A whole new ball game

Philadelphia is the 'City of Brotherly Love'. Home to the Liberty Bell that summoned residents to the reading of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, it's also home to the Phillies, one of the best known and most passionately supported baseball teams in America. Love might not have been the sole reason that Citizens Bank, part of the RBS group, decided to sponsor the Phillies' new ballpark, but the city, the team and the bank are finding the relationship has a host of mutual benefits.

Citizens Bank Park is a landmark achievement in every sense of the term. Bordered on three sides by elegant buildings that could pass for the headquarters of an energetic new company, only the lip of the grandstands protruding above the rooftops hints that behind the façade is baseball's hottest piece of real estate. Pass through the street-level entrances and you realise why. The architects dropped the playing surface 23 feet below ground level, and with the grandstands cupped around the classic baseball diamond, the 43,500-seat stadium is both vast and intimate.

As you might expect from a multi-million dollar stadium sponsorship, the logo of the Citizens Bank is prominently on display all around the ballpark, from the sign that spans the outside of the main building to the attractions inside. But the bank's involvement is no empty exercise in corporate vanity. The sponsorship was driven by sound business reasons and represents an imaginative re-working of the links between sport and business.

"We're very focused on being involved with the local community," explains Theresa MacLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Director of Marketing at Citizens Bank, part of the RBS group. "As we knew they were going to build a new ballpark, we began to develop a relationship with the Phillies. Our tagline is 'Not your typical bank', and we understood the ballpark wasn't going to be your typical ballpark. There were going to be a number of very fan-friendly features incorporated into it and, as we're all about legendary service, we felt that our brands were very similar."

As well as being seen as one of the most family-orientated spectator sports, baseball has a longer season than American football and tends to have a more even division of male/female fans. It allows sponsors to reach a wide audience, a fact borne out by research carried out since the $336 million Citizens Bank Park hosted its first game in April 2004.

"This is now the park's third season and our awareness in Philadelphia has grown more than 200 times," says Theresa. "Also, people who are aware of the partnership are twice as likely to switch their banking relationship over to us."

The sponsorship deal covers a 30-year period, but there's more to the bank's relationship with the Phillies than stadium-naming rights. The bank played an active part in its design, carrying the 'fan-friendly' motif through to the physical layout. "We wanted to make the stadium very customer-orientated," says Theresa.

Central to those programmes are the heavily branded and completely free 'Games of Baseball', three giant interactive games that are unique to the Citizens Bank Park and are located in Ashburn Alley, the park's entertainment complex. 'Run the Bases' sees participants pounding away at footpads with the kind of zeal that would gladden the heart of any personal trainer. 'Pitch 'Em & Tip 'Em' tests pitching speed and accuracy by encouraging players to knock over the catcher figure, while 'Baseball Pinball' is a giant, baseball-themed pinball machine.

"They allow people to get engaged with the park," says Theresa. "So that it isn't just about sitting in your seat and watching the game."

As clearly branded as the 'Games of Baseball' are, the bank's involvement with the minutiae of the matchday experience goes much further. Bank workers are on hand to ferry people across the parking area towards the seating area. They staff a booth where customers and potential customers can discuss banking products and they are able to issue what are known as 'Citizens Bank Bucks', which can be redeemed in any of the park's concession stands. But the most visible demonstration of the bank's customer service ethos are the Citizens Ballpark Bankers. These staff do everything from cheering on people taking part in the 'Games of Baseball' to handing out free gifts.

As well as helping the bank target retail customers, the bank's presence in the stadium opens up other possibilities. "We do a programme with our business customers where they're able to travel with the team when there's an away game," Theresa explains. "That's an experience that you can't put a value on. If we're trying to win a new commercial customer and can offer them the opportunity to throw the first pitch at the game, then that's a unique thing that supports our position as being not your typical bank."

The bank is continually reviewing the way it capitalises on its links with the stadium. In the past, this has involved initiatives that drew attention to the fact the Citizens Bank is open seven days a week, including branding the seventh innings stretch. This is a tradition at baseball games where music piped over the public address system gets fans to perform in-seat exercises that are part aerobics, part Mexican wave. The current campaign employs parallel interpretations of the word 'home'.

"This year we're very focused on being a home loan lender," Theresa says. "We do a lot of lending for home equity loans and mortgages so we changed things around and the programmes that we focus on now are based around the idea of the home team, the home run and home lending. We do things on the video board, with the TV and radio programmes as well as in the arena, so we're constantly keeping it fresh."

The stadium houses food concessions, including Bull's BBQ, an outdoor picnic area hosted by a former player, one Greg 'The Bull' Luzinski, but Theresa insists that businesses not directly involved with the ballpark have benefited from the presence of their new neighbour and from the estimated three million baseball fans who pass through the area each year.

"This is about giving back to the community," she says, "and being part of the development around the area. You have restaurants and hotels there, and a lot of that happened when the new park was put in place."

More direct links with the community have been created by the glove donation programme, which provides local children with baseball equipment, and the bank offers tickets to non-profit groups.

In the two years since Veterans Park was dynamited into history and Citizens Bank Park arose from its building site in South Philadelphia, fans and pundits have been lining up to heap praise on it. One incredulous journalist described it as, "One part Disney World, one part airport and two parts theatre."

The newest addition to the City of Brotherly Love has brought with it a variation on an old attraction. As well as its panoramic seating, the ballpark includes a 50-foot neon version of the Liberty Bell that lights up and 'rings' when the Phillies score a home run, and proudly bears the logo of Citizens Bank. So when Theresa concludes that the relationship with the Phillies team "has really helped put the bank on the map", it's no idle boast.