Well – after a long cold winter it’s finally here. OPENING DAY of Major League Baseball. It’s a time of renewal, of optimism, a time to look forward. We know that for the next 5+ months, baseball will be part of the daily ritual. I was at Shea Stadium with my buddy on Opening day in 1983 for Tom Seaver’s return to the Mets after having been traded on a dark day in 1977. He was the starting pitcher on opening day and he shut out the Phillies 2-0. I can’t recall any details of any of his other starts that season – but that’s the magic of opening day.
I know that I romanticize he days as a young boy when I would hide the old battery powered am radio under my pillow listening to Mets games long after I was to have lights out. At the time, my old am radio 
was my connection to the outside world. As an adult, I still love the game – but have much more appreciation that Major League Baseball and it’s associated teams are first and foremost – businesses.
Major League Baseball has understood that there are great opportunities to increase revenue and extend their brand through the use of mobile technologies. A quick review of MLB mobile provides a number of offerings – some free and some paid. MLB has done a good job of driving additional revenues through their mobile offerings.
A subscription model can enable a user to see games from all over the league at any time. In addition, there is added value in that there are informational pop ups and data presented throughout the broadcasts. Baseball is a very statistic oriented game for those who have a passion for the game which makes it well suited for the combined broadcast and interactive data push approach. MLB seems to have found an approach 
in which they can have their customers pay for something that they could receive for free. Games are still available for free on am radio and TV – but people are putting down hard earned dollars for the privilege to interact with the games on their mobile devices.
There’s value add there which commands a premium. This is a grand achievement; but remember to put this in context of the more crowded media and content environment in which we live today. As a kid, we didn’t have ESPN 24/7 or the Internet – if we missed the game it was likely we would have to hope for the box score in the next day’s newspaper.
Apply this level of thinking to your own business. What products and services that you offer can be enhanced via mobile technologies. How can you repackage, redeliver, bundle, enhance, expand your offerings?
This is the secret sauce that turns your mobility project from an expense line item to a revenue line item. There are great rewards for the companies that harness this power – and for the business executives who drive these new channels to their customers.
So find the ‘am radio’ customer – and determine how your business can turn them into an enterprise mobile consumer of your brand.
As for Tom Seaver, he retired many, many years ago. He runs GTS Vinyards in Napa Valley. (GTS is for George Thomas Seaver). Wonder what he’s doing to reach his mobile customers…Tom – give me a call!
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Tags: Business Case, Business Mobility, Business Process, Enterprise Mobility, Human Centered Mobility, Increase Customer Satisfaction, iPad, iPhone, Matt Torgersen, Mobile Apps, Mobility - General, Pragmatic Mobility
