Facebook Memes Embraced by 90-Year-Old Sports Brand

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Easton, known for baseball bats and hockey sticks since 1922, is taking a swing at social media. Part of a campaign dubbed "Engineered for Glory," the brand is employing Facebook memes and high-tech YouTube videos to connect with high school athletes.

A spokesperson for the Van Nuys, CA-based company explained, "Easton wants to capture the nuances that only the athlete playing the sport will understand."

The rep said the campaign intends to demonstrate how Easton "gets" sports like hockey, baseball, and lacrosse better than other equipment brands. It includes a new YouTube page and video, as well as a downloadable mix tape featuring what Easton calls up-and-coming artists.

But first with the memes, which Easton is pushing on Facebook. The initial one appeared after the recent launch of Easton's "Mako" hockey stick.

The "Check, Please" meme shows a hockey player getting checked - and was posted to Easton Hockey's Facebook page on April 18. It has 845 likes, 91 shares, and 34 comments so far. Hockey is Easton's most popular Facebook page, with 85,000 fans.

A baseball meme - "Ultra Rock Beats Paper" - was posted on Easton Baseball/Softball's page last week and has 67 likes, one share, and nine comments.

And more memes are on the way for those pages as well as the brand's lacrosse-focused Facebook Timeline, the rep said.

"We're keeping a strong eye towards respecting conventions of the meme genre with lines that have humor, wit, and sarcasm," the rep said. The spokesperson went on to describe memes as "creatively nimble pieces of communication that can be topical based on current events, or, an inside out perspective of any particular topic."

YouTube Video Utilize 100 Cameras

Easton's YouTube page features a two-minute video, which includes games literally shot from the athletes' perspective. According to the brand, 100 cameras were mounted over the athletes' heads, legs, arms, knees, chests, waists, and equipment during filming. After it was posted on April 10, the video has netted 123,000 views.

Lastly, ad agency Cutwater created the campaign. Cutwater also produced the Ultimate Batting Practice video for Easton, which was posted on August 8, 2011, and has 3.3 million views to date.