NEW YORK — The Mets may lead the league in viral moments.
It started on Opening Day with the club’s veteran of the game, a World War II veteran memorably named Seymour Weiner. The Mets’ early summer turnaround coincided — or was catalyzed by — a first pitch thrown out by the McDonald’s character Grimace. As the Mets hit their offensive stride, they found their song of the summer: “OMG” by the veteran infielder José Iglesias. (The song is popular enough with New York to earn ridicule from the other dugout earlier this week.)
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The Mets already brought Weiner back for a hot dog promotion. On Saturday, they’ll hand out “OMG” T-shirts to the first 15,000 fans. On Tuesday, a special ticket comes with an “OMG” foam finger.
How does a major-league franchise decide how to capitalize on internet fame? How does it decide what resonates with its fan base and how to tastefully take advantage — to be fun without being annoying?
As the Mets’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Andy Goldberg is the man tasked with making those kinds of decisions. Last week, I chatted with Goldberg, who’s in his third season in the role and helped spearhead the design of the Mets’ city connect jerseys unveiled this season, about what an “exceptional” season this has been for the club and what distinguishes one viral moment from another.
This interview was conducted last Thursday. The Athletic reached back out to the club this Thursday to ask about its latest marketing gambit, having Haliey Welch (better known as Hawk Tuah Girl) throw out the first pitch.We’ve yet to hear back but will update this story if we do.
The interview has been lightly edited and condensed:
Seymour Weiner, a World War II veteran, became an instant fan favorite, and the Mets found a way to feature him in a hot-dog promotion. (Courtesy: New York Mets)
What’s the reaction when you see something start blowing up, whether it’s Seymour Weiner earlier this year or Grimace throwing out the first pitch?
Both are very different and they’re great examples. Seymour Weiner, veteran of the game on Opening Day, we weren’t oblivious to his name. He admitted he had heard every joke in the book. After it took off, we reached back out and were kicking around the idea of doing the dollar dog night and asked if he’d be involved. They loved it. If it didn’t catch on, we probably wouldn’t have used him, because it wouldn’t have made sense. But our fan base was having a lot of fun with it. So we leaned in a little bit.
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On Grimace, we had two people on our team that are just big fans of Grimace. I can’t explain that one. We reached out knowing McDonald’s was celebrating Grimace’s birthday in June, to get him to do a first pitch. Had we not gone on the win streak right after, I don’t know that Grimace takes off. But it did, and that one we really let the fans own. Only after the fans had fully embraced it for multiple weeks did we even start to dip our toe into the water and then on Pride Night have Grimace come back for a cameo. And then we worked with McDonald’s to incorporate him into our schedule release video. It was by design a light touch.
Fans credited the appearance of Grimace for a midseason turnaround, so the Mets quickly brought him back for a sequel. (Pamela Smith / Associated Press)
How much as a department are you checking to see what connects with fans? Is that a specific role for somebody?
It’s not one person’s job, very bluntly. It is on the marketing team as a whole to be very attentive to what’s happening in the marketplace, what our fans are talking about — not related necessarily to performance on the field but things that capture their imagination.
There’s been some this year that have captured the imagination of our fan base. We like to let it breathe — or as someone on my team said, we like the internet to internet. It helps in allowing these moments to catch on truthfully with the fan base; they have to own it and feel responsible for it and they have to love it.
Grimace is a trademarked character of another company. How different is it trying to incorporate that compared to José Iglesias’s “OMG” song?
Absolutely, and each company is different. We’ve had some real luck that McDonald’s was excited about it. That helps. If it was all orchestrated by us as the brand, I think it doesn’t capture the fans’ imagination like we would hope and more importantly it doesn’t capture the other company’s imagination. That was the beauty of it. It was organic. It was viral naturally versus being forced.
And then “OMG,” the players embraced that because it was one of their own. They asked us to play that as their home run song prior to it being released to the public. They were embracing it and we just wanted to lift one of our players up and give him the platform to deliver an incredibly catchy song that is the “Song of the Summer” for us. To get him to perform on the field after a win, that was a big moment we orchestrated — but only after we allowed the players to embrace it. A fan created that sign. We didn’t create that sign. A fan created that sign for the players.
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The way to think about it is, “OMG” is part of the team experience; they have the sign, they play the song. Grimace is much more the fan experience.
We jump on these things, but very strategically after they’ve seen it. If we create it, I think it feels forced and inauthentic.
Right, how much would you ever try to create a moment like this or do you have to sit back and wait for it to happen organically?
Ninety-nine percent of the time they have to happen organically. When we try to create a moment, it’s more deliberate around a dedicated campaign we’re trying to do, and that’s very different from these types of things. For instance, we went on sale with a back-to-school effort and an all-access pass for the homestand.
Those are very deliberate campaigns trying to do something. These are more to capture the imagination, to make this idea that everyone who wants to be part of our family is open to join.
The Mets always have something unique and different that pops up that fans capture. These have been really fun this year and have brought great joy to the fans and it allows us to lean into it a little bit.
You’ve talked about the balance of letting it breathe versus pushing it too far. How do you make sure you don’t turn off a traditional fan who doesn’t care about these things the same way?
It’s a fine line. You don’t want to be pandering to them. A lot of the traditional fans see all this stuff and know it’s happening. Whether they’re happy with it or not, I like to believe it happens in the background — that this is more for the peripheral fan or the fan who wants to have a lot of fun.
The very traditional fan, they get into it and if they’re winning because of Grimace, who cares? They’re winning. Whether they like it or not, it doesn’t matter if they’re winning or if it’s helping the team and making it feel good. The players say the same thing. Ask them about Grimace and they’re like, “Whatever. If people like it, great.”
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When you decide to do something with “OMG,” how long is the timeframe to get that out?
We kind of waited on it, frankly, because we wanted to see how we did through July. We decided in mid-July to lean into it. We met with José and worked with his team. A T-shirt and a foam finger are quick to turn around; anything more complex takes months. We wanted to do it in August when the moment is still fresh. What if we get to September and the song’s no longer interesting or there’s a new thing to latch on to? It’s about capturing the moment in that timeframe and trying to figure out what we can execute quickly enough without looking backwards. It’s hard. To thread that needle of doing it in a proper timeframe and having something valuable to the fan versus a bobblehead next year, by then the moment’s passed.
Is there anything else in the works for the last two months or are you just waiting to see what happens?
If something magical happens, we’ll take advantage. This year has been exceptional, to go from Seymour Weiner to Grimace to “OMG,” you can’t make these things up in some ways. Baseball is unique like that. If something else pops up, we will definitely be paying attention. The “OMG” thing we’ll continue to ride. From there, continue to play good baseball and drive it home.
(Top photo of Pete Alonso and Jose Iglesias: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
Tim Britton is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the New York Mets. He has covered Major League Baseball since 2009 and the Mets since 2018. Prior to joining The Athletic, he spent seven seasons on the Red Sox beat for the Providence Journal. He has also contributed to Baseball Prospectus, NBC Sports Boston, MLB.com and Yahoo Sports. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBritton
