In arenas all over the country, hundreds of thousands of people come to play and watch hockey every day during peak season. Whether it’s the local junior team, a youth house league team, or an NHL game, you will no doubt see hockey arena ads across every surface. Promoting your brand at what is the heart of most communities is an excellent way to grow awareness and reach your market, but there are some things to consider before getting your next campaign started. Here are five tips for any organization looking to get noticed with a hockey arena ad.
1. Not All Rink Board Locations Are the Same
When people think of hockey arena advertising they tend to think immediately of rink board ads. These ads—placed around the inside boards—allow your brand to be displayed throughout the game to anyone watching. While these ads are extremely popular, not all of the space on the rink boards is created equal. Especially in smaller local rinks, take some time to consider what side of the rink the majority of fans sit, which end the home team uses most, and the proximity to crucial spots on the ice like the net, faceoff dots, and centre ice.
2. Be Creative
Most people today are quite good at ignoring or avoiding ads, but everyone loves a great and well-placed advertisement. There is also significant “dwell time” in arenas, when fans are sitting, watching, and able to actively engage in an advertisement or a call-to-action. Try to make your hockey arena advertising campaign different and add a bit of your organization’s creativity into it. Arenas are high-traffic areas with hundreds and possibly thousands of people going through them on any given game night. Make people remember your ad.
3. Get People Involved
One of the best ways to get people to engage with your brand is to actually engage with them! By getting people involved you reinforce your company or organization and tie it together with a fun memory. This might mean setting up a contest, getting the community involved, or asking people to share pictures with your content. No matter how you interact by connecting with the arena community you can actively generate fans of your organization.
4. Think about the Entire Arena
While It can be tempting to focus on advertising that is around or on the ice, there are so many other places in an arena to place an ad. Before you decide on where you want to start your campaign, make sure to think about other areas in the building that see a lot of traffic, and watch where people congregate or which entrances or exits are most used. These locations can be perfect places for wall and door decals, banner ads, and outdoor graphics. In arenas with multiple ice sheets, it can be beneficial to have multiple rink boards instead of one large ice logo on one of the ice pads.
5. Get Recommendations
Believe it or not there are experts in hockey arena advertising that are able to find the right ad campaign solutions for your needs, budget, and design. While you could go to the arena yourself and analyze where your perfect ad space might be, specialists in this area know every possibility and what would work best for you based on experience and data. Even if you have a clear idea of what you want, take some time to get recommendations on what has worked for other organizations like yours and what exactly success looks like for a hockey arena campaign. Trust people who have the familiarity in the industry and can steer you in the right direction.