Hockey is clearly the number one sport in Canada, and as such gets more sponsors and endorsements than CFL football.
One marketing concept practiced by the CBC and Sportsnet is called Kraft Hockeyville.
Selling The CFL #6: Where’s Footballville In Canada?
The sponsors are Kraft Foods, Sportsnet, the NHL, and the NHLPA. The concept is a contest in which communities across Canada compete against each other to “measure” love of hockey, community spirit, and pride in Canada. Naturally, determining a winner is a highly irrational and subjective choice. But the rewards are great.
The winning community gets:
- $100,000 dedicated to upgrading their local home arena
- A Hockey Night in Canada broadcast in their community
- An NHL pre-season game hosted in their community arena
The remaining communities in the Top 5 receive:
- $25,000 dedicated to upgrading their local home arena
- A Hockey Night in Canada broadcast in their community
The key marketing concept for the NHL in this promotion is that it gets Canadians involved with the league, something the CFL needs a lot more of.
The best the CFL has done is Wendy’s “Kick For A Million”, but that only involves very few people.
Besides promoting the NHL, Hockeyville also promotes the game of hockey itself by making a direct financial contribution to hockey facilities in Canada. In other words, it is fertilizing the grass roots of hockey.
Similarly, the CBC allots one Saturday a year as “Hockey Day in Canada” in which all the NHL Canadian teams play against one another.* Again this is meant as a celebration of hockey in Canada.
*The addition of Winnipeg meant that one American team had to be promoted as an honorary Canadian one. If Quebec gets its franchise back in the upcoming NHL expansion, the day will revert to a four game all-Canadian format.
The CFL has something like this on Labor Day when each team is supposedly playing their bitterest and closest geographical rival. Currently BC will be left out in the cold until the CFL finds that almost mythical tenth Canadian franchise.
But the Hockeyville concept is a good one that CFL should adopt if they can find sponsors. For football, a community prize would have to be included, something that would build football facilities and establish safe non-contact football programs.
It would get more Canadians involved in the league and hopefully find ways of developing football at the grass roots level in Canada. It is a way for the CFL to go out and sell its game to Canadians, instead of waiting for them to come to them.
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