Minor-League Baseball Team Announced 'Millennial Night' Promotion, It Backfired Big Time
<p>Mock millennials at your peril. The Montgomery Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, are getting a crash course on that hard life lesson, as the team decided to roll out a "Millennial Night" promotion, slated for July 21. </p>Friday, July 13th 2018, 2:26 pm
Mock millennials at your peril. The Montgomery Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, are getting a crash course on that hard life lesson, as the team decided to roll out a "Millennial Night" promotion, slated for July 21. There have been a lot of promotions so stupid they're charming from the minors, it's part of the allure, but this one did not go over well.
Want free things without doing much work? Well you're in luck!
— Montgomery Biscuits (@BiscuitBaseball) July 11, 2018
Riverwalk Stadium will be Millennial friendly on Saturday, July 21st with a participation ribbon giveaway just for showing up, napping and selfie stations, along with lots of avocados ??
??: https://t.co/mEfHPEQ6fF pic.twitter.com/jvGKCCenpn
Promises of avocados, selfie stations, napping areas and participation ribbons sound great, but people did not take kindly to them.
How about a Boomer night. When the old ppl leave at the seventh inning stretch, we burn the entire field down. Proceeds from Millennial night will pay for the damage.
— Hoss. (@Gamec0cks) July 12, 2018
Live look at the PR team that thought this was a good idea pic.twitter.com/7GM6HqoIUf
— Riley Manasco (@riley_manasco) July 11, 2018
A live look at the Biscuits’ marketing and PR manager today pic.twitter.com/mW2P33rba9
— Will Weaver ???? (@WillWeaverRVA) July 12, 2018
Hi there. Looks like you need to fire your entire social media department. I've got considerable experience - let me know where to send my resume.
— Better Joke Teller (@texaninnyc) July 12, 2018
As a non-millennial, I think your copy was supposed to read, "Riverwalk Stadium will have a condescending promo intended to ensure millennials never visit it again."
— Liz Loveland (@lizl_genealogy) July 12, 2018
The Biscuits, however, doubled down on the idea, sending out another tweet that had the tag "offended?"
Offended? Feel free to fight your battles IRL and visit us at Riverwalk Stadium. Any millennials that actually come by during office hours before next Saturday and submits a valid complaint in person to our "Millennial Night Thinktank" may get a free ticket or two! https://t.co/XUNOz29gkO
— Montgomery Biscuits (@BiscuitBaseball) July 11, 2018
If you're curious, it didn't go much better.
Insulting the people you are advertising to. pic.twitter.com/j1hNpJ7Nzc
— Steven Pate (@TheStevenPate) July 12, 2018
— Patrick Nolan (@SoxMach_pnoles) July 12, 2018
No, Biscuits... why.... pic.twitter.com/U0QUwdZYbF
— Megan Clenny (@ClennyMegan) July 12, 2018
Let's see how this ends... pic.twitter.com/dDhtYilYPh
— Ryan Arnold / WXRT (@RyanArnoldRocks) July 12, 2018
This is one of the best kinds of stories: The type where there are no good guys. Yes, it's a pretty tone-deaf promotion from a team populated entirely by players born in the 1980s and 1990s, and it's probably a bad idea to antagonize the next generation of fans. Shaking your fists and yelling "millennials" got played out a while ago. But people really took this personally. It's tongue-in-cheek, and it shouldn't be this offensive. Tone-deaf and dumb? Almost certainly. But it's probably not worth freaking out over.
With that being said, maybe rolling this promotion out on Twitter was a bad idea. Statista data found that 67 percent of Twitter users were between 18 and 49 in January 2018, whereas only 27 percent were above 50. This was definitely geared towards the latter base. The analytics never favored the Biscuits here.
Promises of avocados, selfie stations, napping areas and participation ribbons sound great, but people did not take kindly to them.
How about a Boomer night. When the old ppl leave at the seventh inning stretch, we burn the entire field down. Proceeds from Millennial night will pay for the damage.
— Hoss. (@Gamec0cks) July 12, 2018
Live look at the PR team that thought this was a good idea pic.twitter.com/7GM6HqoIUf
— Riley Manasco (@riley_manasco) July 11, 2018
A live look at the Biscuits’ marketing and PR manager today pic.twitter.com/mW2P33rba9
— Will Weaver ???? (@WillWeaverRVA) July 12, 2018
Hi there. Looks like you need to fire your entire social media department. I've got considerable experience - let me know where to send my resume.
— Better Joke Teller (@texaninnyc) July 12, 2018
As a non-millennial, I think your copy was supposed to read, "Riverwalk Stadium will have a condescending promo intended to ensure millennials never visit it again."
— Liz Loveland (@lizl_genealogy) July 12, 2018
The Biscuits, however, doubled down on the idea, sending out another tweet that had the tag "offended?"
Offended? Feel free to fight your battles IRL and visit us at Riverwalk Stadium. Any millennials that actually come by during office hours before next Saturday and submits a valid complaint in person to our "Millennial Night Thinktank" may get a free ticket or two! https://t.co/XUNOz29gkO
— Montgomery Biscuits (@BiscuitBaseball) July 11, 2018
If you're curious, it didn't go much better.
Insulting the people you are advertising to. pic.twitter.com/j1hNpJ7Nzc
— Steven Pate (@TheStevenPate) July 12, 2018
— Patrick Nolan (@SoxMach_pnoles) July 12, 2018
No, Biscuits... why.... pic.twitter.com/U0QUwdZYbF
— Megan Clenny (@ClennyMegan) July 12, 2018
Let's see how this ends... pic.twitter.com/dDhtYilYPh
— Ryan Arnold / WXRT (@RyanArnoldRocks) July 12, 2018
This is one of the best kinds of stories: The type where there are no good guys. Yes, it's a pretty tone-deaf promotion from a team populated entirely by players born in the 1980s and 1990s, and it's probably a bad idea to antagonize the next generation of fans. Shaking your fists and yelling "millennials" got played out a while ago. But people really took this personally. It's tongue-in-cheek, and it shouldn't be this offensive. Tone-deaf and dumb? Almost certainly. But it's probably not worth freaking out over.
With that being said, maybe rolling this promotion out on Twitter was a bad idea. Statista data found that 67 percent of Twitter users were between 18 and 49 in January 2018, whereas only 27 percent were above 50. This was definitely geared towards the latter base. The analytics never favored the Biscuits here.
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