Baby Ruth Video Contest Celebrates MLB Opening Week

While I'm still on the subject of a new season of Major League Baseball I thought I'd share you this national promotion the league just launched in conjunction with opening week and Nestle's Baby Ruth. The Baby Ruth "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" Video Contest is inviting fans to submit their own consumer-generated content in celebration of the song's 100th anniversary.

One lucky winner will be judged the most talented performer of this popular baseball anthem and will receive the opportunity to lead the song during the 7th Inning Stretch at the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Fans can submit their videos between now and May 26th on a promotional website, MLB.com/babyruth. In June, 10 semi-finalist's videos, selected by the MLB and Baby Ruth, will be posted on the site for fan voting. The three videos with the most votes will go to the 2008 All Star Fan Fest where a panel of celebrity judges will determine the grand prize winner.

Now on top of this contest, all 30 Major League Clubs will host their own local "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" singing competitions, as well. This all sounded a little familiar to me, so I looked back into my archives and found this post that I wrote last August about the Chicago Cubs doing just this. I was actually visiting Chicago while attending the BlogHer 07 Conference and they had several of the finalists on the local news. The winner from Chicago got to sing the song also during the 7th inning stretch, but at Wrigley Field on a day in September.

This year what I found interesting that MLB and Baby Ruth are doing differently with this interactive promotion is that they have added a touch of social media marketing to it by including an official blog just for the contest called "Take Me Out to the Blog" Game. Their first post says that this official MLBlog will be the place for fans to get updates on the contest, leave comments, discuss what videos they like or dislike and ways for them to ask questions about technical or other issues. I guess I'll just have to leave a comment of my own.

Bob DuPuy, President and COO of Major League Baseball says "We are thrilled to celebrate the 100th anniversary of 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame', a song that has been an integral part of every fan's ballpark experience for the past 100 years. With this historic anniversary, and once-in-a-lifetime prize, Major League Baseball and Baby Ruth are excited to see the passion-infused performances this contest is sure to produce."

Well I'm sure it will get it's share of videos. The Chicago Cubs contest drew quite a few entries and got a lot publicity last year. But MLB and Baby Ruth aren't giving away $57,000 like Heinz did last year with their consumer-generated video contest. They do get a trip to New York and tickets to the game at Yankee Stadium. Also they have to incorporate the Baby Ruth brand into the video in some way. Oh no, I hope we don't have a repeat of the scene of Bill Murray cleaning the pool from CaddyShack!

I included this video clip that I found on YouTube of the song and the lyrics lead by Harry Caray, Chicago's famous sportscaster, that I originally included when I wrote my post back in August. So I thought I'd share it again. Enjoy.