Because it’s the Cup, Canadian marketers are lining up behind the National Hockey League as its second season gets underway.
The league announced a full roster of 13 playoff sponsors this week, including five first-time playoff partners in Tim Hortons, Oreos, Honda, L’Oreal and Diageo. They join a group of returning sponsors that includes Molson, Enterprise, Bell, Pepsico and Scotiabank.
Brian Jennings, chief marketing officer for the NHL in New York, called the number of activations against this year’s playoffs “unprecedented.”
“It’s a good bellwether for the strength of the business, the strength of the brand, and the value our partners see in our property,” Jennings told Marketing. “There are these seismic shifts that go on in any marketplace, and you don’t want to take a leadership position for granted, but the more we demonstrate the value of activating at this time of year, the more we help our partners solve their business problems.
“We’re humbled, but we’re getting high marks from our partners.”
Jennings said the league got a “very early start” on agency and client outreach, and conversations with clients have been positive because the on-ice product has never been stronger, even in the wake of the lockout that led to a shortened 2012-13 season.
The league is also actively working to ensure that clients have sufficient opportunity to activate against key events, presenting them with a marketing calendar that provides them with a two- to three-year look at potential opportunities.
“The more planning and time you can give, the better the planning process can be,” said Jennings.
Brands are incorporating the Cup into their marketing this spring. Mondelez Canada’s Oreo brand, for example, has created a limited edition Stanley Cup Oreo featuring an image of the Cup in the cookie’s centre.
Another first-time partner, Tim Hortons, has created a Stanley Cup playoffs donut available at its more than 3,400 stores across the country, and is amplifying its sponsorship with tray liners.
Returning sponsor Molson has created more than 1.6 million special-edition Stanley Cup t-shirts available in liquor and beer stores across Canada.
The majority of these activations are built around the league’s “Because it’s the Cup” marketing platform, which replaced the previous “History will be made” initiative about three years ago.
While “History will be made,” which depicted iconic moments from previous Stanley Cup playoffs, including Bobby Orr’s leaping goal in the 1970 Cup final, led to fan engagement, Jennings said testing found the word “history” excluded casual fans who may not have been as familiar with the sport’s most famous moments.
“As we started to challenge our own assumptions, ‘history’ was just not a very welcoming word to the casual fan,” he said. Focus group tests with people who self-identified as casual fans in major markets including Toronto, L.A. and New York found that while they may not have been able to identify individual players, they were able to identify the Stanley Cup and famous traditions such as the white-gloved keeper of the Cup and each player from the winning team getting to spend a day with the trophy.
“The Cup is this great uniter of people, and that’s been validated,” said Jennings.
