Turning a Milestone Moment into Year-Round Visitation
How this Case Study may be relevant to you: This project demonstrates how an institution can leverage a milestone moment through integrated digital marketing, audience research, and destination storytelling to drive visitation beyond a single event.
A multi-channel digital campaign drove 1.6 million impressions, nearly 66,000 website clicks, and more than 4,000 new email subscribers while increasing overall website traffic by 9% year over year.
Situational Analysis
In 2025, the National Baseball Hall of Fame prepared to launch a new exhibit exploring the history of Japanese baseball, coinciding with the anticipated induction of Japanese Baseball Star Ichiro Suzuki, who played for the New York Yankees, Miami Marlins and most recently, Seattle Mariners.
This once-in-a-generation cultural moment created an opportunity to expand awareness and diversify visitation by engaging new audiences beyond the Hall of Fame’s traditional markets. Supported by a Market NY grant, the museum needed a strategic marketing approach that could leverage induction weekend momentum while building sustained interest and visitation well beyond the event itself.
The Challenge
How do we engage visitors and build momentum for the new exhibit that lasts beyond the 2025 induction weekend?
Objectives
-
Raise awareness of the Yakyu | Baseball exhibit
-
Create demand for future bookings & museum visitation beyond induction weekend
-
Expand reach to broader American and Japanese American audiences
Strategic Insight
To answer the challenge, we explored the sports tourism trend of visiting all MLB stadiums to attract West Coast fans visiting East Coast stadiums within driving distance of the museum.
Behind-the-scenes looks at the exhibit showed us that the emotionality of the game was just as important as honoring the exchange of cultures.
While the Hall of Fame puts Cooperstown, NY on the map - there is more to do in this Americana town that plays into the visitor experience.
Our answer to the challenge:
Entice new audiences who appreciate the exchange across cultures and share a love of the game.
Strategic Approach
We targeted fans of the LA Dodgers, LA Angels, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and Miami Marlins and encouraged them to come see their favorite team play in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or Toronto and combine the game with a visit to Cooperstown to see the Yakyu | Baseball exhibit at the Hall of Fame.
Our approach also included:
-
Raising awareness of the Yakyu | Baseball exhibit through targeted digital advertising and online content.
-
Leveraging Ichiro's anticipated induction to build excitement and connect the exhibit to “bucket list” baseball travel experiences beyond induction weekend.
-
Expanding reach to Japanese American and West Coast baseball audiences by tapping into the emotional and cultural significance of baseball and positioning the Hall of Fame as a multi-day destination.
Tactics
- Paid Media:
- Google Search: Google pay-per-click ads in targeted geographies that reached people actively searching relevant terms.
- Retargeting: Banner ads targeting recent landing page visitors, to encourage them to return and continue planning their visit.
- Meta Traffic Ads: Encouraged trip planning and drove traffic to the campaign landing page.
- Meta Lead Generation Ads: Encouraged baseball fans to sign up for the Baseball Hall of Fame's email newsletter, allowing for multiple touchpoints.
- TikTok Advertising: Targeted younger baseball fans in the drive market with a TikTok ad showcasing the new exhibit.
- OTT Advertising: In collaboration with our partner, VDX.tv, we developed an immersive programmatic over-the-top advertising campaign to raise awareness through streaming and display.
-
Owned Media
-
Bucket List Baseball Itineraries: These itineraries included airport recommendations, routes to follow and baseball-themed attractions near each of the Northeast stadiums. The itineraries allowed potential visitors to easily plan a road trip from nearby stadiums to Cooperstown.
-
Results
Top Results
- Delivered a multi-channel digital campaign that generated 1,641,522 impressions, 65,978 clicks to the website, and 4,053 new email subscribers.
- Contributed to 3 million total website visitors in 2025, representing a 9% increase year over year.
Photo Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Result Highlights
- We leveraged the trend of visiting every baseball stadium and turned it into a drive market opportunity by creating inspirational itineraries that would encourage fans from new markets to plan bucket list baseball getaways. The itineraries were included on the campaign landing page and strategically advertised to fans whose team had a game in the Northeast coming up.
- Established Meta and Google as key traffic drivers, ranking as the 4th- and 6th-highest sources of website traffic, while maintaining efficient performance with low cost-per-click across platforms.
- Expanded reach and awareness through TikTok and OTT, engaging younger and streaming-first audiences with cost-efficient upper-funnel exposure.
- Created a high-performing campaign landing page that became the second most-visited page on the website in 2025, reinforcing strong audience interest and engagement beyond induction weekend.
Posted in Collaboration, Travel PR