What Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s Taught Me About Destination Marketing
Fourteen years ago, I was thrust into the world captured in the 2011 film “Moneyball,” based on the true story of general manager Billy Beane’s novel approach to baseball management with the Oakland Athletics. After four years of college ball (Rock Chalk!), the Oakland A’s called to congratulate me on my draft selection and told me to report the following week to their Spring Training facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The next three years would be a roller coaster of professional baseball experience in an organization that had captured my attention since “Moneyball” was initially published by Michael Lewis in 2003.
I traveled the country on a coach bus playing for different teams across Oakland’s minor league system, getting to know the ins and outs of the organization. Most everything I read in Lewis’ book around the A’s penny-pinching, value-hunting mentality ended up being true. Yes, we had to pay for soda in the locker rooms. My favorite example: In spring training batting practice, we pitchers were on “home run duty” – which meant standing in the rattlesnake-infested, rocky sand of the Arizona desert to be sure every ball was returned to the field.
But Oakland’s mindset went beyond just cost savings. They were true value hunters. Beane and his assistant Paul DePodesta set out to use Bill James’ (the godfather of baseball “sabermetrics”) theories to build a better baseball team on a limited budget. But what they ended up doing completely changed the sporting world. The use of analytics and objective value assessment are the cornerstone of every major sporting franchise’s front office today.
And I believe travel and tourism marketing can succeed with a similar game-changing mindset.
From Dugouts to Destinations
I’ve worked in travel advertising for 12 years – six at Sojern and another six here at MMGY. Each of my roles has been in some kind of analytics/data strategy capacity. And along the way, I’ve noticed that much of what I learned from Beane’s approach to baseball can be applied directly to destination marketing.
Here are my seven takeaways:
1. Small- and mid-market teams can’t play the same game as the big guys.
The A’s knew they couldn’t play the same game as the Yankees. In 2002, Oakland had the third-lowest payroll in the league. They couldn’t afford to pay the same salaries as the top of the league, so they didn’t bother trying. Instead, they sought value where others overlooked it. If you are working with a limited budget, you need a different playbook, not a scaled-down version of big-budget strategies.
2. Know when it’s a vanity stat or a game changer.
While other teams were fixated on batting average (BA) and earned run average (ERA) statistics, the A’s took a deeper look at what actually put runs on the board and what kept their opponents from scoring. They were able to recognize that even though both BA and ERA were highly respected, 100-year-old stats, they were given more importance than they truly deserved. What are your vanity BA and ERA metrics? What KPIs actually lead to heads in beds and taxes being collected? Ignore the rest.
3. Big names don’t win games.
Holistic, efficient efforts do. Baseball thought Beane was crazy when he tried to backfill a couple overvalued star players with three to four undervalued and relatively unknown players. But it worked for him – and it’ll work for you. What tactics are your unsung heroes? How can you find and fund more of these hidden opportunities?
4. Identify your stolen base attempts and bunts.
For decades in baseball, conventional wisdom said that it was a good idea to risk stealing bases and move runners over with sac bunts. But the A’s found that these plays statistically reduced a team’s chances of scoring over time. Outs are too valuable to give up. The A’s eliminated these tactics and scored more. Where are you sacrificing outs (dollars) for what everyone else says is valuable? Maybe it’s social media engagements, or maybe it’s video completions on low impact units. Identify what actually increases your chances of scoring runs, and you will drive more visitation to your destination.
5. Know your ballpark.
Beane built his team around the iconic Oakland Coliseum, a park where batting averages go to die. The thick air and massive outfield meant fewer home runs. The dense, slow grass in the infield meant fewer ground-ball singles. And the huge foul territory meant more outs on pop-ups that would be souvenirs in other stadiums. Beane understood this and found players who were undervalued offensively but excellent defensively. How is your “park” different from everyone else’s? Maybe you have off-season appeal, niche activity access or an under-the-radar killer cover band music scene. Use it to your advantage. Travelers don’t want to go to Anywhere, USA. They want unique experiences. Tell your story and invite them to come see how different you are.
6. Build a solid scouting report.
Every great team makes adjustments to their strategy based on their competition. Do you truly know who your destination is competing with? What do they do well? Struggle with? What can you exploit? The A’s didn’t just use sabermetrics to evaluate their own roster – they also used it on every team in the league. It was often said that other GMs hated making trades with Beane because they knew that he knew what they didn’t. As a DMO, if you can’t answer where you’re gaining or losing share by origin market, by season and by audience segment – you’re flying blind. If you haven’t reviewed your competitors’ current campaign strategy, that’s scouting work you need to do.
7. Ignore the hecklers. Stay the course.
If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you know Beane’s master plan was not smooth sailing. He took heat from the press, his fans, baseball “experts” at large, even his own scouting department. But he trusted the math, the process and his front office staff. If you’re trying something unconventional, you will get heat for it. Stay the course. Trust your model. Trust your team. And trust that doing something different is the only real shot at doing something remarkable.
Moneyball isn’t just about winning with less. It’s about winning by thinking differently and being courageous enough to challenge the status quo. That mindset reshaped baseball, and it has the power to reshape destination marketing.
Are you ready to play ball?
