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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NHL teams find success when backed into a corner

Each of the league’s 31 teams has sold its new in-ice advertising positions, and the league is scoring with the same spots for the playoffs.

Acme and Tata Consultancy Services are the two partners the Philadelphia Flyers have in those locations at their home rink, the Wells Fargo Center.Getty Images

Nearing the NHL season’s midpoint, the new in-ice advertising positions introduced this year are proving to be a boon for teams and the league.

 

Despite the teams being given a short selling time due to the positions only being approved in the spring, all 31 NHL teams have sold their allotted four pieces of inventory for this season.

 

“It’s been financially advantageous for the league and the clubs, and more importantly, we think it’s been a great success for the brands as well,” NHL Chief Revenue Officer Keith Wachtel said.

 

Each team took a slightly different approach to the new positions, with some teams opting to sell each of the four spots individually to different brands, some packaging multiple spots together or even having short-term partners that will or have had their logos switched out, as both Columbus and Vegas did.

 

Wachtel said that sales of the positions have broken down three ways  — a third of the teams are seeing significant new revenue from the deals, a third have used them to upgrade renewal packages with existing partners, and a third have been a “mixed bag,” he said; teams that have provided the inventory at lower cost to an important partner as a bonus or an attempt to bring in someone new in an important category.

 

In-Ice, Baby

15: Teams that have four partners for their in-ice positions this season, 48% of the league

3: New partners added for both the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes, the most of any teams in the league

$52M: Cumulative media value to the sponsors from the new corner ice positions

Wachtel did not comment on how lucrative the positions have been for teams, but league sources said that this inventory has been a key part of mid to high six-figure deals for teams across the league, and in some cases larger.

 

According to data from Nielsen Sports over the first two months of the regular season, the corner-ice locations delivered more than $52 million in QI Media Value, its standard for sponsorship measurement. That accounts for 11 percent of the total media value delivered over that period for NHL teams, ranking behind the cumulative static dasherboard advertising and the other in-ice locations in the neutral zone, which had 58 and 19 percent of that media value, respectively.

 

Graham Townsend, Nielsen Sports senior account director, said that while static shots of the logos during face-offs have provided some of the best moments for the logos to be clear and visible, so have slow-motion highlights of goals and saves. He also noted that while Nielsen Sports’ data does not break down the individual dasherboard locations — most NHL rinks have upward of 25 locations on a television broadcast — the corner in-ice positions outperform many of them individually.

 

Wachtel said the league, teams and marketers are still learning what works best for the positions, which generally means a clear logo with a small number of letters and a larger font. The NHL will review if the positions need any tweaks later this year.

 

The NHL retained the rights to the positions for the Stanley Cup playoffs and other league events like the Winter Classic, as it does with other surrounding ad positions. For this year’s Classic between the Blackhawks and Bruins, the NHL has sold the four new positions, which will feature existing partners Discover, Jägermeister, Pepsi and Ticketmaster.

 

Wachtel said the league has already secured two partners for the positions during the playoffs. He added that the NHL is pursuing global partners in any category, even those that aren’t aligned with the league otherwise. Last year, the NHL signed a partnership with Hulu to sponsor just the 2018 playoffs, providing a dasherboard ad directly behind the goal.

 

“We think this is something that will continue to grow and evolve, but certainly the pros outweigh the cons,” Wachtel said.

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