Challenge

The Great Falls Baseball Club came to us with a fun challenge: they were changing their name, and needed help introducing it to the community. A minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, the team had used the White Sox name and image for several years. But minor-league affiliations change frequently; the team had previously been a farm club for the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. That’s a problem for the club, as loyalties get divided and merchandise has to be thrown out with each new name change. So the club needed an identity of its own, and it came up with a great one—the Voyagers.

The name hints at a famous UFO sighting at the ballpark in the 1950s, the new logo, mascot and other elements were all infused with themes of outer space and little green men. We felt that the launch should embrace the ideas of strange lights in the skies, official coverups, conspiracy theories and the like. Using every medium available, Banik unleashed a viral campaign designed to generate buzz among the town and the press.

Banik Solution

• Every element of the campaign was designed to tease and provoke interest. Billboards bearing only a red V and a date were posted. Crudely-shot TV spots showing strange V-shaped formations of lights in the sky over Great Falls appeared, only to be cut off by static. A rambling website containing bits of intriguing information sprang up.
• As the campaign progressed over a series of days, more signs appeared. Radio spots spoke of mysterious messages from the sky. Students wearing “The date we make contact” T-shirts wandered the halls of the high schools. The website began posting partially decoded messages from the sky, including GPS coordinates which seemed to be drawing a large V shape on the landscape of Great Falls. All the signs began to converge around the ballpark and an imminent event. Local blogs began to speculate on what it could all mean.
• On the morning of the reveal, members of the press were escorted to a sealed hangar at the Great Falls airport, and hustled inside the darkened interior by “men in black.” A cordoned-off gaggle of protesters chanted slogans, demanding to be told the “truth.” A declassified film began to play on the screen at the front of the room, describing the history of the ball club, the UFO sighting, and the purpose for the press conference. The Voyagers name and logo was revealed to fanfare and applause, and black SUVs drove into the hangar to return abducted ball players wearing the team’s new uniforms.
• Press kits contained in declassified film canisters were distributed to the media, containing a printed brochure and a jump drive with the multimedia presentation, team logos, uniform photos and other details.