Box 19, Folder 15, Document 47

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Box 19, Folder 15, Document 47

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ATLANTA BRAVES OPENING
ATLANTA STADIUM

April 12, 1966

An Operations Manual

on the Job to be Done

Prepared for The Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce and The Atlanta
Braves by Bell & Stanton, Inc.

February 20, 1966

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CONTENTS

OBJECTIVES sais saiee sere Sete Ss SRS PSS eS wees Seiee © 1
INTRODUCTION « saseva s:aetame cases Siete Bee & Bete aeteiere Berane & 2
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS.......... create Siaeeale eevee
DETAILED PLANS «4.0 eee cee een ee caees Beles sees aoe & se]
SEASON TICKET SALES.......2200200seeeee s Heres wees LO
ADVERTISING SUPPORT... cccecnaveceececavees eee cee -13

DOWNTOWN OFFICES, HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, POLICE....16

NATIONAL PRESS PREVIEW. ...-.eeeeeceeeen $s ES bee LL?
PERSON-TO-PERSON VISITS.....-. é BSW Meets seas een LS
POLITICAL (GUSTS issceoen seis city SEW S SSSR DRESS SoReETS 21
CELEBRITIES AND BASEBALL LEADERS....-...2ceeeee0s 22
GAIN SUPPORT OF PRIVATE CLUBS.....--. 22s aee Pee eee 23
THE MAYOR'S DINNER......-. eee ee ceccceucce ao dewey 24
THE OPENING DAY PARADE..... EN ORAS OVS SRE SE 2 26
NATIONAL AND LOCAL TELEVISION AND RADIO.......... 28
THE “AWAY" GAMES WITH METS AND CARDINALS......... 30
APPENDICES ace os ere Setar seater y eretece Sreceee ave Sie areas erate
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OBJECTIVES

1. To fill Atlanta Stadium opening night, April 12.
2. To sell a maximum number of season tickets.

3. To obtain maximum interest in the Atlanta Braves --
locally, statewide, regionally through the entire
market area, and nationally, It is this year's biggest

baseball story.

4, Gaining momentum from all that is done, this operation
is a prime generator of maximum favorable attention
for Atlanta. Our major objective, then, is to pivot
this exciting baseball team and its home city ona
360 degree swing of visibility surpassing any attention

any city has received in the past.

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INTRODUCTION

Atlanta and the Braves are linked together; what
helps one on opening day supports the other. We have a
brief period of time in which to build a strong local
sense of this joint destiny. We have a brief period of
time to help the entire Atlanta metropolitan area
re-capture and put on a continuing basis, the sense of
active pride in the Braves they had when the team signed
to come here, and which was so manifest as the Stadium

itself was completed and opened.

All of that was preparation. It was passive,
as far as the entire populace was concerned. = asked
them to beam with pride, and they did. Now we ask them to
move into effective action: to talk up the Braves, to
support the Braves, to realize in so doing that all of
this effort demonstrates to the nation at large that
Atlanta is the city of spirit and "can-do" in the entire

United States.

(more)

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As in every good thing that has transformed
this town, the lead has to come from the business
community. The business community is in City Hall. It
is in office with the largest plurality ever given a
Mayor of a major city. Now that Mayor needs votes again
-- in the form of an all-out effort in behalf of Atlanta's
reputation when the eyes of the nation are on this city

opening night, April 12.

Essentially, that is what the plan of action

on the following pages is all about.

‘Bell & Stanton, Inc.

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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

To put across the biggest opening day baseball
ever has seen, we can think no little thoughts. However,
big thoughts are a futile exercise in mental gymnastics
unless supported with practical follow-through.. We need -
the help of all concerned to make certain we have both,

for only the thorough execution of this big job in the

end will win the day for Atlanta and for the Braves.

1. It is urgent that we get Atlanta into action
on season ticket sales. This will take personal contact
from the highest levels of the Atlanta business community,
directed toward the highest levels of the Atlanta business
community, plus efforts at that same level aimed at

business leaders in other market cities.

