History Will Be Made Again

EW YORK (March 7, 2011) – Last season’s award-winning History Will

Be Made™ campaign will return for the 2011 Stanley Cup® Playoffs but with

significantly broader distribution. This year, the National Hockey League

(NHL) and the NBC Sports Group have joined forces to distribute the

national advertising campaign across the TV, online, radio, print,

in-arena, in-store point-of-purchase, mobile and social media platforms of

the NHL, NBC and VERSUS as well as additional NBC Universal platforms, such

as CNBC and MSNBC.

 

Last season’s History Will Be Made campaign was one of the most

successful campaigns in NHL history, driving more than 302 million TV

viewers for the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most watched in 36 years.

The campaign, which featured prominent Playoffs moments from NHL greats

Bobby Orr and others, not only drove interest and television viewership but

connected with fans on an emotional level and inspired them to create and

post their own versions of the TV spots to YouTube, generating more than

2,400 fan-created commercials and more than 8 million total views. For the

second straight year, fans will be able to download the music composed for

the History Will Be Made campaign from the NHL’s Facebook page for

fan-generated spots.

 

The first pair of TV spots in this season’s campaign – “Wish” and

“Mess” – will debut on March 13 during the NBC Sports broadcast of the

Chicago Blackhawks at Washington Capitals game and more than 20 additional

spots will launch by April 13, the first day of the Playoffs. Starting

April 14 through the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final, a new spot will

be produced each day, highlighting a key moment from the previous night’s

games.

 

“The Stanley Cup Playoffs are filled with drama, the emotional highs

and lows of crucial wins and

losses, the unbearable tension of sudden death overtime and performances

that can define a career forever,” said Brian Jennings, NHL Executive Vice

President of Marketing. “Last season, the History Will Be Made campaign,

which celebrated some of the iconic moments that make the Stanley Cup

Playoffs so special, elicited an overwhelming emotional reaction from our

fans. Fans brought handmade History Will Be Made signs to games and shared

their own versions of the campaign on YouTube. Players even referenced the

campaign in post-game interviews. This year, by taking a truly

collaborative approach on creative, production and media with NBC Sports

and VERSUS, we expect the campaign to continue to reach and resonate with

even more fans, further helping to drive interest and viewership.”

 

“There is both quality and power in the History Will Be Made

campaign,” said John Miller, who heads the NBC Sports Agency and the

NBCUniversal Marketing Council. “By pooling our creative resources and air

time, we believe collectively we can effectively tell the story of the

excitement and emotion of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.”

 

Last year’s 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs campaign received three Sports

Media Marketing Awards, including top prizes for Best Television Promotion

and Best Live Sporting Event Spot and a silver in the Best Television

Promotion category.

 

The History Will Be Made creative was developed collaboratively by

the NHL, NBC Sports Group and VERSUS, in consultation with global

advertising agency, Young & Rubicam.