singlesliceofcheese
Registered User
- May 9, 2018
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Marketing Draisaitl in Germany...
- Thread starter singlesliceofcheese
- Start date
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
This marketing issue has been touched on before, but here's the long and the short of it.
The NHL isn't going to expand much when marketing. International hockey fans aren't going to tune in because of the time difference. In Germany, the puck drops well after midnight for the early east coast games. That is an impossibly high non-economic barrier to entry and the league is not easy to follow. Fans can buy merchandise and watch highlights, but that's not going to bring in a lot of money. And chances are, if you are a German hockey fan, you already follow the NHL to an extent. If you are not a hockey fan, you are going to follow your local club and not one in another continent.
The NHL doesn't have a lot to add when they market the teams. European fans follow the individual players, they could care less about the team. Czech fans famously just followed Jagr wherever he went. Russian fans follow Ovechkin, none of them will still watch the Capitals when he leaves. So marketing individual players at the end of the day does nothing. In 10 years, the investment is lost already. Like the KHL's failed European expansion showed, not enough European hockey fans give two cares about teams a continent away. It's not worth millions of dollars for a few thousand Slovakians to watch games for a 3-4 years.
It's not the English Premier League. They have games available every weekend in many households that like the sport and at convenient times. Like in America it's the mornings when there is nothing else on. They have a lot to add when they market the league, unlike the NHL. Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea all have increased the club followings internationally, and have created fans for life. It's easy to follow the teams, it's convenient for the fans, it's everything the NHL by nature can't be. The NBA when they made their broadcasts available in China had double the population of the United States tuning in for games. Like the EPL, the NBA has had and still has a lot to add. The NHL doesn't have that immense "market share" potential.
They already had the Oilers and Draisaitl play in Cologne against Haie. Not much else you can do. The best way they can market the NHL is by continuing to have the Global Series, continuing to have a diverse league, and strengthen the individual European leagues. If they add hockey fans in Europe, they at least have the potential to become NHL fans. The NHL website is already available in French, Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Czech, Slovenian, German, and Spanish.
There's better ways to invest NHL marketing dollars than trying to get Europeans to watch the NHL.
I'm really not sure what more the nhl can do.
Live NHL game have only been available on "freeTV" (ie. not a pay-per-view service or a pricey satellite subscription) starting in 2017 on the channel Sport1. And even then, there are just a handful of games per season, almost always an east-coast Saturday afternoon affair, so the games can be on at 7:00pm in Germany.
Beyond that, NHL.tv is available here and it's quite affordable, but unfortunately the time difference will always be a big barrier.
Live NHL game have only been available on "freeTV" (ie. not a pay-per-view service or a pricey satellite subscription) starting in 2017 on the channel Sport1. And even then, there are just a handful of games per season, almost always an east-coast Saturday afternoon affair, so the games can be on at 7:00pm in Germany.
Beyond that, NHL.tv is available here and it's quite affordable, but unfortunately the time difference will always be a big barrier.
tony d
New poll series coming from me on June 3
the NHL can't even market there product in north america let alone Germany
singlesliceofcheese
Registered User
- May 9, 2018
- 220
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There's definitely some good points here. Though, I do want to shed some light on the whole countrypeople following the player and not so much the club-- this was sort of part of the underpinning of the post. With Russia and Czechia being mentioned, these two countries before Ovi and Jagr (respectively) already had roots in the game. Hockey really has never been as popular in Germany in a relative sense. I always wondered if there was a crop of Germans (outside of the western parts) that could potentially do as the Russians and Czechs (like you mentioned). With this in mind, what investment are you regarding and would it demean the possible benefit of 3-4 years worth of fandom? (I feel it'd be longer than this period if Germany ever did give a crap about the NHL even slightly, but I get your point). The difference between the KHL and the NHL is that the former was obviously burning cash to support franchises.
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
I have three investments in mind that would far outweigh the traditional investments that have been put forward so far.
- Put together the World Cup of Hockey. It's the NHL's event, it's predominantly NHL players (the Olympics is only 50% NHL players), it's on the NHL's time, and much like soccer, have that be the international event instead of the Olympics. It's great PR if it's done like the World Championship in Paris and Köln and showcases the players much better.
- Put together a Hockey Night in Canada-type broadcast in Europe. Have an afternoon game on Saturday at noon or one o'clock, Europeans will more likely watch the game because of the time difference. Find a Don McLean-type personality and have him go around like Rogers Hometown Hockey. If Nashville and San José are playing, put him in Switzerland, have him talk to the kids, the same act, just in Europe.
