Major League Baseball stadiums are no stranger to promotional products. Even great teams sometimes need to be creative to fill 20,000-plus-seat stadiums for 81 home games each year, usually handing out some kind of promotional item to give fans another reason to come to the ballpark.

The Pittsburgh Pirates…do not have a great team this season. But they do have a great young player in 22-year-old Paul Skenes, and the franchise recently leveraged Skenes’ ultra-fame with the power of promo to create a buzz they were barely prepared for.

  • On Saturday, April 19, the team had announced that the first 20,000 fans to show up to PNC Park in Pittsburgh would receive a free Paul Skenes bobblehead with their ticket.


The results were undeniable. Although fans aren’t let into the stadium until 90 minutes before the game is scheduled to begin, a line began to form multiple hours early from fans who wanted to ensure they got their bobblehead. The demand was so intense that the line extended over the Roberto Clemente Bridge above the Allegheny River.

The outpour of fans who wanted what is sure to become a collector’s item sparked the Pirates organization to announce that after fans who scanned into the game but did not receive one of the 20,000 bobbleheads would receive an electronic voucher to receive one.

Success Brands supplied PNC Park with the bobblehead.

Perfect Storm Of Popularity

The bobblehead was an opportunity to not only showcase the brand of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but also Skenes, who has become something of a brand unto himself.

  • On the field, Skenes has already been labeled as the future of baseball. Last season, he won the National League Rookie of the Year after having been one of the most highly touted prospects in years.
  • Off the field, he owes much of his celebrity to his girlfriend, recently retired gymnast Livvy Dunne. The two appeared in GQ together and have a combined millions of followers on social media (most of which come from her side of the equation).


Within hours, dozens of the Skenes bobbleheads had appeared on eBay listed for prices in the hundreds.