Baseball Hall of Fame encourages summer pilgrimage via beacons
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Located in Cooperstown, NY, the Baseball Hall of Fame it is important for the organization to expand its non-profit presence nationally through the app. With features such as a points system that leads to discounts, location alerts and a statistic tracker, users keep the heart of baseball with them through road trips or even in their hometown, especially now that the warmer weather has increased these types of activities.
"The BHOF Beacon gives fans of baseball history an opportunity to connect with the artifacts, images, stories and rich content housed at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York," said Brad Horn, vice president of communications and education at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. "The mobile nature of the app also provides users with local baseball content in selected communities, spotlighting key anniversaries and historic events in major metropolitan areas known for baseball.
"As the Baseball Hall of Fame is an independent organization from Major League Baseball, it is important to share our messages of baseball history and the role that education plays in connecting present and future generations with lessons from the diamond," he said. "Baseball is the heart of communities all across the country, and its history offers a lens into American culture and society.
"As a not-for-profit, our role is to preserve the game?s history, to honor its excellence and connect generations around the game?s impact. Mobile technology provides the ideal vehicle to share stories and content across generations."
Beacons and baseball
The app encourages the fans to experience the history of the game wherever they are. Fans can map out road trips with little to no effort through the mobile app.
Now that summer is in full swing, Baseball Hall of Fame is taking full advantage of that and encouraging the super fan to travel, including baseball in their summer plans.
The mobile app shows users significant events in baseball that have happened in their area, and all over the United States. Users can plan a pilgrimage to visit places along the way to the actual location of the Baseball Hall of Fame, or can look for places nearby where they happen to be.
The location feature in the app tells users the importance of the location in the history of baseball and details of the event. For instance, the app features Ebbets Field, no longer in use, where Jackie Robinson first made his major league debut in 1947.
The organization is hoping to draw in crowds this summer who wish to make the road trip to the location. The BHOF Beacon app allows users to create road trips, take curated trips and gain points for visiting locations.
These points can be redeemed at the Hall of Fame location for perks such as discounts on food, beverages, accommodations and other activities. These fans also create a user profile and can keep track of stats acquired through their journeys.
Baseball?s presence in mobile has been making significant strides and the sport is foraying more and more into the space.
Mobile home-runs
For instance MLB.com At Bat added Apple Watch users to its target audience on Major League Baseball?s official mobile application for the 2015 season, providing fans with vital scores, statistics and content to enhance engagement with the sport (see more).
The official mobile application, reached 5 million downloads before the season?s first pitch was thrown, a record for the eight-year-old platform and pointing to mobile?s ability to enhance the consumption of sports events (see more).
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer
"BHOF Beacon?s unique content presentation and its ability to tap into the collections in Cooperstown make it unique from any other offering on the market," Mr. Horn said. "The app spotlights the rich breadth and depth of baseball history that we house in Cooperstown.
"We have the ability to push original historic content found only in our walls at the Baseball Hall of Fame literally into the hands."
Final takeBrielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer