Do you like hockey? Do you have a degree in business, marketing, or PR? Then you could be the NHL’s next Marketing Manager!! Hang with Gary Bettman and make bad decision after bad decision, like glow pucks, Versus over ESPN, 30 new jerseys just to make your corporate cronies at RBK happy, and All-Star games on a Wednesday.
Summary:
The Marketing Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management and implementation of League directed marketing efforts for the National Hockey League.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities:
The ideal candidate will communicate insights from consumer research and develop integrated marketing strategies, plans and tactics that leverage those insights into achieving the League’s short- and long-term marketing and business objectives. Facilitate day-to-day relationships and implement the integration of League-directed marketing efforts across internal departments, the 30 clubs, NHLPA, broadcast partners and corporate partners. Lead the production of fully integrated marketing communications campaigns that include television, radio, print, digital, outdoor, collateral/POS and integration into editorial content. Facilitate day-to-day relationships with marketing and advertising agency partners to ensure the work being created meets all League expectations and requirements – including the development of briefs, presentations and productions.
In addition, the Marketing Manager will lead the production of fully integrated marketing communications campaigns that include television, radio, print, digital, outdoor, collateral/POS and integration into editorial content, collaborate with internal departments to develop marketing plans that meet their objectives, and then manage the execution of that plan with the Creative Services department to concept and produce marketing/advertising materials.
The Marketing Manager will support the Events department on the development of creative ideas and materials for League events, support the Corporate Sales department with updated consumer insights, marketing strategies/materials and sponsorship ideas customized to the company being pitched and manage and determine the proper distribution of League-controlled marketing assets/inventory across all of the organization’s marketing needs.
In addition, the Manager will develop, manage and maintain media and production budgets for both the League marketing department initiatives, as well as the marketing initiatives of other internal departments as well as identify new and creative marketing ideas and partnerships to benefit the business objectives of the League.
Too. Good. To be true.
The NHL filed court papers Wednesday that included a draft letter from commissioner Gary Bettman proposing discipline against Madison Square Garden, L.P., that could lead to suspension or termination of its ownership of the Rangers.
In its court filing, the NHL asked a judge to agree Madison Square Garden breached its contract by challenging league rules.
This may be the best move Gary Bettman has made in his entire tenure as commish.
In case you missed the (yawn!) oh-so-exciting news out of Toronto last night, the NHL held the 2008 Draft Lottery last night in Toronto. Absolutely nothing changed - Tampa Bay ended up with the #1 pick, Islanders the #5. What was the point of last night again?
Anyways, Sean Leahy’s got some humorous pictures from last night and fake Bossy quotes on his blog. Check it out.
The NHL just posted their playoff promo commercials to YouTube. There’s “Tighter” with Ryan Getzlaf, “City” with Roberto Luongo, and in a most unfortunate pairing of bad timing and bad wording…”Shorthanded” with Daniel Alfredsson.
Oops. Is anyone in the NHL Marketing Department an actual hockey fan?? Do they not get the NHL Network in the office? Did they not see this hit last night? None of the NHL suits thought it might be a good idea NOT to release that last commercial?
The Sens (if they make the playoffs) are going to be “shorthanded” for the first couple of weeks of the playoffs. Captain Alfredsson is expected to miss 1-2 weeks time between that hit and a knee injury also suffered last night.
The NHL Tournament of Logos blog has graduated from logos and is moving onto determining the “best goalie mask” with a series of polls. Today’s matchup pits the Isles’ own Wade Dubielewicz vs. Nikolai Khabibulin. Sorry Doobie, but I H-A-T-E that stupid %$#^@&*! Gordon’s Fisherman logo with a passion…I had to vote for “The Bulin Wall”. Get your vote on either way, and check the Tournament of Logos blog often to see how the voting turns out.
We haven’t covered the possible Yankee Stadium NHL outdoor game very much here this season, despite talks about the game coming closer and closer to reality. That’s because every article about the game has the Rangers scheduled for the game in permanent marker, while the list of possible opponents is written in pencil, with the Islanders at the bottom of that list. The NHL (and NBC) suits feel a NYI/NYR outdoor game is too NYC-centric and won’t draw any interested outside of the metro area. It’s really not looking good for the Isles to take part in this game if it happens. However, the Isles now have one notable supporter in their corner - ESPN’s “Bucci” - John Buccigross makes a case to include the Islanders in his latest blog column. We’ll take all the support we can get, even if half of Bucci’s support is based on pity for our fallen franchise.
The Rangers-Islanders rivalry would light up a rink, burst through the television screen and earn very good ratings. It is one of those regular-season games that truly feels like a playoff game. Thats what makes any outdoor game better. A hard-hitting, meaningful battle is the cherry on top of all the Yankee Stadium marketing the game will receive.
You might find two other U.S.-based teams with a rivalry close to Islanders-Rangers, but you wont find a better one. And having the game in New York makes the most sense if its Islanders-Rangers, as much sense as a Blackhawks-Red Wings game in Wrigley Field or a Penguins-Flyers game at Penn State.
It is good sense and would help a franchise in need of a little help, a franchise that has a passionate owner who had a passionate-GM-turned-good-television-analyst make very bad trades. Sports are meant to be played, watched and experienced with passion, but administered with cold, calculating thought. The Islanders learned that the hard way.
Cmon, NHL, give the Islanders a break. Give them a reason to believe, some faith, some hope. Everybody will win. Even Oleg Kvasha.
