Our latest In Focus interview features a sports team that is captivating fans’ hearts (and eyes) both online and off: the New York Yankees. We spoke with the team about using video to engage fans throughout every step of the game, and crafting quick, relatable content.  

What is your overall video strategy and how does it serve your needs across fan engagement, marketing, and game capture? How do distribution platforms interplay with this?

Our overall strategy is to give fans an in-depth look at and knowledge of the New York Yankees, both on and off the field. One of our goals is to display the players’ personalities and humanize their larger than life personas, in order to foster a strong bond between the team and fan base.

For the in-stadium experience, we aim to provide an intimate interaction. Video board content helps set the tone of the fans’ game day experience from the time they enter the building hours before first pitch, until the final out is made. Players’ intensity is displayed through dramatic and energetic hype videos, and their humanity is portrayed through light-hearted inning break features.

We hope that the game day show experience motivates fans to seek out more unique content via our social and web channels. Our social and web footprint is the largest among MLB teams, and provides an in-depth experience with long-form content such as player documentaries, as well as short-form content like game and event recaps. Our varied content provides something for every demographic among our fan base—from the New York Yankees history, statistical breakdowns, on and off-field events, player and alumni interviews, to humorous player promos.

Previously, the relationship between teams/players and fans was controlled by third party media—now players create original content on and off season. How has this shift altered the fan/player relationship, and your internal production teams?

We have embraced this new shift in the fan/player relationship, and have created varied content to celebrate this new channel of conversation in our in-game entertainment as well as our web and social voices.

Technologies that impact sports video (data visualization, AR, VR graphics, etc) has advanced significantly in the past years. How have you adapted and incorporated these into your work?

The advancements in technology in the sports world are very exciting. With our content, we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible. Some of our content has been created to capitalize on the availability of new player statistics; we are excited to explore new ways to create and present content that capitalizes on these advancements.

Now that the season is underway, how does your video production output, scale, and focus change?

We are delivering more timely content every week, and our focus has shifted to on-field performance and in-Stadium activities as we strive to be as up-to-date as possible with our deliverables. Because baseball is played almost daily, we are constantly working to create current and relevant content for our viewers.

What excites you most about sports video in 2018?

We are excited that our 2018 Yankees team is a very diverse, energetic, and talented group. They are excited to work with us to create content for our passionate fan base. They embrace their relationship with the fans and we look forward to continuously finding interesting ways to capture and present this dialogue.