Winter Classic Ads Feature "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" Song

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal 

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The organ music and words of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" take on a whole new meaning in a series of new spots developed to promote the NHL's Winter Classic 2009. The 30- and 45-second spots, which began airing on NBC, the CBC and RDS last week, meshes the voice of Harry Caray as he sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with images of the legendary Wrigley Field and hockey players from the Blackhawks and Red Wings. The spots culminate with an image of the red Wrigley Field sign outside the stadium lit up with "Detroit Red Wings vs. Chicago Blackhawks." As part of the effort to bring attention to players, the spots also feature close-ups of NHL stars such as Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane and C Jonathan Toews, and Red Wings LW Henrik Zetterberg and G Chris Osgood. "This is exactly what we wanted to accomplish from a creative perspective," said Brian Jennings, NHL Exec VP/Marketing. "We really wanted to dial up this iconic stadium and have some fun with the juxtaposition of a powerful baseball song and do it with a little bit of hockey and anticipation of this event." The spots were developed by Young & Rubicam in collaboration with the NHL and its network partners. Jennings said they are the first tune-in spots developed by the league that will be used by all of its television partners in Canada and the U.S. They're also the first spots that the league has worked with its rights holders to develop.

MASS APPEAL: "A lot of the process was to design something that reached a broad audience and appealed to that core hockey fan," said Mike McCarley, NBC's VP/Strategic Marketing. "Some spots have a little more Wrigley Field and some will have a little more hockey, so they'll appeal to different fans." The campaign debuted on NBC during last night's Bears-Vikings "Sunday Night Football" telecast. The network is expected to continue to broadcast the ads during other programming such as "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," as well as during programming on its cable networks, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, SciFi and The Weather Channel. "Our hope is to really drive our television ratings," Jennings said. "As great as Detroit and Chicago are as markets for us, it's important to have that casual sports fan tuning and saying, 'Wow, this is really cool (to see) hockey played outdoors like it used to be.'" The game will be broadcast on NBC in the U.S. and the CBC and RDS in Canada. Faceoff is at 1:00pm ET on January 1. It will be the third regular-season outdoor game in league history.

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