Making A Splash in the Off-Season

NHL teams Copy NFL Counterparts in Creative Schedule Releases

Teams are starting to get more and more creative on social media with their team’s announcements, a sight that sports fans from all over are loving. Events and moments that were often announced in a bland way have now taken on a new life. This past week, the NHL officially released its schedule – and some teams took this opportunity to get really creative for their fans during the offseason. Let’s have a look at two of the best to come out of the NHL:

The Seattle Kraken released their schedule on Twitter, including a fun video activation with their partner Alaska Airlines. The video shows different scenes that are themed around their key opponents/dates, and ultimately revealing the date of the game. Because of their travel partnership with Alaska Airlines, the reveal also included a few key away games. This was a seamless integration of their partnership that took the announcement and combined it with the travel partner’s objectives of driving more traffic on their airplanes.

On the east coast, the New Jersey Devils released their schedule with a content piece featuring their star defenseman, Dougie Hamilton. Themed around a day trip to Six Flags (which is a perfect theme for the summer and the offseason), the video had a retro theme and included several dad jokes to refer to divisional opponents, later revealing the opponent(s) and the games they play against the Devils.

What stands out about both of these videos is the concept of elevation – taking a moment to the next level using content. The schedule release is always exciting for fans as they start to plan which games they might want to attend and how their team will fare in the upcoming season. These announcements drive more excitement to an otherwise lackluster event.

Additionally, seeing partner activations take on more creativity, like Seattle and Alaska Airlines is always exciting for sports fans and sports marketers everywhere. Here’s to hoping that more teams take a dive into the creative side and start one-upping each other with their schedule announcements like we see in the NFL.

July 8, 2022 - Issue 46 of The Sport Marketeer