- In the same vein as #2, start having a few foreign-language broadcasts. Have CanalPlus start showing Canadiens games in French-speaking Canada. Find two teams playing each other on a early weekend game with 5 or more Swedes playing, get two Swedish announcers to comment the game as on option on NHL.TV. Or take it a step further and offer different languages for NHL.TV and really champion that, given you can get people to stay up regularly past midnight for the vast majority of games they ought to be asleep for.
The best the NHL could possibly hope for with Draisaitl is Dirk Nowitzki levels of popularity, which would obviously be huge. But I'm actually surprised to see Draisaitl trend better in search results (in Germany) than Dennis Schroder of OKC, who (I just found out recently) is German.
Obviously with Dirk retiring at the time of the spike, it's a bit of an unfair comparison and blows the trend line out of wack. But Draisaitl surprisingly isn't that far off.
Obviously with Dirk retiring at the time of the spike, it's a bit of an unfair comparison and blows the trend line out of wack. But Draisaitl surprisingly isn't that far off.
alko
Registered User
More games played in Europe friendly hours. Dont know how exactly is the time zone relative to Edmonton , but i assume its -9 hours. But then you will go against your prime publicum in Canada and USA. NHL itself cant do much here. I think, that should be the job for Deutscher Eishockey-Bund. They should push him into the daily news. To make some agreement with main news channels, that they will report about Germans in NHL.
They should do more games in Germany and Europe in general and combine them with off-ice events to generate more buzz and fan engagement.
And honestly, Europe friendly game times do a lot. As a Latvian, recent game between Jackets (Kivlenieks) and Sabres (Girgensons) was so cool to watch at an appropriate time for us, but it was not advertised much so I know a lot of people skipped on that, unfortunately. So keep up the nice trend with Europe friendly times but also do something to actually advertise it, they need to work on it systematically tho.
And honestly, Europe friendly game times do a lot. As a Latvian, recent game between Jackets (Kivlenieks) and Sabres (Girgensons) was so cool to watch at an appropriate time for us, but it was not advertised much so I know a lot of people skipped on that, unfortunately. So keep up the nice trend with Europe friendly times but also do something to actually advertise it, they need to work on it systematically tho.
Binister
Generational User
- Feb 7, 2017
- 931
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The European Game of the Week concept is good. I personally watch a lot of games during that time since they are like starting 8 pm here. Very good entertainment for weekend evenings. Of course I watch highlights from every game round but it's usually not worth staying up 'til 2 am in order to see power break bulked NHL match.
Spartachat
Registered User
He is never reach the popularity of stars like David Hasselhoff in Germany. However, he could help to grow the game a bit.
If you had games starting at noon Saturday, you’d be getting the football fans just hitting the pub after the games ended, any later games would have to be sure to not go against the recap show(then there’s going up against the Premier League colossus.) So scheduling the Oilers road trips on the east to feature weekend matinees and staggered with homestand matinees occasionally scheduled 1pm local time/3 eastern.
On Sundays, have the games start 3pm Eastern so you don’t step on DEL games.
When/if Stutzle/Seider/Peterka/Reichel/Bokk hit the show, they can rotate games that much easier.
*NHL/DEB/DEL work together on learn to play programs featuring the players listed above during the Summer with proper media promotion.
On Sundays, have the games start 3pm Eastern so you don’t step on DEL games.
When/if Stutzle/Seider/Peterka/Reichel/Bokk hit the show, they can rotate games that much easier.
*NHL/DEB/DEL work together on learn to play programs featuring the players listed above during the Summer with proper media promotion.
Many negative comments here that I think is a bit misplaced. A lot is done and more can be done. But like I know that the games on Swedish main TV draws a couple of 100k viewers. I always think NA TV ratings are hard to understand, but as I understand it some games will easily have 4 viewers in Sweden alone for every viewer in NA (of course only a fraction of the games, but still). The Premier League just sold their TV rights in Sweden for well over 100 MUSD per year roughly, and Sweden is tiny. There is money in foreign markets too. The NHL have the product in place, it will take a long time to sell it — but there is no short cut and the marginal on any extra revenue they can get from additional viewers is basically 100%. Focus on the entire globe. From China to GB. The allure in sports is tide to its perceived magnitude. Hockey got to work on that. It’s still an exotic sport that hardly is starting from scratch.
