Text / Wu Xiaochuan
Edited by / Guo Yang
Who is the sports IP that is the most "whole life"? Maybe everyone will have their own answer in mind.
At the scene of ecotime sports annual meeting, Qi Dong, managing director of MLB China, and Xiao Shen, a well-known baseball commentator, chatted about MLB's series of strategic thinking on the cultivation, promotion and development of baseball talents in China, and also showed everyone MLB's "whole life" methodology.
Qi Dong, Managing Director of MLB China
In fact, since coming to China in 2007, MLB has continued to make efforts in the popularization of youth, the promotion of baseball culture, and the cultivation of baseball talents, and after more than 10 years of efforts, it has built a perfect system: from the zero-based MLB First Pitch baseball public welfare class, to the youth event platform MLB CUP, to the MLB Baseball Development Center that cultivates outstanding players in China, it has always provided a platform for young people to better understand the baseball culture and participate in baseball events.
In the past 2021, under the background of "double subtraction" and the integration of sports and education, MLB has allowed more people to understand baseball and personally participate in baseball by increasing online content production, hosting offline activities, cross-border linkage, etc.
At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, we may wish to listen to the ECOTIME Sports Annual Meeting together, follow MLB to explore the promotion of baseball in China, and find the "light" that belongs to sports people.
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01
MLB China takes education as the core and establishes a complete baseball talent training network
In 2021, Asian player Shohei Otani successfully won the American League MVP of the Year, and he also became the next Asian MVP after Ichiro Suzuki. The significance of this motivation and impact for all Asian players who work at MLB is extraordinary.
Many people expect China to emerge its own baseball stars as soon as possible. Qi Dong believes that in the past few years, MLB has cooperated with the domestic baseball industry in depth, and from a very early period, it has been looking for coaches for the national team and improving the level of training. "We set up the MLB Baseball Development Center to train top baseball players, and it has been a very well-established system until now, and these initiatives have also begun to send a lot of players to the MLB League's professional system."
In fact, in addition to sending talents for the professional system, hosting the MLB CUP Youth Baseball Open, and laying out the youth talent training system for the zero-based baseball First Pitch, so that children can improve their competitive level by participating in the event, increase their baseball cultural exchanges, and broaden their horizons, which is also an equally important thing in Qi Dong's view.
"Two years ago, First Pitch was launched, and by the end of last year, we had been to nearly 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Haikou, Chongqing, Changsha, Yangzhou, etc. We entered the physical education class of the local school, gave the children a vivid baseball lesson, and through playing baseball games, let the children understand the basic actions of playing and running in baseball, so that they became interested in baseball."
As an international youth public welfare baseball teaching activity, MLB First Pitch Baseball Public Welfare Class is committed to allowing more zero-based children to receive professional and happy baseball enlightenment, helping to improve the campus physical education teaching system, popularizing youth sports activities, and improving the physical fitness of teenagers. Strive to create a good atmosphere for youth baseball and promote youth baseball education to be standardized, professional and international.
Qi Dong mentioned in the interview that from 2009 to Wuxi, to 2012 to Changzhou, and then to 2014 to Nanjing, so far, 114 high school graduates have been trained. "We were the first to help these children grow up in the form of physical-educational integration. They take culture classes during the day, followed by training under the guidance of MLB professional coaches, who also use years of understanding and accumulation to help children understand the game of baseball."
When it comes to the development of these graduates, Qi Dong gave a set of data: so far this year, of the 114 graduates, 34 have played on behalf of the national teams of different ages, 83 have received baseball scholarships to enter the university, and 7 graduates have entered our small league system, been favored by some clubs, and then continue to go to the league for further study.
At present, Zhao Lun, a post-00s player, has successfully entered the MLB baseball team for training, which also allows the industry to see that MLB has established a complete baseball talent training network with education as the core. We can see that MLB came to China, the long history and cultural accumulation of professional baseball, these halos can bring short-term market influence, but long-term development, but also need to cultivate and expand the baseball user market, so let more people understand and love baseball is more important.
02
Increase the production of online content, cross-border linkage, and enhance public attention to baseball
Cultivating and expanding local user groups has always been a challenge for MLB, but also a prerequisite for the development of baseball in China. With a century-old history, MLB, facing the vast Chinese market, has always been exploring and finding a path suitable for the development of baseball. It is worth noting that while mlb establishing a baseball talent training system, mlb is also increasing online content and cross-border market cooperation to attract more people's attention.
After all, there are still many people who don't know enough about baseball, let alone the rules and participation of the game. In view of the reality of the Chinese market, since last year, MLB has launched an original studio, and has continuously produced the original popular science animation series "Baseball 101", "Regional Baseball", which introduces the culture of baseball in various places, "MLB Trend Awards" that unlocks baseball fashion, "MLB Superstar Archives" that focuses on the story of stars, and so on.
Qi Dong said in the interview that since last year, online content has become a very important part. In his view, it is mainly because of the influence of film and television content dissemination. In the Internet era, the influence of online communication is far greater than that of general offline activities, so it is hoped that through online communication, more groups can be attracted, so that more people can understand the rules of baseball and understand the story of Chinese baseball through these contents.
