The Major League Baseball All-Star Game made its debut in 1933 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Although it is seen as an exhibition game, over the years it has become an honor for players participating and a fan favorite to watch. Since the strike in 1994, television ratings have declined 33% and are continuing to drop. In 2002, fans were irate when Commissioner Bud Selig decided to end the game in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings. The 2002 MLB All-Star Game also ended with its worst television ratings in history. In an attempt to make the game more competitive and meaningful, as wells as increase ratings, MLB made major changes to the game's format and implemented a full fledged marketing campaign.
             MLB and Fox Sports created a campaign that would aim at generating more excitement and interest in the Midsummer Classic, which in turn would help ratings. The President of Fox Sports, Ed Goren, was confident in predicting an increase of ratings of at least 10% from the previous year.
             • Make baseball more "attractive to fans", particularly younger ones
             • Create an interest in the sport
             • Make the All-Star Game more meaningful than an exhibition game
             • Give the players an incentive to be more competitive in the game
             • Create awareness of the game's new format
             The budget of the "This Time It Counts" campaign was valued at nearly 10 million dollars.
             • MLB implemented a new format to the All-Star Game for a 2 year trial period. The new format includes the winning team receiving home field advantage in the World Series, rather than the traditional way of alternating between leagues each season. The roster was also expanded from 30 to 32 players as a result of a new selection/voting process involving the players.
             • "This Time It Counts" was adopted as the logo/slogan of the campaign, w
             ...