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.
