Know Your Influencers: The Top Social Stars of the MLB All Star Game

On Tuesday, July 9th, the National League and American League went head to head for the MLB All Star game hosted in Cleveland, OH. Ultimately, the American League took home their 7th straight All Star Game win in a 4-3 victory. With both teams having star players such as Mike Trout and Christian Yelich, we dive beyond the playing card statistics and see which team has a better social media presence and PE Score for sponsorships. The PE Score is a key sponsorship KPI that examines how effective sports properties are at promoting a brand through social media.

The average overall PE Score for the American League All Stars was 75.8, which is only slightly lower than the National League All Stars who are at a  76.2 on average. The National League All Stars have less engagement from their fans on average, but higher quality branded content when they post. However, the NL All Stars do post more consistently about their sponsors than the AL All Stars.

Hunter Pence holds the highest PE score of 84 on the American League. He represents notable brands such as Franklin and Nike. Christian Yelich, holding the highest PE Score among the National League All Stars of 81, he represents Under Armour, Pepsi, and Bose. With such high PE scores for both these All Stars, they are leading the way when it comes to promoting brand partners among all the top players playing in Cleveland for the All Star Game. Across both All Star teams, Nike has the highest amount (5) of partnerships between the players. Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger are two more notable Nike sponsors. Newera and Franklin Sports Industries both have three sponsorships with the All Star athletes.

While the PE Score is vital for comparing influencers and properties, we also looked at the basic social engagement and follower data for the All Stars. Collectively, the AL All Stars are sporting over 7.8 million followers with Mike Trout carrying the majority of those followers with roughly 4.6 million. Javier Baez of the <team> accounts for nearly half of the NL All Stars’ 4.2M followers with 2 million across his social media channels. More followers can mean more engagement, increasing brand recognition for sponsors. 

Since the start of spring training, Hunter Pence of the Texas Rangers has posted 178 times across his social platforms. Jorge Palanco of the Twins has only posted 5 times. Of the American League All Stars, the players have collectively posted 488 times so far this season. The National League All Stars posted 274 times in the last 6 months. Higher frequency of posting means more promoted content being seen by fans. Jorge Palanco’s 5 posts in the last six months is not ideal for brands that are sponsoring him to get maximum exposure. For both All Star teams, the engagement rates are similar, Ronald Acuña Jr. for the NL has an engagement rate of 8.5% with his 63K followers. This engagement rate is particularly good and can be leveraged by brands to drive more interest in the brand when he posts branded content.

The National League’s PE score barely outshined the American League, however when it came to the social statistics the American League engaged more people and posted more content. Just like the score in the actual game, the American League barely slides in with better social media presence.

---

Written by Haley Hein

Haley is a rising senior at Michigan State University with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Graphic Design. As a marketing intern for Hookit, she analyzes data focused around social media to create content for blog posts and insights. Connect with her on Linkedin.