2. We need to start the ball rolling so that
every ad carried in the early part of Opening Week refers
to the Braves; every downtown office building takes on
the challenge of creating banners; every local theatre
enters the act; every school and college hereabouts
becomes involved, as does every taxidriver, every bus

driver, every member of the police force.
(more)

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(Summary of Recommendations
continued)

In addition to the regularly assigned sports

writers covering the beicors- Reese exhibition series

2h, 13-24
March 26>—27 and 28, Bell & Stanton will invite travel
and general feature writers to Atlanta at that time.
Plans call for them to see a game, be given personalized
tours of the city, and be guests at a superb dinner hosted
by Atlanta Newspapers, Incorporated and Jack Tarver.

We have already begun working with the national
magazines; Look Magazine will be here on assignment right
after Washington's Birthday as a first step. We ones to
get national television, including network news shows. The
"Today" Show should broadcast from Atlanta opening day, on
the day after, or both. We need more press association
series on Atlanta and its team; the hassle with Milwaukee
has made this the biggest seers yarn in years.

4. We need to have the cream of Atlanta's business
community take on the task of personally inviting the very
top leaders of the nation to be their house guests over Open-
ing Day. Every branch of a national firm should have its
national president here. This is far more than a baseball
game. It is Atlanta's day in the court of public opinion

when everything that makes this town great is on display.

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(Summary of Recommendations
continued)

5. We need help in pulling our loftiest
national political leaders here, and that need goes
right to the top. We need all southern governors and

many mayors here.

6. We need to get glittering celebrities
here, and we shall call on Bill Bartholomay personally
to guide and help us on that. We will call on Georgia
advertisers who use personalities in their campaigns to
have those celebrities here. And of course baseball's

officialdom is a vital part of the program.

7. We need to mount a Mayor's Dinner on the
eve of the Big Game which will show the greatest out-
pouring of Atlanta's exits: —ana the nation's well-known
figures--that Atlanta has seen since the 1939 premiere

of "Gone With The Wind".

8. We need a parade Opening Day afternoon
which will be unforgettable in Atlanta's annals. We
see this as featuring every high school and college
band in the area, each band sponsored by an Atlanta-

area business firm; Braves and Pirates stars; the Mayor;
The Governor; celebrities.

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(Summary of Recommendations
continued)

The bands later go to the game with tickets paid for
by their sponsors. Who ever heard of such generosity
and spirit on the part of business leaders? It takes

Atlanta to put this over.

9. We need to coordinate with Pittsburgh
leaders to get a representative Pittsburgh group here.
We need to get plans started as well for the Atlanta
leadership to be in New York Friday, April 15, when the
Braves open the Mets' home season, and in St. Louis,
Thursday, May 12, when the Braves open the new St. Louis

stadium.

This is the essence of the bold but simple
program which we ask Atlanta to support. As we write
today, we cannot estimate costs precisely. If all who
come to the Mayor's Dinner pay substantially more than
the $7.50 cost per head of the affair, we can obtain
part of the needed funds at that time. Atlanta will spend
what is needed, regardless of where the funds come from,
we are confident of that.

(more)

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(Summary of Recommendations

continued)
At Bell & Stanton we will not spend any significant

amount without prior clearance from the Chamber. One
thing must be clear: this over all is Atlanta's challenge,
for in saluting the entry of the Braves, Atlanta salutes
itself and she shows the nation once and for all, the kind

of fibre that makes up this remarkable community.

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DETAILED PLANS

In the section that follows, we list specific
plans, with complete assignments. The Bell & Stanton
public relations organization is charged with working
closely with the Chamber, with the Braves, and with all
other involved groups and individuals. We must see to

the action of each committee.

Overall supervision will be the responsibility
of the firm's president, Alan Bell, from New York, and
of Senior Vice-President George Goodwin from the Atlanta
office. The specific Bell & Stanton executive under them

will be David Pearson of Atlanta.

Already the Chamber has offered to lend the
firm extra manpower as evidence of strong support. Extra
people as needed will be employed on a temporary basis
if the pace builds up too swiftly. In any event,
additional staff from the New York Bell & Stanton office,
headed by Executive Vice-President Edward Stanton and by
the New York account executive for "Forward Atlanta,"
Margaret Larson, will be closely involved at all times.

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SEASON TICKET SALES

The Assistant General Manager of the Braves,
Jim Fanning, has led a task force which already has sold
some 3,000 season tickets during the course of an intense .
area campaign over months. It is only now, after Fulton
Superior Court Judge McKenzie has spoken, that it is
possible for anyone to be able to go all-out on this.
Season tickets should be sold to every business organization
in this area, for use of its employees and customers.
This sales need comes at a time when the Braves organization
must turn its attention more and more to spring training.
The community can -- and we suggest, must -- help put

across this sales effort.

