Comcast and OLN said they believed in hockey when they plunked down $125 million over two years for rights to the league.
They’re also saying, “We believe in hockey,” in their new ad campaign, adopting that phrase as a tagline for their NHL marketing efforts.
On the heels of the league’s controversial “Warrior” ad campaign, which showed a player lacing up for a game with the help of a scantily clad woman, OLN broke ads on Saturday that rely on more familiar images from the sport.
The first of three 30-second television ads, from the Fort Franklin agency out of Boston, features clips of past NHL games and fans cheering. A male voice states, “We believe we can score on the opening face-off. We believe in the unbelievable.” The third “We believe” is interrupted by the sounds of wild cheering.
“We believe in The Great One,” the voice continues, as a shot of Wayne Gretzky appears, “and the Next One,” with Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby on screen. The voice concludes, “And that we’re all part of one big hockey family. Unless you’ve got the puck. ’Cuz that’s different.”
OLN’s buying agency, Norwalk, Conn.-based Media Storm, will do spot cable buys in the home markets of clubs competing on the network.
