I recently read Matt Lundy’s blog post on Canadianbusiness.com, and was enticed. Since the hockey season is starting there’s going to be a lot more hockey advertisements on our T.Vs and the web. One of the advertisements Matt posted was by Nike’s P.K Subban Always on ad (bottom) and it wasn’t like any before.
This was the first time I’ve seen hockey put in the light as being ‘hip/fresh’ in the way basketball and football conveys. Interesting. Is Nike trying to change the way we perceive the hockey world or just putting their concepts from making ads for football and basketball into hockey? Seems as if they’re doing both. Nike clearly has success using this ad style towards other sports and now they’re using it on the hockey market to revamp the image. Although it is a little long, it’s entertaining, inspiring, has high production value and connects key concepts of hard work, determination and fun to Nike. Which are excellent concepts when linking to an athletic brand such as Nike.
I look forward to the continuous evolution of smart and innovative marketing of the NHL to come.