Marlins team with local company in new marketing deal. We’ve got the details

When the Miami Marlins take the field at loanDepot park Thursday for Major League Baseball’s opening day against the New York Mets, their uniforms will represent South Florida in a different way.

The Marlins’ players will be wearing patches on their uniform jerseys that have the ADT corporate logo on them, the result of a three-year marketing partnership between the professional baseball team and the Boca Raton-based home security company.

The corporate patch, the first of its kind for the Marlins, will appear on player jerseys starting with the 2023 baseball season, team officials said.

Companies using pro sports team jerseys for promotion has been a practice internationally for decades, but only gained acceptance in the United States within the last 20 years. Baseball is playing catch-up to U.S. pro soccer and basketball franchises that are leveraging this marketing opportunity to enhance their brand awareness.

“It meant a lot to us that there was a local partner, and we’ll do a lot of community service together,” said Shannon Hendrickson, ADT’s vice president of marketing. “Everywhere from hearing on YouTube different exciting reviews from fans, as a local South Florida family myself, seeing people wearing the gear more. It’s an exciting time to be with the Marlins.”

The Marlins-ADT deal was made possible after major league baseball decided last March to allow corporate logos on team jerseys. Marlins brass quickly assembled a short list of companies whose logos they’d want to potentially be placed on the team’s jerseys, Marlins chief commercial officer David Oxfeld said. ADT, with its 150-year legacy, was at the top of the list.

“It’s the first asset that will travel with us to visiting ballparks, which is why we wanted to be connected with a local brand like ADT and very proud to have them with us everywhere,” said Caroline O’Connor, Marlins president of business operations.

While neither the Marlins nor ADT would reveal how much the home security company is paying the team to wear its logo, Major League Baseball requires promotional partnerships with teams like this agreement to be for a minimum of three years. Marlins officials hope the relationship can last longer.

In addition to the uniform patches, ADT signage will appear throughout loanDepot park and along the third base line on the field. Also, there will be a suite reserved at the stadium for ADT employees and customers.

Marlins officials are hopeful that the 162-game baseball season will give ADT visibility unavailable in any U.S. pro sports league because the other seasons are shorter.

In 2007, Major League Soccer became the first pro sports league to allow ads on jerseys. The Women’s National Basketball Association followed two years later, as a way for the emerging league to grow revenue. The National Basketball Association started permitting corporate logos on jerseys in 2017.

The start of the Marlins 2023 season comes after loanDepot park recently hosted the World Baseball Classic. During the 15 days of games, half a million baseball fans converged on the Miami ballpark to watch 11 games between the top baseball teams on the planet.

Oxfeld is hopeful the momentum from the baseball classic will translate into an exciting start to the Marlins season. For him, the only thing more exciting than the Marlins partnership with ADT would be seeing the Marlins wear the ADT patches on their jerseys in the playoffs. It would be the team’s first postseason appearance since 2020.