target states alone. National media coverage changed from a one-sided “aluminum bats are dangerous” argument, to a more favorable advantage for the SGMA. With the implementation of The Herald Group’s grassroots strategy, the “Don’t Take My Bat Away” coalition’s army of activists has successfully beaten back all current bills attempting to ban aluminum bats. |
