NESN's Sox Appeal

So I have admittedly praised a lot of the marketing, advertising and branding efforts of the Red Sox this season. Now, I thought I would mention a Sox program that didn't fare as well as they probably hoped - Sox Appeal. An article even appeared in the Boston Business Journal on it. Check out one of their advertisements in the Youtube video above. The reality show based on pairing Red Sox fans based on a few innings of a blind date at Fenway Park debuted in the summer of 2007 and followed up with a second and final season in 2008. NESN produced no shortage of advertising on their channel and website, and they seemingly had no problem casting the show. It was a neat idea at the peak of the popularity of not only reality shows, but dating ones as well. The episodes aired after Sox games (I believe,) and the NESN broadcast team did in-game promos as well, with admittedly humorous dialogue on how the taped show seemed to be going during the games.

Why did this series fail? I can think of a few possible reasons. Firt of all, NESN should have taken a closer look at the demographics of their viewers and the fans of baseball in general. Men and women spanning decades watch the Sox, and reality TV shows only appeal to a (I think small) percentage of the general TV viewing population. Red Sox Nation is not a niche-enough market to have broad appeal. People don't want to watch other fans go on dates, they just want to watch the games.

The content of the show itself was also a negative - having watched a few episodes, too many people on the show were very obviously there for the fame and recognition associated with it. People immediately pick can sense a disingenuous individual. Also, they didn't seem to pre-screen the dates. Other than the Red Sox, many of the couples had nothing else in common.

It would have been a great test show for off-season baseball, not during the season. However, I will give the NESN production team props for the name of the series - Sox Appeal is nothing short of clever. In addition, I applaud NESN and the Red Sox for trying something new - you cannot be afraid to fail!

RL