The NHL postseason begins in earnest this week, falling at a good time after the Masters, just ahead of the NBA playoffs, before the NFL Draft and following the hype of opening day for baseball. It also helps to have many of the major markets where hockey has a strong brand presence…New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Detroit and Philly especially…all playing with intriguing matchups. The new digital platforms the NHL has pushed so hard to create and offer to fans (as reported in Sports Business Journal this week) also draw more brand attention, so the opportunity to capture the casual fan, especially in major markets seems to all be in place. However one of the more fun promotions, taken to a new level with a charity component, was also rolled out this week in nine NHL markets, the beard-a-thon (Terry Lyons not only profiles the project but joins in with a call to action from Boston in his blog). The Beard-A-Thon, supported online, in print, in arena and on TV will create some fun video as teams advance, and most importantly will both support the charities in local markets AND potentially give rival teams a chance to promote together, something which is a disconnect in many league-driven campaigns across all sports. While all the St. Baldricks promotions that teams have done over the years are worthy efforts, this one literally has the chance to grow on the fan base and the media over the six weeks of playoffs, and will hopefully raise funds and awareness as well as casual fan interest for those who normally miss the day in, day out routine of the NHL season. Nice job by Cenergy on concept and deliverable, with some interesting potential brand ties over time for the promotion.
Some other good reads…Reuters had a solid piece on baseball's brand growth despite the recession…CNBC's Darren Rovell had an interesting piece on the job UConn's Donald Brown is doing to promote his persona for the upcoming NFL Draft…Barry Janoff has a good q and a with FSV head Chris Russo…and Yahoo's Kevin Iole takes a look at all the marketing muscle invested in the upcoming Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao fight.
