Longtime Mud Hens staffer Scott Jeffer could count on one hand the job offers outside the Toledo franchise he would have seriously considered. When his phone rang last fall, it was one of them calling.

“If the New York Yankees call, and they want to create a position especially for me, and it’s a position that I’m interested in, that’d be one,” Jeffer told Toledo Free Press while en route to New York in March. “No offense to even some of the local major teams — Cleveland, Cincinnati — with the same offer I’d probably still stay in Toledo. But the Yankees are on another level.”

Growing up on Long Island, Jeffer never thought one day he would work in the hallowed halls of Yankee Stadium.

“No, I thought I was going to be the second baseman,” Jeffer said, laughing. “But then I never got above 5-5, so to me this is the closest thing to it. I guess I hoped, but I never did think it would actually happen and now here I am in Pennsylvania three states away, so it’s pretty exciting. But if I hear one more George Costanza joke from ‘Seinfield’ … ”

Jeffer came to the Mud Hens in 1993 as an unpaid intern while majoring in sports management at the University of Michigan. He was hired after graduation and has been in Toledo ever since, most recently as assistant general manager of marketing, advertising and sales.

His work with Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a targeted marketing strategy the Mud Hens has been utilizing for at least six years, caught the attention of the Yankees, who recruited him to launch a similar initiative in New York.

“The Yankees are a top brand. They’ve been around for 100 years, moved into a $1 billion new stadium a couple years ago, but this is an area they haven’t done a whole lot with yet and they enlisted me to do it from scratch,” said Jeffer, whose first day was March 25. “I’ll be doing the same things I’ve done in Toledo and taking the same philosophies to New York — just with a lot more dollars on the line.

“We’re used to selling $9 a ticket; they’re selling hundreds per ticket and that jumps to thousands in suites. I feel like I’m going from the most famous minor league team to the most famous major league team.”

With a newly created title — manager of CRM and database strategist — Jeffer will work to develop and implement a companywide CRM and database system for the Yankees, who coincidentally hosted Detroit, the Mud Hens’ major league affiliate, on March 31 to open the season.

CRM is basically a highly sophisticated “electronic rolodex,” allowing the Mud Hens to track the interests and preferences of fans and potential fans in order to market as efficiently as possible, Jeffer said.

“The bad systems just track names and addresses,” Jeffer said. “Ours integrates with accounting and ticketing. All the systems talk back and forth. Our goal is to know as much about our fans as possible, every time they attend a baseball game, every time they call us on the phone.”

That information allows the Mud Hens to create targeted marketing campaigns by searching customers by criteria such as ZIP code, baseball camp attendance or those who bought tickets for an Opening Day game, Jeffer said.

“CRM is an emerging area in business in general,” Jeffer said. “I’m looking forward to taking business practices that have worked successfully in Toledo and bringing them into a larger scale. I just want to help a franchise that’s already the top franchise and make them even bigger.”

But Jeffer said the biggest lesson he’ll take with him from Toledo is how important it is to have a personal relationship with fans.

“You can do all the marketing in the world, but there’s nothing like getting feedback from hometown fans,” Jeffer said. “In New York, I won’t be able to walk around and meet 44 million people, but as a staff, if we can gather as much information as we can, it’s going to help us to provide services for fans and sell them what they want to purchase. Especially when the economy is down, we want to know as many details as possible. The more information you know and the more personal emotional connection you can make with fans, the better your product will be. And I learned that on a smaller scale in Toledo.”

Despite growing up in New York, Jeffer said he isn’t a die-hard Yankees fan.

“The truth is, I was a Mets and a Yankees fan — I was one of those people who rooted for both,” Jeffer said. “I probably went to more Mets games because it’s easier to get there on the train from Long Island.”

He was at Game 6 of the 1986 World Series when the Mets, down to their final strike and about to lose to the Boston Red Sox, pulled off an improbable comeback at Shea Stadium. The win tied the series, forcing a Game 7, which the Mets would win two days later to clinch the title.

“The ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs and the Mets guy came around and scored the winning run,” Jeffer said. “At the time it was a real historic moment — still is for sports fans. It was wild. That was probably the best moment of my life at the time.”

