Marketing and professional sports.

Sounds like the title of an essay I would write for a Sociology class; however the link between advertising and sports has become an acceptable part of pro sports.

Historically, sports were meant to create excitement, entertainment and a sense of competition for spectators. Nowadays, all of the above still apply; tack on marketing to that list?now we have a complete list of the purpose of sports.

We as fans have come to expect marketing to be the driving force behind our sports viewing experiences. Case in point: during the NHL lockout this past winter, hockey analysts suggested once the National Hockey League got back up and running, the League should go out on a limb to try and win back the fans.

Win back the fans? Sure, when the favourite pastime of most Canadians, hockey, is taken away from for reasons beyond control, there is a sense of anger and resentment?but once the game returns, shouldn?t the love and passion felt for the sport return without invitation? I think so, yet I never found anything wrong with re-marketing the League.
That question was never challenged; die-hard and casual fans alike agreed there should be some motion by the teams and the League as a whole to get people excited about hockey again.

Rules were changed to try and increase goal scoring to eliminate ?boring? low-scoring games, promotional giveaways were being proposed, ticket prices were slashed, more player availability was promised, the list goes on.
The latest advertising move by the NHL was announced this week featuring a creative ad campaign tagged with the slogan ?My NHL,? providing a nice sense of ownership and personalization for the fans.

Teaming up with the advertising agency Conductor, the League will release a series of TV commercials and print ads this up-coming week.

Thomas C. Cotton, president of Conductor, told the New York Times, ?We wanted to get deep inside the soul of the game to reach the rabid fan who is starved for hockey and the casual fan who might have overlooked it.?

But no great comeback story is complete without some controversy.

Martha Burk, the woman who created a stir at Augusta National Golf Club three years ago with her unsuccessful efforts to allow female members is setting her sights on the NHL.

Burk calls the commercials “gratuitous” because it shows a scantily clad woman dressing a hockey player by helping him put on his shoulder pads and jersey.

The NHL counteracted by explaining, ?The woman is a spiritual and physical trainer for the warrior [the player], and his mentor.?

Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, plans on sending letters of protest to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and to chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics since NBC plans on airing the commercial next week.

Burk?s outcry may in fact fall on deaf ears, being a woman myself, I feel that there are far more offensive television commercials on regular rotation to cause a stir over an ad targeted at men, who make up the majority of hockey fans.
The new ads have been embraced by the NHL clubs, corporate sponsors, as well as the players. Directed by acclaimed music video director Sam Bayer (Green Day?s ?Boulevard of Broken Dreams? video,) the series of ads are unlike anything the NHL has put together marketing-wise and the hope is the attention grabbing vignettes attract interest?and subsequently put butts into the seats at the arenas because that?s the name of the game.

Welcome back NHL!






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