How the NHL plans keep Olympic fans hooked through the Stanley Cup

It’s been one heck of a year for hockey fandom. Whether it’s longtime NHL fans, anyone glued to games during Team USA’s dual gold medal run during the Olympics, or Heated Rivalry die-hards, the sport seems to have suddenly become part of everyone’s daily conversations.

The NHL wants to seize the moment.

Three days after the US men’s team won its gold medal in overtime against Team Canada on Feb. 22, the NHL resumed play with a new marketing push. The campaign, called “Chasing Silver” in a nod to the Stanley Cup, was largely designed to speak to new viewers, according to Steve Mayer, president of NHL content and events.

“We were hoping that a lot of the audience that watched all those Olympic games would then come on over to the NHL…and we felt the ‘Chasing Silver’ piece of it all was our fun tagline,” Mayer told Marketing Brew. “It was our way of really promoting tune-in.”

The real rivalries

The first spot in the campaign, which ran Feb. 25 during NHL broadcasts on national TV, promoted that day’s double-header matchups: the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Vegas Golden Knights vs. the Los Angeles Kings.

It also featured shots of some of the league’s biggest stars who fans might recognize from the Olympics, including Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers, Team Canada’s Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks, and fellow Canadian and Winter Olympics MVP Connor McDavid, who captains the Edmonton Oilers.

Mayer said the campaign was meant to put the spotlight on the league’s talent, as well as some of its biggest team rivalries, especially among teams that look to be serious playoff contenders this season. It hinges on a bit of off-ice star power, too: Will Arnett narrated the first ad, while Kenan Thompson and Shania Twain are involved in other versions. All three, according to Mayer, are real hockey enthusiasts.

“That’s what we tend to always go with when it comes to any celebrity participation,” he said. “It’s just really important that they love the sport.”

In total, “Chasing Silver” consists of 19 different spots, with 18 tailored to specific games and one generic version, Mayer said. The New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes, who made a name for himself during the Olympics by scoring the golden goal after having two teeth knocked out, is appearing in a few spots this week tied to Devils games, reflecting the evolving nature of the campaign. (While his teeth are fully intact in the ads, narration refers to him as the “USA hero,” lest anyone forget his Olympic feats.)

“We’ll continue to be flexible, because players will get injured…other players will start to establish themselves as stars,” Mayer said. “We'll be able to change up some of the meat of the commercial in order to make it much more specific for the game coming up.”

Thin ice

The goal of the campaign is simple: Mayer said he wants fans to get a rundown of upcoming games and where to watch them, which isn’t always common knowledge in the era of fragmented media rights. NHL games appear on TNT, ESPN, and ABC in the US, as well as on streaming services including HBO Max and ESPN+.

Whether audiences actually choose to tune in to the NHL isn’t entirely in the hands of league execs, especially considering recent controversy. US players from the men’s team faced some backlash after a video showed the team partying with embattled FBI director Kash Patel after their win, with some of them heard laughing after President Donald Trump told them via phone call that he would have to invite the women’s team, which also won gold, to the White House or risk impeachment.

But the league is doing what it can do to encourage goodwill, including by highlighting the compelling elements of the sport itself, while also embracing pop culture when possible, Mayer said.

On Monday, Jack Hughes and his brother Quinn, another Olympian and a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild whose stares from the sidelines of games went viral, were guests on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon alongside Team USA and PWHL star Hilary Knight. Over the weekend, the Hughes brothers, Knight, and Team USA women’s golden goal-scorer Megan Keller appeared on Saturday Night Live with host Connor Storrie, of Heated Rivalry.

The popularity of Heated Rivalry has been “amazing for us,” Mayer said, adding that his team plans to continue leveraging celebrities and other cultural touchstones as they attempt to cement new NHL fans.

“We’re also going to lean into lifestyle, fashion, food, culture, other things that we think these new fans are interested in, and try to make it fun, lighter, and likable,” he said. “We need to be likable, but we also need to show people what the sport is all about.”