Menu
Marketing and Sponsorship

Group building commercial platform for hockey’s Hobey Baker Award

Hockey’s Hobey Baker Award is trying to develop some marketing muscles.

The award has been presented annually since 1981 honoring the NCAA’s top hockey player. Like the Heisman Trophy, it’s owned by a foundation. Unlike the Heisman, it has rarely, if ever, been exploited commercially.

With that in mind, former broadcast and cable TV executives David Smith and Mike Mohamad, doing business as DMSM Marketing, bought the commercial rights to the award a few years ago from the Minneapolis foundation that controls it.

Since then, the group has been building a commercial platform around it.

“Our thought was that the only reason the Hobey Baker wasn’t bigger was that it’s never had enough money or the manpower,” Smith said. “For an advertiser, what we like about it is that it has the legacy of the game itself, along with principles of integrity, character, skills and commitment, on which it’s based and awarded.”

The Hobey Baker marketing package includes top hockey assets. It has units within a TV show around the award, which is presented annually at the NCAA Frozen Four. The show has been on the NHL Network for the past several years and before that was on ESPNU. While not selling the award platform, the NHL is supporting with media and other assets within its top events, including the Winter Classic, All-Star Game and Stanley Cup playoffs.

Fan voting for the award has drawn as many as a million ballots.

For marketers looking at grassroots opportunities, there are also high school extensions, with various versions of the Hobey Baker Award reaching around half the men’s and women’s high school and club hockey teams in the U.S. Those assets are also included in the marketing package.

Price points around the sponsorship could not be determined. The Leverage Agency, New York, is the sales agency representing the Hobey Baker Award.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/12/05/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Hobey-Baker-Award.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/12/05/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Hobey-Baker-Award.aspx

CLOSE