*The NHL can do a lot of things. They already have a designated European Game of the week.
NHL's European Game of the Week
*Europeans loves national team sports. The WCHs is big for hockey interest, even if the nobody really sees it as a really big deal.
A real best of the best tournament would be big. No Canada Cup. But I am sorry, you cannot even remotely sell some kind of crap like the last World Cup. It’s like cursing in the church. No, no, no.
Also, the WCHs is a money printing machine for the IIHF. The IIHF is often portrayed as some evil organization. It’s a non profit of all hockey nations and they distribute a ton of money out to the growth countries especially. AND for the WCH to be attractive it needs NHLers. However, insurances is a big challenge. It would be huge if the NHL could somehow get their insurances to cover the WCH too. In terms of games, it’s overall a fraction. But I understand that it’s hard since the NHL don’t handle the insurances.
*Experience of playing hockey builds an interest of the game. Hockey can be a bit of an expensive sport. Give money back to projects. It’s an investment.
*The NHL can do a lot of things. They already have a designated European Game of the week.
NHL's European Game of the Week
*Europeans loves national team sports. The WCHs is big for hockey interest, even if the nobody really sees it as a really big deal.
A real best of the best tournament would be big. No Canada Cup. But I am sorry, you cannot even remotely sell some kind of crap like the last World Cup. It’s like cursing in the church. No, no, no.
Also, the WCHs is a money printing machine for the IIHF. The IIHF is often portrayed as some evil organization. It’s a non profit of all hockey nations and they distribute a ton of money out to the growth countries especially. AND for the WCH to be attractive it needs NHLers. However, insurances is a big challenge. It would be huge if the NHL could somehow get their insurances to cover the WCH too. In terms of games, it’s overall a fraction. But I understand that it’s hard since the NHL don’t handle the insurances.
*Experience of playing hockey builds an interest of the game. Hockey can be a bit of an expensive sport. Give money back to projects. It’s an investment.
Bondurant
Registered User
The easy viral solution is getting Draisaitl on The Masked Singer singing "Looking for Freedom".
Edenjung
Registered User
- Jun 7, 2018
- 2,766
- 2,699
More games at reasonable european times.
The 2018 olympia run of germany brought me to the game (and my brother beeing in toronto after that).
And now i am a yotes fan. But i want to watch more games of them.
Most games of eastern teams can be watched but not of western teams.
And i would like for more global series games against DEL teams. would be very nice.
The 2018 olympia run of germany brought me to the game (and my brother beeing in toronto after that).
And now i am a yotes fan. But i want to watch more games of them.
Most games of eastern teams can be watched but not of western teams.
And i would like for more global series games against DEL teams. would be very nice.
DarthProbert
Registered User
- Feb 3, 2015
- 1,912
- 1,499
And know nothing about what's going on.
It was painful trying to explain to my work colleagues that Germany's "upset" over Canada at the last Olympics was the equivalent of their B-Team beating Canada's D-squad.
"Imagine if there was a (football) World Cup, but you couldn't select players from the Premiership, Bundesliga, Serie-A, or La Liga, essentially..."
TheMoreYouKnow
Registered User
Nowitzki is a household name in Germany in spite of similar problems in terms of time zone and playing a sport thats pretty niche in Germany.
But heres the difference: Nowitzki was the superstar and best player on a NBA team making deep runs into the playoffs and as a result also had a major profile in American media. Draisaitl is his teams 2nd best player and on a team thats so far not achieved anything playing in a small isolated city in Alberta, Canada. As a result he is virtually unknown in the United States as well.
Germans not interested in the NBA still know Nowitzki because he is famous in America which is a big deal still. Draisaitl is less known in America than several collegiate athletes even and as a result only hockey fans in Germany know and follow him.
But heres the difference: Nowitzki was the superstar and best player on a NBA team making deep runs into the playoffs and as a result also had a major profile in American media. Draisaitl is his teams 2nd best player and on a team thats so far not achieved anything playing in a small isolated city in Alberta, Canada. As a result he is virtually unknown in the United States as well.
Germans not interested in the NBA still know Nowitzki because he is famous in America which is a big deal still. Draisaitl is less known in America than several collegiate athletes even and as a result only hockey fans in Germany know and follow him.
Beerfish
Registered User
- Apr 14, 2007
- 19,513
- 5,665
Get him involved with promotion and ads with other stars in Germany from their more high profile sports such as soccer (football)
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