1. We suggest that Mayor Allen assemble in his
office a group of leading businessmen to take over on this
project as they would on any emergency, for we approach
crisis when we have sold so few season tickets this close

to Opening Day of our first Big League season.

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(Season Ticket Sales
continued)

2. Let the group that meets with the Mayor include:
A. The five major bank presidents

B. The president of the Sales & Marketing
Executives Association

-C.—_ The Chambexr—_president

3. If the Mayor agrees, the banks should be
asked to use their contact officers, both from the main
office and from branches. These officers should contact
all corporate customers, urging those customers to buy
season tickets to be used by their executives, by their

employees, and by their customers.

The contact officers should take specific
ticket orders -- with no money changing hands. A senior
officer in each bank should receive these orders and
should relay them to Mr. Fanning of the Braves, who will

fill the orders and bill the purchaser direct.

(more)

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(Season Ticket Sales
continued)

(NOTE: Bell & Stanton will provide all banks with lists
broken down by categories of the firms and individuals

who already have purchased season tickets.)

Mr. Fanning, for his part, will supply daily
lists of new purchasers to all bank supervisory officers

involved.

Mr. Fanning will supply all contact officers
with adequate supplies of season ticket brochures and
ticket oxder blanks. He also will see that ticket sales
personnel is available at the Stadium to serve purchasers

who want to select seats in person.

As a final point:



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ADVERTISING SUPPORT

Tucker Wayne & Co., as advertising agency for
“Forward Atlanta" and for the Braves, is requested to
assemble at the earliest moment a gathering of all
agencies, all advertising managers, all sales managers
of newspapers, radio and TV, all retail sales promotion
directors, newspaper representatives and the Georgia
Association of Broadcasters to consider the following
points:

A. Insofar as is feasible, every advertising
message placed locally beginning with Easter Sunday, and
continuing through Opening Day (the following Tuesday)
should salute the Braves, or otherwise speak of them.

B. We would hope all concerned would explore
the possibility of a special section to be run in both
newspapers on opening day. This would be something to
be pulled out and saved. It would be filled with news
and advertising material suitable for such a special

section, commemorating the day Atlanta Goes Big League.

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(Advertising Support
continued)

C. Every store in and around(|should have special
windows and in-store displays to salute the opening of the
first season. Tucker Wayne is requested ko assign one staff
member to stay with this, working separately with the sales
promotion department of each major store, and working with .
Managers of others. The Braves will make some display
material available, but basically all of this should be put
together as the contribution of the stores involved.

1. As a subpoint, stores are urged to
consider tying their sales which start on Monday after Easter
to the debut of the team. Why not call the events: "Braves
Day Sales?" |

D. We ask that Tucker Wayne work with the Georgia
Association of Broadcasters to prepare a special Sie cndemke
promotional film for the Opening Day, and these would be
made available at no cost to all TV stations in the entire
market area, as well as to as many motion picture theatres
as seems feasible (all those in greater Atlanta at least).

We would hope these would be run as public service gestures.

(More)

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(Advertising Support
continued)

E. We specially ask that the advertising

agencies of the four sponsors of the Braves -- Coca-

Cola, Pure Oil, P. Lorillard, and Falstaff -- work

closely with the coordinating committee. Their active

help in mounting promotional spot campaigns, advance

advertising, and banners, cards, and giveaways would

be of great worth to all concerned.

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DOWNTOWN OFFICES, HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, POLICE

We ask the Chamber of Commerce to assign a staff
executive to work closely with all employers of office staffs
in the downtown to arrange for display material in the form
of banners or window painting to evidence enthusiasm for the

start of baseball.

This would be appropriate activity for members of
the Junior Chamber to take on, under direction of the "Forward

Atlanta" group at the Chamber.

Further, the Chamber should contact the Restaurant
Association, the Motel Association and individual major hotels
to arrange for lobby displays, special menus keyed to Opening
Day, special room notices to be in every guest room each day

of the Opening Week.

No group is more important to Big League baseball
on a continuing basis than the Police Department. We suggest
an immediate meeting held with Cheif Jenkins by the executive
vice-president of the Chamber, and by representatives of Bell
& Stanton, to discuss all matters planned, and to solicit

cooperation.

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