The NHL is using its off-ice initiatives to not only recognize the passion that Canadian hockey fans have for the sport but also to draw in new sponsors to connect with fans through the strength of the league’s brand.
Sophie Kotsopoulos, NHL VP of partnership marketing, cites the league’s upcoming free two-day outdoor fan festival at the WestJet NHL Fan Park October 27 and 28 as an example. The event is a bonus, fan-centric prelude to the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic taking place in Edmonton this Sunday.
She says the event has worked well to bring new names into the NHL’s sponsorship mix, such as Kal Tire and Truly Hard Seltzer. She thinks the event caught on with the array of new partners because of the opportunity to seed and expand a brand’s presence into the NHL’s network of ad opps, including retail, contests and product promotion.
In support of this expanded sponsorship push, the league has been making measurement a focus.
“We spend a lot of time at the league investing in third-party research to monitor a number of key metrics… that tend to focus on brand awareness, brand consideration, driving brand favourability and sales,” she explains. “We’re really thoughtful and consistent in our measurement of those three fundamental core attributes.”
The NHL works with MVP Index, a sponsorship measurement and valuation platform, as its strategic partner for valuation and asset measurement for the league’s Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED) program. DED, an advanced approach to dynamic dasherboard advertising, debuted at the start of the 2022-23 season and allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within local, national, and international NHL game broadcasts. MVP uses its specialized asset-first detection technology to pick up and provide precise, true, and reliable media and brand values for a logo, slogan, and image on DED signage.
Following the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic, the NHL will be gearing up for several other events that include the NHL Global Series that is set for Sweden and the Discover NHL Winter Classic.
Kotsopoulos adds, “Having breadth and variety over the course of a calendar allows [brands] to have options on how they want to show up and leverage [their] sponsorship strategically.”
