Seeking to take advantage of high television viewership and online traffic, several prominent advertisers have jumped at the opportunity to sponsor coverage of today’s NHL trade deadline on Canada’s three major sports networks.
The Score, Sportsnet and TSN are each in the midst of day-long coverage of the league’s trade deadline, and each have approached the issue of advertising sponsorship in a different manner.
Molson’s Canadian brand is the title sponsor of The Score’s trade deadline coverage, a role the brewery has played for the past several years. Molson is also promoting its own SMS trade update tool via the network.
According to Craig Malanka, director of marketing for The Score, the title sponsorship is the only unique advertising opportunity the network sells against deadline coverage. Other spots airing through the day are for existing advertisers.
Malanka reports that in the past four years, the television audience for The Score’s trade deadline coverage has been 170% higher than regular daytime viewership. He also cites a significant increase in web traffic—in 2007, for example, visits to the station’s website were up 123% over the average number.
Sportsnet, meanwhile, sells sponsorship of its deadline coverage as a one-off opportunity. This year, Molson, Boston Pizza and electronics company Pioneer are the main sponsors of the day. In addition to a strong television and web presence, these sponsors are also benefitting from such perks as product placement. For example, the anchors and commentators covering the trade deadline will partake of Boston Pizza products on the air, according to David Ballingall, vice-president of marketing for Sportsnet.
“We definitely package it as a stand-alone package,” says Ballingall.
Like Malanka, Ballingall notes that advertisers are attracted to the large audiences produced by the NHL trade deadline, an effect that’s especially evident online. He says that Sportsnet’s web traffic on deadline day can be as much as four times greater than an average day.
“This is the single biggest online day in Canadian sports—bigger than the Super Bowl or the Grey Cup.”
At TSN, three existing hockey advertisers are splitting sponsorship on deadline day, with Molson once again part of the mix. Chrysler and GM are TSN’s other deadline-day sponsors.
