NHL & GoPro's #MyPlayoffsMoment Drives Fan-Film Playoff Stories

The National Hockey League (NHL) has linked with partner GoPro to invite fans to share their own 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs videos for a social and digital campaign called ‘My Playoff Moments’.

Across its own social media and digital channels, the NHL is encouraging hockey lovers around the world to submit their personal playoff films using the hashtag #MyPlayoffsMoment with the aim of sharing the most riveting fan reactions to and perspectives on this year’s knockout games.

#MyPlayoffsMoment presented by GoPro encourages fans from right across the planet (not just in North America) to share their hockey experiences, acts of fandom and to show their support from wherever they are following this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs: live at sold out rinks, at home in front of their TVs, through their second screen devices, or from bars or just on the street.

@TBLightning #MyPlayoffsMoment #TBLightning Stralman empty netter from section 112!! https://t.co/W8GBnV4MpE

— david freed (@davidwfreed) April 30, 2015

Betty needs a goal! #Blackhawks #MyPlayoffsMoment #GoPro @GoPro pic.twitter.com/eQpc523dza

— Jeff Lewis (@ChicagoPhotoSho) April 22, 2015

Using their own GoPro, mobile, or tablet devices their are being encouraged to shoot film and upload to the campaign to be in with a chance of watching their own videos, included in a match-up preview films, broadcast nationally.

The fan submitted film content is being curated by the NHL’s social team and shared back to the league’s 10 million plus fans on the NHL’s main social platforms: Twitter (@NHL), Facebook (Facebook.com/NHL), Instagram (@NHL), YouTube (YouTube.com/NHL), Tumblr (http://nhl.tumblr.com/), and Vine (Vine.co/NHL).

The league is also cutting together a consumer-created video compilation for each upcoming playoff series match-up using these fan-submitted videos.

These compilations are then being broadcast nationally on NBC and NBCSN in the USA and on Sportsnet in Canada.

Each participating NHL team and club is also being encouraged by the league to share this content with fans in-arena pre- and post=games and on the franchise’s social media platforms.

The campaign is being digitally hubbed around a central site at www.NHL.com/MyPlayoffsMoment – a web venue that will house every single video created for the campaign.

‘Millions of fans are engaging every day on all devices and across multiple platforms throughout each round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs,’ explains NHL VP for product development and social media John Pacino.

‘Sometimes, the drama around each game this time of year is best captured by passionate fans who feel the same emotional highs and lows as their favourite teams and players. And the end result can be exciting, compelling, and refreshing content because it’s so authentic.’’

Comment

Initially seems like a fairly vanilla initiative, but closer analysis of the films themselves reveals that many of these videos show truly extreme passion and genuinely powerful emotions.

NHL fans certainly live and breathe the playoffs and their films can be moving and emotional.

While the vast majority of the fan films are not being shot on GoPro cameras, by partnering on this league campaign enables GoPro to connect itself more deeply to the game and the fans and to a platform that directly links video to hockey.

This link first emerged in September 2014 when the NHL signed a content-sharing led deal with GoPro to provide TV viewers ‘NHL players’ points of view during the season.

From early October this saw the NHL use GoPro’s POV footage in promotional campaigns for the new season.

This also enabled official NHL broadcast partners – NBC Sports in the USA and Rogers in Canada – to interweave this GoPro footage into their own game telecasts – particular when it came to showing shooting, stickhandling and skating skills.

Thus, when a player pre-filmed by GoPro scores during game, the broadcasters can illustrate that player’s skills, approach, mechanics and technique by cutting to GoPro taped footage.

The league is also featuring GoPro POV content on NHL Network and NHL.com, while GoPro will use the clips on its own YouTube channel where it is running an NHL web series called ‘On The Ice’.

These clips were created and shot by a dozen players having cameras fitted to their helmets whilst on the ice and at the media tour event.

This followed on from the successful reaction to last season’s experiment that saw referee Wes McCauley wear a GoPro camera during the Rangers-Devils Stadium Series game – which aimed to offer both entertaining footage, to show what the referee sees and also to show how refs interact with players and coaches in the game.

Not only did it provide a fresh perspective on how fast the game is, but also on how difficult the referees’ job is.

In January 2015 the NHL signed a North American partnership with GoPro which enabled the NHL to attach the sporty cameras to refs and to the inside of rinks.

While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it was announced in time for GoPro and the NHL to showcase the new partnership at the NHL All-Star Weekend.

‘This gets us into the mass-reaching sports and shows GoPro is effective in stick-and-ball sports, too,” says GoPro marketing VP Paul Crandell. ‘Beyond just action-adventure sports.’

Indeed, GoPro describes its NHL partnership as a ‘proving ground for what the camera can do not just in replay footage, but for live shots’. A strategy not too dissimilar from that adopted by other tech and/or analytics brands such as IBM or Accenture through their sports sponsorship activation.

While for the NHL it is a chance to link with an innovative tech company that will add flash and buzz to the sport, as well as bring a new way to showcase its beauty, speed and intensity.

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