• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 27, 2015

Other than an obsession with getting home, there are two other things Major League Baseball and Coldwell Banker Real Estate have in common: places where the heart is. In a keynote presentation at the Content Marketing Insider Summit in Scottsdale, Az., Vice President-Brand Engagement Davie Marine explained how the real estate brand leveraged that common narrative to create a unique form of empathy among consumers.

After striking a sponsorship deal with MLB, Coldwell Banker teamed with its content marketing agency Convidence to mine stories involving players and their families to make that connection.

“You’re taking the American Dream of homeownership and marrying it to the American pastime,” explained Convidence CEO Nick Dimitrakiou, adding it was an opportunity to leverage hundreds of years of heritage between two brands -- MLB and CB -- to “tap into this empathetic connection that we had.”

One of the best examples the client/agency team offered was a component of the campaign focusing on Minnesota Twins pitcher Glen Perkins and his wife, talking about what it’s like to be a professional baseball player, on the road and what “home” means in that context.

The campaign created so much empathy that both CB’s franchisees and its consumers embraced it, including a number of other major league ballplayers who volunteered to tell their home stories as well.