A's Continue Award-Winning "Green Collar Baseball" Campaign

March 16, 2013

The Oakland Athletics and their advertising agency, Hub Strategy of San Francisco, are launching the fourth season of their award-winning marketing campaign, "Green Collar Baseball," a fully-integrated program featuring television commercials, and print, outdoor and digital advertisements. The 2013 advertising campaign highlights the team's hard-working mentality and illustrates how the organization welcomes an innovative and unconventional approach, all of which played a key role in the Athletics drive to the 2012 American League West Division title.

"Coming off a season in which the campaign themes of hard work, gritty play, and unconventionality were brought to life so magically on the field, we are excited to continue Green Collar Baseball in 2013," commented Jim Leahey, A's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "This year's advertising will allow fans to connect with the unique personalities on the team that our fans have embraced so enthusiastically."

"The idea behind Green Collar Baseball is that the A's make up for being a young team with an extra measure of effort, hustle, creativity, and fun - and what better proof of this than the amazing season these guys had last year," said DJ O'Neill, founder/CEO of Hub Strategy. "Between the Bernie Lean and the walk-off pies, we had some great material to work into this year's TV campaign."

This year's campaign will feature the following unique commercials that will appear on television and online:

Pie Alternatives: Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick are taking the post-game pie celebration up a notch this year.
Pressure Training: All-Star pitcher Ryan Cook goes through unique training for high pressure situations.
Cloning Coco: Crisp and Reddick take numbers seriously in every aspect of the game.
Inspirational Speaker: Crisp, Sean Doolittle, Jarrod Parker and Reddick prepare for the 1969 "Turn Back the Clock" game.
Velcro: Reddick and Chris Young look for ways to cover more ground, and more outfield wall.
The Game within the Game: Young and Cook show it's more than just a game, but a game within a game, within a game.
Fearless: The Majors can throw a lot at you, but Parker and Cook train to be absolutely fearless.
Signals: American League Manager of the Year Bob Melvin is so hands on that he runs practice drills for every aspect of the game.

Last year's campaign earned second place in the 2013 National Sports Forum ADchievement Awards, the most recognized advertising competition in the sports industry. In addition, the campaign took home first place in the Print category, third place in Internet and was a finalist in Social Media. This marks the third straight year that the A's and Hub Strategy have won national acclaim from the National Sports Forum.

Hub Strategy (Hub), a full-service creative agency, will develop all television, digital, print and outdoor advertising for the A's for a fourth straight season.

Tickets for A's home games can be purchased at all usual ticket outlets, including the O.co Coliseum Box Office, online at www.oaklandathletics.com/tickets, or over the phone by calling 877-493-BALL (2255). Season, group (including all fundraising options) and suite tickets can be purchased by calling 510-638-GoA's (4627).