Miami Marlins Leap Into Artificial Intelligence With 2024 Team Open The Famous Group played a pivotal role in its third consecutive project with the club By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 10:36 am
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Few Major League Baseball clubs play in a city with as much diversity and eclecticism as Miami. With a variety of communities characterized by distinctive flavors and customs, the Marlins' creative department has a lot of inspiration to draw on. To highlight the 2024 squad on social media, as well as throughout all 81 home games at LoanDepot Park, the organization partnered with The Famous Group to create one of the first intro videos to access the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
We're all-in on innovation and doing what other teams haven't done before, says Miami Marlins CMO Tiago Pinto. We're in a market where our fans are asking for more. We're an up-and-coming team that had an amazing season last year, so we had no hesitancy diving into this.
Developing a Roadmap: Creative Team Brainstorms Ideas To Showcase City, Players At the conclusion of the MLB season, creative teams at all 30 franchises get to work on the next season's content. One of the biggest items on the to-do list is conceiving a new theme or idea around which the creative material will revolve.
The Famous Group's Eric Burak (pointing) goes through storyboarding with relief pitcher Tanner Scott.
In Miami, the Marlins have a handful of possible plotlines: the team is coming off its second playoff appearance in four seasons, the roster includes charismatic personalities like centerfielder Jazz Chisolm and 2023 acquisitions first baseman Josh Bell and third baseman Jake Burger, and the club plays in a city famous for its color, electricity, and life. To help with the brainstorming process, the team brought in a familiar partner: The Famous Group. Since 2021, the partnership has produced insanely creative pieces, including last season's drone-based video with the help of JayByrd Films' Jay Christensen.
When we sat down with [The Famous Group] at the end of last year, says Taylor Bolles, senior director, creative services, Miami Marlins, we mentioned that we wanted to do something big and continue to push the envelope. They came up with a great pitch that had a couple of ideas, including one with a physical set that would show off the different-color jerseys that we have. One of the last things they brought up was an AI-generated show open. Once we saw that, it was exactly what we were looking for, and we would be one of the first to try it.
Capture One software was used to edit player photos for the Miami Marlins AI-based project.
The Famous Group has produced numerous high-profile activations for professional teams. In-venue efforts include the Baltimore Ravens' flying raven at M&T Bank Stadium, the Carolina Panthers' prowling panther at Bank of America Stadium, and the NFL 100 All-Time Team seen prior to kickoff of Super Bowl LIV at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium.
Part of an effort to expand partnerships with enhanced technological offerings, the Marlins' concept was spurred by the curiosity of Co-Founder/Chief Innovation Officer Greg Harvey. Greg had shown [me and our team] a few things that he had been exploring with AI, says Eric Burak, EVP, production, The Famous Group. I knew I had to share this with Taylor and Tiago. They were more than willing to explore this with us, and it was a great first conversation.
Sports photographer Lucas Noonan takes photos of starting pitcher Jes s Luzardo in the Miami Blue jersey.
Discussions eventually reached the storyboarding phase, which included The Famous Group Creative Director Hemu Karadkar and Lead Editor Steve Davis. Looking to showcase three core ideas - players, jerseys, city - the two parties worked toward combining them into a single hype video. At the core of the piece are the numerous communities that make up the city of Miami.
For our fans to recognize the strength of our brand, we want to go hyperlocal, says Pinto. We're one of the only teams that don't have a Latino Night; we dedicate our programming and our scripts to include slang for a Cuban Night, a Puerto Rican Night, a Bahamian Night, and more. We need to show that we understand and relate to that.
First baseman Josh Bell poses in the home white jersey.
The commitment to culture and authenticity led to the choice of certain vibrant communities. For residents of the city or the specific communities shown in the video, the iconography and nods to the neighborhoods are clearly identifiable: the colorful oceanfront buildings of South Beach, the murals of Wynwood, the rooster sculptures on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, the coffee shops of Hialeah. Also seen in the video are the iconic Freedom Tower, the city's signature skyline seen from the water, and the instruments that fans bring to the stadium and play on game days. The backgrounds were put together by Miami Marlins Senior Graphic Designer Rachel Suding, assisted by Graphic Designers Kara Schuler and Ezequiel Rabelo.
Without a Blueprint: Marlins Are One of the First MLB Clubs To Tap AI The creative team combined centerfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s love for aliens and ice cream with the murals of Wynwood.
After the AI route was settled on, the team began to feel that the Marlins would be creating the project without a reference point or example to work from. Given the popularity and emergence of AI in the sports-video-production industry, the opportunity to create hyper-realistic visuals intrigued Harvey when he began experimenting with the latest AI tools in October 2023.
I started generating and animating content, he says. I got really excited because I feel like this is the first time i