Jeffer said his favorite Mud Hens memory is how Toledo fans impressed the visiting coach at a 2006 playoff game at Fifth Third Field.

“Here was this game, the final game of ’06, and we just had a screaming 10,300 sell-out crowd and the GM of the Rochester Red Wings said ‘Being here and seeing this atmosphere almost makes me want to root for Toledo,’” Jeffer said. “And it was like a tingling feeling: Look at what we built up. At the old stadium, we couldn’t sell out games — ever. Out here was a playoff game and everyone was there and everyone was screaming. It was something special.”

That game is also memorable because Jeffer caught a home run ball.

“Off the net, I actually caught a Dustan Mohr home run ricochet,” Jeffer said. “I’d never caught a ball in my life, but I happened to be in the outfield in the outdoor picnic area. It bounced once and I got it. I gave it to a little kid, who just took it and never said a word. That’s the only thing bad about the memory. But I’ll always remember that, the only fair ball I ever got. I probably won’t have a good chance to catch a ball at Yankee Stadium.”

Jeffer said he will miss his co-workers in Toledo.

“Our staff is a very humble group. There’s not a lot of egos. They’re easy people to talk with and it was never about us on the staff, it was always about the team,” Jeffer said. “The average fan doesn’t want to see people in a suit. They want someone just like they are — a fan who understands what it means to have a good time at the game. We’ll see how that works in New York. All I can do is try.”

Jeffer will be missed for a long list of reasons, said Mud Hens President and General Manager Joe Napoli.

“He’s been with us for 20 years so you leave your mark on an organization,” Napoli said. “His personality, his enthusiasm. He clearly loved the Mud Hens, the Walleye and Toledo, met his wife here, had children here, the whole package. He was extremely dedicated, worked extremely hard and was with us from the days back at Ned Skeldon Stadium when the thought of even having a marketing initiative or a marking department, we couldn’t even fathom the thought. That marketing department was maybe a sliver of somebody’s time when there was only half a dozen of us in the front office, so he’s been extremely valuable over the last 20 years.”

Although he’s moving on, Jeffer hopes Toledoans don’t lump him into the “brain drain” category — just another guy leaving for the big city.

“I wasn’t looking to leave Toledo for anything,” Jeffer said. “I’ve enjoyed every second from the first day of being in Toledo and me leaving has nothing to do with not enjoying the Mud Hens or the Toledo Walleye or the great things that those teams are going to continue to do, but just trying to not turn down a lifetime career opportunity. I love Toledo. I love the midsized town. I would be happy in Toledo for the rest of my life. But I’d always wonder what could have happened if I hadn’t turned this down. Where could I have gone with my career? I thought I had to at least try it.”

Tags: Baseball, Mud Hens, Scott Jeffer, Sports

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2011 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Mud Hens, Sports.
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Next time you’re sitting in the stands at Fifth Third Field, take a look around you. There’s a roughly 50-50 chance the person sitting in front or behind you is not remotely interested in minor league baseball.

It turns out people love Mud Hens games even when they don’t like baseball.

That’s what the ballpark’s marketing staff discovered when they began in-depth research into Toledo-area fan demographics around 2003, said Scott Jeffer, who until recently served as assistant general manager of marketing, advertising and sales for the Mud Hens. He left in March for a job with the New York Yankees.

Scarborough Research, a division of Nielsen, regularly surveys the 13-county region around Toledo, asking hundreds of questions about consumer preferences and behavior.

Roughly 49 percent of game attendees in the Toledo market indicated they were very interested, somewhat interested or a little interested in minor league baseball, according to Scarborough’s most recent numbers in September, said Mud Hens President and General Manager Joe Napoli.

A fourth option, chosen by 51 percent of game attendees surveyed, was not at all interested.

“Basically half the people in the whole crowd are completely not interested in the game of baseball,” Jeffer said. “People are coming out because it’s affordable family entertainment. They’re there because the hot dogs are tasty, the beer is cold, the prices are affordable and it’s a fun night out where they can see their neighbors. If you ask why people haven’t been to the stadium, they always say, ‘Oh I’m not a baseball fan.’ That’s usually the No. 1 answer. They just assume you have to be a baseball fan to go to a baseball game and, at the minor league level, that’s dramatically not the case.”

