2021 SHORTLIST

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KYLE LEWIS: WRITING MY OWN STORY

Entrant Company: Seattle Mariners

FINALIST

Best Life & Legacy Tribute

Kyle Lewis- Writing My Own Story

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

This documentary showcases Kyle’s journey through life and baseball to ultimately becoming the AL Rookie of the Year. Kyle has prevailed through doubters and massive injuries.

How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?

This documentary elevates the level of sports content that teams are producing and sharing. This 30-minute piece is not something that a team is normally able to accomplish on their own, so to be able to do this in a short-window as the club was prepping for the Rookie of the Year announcement helps push our peers to continue producing top-notch content. It sets the expectation that fans can expect teams to connect fans to their players in more dynamic ways moving forward.

 

Objective: In conversations with Kyle Lewis, we kept hearing the same thing, his desire to tell his own story. With KLew having a strong rookie season in 2020, we were looking for a way for fans to get to know him both on and off the field. In planning content for a potential Rookie of the Year Award announcement for Kyle, we thought this would be the perfect way to pull back the curtain and allow fans to learn more about who Kyle Lewis is and what he has overcome.

As we looked to connect fans Kyle to Mariners fans, this piece captured the goal of telling his story as well as giving fans an exclusive look into his career.

 

Strategy & Execution: With storytelling and getting to know athletes off the field becoming more important to the modern sports fan, this piece was able to accomplish both. As we look to reach the younger demographic and connect to our fans, we designed this piece to be first shared on YouTube to give all fans access to the content. To be able to fully detail Kyle’s journey, we wanted to sit down with not only Kyle himself, but his family, friends and teammates. This helped paint the picture of Kyle’s entire journey to the bigs, from the time first started playing baseball all the way through to his Major League debut and 2020 season.

We collected hours of interviews and b-roll footage of Kyle to put the piece together. The project came together after the season ended, so there was a short window to be able to pull this off in time for the potential Rookie of the Year announce. It was a tremendous effort from a small group here at the Mariners and we are proud of the final result. This gave Mariners and general sports fans an in-depth into Kyle’s journey.

 

Results:

Kyle Lewis: Writing My Own Story premiered on the Mariners YouTube channel the day after he was announced as the winner of the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year Award. It paired perfectly with the media coverage of the award and announcement from MLB and the Mariners. Following its successful debut, the documentary was requested to be shared with others, and aired multiple times on MLB Network and ROOT SPORTS (the Mariners Regional Sports Network) throughout the offseason. The video received over 18K views and 300K impressions on YouTube alone. It was recognized around the league and in the sports world as we received praise from across the industry.

PRODUCTION

Seattle Mariners

 

CREDITS

Senior Director, Productions
Seattle Mariners
 
Dan Oleskowicz
Manager, Video Productions
Seattle Mariners
 
Director, Digital Marketing & Social Media
Seattle Mariners
 
VP, Marketing
Seattle Mariners
 
Kyle Lewis
2020 AL Rookie of the Year 
Seattle Mariners
 
SVP, Marketing & Communications
Seattle Mariners
 
Motion Graphic Designer
Seattle Mariners

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