During the 2024 MLB season, the Chicago White Sox experienced a historically challenging period, recording 121 losses to surpass the 1962 New York Mets for the most team losses in a season since 1900.
After months of internal dialogue and advocacy, the Sox Social team devised a creative social media strategy to acknowledge this reality by engaging the club’s core audience in a relatable manner. Utilizing memes and text-only posts produced in-house, the social team helped transform on-field losses into a net positive result complemented by massive fan engagement and impressions that achieved double-digit growth across multiple categories. When considering the start to the college football and NFL seasons, Shohei Ohtani’s record-breaking on-field 50/50 season and the larger MLB playoff push, the measured success becomes even more impressive.
This approach allowed fans to engage on social media in a more constructive way, fostering a sense of grace and mutual understanding between White Sox and sports fans alike, and the Sox Social team. The strategy resonated far beyond our core audience, extending the organization’s reach to more casual sports enthusiasts, celebrities and social media pundits across the country. The social team was able to remove some negativity by demonstrating witty self-awareness during this difficult part of the season.
Our strategy? Acknowledge the situation with self-aware posts while tapping into social media best practices and user habits.
How’d we accomplish it? We simply told the final score without telling the final score.
FINAL: the other team scored more runs than us
FINAL: the number of runs we scored was not greater than the number of runs they scored
FINAL: can be found on the MLB app
Additionally, we created our own memes to highlight the historic 120th & 121st losses of the season:
A spoof on the car swerve meme, which was recreated at the exit to Guaranteed Rate Field
A spoof on the *slams laptop shut* meme, which included “admin’s computer screen” filled with easter eggs in the notes and folders
This strategy was made possible with numerous cross-departmental brainstorm meetings and copywriting workshops, involving the Digital Content, Corporate Partnerships, Design Services, Public Relations and Marketing teams.
13 posts resulting in 36,286,181 Impressions and 1,776,696 Engagements
Revenue-generating partnership with Dude Wipes, activated in less than 48 hours
149,610,535 TV, Radio and Online News impressions totaling an estimated publicity value of $3,403,951
60.5% increase in Engagements across White Sox social media channels
48.8% increase in Impressions across White Sox social media channels
4% increase in positive sentiment across all internet discussion
The organization also saw rapid audience growth across multiple social channels from September 18-28, 2024:
X: 26,133% increase from previous period
Instagram: 141.5% increase from previous period
TikTok: 80.6% increase from previous period
This self-aware strategy grabbed the attention of national, regional and hyperlocal media outlets ranging from ESPN to Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Overall results featured:
Audience: 149,610,535
Total National TV Audience: 7,841,376
Total Local TV Audience: 868,401
Total Radio Audience: 1,592,052
Total Online News Audience: 139,308,706
Publicity Value: $3,403,951
