Not Your Father's Baseball Card Company

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

Upper Deck targets today's kids with online card collecting world
Kimberly Maul
February 19, 2009


Objective: Upper Deck, producer of sports trading cards, launched a new virtual world to appeal to today's kids that might be more steeped in online than the printed-word culture. The company is using an online and traditional media campaign to inform children of the new product. This is the new generation of sports card collecting, said Anna Maria Mannino, PR manager for Upper Deck. We're encouraging real world and digital card collecting.

Idea: Upper Deck is focusing on a big online push in getting kids to sample it and talk about it on blogs and message boards, Mannino said. By entering into the online space, Upper Deck is able to attract a new kind of audience that might not be into collecting physical cards, she said. The company will also target business publications, as this is innovative from a business standpoint because we're entering this area for the first time, Mannino added.

Tools: Upper Deck will reach out via social networks like Facebook, and is allowing fans to give feedback. But the company also launched an aggressive traditional media relations campaign, targeting magazines, daily newspapers, and TV covering sports and general consumer news. On the business side, Upper Deck will promote its licensing deals with top players and how the company is expanding online. It also plans to create events with top players to promote UpperDeckU.

Measurement: Upper Deck will track site traffic and the number of children who sample the virtual world.