History Will Be Made Again
March 7, 2011 2 Comments
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.
All right, the History Will Be Made commercial is coming back for this year’s playoffs. With NBC, VERSUS, and even CNBC and MSNBC. Looking forward to seeing the new ads on Sunday.
They already released 4 videos on NHLVideo on YouTube. I believe they are also on the NHL Video Center on NHL.com but I’m not sure…