After the content of MLB Original Studio was launched, telling China's own baseball story attracted social attention and the response was also very good. According to statistics, in the past year, the content has exceeded 100 million hits on the whole network. But what is more interesting is that for baseball "Xiaobai", young people, and people who do not understand the rules of baseball, programs such as Baseball 101 use the form of animation to make baseball content easy to understand, helping the audience to easily understand what is happening on the field and better appreciate the game, these innovations are more meaningful in Qi Dong's eyes.
It is worth noting that mlb continued to land offline activities when focusing on online content last year, so that more people can personally participate in baseball. The "First Baseball Lesson" held outdoors is combined through online and offline forms, so that more people can watch a baseball online, play a baseball offline, and experience the charm of baseball.
MLB also invited non-baseball masters such as Helmet Brother and Yan Hexiang to the scene of the first baseball class, let the coach lead them to experience baseball and games on the court, and then introduce the feelings and experiences of baseball games to their fans through their perspective and understanding.
"In many activities, we also implanted the first baseball lesson, two weeks ago we participated in the mountain to the sea, so that many people can participate in the first baseball class after running on the sand side, so that these runners can experience the charm of baseball for the first time, and hope to pass the charm of baseball to their group through their perspective," Qi Dong said.
For MLB, they are using online and offline methods to increase public interest in baseball and expand the baseball population. The joy of professionalism and sports is the personal experience of many MLB baseball participants, but it is not only the enclosure of baseball players, more people are realizing the charm of baseball through rich and diverse baseball content and activities.
Such efforts are also gaining more recognition – the first baseball class produced by MLB Original Studios won the "Content Marketing of the Year Award" from the ECOTIME Sports Annual Meeting, and its outstanding creative content has brought more new ideas to sports marketing.
Looking back over the past year, we can see from MLB's original content strategy that today's media channels have increased, baseball content has been abundant, more industry professionals have emerged and widely disseminated, and all parties' attention to baseball has increased rapidly. Baseball sports population expansion, first of all must have online content and diversion, at first glance baseball is an offline experience, but the online environment determines that baseball needs to become offline and online sports content products.
MLB is promoting baseball through stories of baseball competitions, baseball-related culture, inspiration, and even food, trend stories, and more. According to the current development trend of the project, baseball will enter the vision of more people in the future.
03
Under the youth training system and diversified content, the Chinese baseball market has ushered in a new situation
There are still many good stories about baseball waiting to be discovered and mined, the future MLB baseball strategy will continue, increase content production so that baseball can produce more connections and communication with users and the market, and combined with the continuous layout of offline youth training and talent construction, and ultimately can revitalize the baseball industry and activate the market effect.
In addition to a series of actions in the industry, MLB has integrated the public welfare attribute into the youth event system and opened the "Awesome Love" theme public welfare line. This public welfare activity also brings a fresh and interesting baseball experience to more groups in need of care, so that all children can harvest and grow in baseball. In Qi Dong's view, MLB hopes to give back to the society through the "awesome love" activity, and it is understood that mlb will increase its efforts next year to cooperate with different groups to bring public welfare and love to the society.
Qi Dong said that baseball is actually a very high-quality physical education project, not only for the health and development of children are very helpful, but also baseball is a team sport, compared to other sports, baseball contains and transmits the unity and hard work, never give up on sportsmanship, team spirit, and the perception and impact of life. Helping children think about how to face difficulties from an early age is very beneficial to children's physical and mental health.
"Everyone knows that the truth of sports people, whether it is the integration of sports and education or the policy of double reduction, or the policy of advocating quality education, all fully illustrate the importance of physical education. Involving children in baseball can cultivate children's awareness of the rules, understanding of the rules, and respect for them. It is helpful for the moral, intellectual, and physical development of young people, so I think baseball can have a great effect on campus and educational cooperation, and we are very much looking forward to it."
Through the wonderful sharing of the Qi Winter Annual Meeting and the efforts of MLB for a whole year, we hope that while the level of Chinese baseball continues to improve, we also hope that the sport of baseball and the spirit it represents can play an important role in the current sports life and in the growth of everyone. This is not only a very important strategic idea for MLB to promote baseball in China, but also the true meaning of baseball.
Speaking of MLB's strategy and layout in China, Qi Dong said that because baseball has stronger social and trend attributes than other sports, MLB's promotion in China has opened up entertainment experience and tide culture plans, which will deeply develop the commercial value of MLB and baseball, and bring a refreshing new experience of baseball culture for baseball fans, pan-sports people and trend enthusiasts. I hope that in the future, with the joint efforts of everyone, there can be more professional baseball stadiums and events, so that baseball can be liked by more Chinese fans.
In 2022, the Asian Games are about to be held in Hangzhou, and the direct competition of baseball's top teams is expected to usher in a new boom in the sport in China. And we believe that with the construction of content and the improvement of the youth baseball talent training system, the increase in baseball talents, the diversification of content, the dissemination of socialization, and the efforts of all parties, the development of Chinese baseball can usher in a new situation, or this is also the final answer that MLB hopes to give after a series of strategies.