20. Spinning brine into gold
How did a collegiate, summer league team become a nightly festival attracting fans, talent, and national attention?
Pickles, pickles, pickles
The Portland Pickles baseball team launched in Portland, Oregon in 2015.
What a short, strange trip it has been since then.
Heaps of local and national media coverage for whacky on and off-field antics, players from across the globe vying for coveted roster spots, a flood of applications for prized intern gigs, thousands upon thousands of social media fans, and big acts like Portugal the Man dropping by to play a tune.
The “wood bat” team plays at Charles B. Walker Stadium, a small ballpark nestled in Lents Park in southeast Portland. Pickles’ home games are a mix of quirky, rambunctious 9+ inning parties — a test tube for community engagement, entertainment, and comedy. The Pickles’ promo calendar epitomizes “eclectic” — featuring baby zoo animals (6/17), a tap water appreciation night (6/27), and a Picolas Cage evening (6/3) in honor of the American actor.
Alan Miller: The Wizard of Walker Park
Miller, a co-owner of the team, operates like the wizard from The Wizard of Oz. Unassuming, humble, and possessing an uncanny ability to delight parkgoers. He’s honed his marketing chops from decades of staging small and large “engagements” to supercharge brand loyalty and interest in footwear, seltzer water, hotels, and now, collegiate baseball.
Miller is a self-described “creative middleman” orchestrating and melding elements from music, sports, and pop culture to create authentic experiences that resonate and inspire. The Pickles are now part of the COLLiDE family, a boutique marketing agency Miller founded that represents household brands (e.g., Hard Rock, Coca-Cola, Dr. Martens, Taco Bell).
Parker Huffman: From intern to General Manager
Parker Huffman played college baseball all his life until he took a marketing class and got an itch to learn the business behind the game. In 2019, after graduating, he joined the Pickles as an intern. A year later, he became a staff member trying to solve the vexing issue of an empty ballpark as COVID-19 temporarily shut down baseball (In 2020, the Pickles created the Wild Wild West League as a way to bring live baseball back to starving fans). A year ago, Huffman was named the team’s youngest General Manager at the ripe old age of 26.
I recently talked with Miller and Huffman about what’s led to the rise of the Pickles organization:
5 ideas
Attract & grow a fan base
Test out new ideas
Adopt a festival mindset
Focus on local
Turn brine into gold
Excerpts of interviews with Alan Miller (AM) & Parker Huffman (PH):
1. Attract & grow a fan base:
AM: “It always comes down to asking questions and talking to people. What are you looking for? What do you like? What's the price point that works for you?…doing that grassroots work, learning that process, I just think it helps everything moving forward.”
PH: “We're not just attracting baseball fans, right? I would even say, a majority of the people that come out to our games aren't necessarily big baseball fans. They come to see the crazy stuff that we've got going on & off the field.”
We believe full-heartedly in being authentic. I mean, that is our core value across everything we do - Alan Miller
2. Test out new ideas:
AM: “I've always said the Portland Pickles was really a test project for us to go in there and try to do something totally different…like the punk rock of baseball”
PH: I think for a number of years, it was a lot of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. As we've continued to grow, we've noticed what works and what doesn't work. At this point, it's very thought-out and systematic with the timing of our in-game, on-field promotions, but it's all been a series of trial and error. Today, we know what works and have a system in place that we follow pretty strictly.”
AM: “During the first season, we tested a lot of things out. We hosted a Twin Peaks night. I remember standing out in front of the gate and talking to people and seeing them go “all in” dressed as Twins Peaks characters. I thought that was such an incredible example of community engagement — that we could instruct them or give them suggestions on how to enjoy the night. If we can do this with Twin Peaks, what else can we do? How do we keep building these identities and doing things that no one else is doing?”
3. Adopt a festival mindset:
PH: “Basically, we have nine months to plan 41 parties, is the way that we look at it. So, each of the games is looked at differently. How can we make it the most fun for everybody involved? We definitely operate differently than your typical sports team when it comes to the packages that we create for all of our partners. We're very individualized for each of our partners.”
AM: “We want everyone to feel welcome, whether that's an LGBTQ+ night or whether we're doing a Mexican baseball, a heritage night, or whether we're celebrating something from the past. It's important to make people feel like they want to be a part of it…and make it feel like this is the biggest party in town.”
4. Focus on local
AM: “From a leadership perspective, it's imperative for us to work on a local basis, understanding who the people in the market are that are creators and who are the people making a difference in the market. We seek to involve them in ways that we think are really effective. I think that's really important. There is no one size fits all. When there's a brand that comes to us and says, we really want to work with the Pickles, we said, that's great. How do your goals align with this team & organization?”
AM: “One of the things we did one night is to have Carpet Carl (owner of Marion’s Carpets in Portland) sleep on one of Walker stadium’s billboards. He is a season ticket holder and his son played with us for five years. That’s a really fun angle. We also asked Carl for 100 carpets to tie the “room” together at the stadium. Then, we gave out the carpets to the first 100 fans that arrived. I was waiting for years to figure out how are we going to tie Carpet Carl into this — then we thought of Dude Night — it was perfect.”
AM: “We do not do the same things in Portland that we do in Cleveland or Texas. Because all communities are different and have different sensibilities. My goal for Portland from the very beginning was to have someone coming through Portland on vacation, or with their buddies, to come out to a Portland Pickles game. To feel like they got an incredible experience of what Portland is. We take a lot of pride in representing that.”
10 things happen every night — you couldn't possibly plan for and you've got to be able to problem-solve incredibly quickly and in the right way.
5. Turn brine into gold
PH: “When the pandemic hit, we really started to double down on the digital side of things as our league was shutting down. What can we do to continue to stay relevant and stay top of mind for people? And so we doubled down on the social media side of things and at that point, it was a lot more quantity over quality. Then, as we've grown, we've kind of been able to see what works and what doesn't work to hone our digital strategies.”
AM: “It may look glamorous and easy, but there is so much to concern yourself with every single day and inevitably there are going to be 10 things that happen every night — you couldn't possibly plan for and you've got to be able to problem-solve incredibly quickly and in the right way. A lot of that problem-solving just comes from experience being on the site each night.”
Bonus: Raise the Pickle
PH: “An example of a successful campaign that happened out of
unfortunate circumstances — Dillon, our mascot, was on an international trip with our team and was lost. We thought, let's turn this into a story and get the community and our partners involved and use our resources to hit local media outlets to get the word out there. Then, it turned into a huge thing, a huge story. He finally returned (2 weeks later) in the middle of the night.”
PH: “He always has been who he is, and we love him very much, and the Pickles would not be the Pickles without Dillon, that's all I can say.”
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Also, if you have a local (amateur) team you support, I’d love to hear why you are a fan. Send a pic of your team mascot to share. eoinbastable@gmail.com
Until next time, be well & stay cool!
Eoin