The Single-A Great Lakes Loons had their hearts set on coming up with a temporary alternate identity—after all, everyone else in the minors was doing it—but none of the current trends were really whetting their whistle. In struggling to find an appropriate alternate brand, as director of creative services Alex Seder explains on the team’s blog, the Loons couldn’t help but notice that their hometown of Midland, Michigan, “isn’t particularly known for anything specific,” and the whole food-based temporary brand “seemed a little stale” (as it were).
The answer to their problems had been right under their noses for almost a decade, it turned out. During a game late in the 2009 season, the team showed a video of a braying camel on its scoreboard, which led to a come-from-behind win. Subsequent showings of the video seemed to coincide on a regular basis with the Loons rallying for wins. After a few seasons, the frequent appearances of the rally camel video led to the introduction of alternate mascot Rall E. Camel in 2012. When paired with their popular promotion, Hump Day Happy Hour on Wednesdays, the team’s connection to camels seemed obvious.
On August 22—a Hump Day Wednesday, of course—the Loons will rebrand as the Great Lakes Camels for a game against the Fort Wayne TinCaps, sporting a Brandiose-designed identity unlike many of the other promotions the minors have seen in recent years.
