The Season To Get Creative

How Teams Should Create Holiday Content

Twitter / @Anaheim Ducks

The holidays are fast approaching, and this is the time your social team can sink or swim. Every brand in sports is in the process of soon releasing its holiday post. Most scrape by with the basics while others would’ve been better off not participating. Yet, we’ll admit there are still some teams that are shining bright with creativity. It makes you wonder why don’t more teams make posts like this?

Posts like what? Great question.

Like this: full video on twitter.

Earlier this week, the Anaheim Ducks released a video of Kevin Shattenkirk dressing up in a large teddy bear suit with a lavish Christmas backdrop where he jumped out to scare his teammates. The video was great! The idea wasn’t game-changing, but it was different. Different is good. As we mentioned, you usually have teams release these boring videos of players wishing the fans a happy holiday and that’s it. But, in this video you get to see how the players interact behind closed doors and react to this funny prank.

What makes this type of video so good is the ability to see players in their true element. Unfortunately, in sports, especially hockey, you see players trying to suppress their personality for the “greater good”. Here’s the hard truth: that does more harm than good. Fans won’t connect with these cold monotone athletes; they’ll connect with the authentic ones. As a club, it’s your job to create as many authentic settings as possible, away from the field of play, for athletes’ personalities and personal brands to thrive.

Back to the Ducks video, this authentic setting is what makes this video a success. When watching it, you can connect with various personalities. Whether it’s the way a player was scared, the reaction the teammates had to the pranks, or even just how they read their fake lines – there are numerous touch points where a sense of relatability is formed.

Creating content where fans end the video smiling, is what it’s all about – that positive sentiment will work wonders for your team and the personal brand of the players. I, frankly, want to keep an eye on the Ducks a bit more after viewing content like this. They seem like a fun young group, and I happen to relate to Jamie Drysdale's reaction.

Published: December 24, 2021 - Issue 19 of The Sport Marketeer