We are here in the press box of Grayson Stadium nineteen twenty six ballpark, and, media has been a big part of what we do. And but it's changed. The the reality is, we've focused on being our own media company. So now we've turned this press box into almost a video suite where we have our team constantly creating new content to be the media company. We started when we first came here to say, let's think like a reporter. What could we do to create our own news stories, our own videos that would get people following along with the brand. Because it wasn't about marketing, it wasn't about advertising, it was about becoming a cool brand. We were one of the first teams to invest fully in a full time videographer. And during our season, they bring two, three, four videographers on hand and more digital assistants because that is our brand. There's only a hundred thousand people that can see our our games here at the stadium, and every game is sold out. But there's millions that can see our experience and what we're doing. So that's why we have been doing podcasts. We do music videos. We're doing tons tons of Facebook lives because we wanna bring people into our experience. And I think every company should look, you know, what are you doing to create your own media company? How are you sharing what you're doing on a given day? I believe every business is in the entertainment business, and we all should be entertaining. So most baseball teams are focused just on what happens on the field, the baseball game. We're putting out year round content and so that's really what's getting people to become more fans of us. One of my, one of my favorite things I hear, whether it's an email or a message in social media, is I'm a huge fan of you guys, but I've never seen a game. And it takes me a second to think back. It's because they've been just watching us, listening to us, seeing us. They know who we are. They know what we believe, and they know what we stand for. They know we like to have fun and put players in music videos and have fun in the office doing Facebook Lives. And I think that's the future of marketing is creating it all in house, sharing the story, making something fun and special and and taking people along in the journey. When it comes to our media channels, the first thing we started with was video. We started just sharing what was happening at the ballpark. And we realized the impact of video when, you know, we did our first music video with the players and saw fans just going crazy to see the guys in a different way. Then from there we said, alright. What's the next step? How do we keep telling stories? And we started focusing on episodic documentaries, showing the team as they're coming in, showing some of our staff on a weekly basis. From there, we went to Facebook lives and started doing live video. And how do we share that with our team? And and whether we take it ourselves into each other's houses, whether we do Facebook Lives here at the office. Again, just getting behind the brand. The final step which we jumped into a couple years ago was podcast. There's so many outlets for people to get engaged with the brand. And for us, it was first myself, a business podcast where I just wanted to reach out, to some of the top business leaders, entrepreneurs, learn from them, and also share some of our story. And then now we have a a bananas podcast, which is all about the banana story and interviewing not just players, but other people that are involved in the brand and other people that understand what it's like to have fun in a ballpark. Now that we have all these medians going out, every minute of the day, someone is watching something from the bananas, and the brand has legs now. It's not just about when we're playing our game. It's constantly going out, and we're developing new fans throughout the day when we've already just put that content on, and it lives because it's evergreen. You know, I challenge every single business. Alright. What are you doing to create your own content, be your own media company, and start producing? One of the biggest lessons that I've learned is don't worry about necessarily the finished product right away. Just start. Just start putting out. We started doing things with literally iPhones and selfie videos. We didn't have the best equipment right away, but we started putting it out. And then you start seeing, wow. It's making an impact. It's resonating. And then keep playing the game. Keep going out there and stay consistent. And for us, we haven't slowed down. We're going all in digital experience, and we're gonna start doing subscribers and have videos coming out every single day because that's what we believe in, and that's how you can create fans, even in the off season. We love looking at every way that we can be fans first involving our fans, in our content. One of the biggest things you can test with that is engagement. So we ask a lot of questions. Not we not only do we ask them questions on what they can do with the team and make decisions and choose the merchandise and choose the shirts and choose the beer, But when we have Facebook lives, we'll play games like music trivia, and we'll get them actually playing games with us online. So the engagement is a big game for us, with the fans. And then also it's, hey. We're doing a music video. Do you guys wanna be a part of it? And send an email out to our list, and usually we get a great response. I believe that if you're really building a great brand, your fans will find ways to try to be a part of it, but you have to open the door and let them be a part of it. And when it comes to content, it starts with actually just putting things out there and seeing, do they like this?
