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Mid-Atlantic Sport Network (MASN) is the home of every Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles telecast. With both teams fielding youth-laden rosters and struggling in the standings, our challenge has been to keep fans engaged and ratings strong throughout the grind of a 162 game season.

To achieve this elusive goal we’ve focused our efforts on the core fan, crafting campaigns that harness their passion and put them in the middle of the action. Last year, our MASN Fantasy Camp campaign used TV, radio, blogs, contests, social networking and viral video to build a vibrant community of fans.

This year, we reached out to that the same community with a simple, yet provocative question: What’s your favorite Orioles or Nationals moment? The enthusiasm, creativity and sheer volume of responses inspired what became the Defining Moments campaign. Blog posts and video submissions poured in. Chat rooms raged with discussion and debate. Fans auditioned on camera during games. (Some more successfully than others.) From all those  stories and opinions, dozens of TV and radio spots were created throughout the season–each with a unique, personal twist that no traditional campaign could capture.

Online, rich media hubs were built to serve up a variety of engaging content and tune-in messaging. Including the latest Defining Moment spots and fan-generated videos along with timely polls relating to the latest match-ups, and even downloadable Outlook calendar reminders so fans could save the date for important upcoming games.

A Twitter feed called “Tweet the Moment” was also established to alert fans who were stuck somewhere away from their TV when they could be missing a moment in the making. Tweets went out whenever there were runners in scoring position or two down in an important inning.

By the midpoint of the season, the conversation was going strong. And so were the ratings. In fact, viewership for Nationals games was up an amazing 56%. Of course, we’d trade it all for a bullpen that could hold a lead.