From our brief:
“What do we want consumers to think/feel? I need to be here because the experience is more exciting, this team has the ability to win, and it’s so much fun to be a part of.”
Growing up a Rangers fan myself, I’ve experienced many games at The Garden — mostly losses (just my luck). Win or lose, I’d leave fairly content if I could sing the Goal Song just once.
Whether you’ve been a fan of this franchise for 30 years or 30 minutes, there’s no denying that a simple 00:30 second song can rally all 18,006 attendees together.
Knowing that the Playoffs were an opportunity for us to garner new fans and heighten interest of New Yorkers still on the fence about supporting this hockey team, I knew that the Goal Song was the perfect way in.
Our Goal Song is the best in the biz, and I wanted to make sure the whole city was singin’ it.
Because why wouldn’t you read every tweet, comment, or post about your work?
Knowing that our Playoff campaign was now centered around our Goal Song, I wanted to continue to find ways to utilize it.
As I continued to see sentiment from frustrated Blueshirt fans regarding ticket prices, I wondered if we could create a social-first ticketing sweepstakes campaign. This campaign, cut to the tune of the Goal Song, targeted sports enthusiasts in the tri-state area who were signed up for our “Fan First Program”, which is a program dedicated to getting tickets in the hands of real fans.
An exciting post-season also calls for exciting post-season merch. As someone who is constantly complaining about sports gear being a “one-size-fits-all” situation (more on that in person), I really wanted to hone in on this. Working with our senior designer, we pitched multiple shirt concepts, leaning in to current trends and things that made the New York Rangers, the New York Rangers.
We were thrilled that two of those concepts were released to the public. The first being our “Blueshirts Magazine” concept — an idea that this team was made for the main stage in the greatest city in the world.
The second concept was my pride and joy and the best-selling piece of merchandise we had throughout the entire postseason. Something that was uniquely ownable to our team was the batch of nicknames we, as a fanbase, had managed to give almost every one of our players. I saw this roster as a can’t-miss opportunity to create customized t-shirts that can only be understood by our true fans. These shirts sold-out so quickly, they had to be restocked twice.
The shirts that didn’t make the cut.
Again, I really tried to lean in to our song as much as possible, which is why I asked a designer to put together this HEY t-shirt.
The second idea was, once again, prompted by our fans, and made for the fans. “Put it in The Met.” - Rangers fans to Igor, always.
We wanted this campaign to highlight that the only way to watch Playoff hockey is at The Garden. This evergreen individual ticket headline was used across all digital, OOH, and social assets, alerting all five boroughs that we need you when the puck drops.