The Night, Not the Game
The Padres sold casual fans a full night out, with a place to go before the game and a place to go after, matched to how each San Diego neighborhood already spends an evening. Ticket sales rose 22.0% in thirty days.
Revised edition of a 2023 engagement
The numbers
- +35.3%
- first-time buyers (13,213 to 17,880)CRM accounts with no purchase in the previous eighteen months, counted by ZIP; 30 days vs. the prior 30
- +49%
- mobile ticket conversion rate (5.1% to 7.6%)30 days vs. the prior 30
- +27 pts
- agree “Padres games are part of San Diego culture” (52% to 79%)Pre/post panel across twelve ZIP codes, n = 2,127
- +28 pts
- would consider the Padres for date night or girls’ night (38% to 66%)Pre/post panel across twelve ZIP codes, n = 2,127
- +14%
- group-bundle click-through with “girls’ night” or “friend pack” framingSame bundle, same price, compared with neutral framing
- 520M+
- estimated views across 48,163 creator assets
Tickets sold, metro-wide, all home dates
From the club’s ticketing system. No geographic holdout, so consecutive windows carry a schedule and opponent confound.
Mobile conversion rate, before and after
- Before
- After
Show the numbers as a table
| Prior thirty days | 186,400 |
|---|---|
| Objective, set before the first brief | +15% objective |
| Thirty-day activation window | 227,500 |
| Mobile conversion | 5.1% before, 7.6% after |
The challenge
Attendance at Petco Park tracked the standings. The loyal core came regardless, while casual buyers, above all adults under thirty-five, showed up when the team was winning and stayed home when it wasn’t. With roughly eighty-one home dates and forty thousand seats, growth had to come from casual buyers on ordinary nights. The category’s usual pitch about seats, series and promotions was aimed at fans, while the people it needed were choosing a restaurant for the evening.
The insight
For the casual buyer, a ballgame competes with sushi in Little Italy or drinks in North Park. So the audience was defined by how people spend a night out, and the game became the middle act of a night they were already planning, with a stop before and a stop after. By the time a viewer got to the ticket page, dinner, friends and outfit were already settled, so the decision to go came before the decision to buy. A creator from the same neighborhood, with the same kind of friends in frame, supplied the proof that this is what people like them do.
What we did
- 01
Cluster how the city spends a night
Restaurant visits by cuisine and price tier, daypart patterns, group size read from tab patterns, and apparel and beauty spend were clustered into fourteen ways San Diegans spend an evening.
- 02
Script an evening for each cluster
Each cluster got its own three-act night (before, the game, after) and its own written line, with the game as the anchor of the evening.
- 03
Match the messenger to the neighborhood
2,100+ local creators with 1–30K followers, living in or posting from within five miles of their cluster, received a three-stop map for their own neighborhood and full editorial autonomy.
- 04
Attribute without distorting the content
Promo codes by creator and content type, affiliate ticketing links and ZIP-level uplift models were cross-validated against the club’s ticketing system and third-party event analytics.
The cohorts
Each got its own reason, and its own message.
-
The Brunch-to-Brewery Planner
North Park groups of three to five who plan the night around food and settle the weekend in the group chat between Tuesday and Thursday.
Lands“Girls’ night with baseball and brews: three stops, one ticket.”
Misses“Great seats still available for Friday.”
-
The Coastal Date-Night Curator
La Jolla planners who book dinner before the destination and want an evening that reads as considered. The ballpark works as the surprise once they see it styled.
Lands“A date night at the ballpark: dinner on the coast, first pitch, the skyline after.”
Misses“Family fun for everyone.”
-
The Post-Surf Gatherer
Mission Beach crews who want to keep the afternoon going after a surf session and decide late, roughly 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on game days.
Lands“Post-surf Padres: rinse off, grab the crew, in your seats by first pitch.”
Misses“Don’t miss our weekend series.”
-
The Late-Night Group Host
Hillcrest hosts who organize the night for others and treat the game as the opening act of something longer.
Lands“Baseball, tacos, and the afterparty: your three-stop Friday.”
Misses“Celebrate with the Padres this weekend.”
How it was measured
Ticket figures come from the club’s ticketing system, comparing the thirty-day activation window with the prior thirty days, metro-wide and across all home dates in both windows. There was no geographic holdout, so consecutive windows carry a home-schedule and opponent-quality confound. First-time buyers are CRM accounts with no purchase in the previous eighteen months, counted by ZIP; some may be lapsed buyers returning. Perception came from a pre/post panel across twelve ZIP codes (n = 2,127) plus sentiment models over captions and comments. Tracked promo codes and affiliate links give a floor on attributable purchases, the ZIP-level uplift models are observational, and the bundle-framing result is an A/B read against neutral framing.
Results
Tickets rose from 186,400 to 227,500, a 22.0% lift against a 15% objective set before the first brief. First-time buyers grew faster than total tickets, up 35.3%, and mobile conversion rose from 5.1% to 7.6%, with 21 to 42 minutes separating a view from a click. The largest lifts came from the North Park, Hillcrest and South Mission Beach ZIP codes, which received the most cluster-specific content, while the standings did not change during the window. Perception attributes rose 27 to 28 points. The content drew 520M+ estimated views, a 7.1% engagement rate, a 22.6% rewatch rate and 7,500+ fan remixes in the same format, and the club extended the partnership.
Results describe a specific engagement and are not a guarantee of future results. Platform-reported figures are labeled as such.