ABOUT THE PROJECT
The three day baseball fan festival returned to London
Celebrating the best of baseball culture with an unrivalled fan festival, MLB returned to the UK in a big way with their 2024 London Series Trafalgar Square Takeover.
CHALLENGE
Building on the success of the 2023 Trafalgar Square Takeover, MLB once again transformed the iconic landmark for fans to experience baseball with a line-up of activities, ballpark food, MLB merchandise and a full programme of entertainment including live screening of both games of the MLB World Tour: London Series.
THE OUTCOME
Mets-Phillies rivalry
This year, the New York Mets took on the Philadelphia Phillies in a two-game series at London Stadium, which we brought to life through distinctive, bold branding throughout the festival. With a variety of original merch and ballpark-food inspired food from each city (including plenty of hot dogs!), we created a playground for cultural collaborations and made it clear that MLB had come to town.
Bringing more drama
We stepped up the engaging content with a series of fan attractions such as onstage competitions, a Friday night pub quiz, a Glambot for take-home souvenirs and Fleur East headlining with her DJ set on Saturday night. But the real star of the show was when baseball legends Daniel Murphy and Chase Utley teamed up with superhuman Gladiators Apollo and Fire to go head to head in The Cage, setting the tone of the festival for the rest of the weekend.
THE OUTCOME
Evolution of The Cage
The centre of the festival was the new and improved version of The Cage, MLB’s unique, immersive digital baseball experience. We updated The Cage to use the latest ball tracking technology, giving visitors the chance to smash home runs in Trafalgar Square and hit real baseballs that are digitally visualised soaring over London’s skyline. The dimension-defying experience blended real life and virtual gameplay, offering an interactive and memorable moment for a whole new generation of baseball fans.
Imagination has consistently delivered highly creative events executed with impressive attention to detail and care for Major League Baseball in Europe as we look to engage new audiences with the sport
BEN LADKIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, MLB EUROPE
VALUE
For the audience
Working with MLB we brought the baseball experience to life in an epic 3-day event, presenting existing and a new generation of fans with an exciting, fresh and interactive take on the game.
For the brand
By having to shut the gates on site due to reaching maximum capacity, we truly delivered on the hype generated by the MLB London Series Takeover campaign. The Trafalgar Square Takeover was another key milestone in the journey to grow the game outside of America and position MLB as the sporting entertainment brand that does things differently.