The National Hockey League and Electronic Arts Inc. are partnering for a promotional campaign in which consumers’ input will decide the cover of EA Sports’ NHL digital game. The
effort, "Cover Vote Campaign," also involves BlackBerry. More on that later.
The program will be in two rounds, followed by a 16-player bracket where a field of 60 NHL players is narrowed down
to one. The winning player gets the spotlight as the EA Sports NHL 13 Cover Athlete at the 2012 NHL Awards on June 20 at the Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas.
The consumer interface, at
NHL.com/CoverVote, lets people vote as often as they wish, but there's also a social media element on Facebook and Twitter, where people can chat up their picks using #NHL13Cover.
The
list of candidates participating in the campaign features NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin, 2011 Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry, NHL All-Stars and some of the most popular players in the
NHL.
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Keith Wachtel, SVP of integrated sales at the NHL, says fans can also vote on mobile devices and tablets. He tells Marketing Daily that EA, an NHL partner, approached the
League with the cross-promotion idea -- an approach they had done with the NFL. "They came to us asking if we wanted to support it, and of course we said yes. The [EA NHL] video game is the biggest
[digital] hockey game and the biggest digital sports game of any kind in Canada."
Wachtel points out that what makes this program different from two-partner, cross-promotional relationships
such as that -- well, it isn't just a two-partner relationship. "We were able to work with EA to bring on NHL sponsor BlackBerry to help with the effort," he says. "That enabled us to create more
exposure through a promotion that BlackBerry is going to provide." He says that, unlike EA's partnership with the NFL around the Madden series, which involves ESPN as media partner, NHL is keeping
media in-house on its NHL channels. "As a league, we always try to work to find ways that our partners work together to cross promote and enhance their programs."
The EA/NHL partnership,
which also involves the NHL Players Association, runs through the post season, which Wachtel says is the right time to keep fans engaged. "This is the critical time of the year for NHL," he says. "We
are engaging fans at a critical time of the year and letting them engage with players; the real proof is in numbers. On the first day this came out [March 29], we surpassed two million votes. It's
well beyond, collectively, what we thought would happen."
The NHL network will run online ads on TV and online to promote the competition. The effort will also get support from editorial
content on the NHL network and via an element of the social media campaign that involves the nominated players tweeting about why they deserve to make the cover of EA Sports NHL 13.
"It's great when players are invested, and taking time to participate," says Wachtel, who adds that local broadcasters and the individual clubs will support the program with an assist from the
League, which will provide teams with commercial web banners and ad creative. "Clubs are doing their own promotional activity but we are giving them assets," he says.
The promotion ends
in early June when the NHL announces who won the cover athlete competition during the NHL Awards in Las Vegas. A consumer promotion dangles a trip to the event, where the winner gets to meet the
athletes and be part of the experience.