Perhaps Versus is feeling the heat from recent rumours that the NHL wants to return to ESPN. Perhaps they’ve had some hockey specials planned since the lockout. In any case, Versus has a special airing tonight and they’re worried about their ratings.
In an effort to boost ratings, they’ve turned to Sinuate Media and a dose of viral marketing. Viral marketing is a “phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.” Sinuate Media contacted us, and a number of other blogs, to help hype tonight’s special.
“We’ve just received word from Versus about some exclusive video content for the … special which is airing this Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET. The special is followed by the Rangers VS Penguins game at 7PM ET. Versus planned on holding this content for themselves, but has now decided to distribute this exclusive content to a selected few sites [and] feel as though it would be a great fit for your site.”
This special focuses on one current NHL player whose name I won’t even have to utter, you already know who it is. I understand the desire to market him as the face of the NHL. But why does it have to be ONE face. There are other bright young stars such as Phaneuf, Kessel, Toews, and Ovechkin. Would not marketing all five interest more people and be more effective than going to the well one to many times with one? The marketing gains the league and the network sees off the ice can quickly diminish by his conduct on the ice.
I wonder if the distribution of this “exclusive content” that I’ve already seen on numerous sites will have an appreciable effect. If you haven’t seen it, it’s right here:
Hopefully, this will be the first of a series where they focus on other players, too.
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I doubt they’re expecting this promotion to do much “because they’re worried about their ratings.” I suspect it’s more of a trial balloon to see how many people click through to view the video, and whether this might be a promotional medium for them in the future.
I mean come on, all they could hope for would be for maybe 1% of my daily readership of 1,000,000 to head over and watch this special as a result, right? Seems reasonable to me…
I don’t know what they expected people to be viral about in that promotion. If they really want to bring bloggers into a viral system, maybe they could give bloggers the ability to link to an exclusive live, or even time delayed, stream of selected games.
I wonder if the NHL are aware that putting all eggs in one basket is going to backfire, just like it does with everything else. You don’t invest all of your pension money with one company’s stock, do you? There ARE other players in the NHL. If the NHL open their eyes a little bit, they will find that there are players from across the big pond playing here! Heck, if you take the last 10 NHL seasons (not counting the lockout) you will find that half of the Maurice Richard Trophy winners were not from North America. Forcefeeding is not going to work. But who are we to say?
Just out of curiosity, what happens if Crosby blows out a knee? Does the NHL shut down until it heals?
Yeah, we were asked to air it as well, knowing well it would be far from exclusive.
Eh, what can you do.
The investment analogy is apropos. Diversify! With all the different groups of people the NHL would want to attract as fans, it makes too much sense to spread the wealth and feature not just the kid from the small town in the Maritimes but a handful of players from all over the globe, especially those from places where one wouldn’t expect hockey to be popular.
Interesting that NHL is interested in broadcasting Olympic diving. One would think they would want to emphasize the market on hockey. I knew they wanted to diversify, but really…
People say coverage wouldn’t be as good if it were on ESPN…psh. ESPN would have done a 1-hour special called “The NHL’s Youth Revolution”, spotlighting Crosby, Ovie, Toews, Malkin, Kane, Kopitar, Phaneuf, Kessel, Stastny, Parise, etc.
SovSport, I have noted some bias from the media concerning the talented Euro players. While we don’t see that in this coverage area, for obvious reasons, I’ve noted national coverage with frequent references to “soft Euro’s”, etc. It’s a shame, and truly inaccurate.
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