I went on my first Spring Training trip when I was 8 years old. It was me, my father, my Uncle Steve, and my older cousin Chris.
For a week straight, we’d live and breathe baseball. Going to games, sneaking around team practices for autographs, ripping open endless packs of cards, and enjoying the perks of my Uncle Steve’s connections (like hanging with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in the team offices and going out for steaks with Reds rookie Paul O’Neill.) This went on for four years straight, as we made trips to both Florida and Arizona to take in the pre-season action and festivities. It became one of our most sacred Isenberg family traditions.
This past February (2020), exactly 30 years since my last Spring Training trip to Arizona, I hopped a plane to Phoenix for a video shoot with Topps. Since my first week on the creative team at Octagon in 2017, I’ve been working on the Topps account, writing and creating content that’s featured MLB stars like Noah Syndergaard and David Ortiz. As a life-long card collector and baseball fan, it’s been of my favorite brands to work with.
The goal of our shoot in Arizona was to interview players during the Cactus League’s media week for content to run throughout the season, starting with Opening Day.
And it turned out to be an unforgettable trip—similar to the ones I took as a kid—filled with excitement, nostalgia, and priceless moments (like interviewing MLB’s biggest superstar Mike Trout, getting a ball autographed for my kids by Brewers slugger Christian Yelich, and attending an intimate dinner with 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger and his family). It was nothing but four days of behind-the-scenes baseball moments and VIP access, thanks to the greatest baseball card company of all-time.
And I also have to thank our on-air talent and L.A. baseball legend Tony Todd, who took me under his wing for the week and introduced me to everyone like we were family.
With an Octagon team also on the ground in Florida for the week conducting interviews, we returned to our offices in Stamford, Connecticut with a stockpile of exclusive clips featuring the hottest players in the league. So we got to work, putting together clips of players talking about the excitement and anticipation leading up to Opening Day.
Then on March 12th, as we were wrapping up post-production our Opening Day content, the MLB season was postponed.
Initially, the plan was to finalize the Opening Day content pieces anyway, as there was hope we could still use them when baseball would finally return.
But as we watched them now with a new perspective, it occurred to us that when baseball did finally come back, our Opening Day content was not going to work. The sentiment in the interviews would feel outdated. The start of the season would now have a different tone altogether.
So we paused.
After connecting with Topps, we collectively made the decision to pivot to something different. Something that captured Topps’ role as part of MLB team, player and fan culture during these difficult times. Something with a more emotional, heartfelt, uplifting, and unifying tone.
We came up with the idea #ToppsTogether, where we would create a new content piece that inspired fans to come together at the start of the season to share their favorite baseball cards and stories.
So we got back to work. Writing scripts, digging through footage, picking out music, recording voice overs, tightening up our call-to-action, developing a distribution plan, and working remotely as a team with Topps and the MLB to get everything approved and finalized.
Then, just as the first full week of the MLB season was originally scheduled to start, we shared this:
I’m proud of the work we did to help bring baseball fans and card collectors together during these difficult times. And though I never dreamed of a day where the baseball season would start without actual games on the field, it felt good to help Topps throw out that first pitch.
Here are additional ads I creative directed for Topps’ 2020 MLB season:
Password: HRC