A New Season: Versus, NBC Debuting New NHL Playoffs Campaigns

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Versus will roll out a new advertisement for the NHL playoffs tomorrow titled "Look Up." The ad builds on the network's playoff campaign “378,000 seconds in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Don’t miss a single one.” The commercial shows players, coaches and fans looking up at the scoreboard as the sound of a clock ticks off seconds in the background. Versus Senior VP/Marketing Bill Bergofin said, "We wanted to put together a campaign that capitalized on the high pace action of the sport where something can change in any second.” The "378,000 seconds" campaign will continue throughout the playoffs online with banner ads on sites like Yahoo, CBSsports.com, SI.com and others. The ads will say "Last Night's Top Second" and will drop down video highlights from the previous night's playoff games. Meanwhile, NBC Sunday unveiled its NHL playoff campaign during the network’s broadcast of Red Wings-Blackhawks. The campaign features the NHL's ‘08 tagline, "The Cup Changes Everything," and underscores how the Cup changes cities, players, and fans. The ad and updates to it during the playoffs will be featured in all-day parts on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Universal Sports. The campaign continues NBC's new effort to use the same themes as its league partners. NBC VP/Strategic Marketing Mike McCarley: "If we share a message between the league and the broadcaster, it only helps each piece of creative work harder for the both of us, and it sends a cohesive message to the audience in a world of fragmented media."

Watch The NBC Clip	Watch The Versus Clip