Avid fans — those who say they are very interested in minor league baseball — make up only a small percentage of overall game attendees, about 11 percent in the most recent survey, up from 8 percent in recent years, Napoli said.

“For years, teams would promote the hockey and the baseball and what we’ve learned over the last 10 years is that’s not what prompts people to make the decision (to attend a game),” Napoli said. “Is it affordable? Is it fun? Can I get a good meal? Can I get great souvenirs? All of those things factor in, and then they get around to interest in the baseball and the hockey.”

Research has shown that most people who visit Fifth Third Field —which had 30 sellout games last season — are happy whether the Mud Hens win or lose, Napoli said.

“You’d be surprised that even people on the way out can’t tell you who won the game. They won’t know the score. There are folks that can’t even tell you who we played,” Napoli said. “It speaks volumes about the people that work here — our seasonal staff and our fulltime staff — and about how hard they work to provide a good experience.”

Another research firm, Great Lakes Marketing, polls residents on why they choose to attend Mud Hens games. Typical top answers include affordability, family-friendly entertainment and cleanliness, Jeffer said. At the bottom is win-loss record, affiliation with the Detroit Tigers and the chance to see future major league stars or get autographs.

“What we’ve come to learn is that it is truly about the experience,” Napoli said. “When we market the Mud Hens and Walleye we’re coming from this perspective that what motivates a family to come out are the same things that motivate a family to see ‘Disney on Ice’ or the Harlem Globetrotters.”

That’s why Mud Hens pocket schedules feature far more photos of fans than photos of players.

“People don’t even know who players are usually. They’re rooting for the Mud Hens, but they’re not losing sleep if they lose,” Jeffer said. “People who are diehard baseball fans, they’re coming anyway. Not that we’re ignoring them, but it’s the casual fan that’s deciding what to do — that’s the person we try to reach.”

It turns out these findings are fairly typical for minor league teams. In fact, Toledo consistently ranks among the top markets in the nation for interest in minor league baseball, Napoli said.

When surveying the area’s population as a whole, 26 percent indicted interest in minor league baseball, said Mud Hens Marketing Coordinator Tammy Esper.

“That’s off the charts, believe it or not,” Napoli said. “Scarborough surveys the top 75 markets and Toledo continually comes in at either the No. 1 or No. 2 slot as far as the interest level in minor league baseball.”

The most recent numbers put Toledo tied for No. 2 with Rochester and Roanoke, Esper said. No. 1 was a tie between Des Moines and Providence with 27 percent. The average percentage for the cities surveyed was 16 percent.

“The point of all that is even though a little over half of our attendees have no interest at all in minor league baseball that still leads the country in interest level,” Napoli said.

Those results are a point of pride for the Mud Hens.

“Basically what that is saying is we have very good market penetration,” Jeffer said. “The Mud Hens are a big part of the public consciousness.”

When Great Lakes Marketing asks residents about other events they attend in the area, Mud Hen game attendees are apt to list high school sporting events, the Toledo Zoo and the Toledo Museum of Art, Napoli said.

“Major league sports, believe it or not, are at the bottom of the list. Our fans surprisingly do not attend a lot of major league sporting events,” Napoli said. “When you look at our prime audience, which is families, it all begins to make sense.”

Seniors are another major demographic of game attendees, Napoli said.

Nathan Steinmetz, manager of online marketing and ticket sales, uses information culled from the demographic research to guide what he posts on Facebook and Twitter.

“If you look at our message mix, it’s not heavy on the stats,” Steinmetz said. “It’s more about what’s going on at the ballpark and how you can have fun at the ballpark. We realize a mom who wants to bring her kids out to a game looking on Facebook doesn’t care how many homeruns so-and-so has. She wants to know ‘Can my kids run the bases after the game?’ So the research works its way into all our marking efforts, including social media.”

There’s no such thing as too much information, Jeffer said.

“As we’ve gotten more information about our fans and what they like and don’t like, it just make us better, keeps our attendance rising and provides fans what they want,” Jeffer said. “The more personal emotional connection you can make with fans, the better your product will be.”

Tags: Baseball, Mud Hens, Scott Jeffer, Sports, Toledo

This entry was posted on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Baseball, Mud Hens, Sports.
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