Memo
To: The rest of the NHL
From: The Boston Bruins
Subject: Step your mascot game up
As you other 29 teams may or may not have noticed, we, the despised/revered professional hockey club known as the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, have the greatest mascot in the National Hockey League.
Why, you might ask? He doesn’t even talk. Nor is he licenced to carry a T-shirt gun.
Because he’s funny. Like, actually funny. Not ruffle-a-child’s-hair-and-pose-for-a-jpeg cute funny. And funny sells; it creates buzz, goes viral, draws out personality behind the visor than separates so many of the NHL’s individuals from their supporters.
Last week one of our players, Andrew Ference, snapped an Instagram pic of a sleeping Milan Lucic juxtaposed with an image of Sloth from The Goonies. Goofy, right? Sure, but stunts like that are harmless, they give diehard fans something to talk about and pass around between game nights, and they show casual fans that hockey players and teams have a sense of humour.
This week it’s back to our Bear.
The Bear was not born funny.
The Bruins’ marketing team has made an effort to seek out creative ad agencies and embrace digital media to better engage fans – and make being a Bruins fan fun.
Yes, Bear was a huge hit with his series of ads last season:
But when Bear climbed out of hibernation, we decided to take things up a notch this spring.
The Bear now has his very own ’80s-style digital sitcom, The Bear & the Gang, complete with canned laughter and special appearances from Brad Marchand, TD Garden anthem crooner Rene Rancourt, and NESN commentator Jack Edwards. (Watch the saxy opening credits above.)
The first mini episode, “Video Games,” is already up on our Digital Entertainment Network (DEN, get it?), which we launched Monday and is available through the Bruins’ new app. It’s pretty funny. (Yes, the app is free. Yes, it’s available in Canada.)
Stay tuned for future appisodes (that’s what they call ’em, right? they do now) featuring Tyler Seguin, Shawn Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Cam Neely, and Claude Julien as “Coach.”
Complementing the new app like gold does black, Bear’s new Pinterest page of his ex-girlfriends is a must-visit. Sample entry (below a photo of Bear’s ex, supermodel Brooklyn Decker): “I actually met Brooklyn IN Brooklyn. Just kidding, she was camping and I attacked her canoe. But things got real good after that.”
See, this hockey marketing thing doesn’t always need to rely on retired legends two generations removed from the hockey-mad kids who don’t buy hockey cards anymore. It doesn’t have to be self-serious.
It can embrace all of the new social media platforms in a fun, creative way.
Join the c(l)ub.