The Stanley Cup is visiting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan this week.
A group of NHL hockey heroes arrived Wednesday in Afghanistan to give Canadian soldiers a battle of a different sort.
Skating stalwarts like Mark Napier, Chris Nilan and Bob Probert touched down in Kandahar - some of them for the second time in less than a year - in hopes of boosting military morale.
Also on the ground at Kandahar Airfield were country-rock crooners Blue Rodeo, Montreal rocker Jonas Tomalty and Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defence staff.
But the true guest of honour, making its second appearance in Afghanistan, was hockey’s Holy Grail - the Stanley Cup.
“For Canadians, I mean, this symbolizes something that every young boy or girl grows up dreaming about - playing for the Stanley Cup,” said Defence Minister Peter MacKay, whose departure after a top-secret three-day visit to Afghanistan coincided with the team’s arrival.
“The soldiers on the base - there’s probably a few of them who didn’t sleep last night in anticipation of getting to play against some of their heroes, getting to see the Stanley Cup - it’s just a huge morale boost.”
Real quick update for you, I moved yesterday and are hooked up to the Internet via cell phone. Nice article on NHL.com about the Isles’ Core of the Fore festivities this weekend.
Also Bossy, Nystrom, Morrow and Trotts were at the NHL store (yesterday?) - I had no idea. Way to publicize that one Isles. Screw moving, I would have been at the NHL store yesterday had I known.
Isles win in a shootout last night…woot! Missed it, and the highlights aren’t up yet. I get my satellite hooked up tonight.
Call up your cable operator and tell them “I Want My DP TV!!”. The Isles’ netminder was a big part of the All-Star Game festivities this past weekend. Sorry for the delay in getting all these up…I was out of town again this weekend and didn’t get to watch the festivities until last night.
First off with Marty Brouder taking the weekend off, DP was named the starting goalie for the Eastern All-Stars.
During Saturday’s skills competition, DP started off the evening with a pair of goals (2 goals/4 shots) during the revised Obstacle Course event.
Next, DP robs Marion Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild during the Shootout event with a sweet toe save.
The Versus Network had DP mic’ed up all weekend, which led to this humorous exchange before Ilya Kovalchuk’s attempt in the Breakaway Challenge event.
Kovalchuk should light the puck on fire or light himself on fire, and then do a back flip on the ice.
With comments like that, Ricky might just have a career in hockey broadcasting in his future after he’s done with the Isles. However, Versus’ plan later backfired when they left DP’s mic on. DP stops Gaborik again during the Breakaway Challenge but tweaks his hip. As he skates over to the Bruins’ Tim Thomas to ask him to take his place, DP drops the F-Bomb on live TV. Good thing it was only Versus and only like 10 people were watching.
This also led to gasps of horror across Long Island at the thought of DP missing any games because of an injury during the All-Star Game. Isles’ PR head honcho, Chris Botta was swamped with calls, emails, and people at the All-Star game asking about DP’s status for Sunday’s game. DP assured everyone he was OK and ready to go.
With DP still mic’ed up for the All-Star Game, things did not start well. DP is chatting with the Versus play by play announcers as they drop the puck to start the game. Then there’s a lousy clearing pass by Montreal’s Andre Markov that ends up on the stick of the Western Conference’s Rick Nash who breaks in alone on DP and scores just 12 seconds into the game, an All-Star Game record. Ooops.
The good news is that was the only puck to get by DP on Sunday. Ricky made 12 saves in the period and his All-Star teammates scored 5 unanswered goals for a 5-1 lead after the first period of play. The East went on to win 8-7 on a Marc Savard goal with just 21 seconds left. Just a fantastic job by DP all weekend.
Finally, two more videos for you from Islanders TV, first here’s Ricky saying goodbye to Atlanta and headed back home. And finally, I’m not sure if this was part of the All-Star Weekend or not, but it was pretty interesting - McFarlane toys is going to add DiPietro to their NHL Action Figure line, here’s video of DP having his face scanned in for the modelers.
Be sure to check the Islanders Army recommended links to the right, I’ve added a lot of the Islanders Blogosphere’s coverage of the festivities. Especially Botta’s NYI Point Blank blog, where he has short Q&A interviews with some big hockey names like Stan Fischler, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News, Ray “Chicken Parm” Ferraro, and Greg Logan of Newsday.
Psst…whatcha doin’ next Sunday? Are you in Atlanta? Can you skate? Can you play goal?
What’s an All-Star Game without any All-Stars? We might just find out this weekend. Crosby’s out with an injury, starting Western goalie Roberto Luongo already decided to skip the game, and now starting Eastern goalie Martin Brodeur has decided to do the same…using the same lame “family” excuse that Luongo did.
Eastern Conference starting goalie Martin Brodeur on Tuesday pulled out of Sunday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, citing personal reasons.
Boston’s Tim Thomas was named to replace Brodeur, who played in Tuesday night’s game against the Flyers at the Wachovia Center.
The other Eastern Conference goalies are the Islanders’ Rick DiPietro and Florida’s Tomas Vokoun.
“It’s a tough decision,” Brodeur said. “I’ve got some stuff going on with the family back home, so it’s something I just wanted to make sure I was here to take care of. It’s definitely a tough one. It’s such a great weekend to miss. That’s why I waited so long. I tried to avoid making that decision, but I think it’s for the best.”
Way to be fan-friendly Marty and give the fans what they want. Is your wife pregnant too, like Luongo’s?
