NHL Stanley Cup promo campaign sparks viral response

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery then NHL marketing minds at ad agency Young and Rubicam scored a game-winner with their “History Will Be Made” promotional campaign for the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since launching the new ads on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada a month ago, the internet has been flooded with clips by fans trying to spoof the inspirational spots.

Focusing on historic achievements in Stanley Cup Playoffs history, the campaign begs the question; “if it wasn’t for these iconic moments, what would we remember?” The six promos are set to a rousing piano score and unfold in slow motion, each depicting a victorious moment played backward. They close with a question sprawled across the screen to further magnify what you just witnessed.

They are guaranteed to infuse a sense of excitement and empowerment. Check out my favorite promo featuring Bobby Orr taking flight after scoring “the goal” to win the Stanley Cup for Boston way back in 1970.

Another one features Patrick Roy making a spectacular save in his rookie season with the Montreal Canadiens but I can’t show it to you because I am a Bruins fan and it would violate the “No posting spectacular Habs moments” rule that I officially established this morning.

Now for the parodies; there are a lot of them so I dug around and have posted some of the more interesting ones that I could find. This first one features Miroslav Satan’s game-winning goal and series finisher against Buffalo from this past Monday.

Fellow Bruins fans will appreciate this next clip highlighting the bumbling Brian Boucher of the Philadelphia Flyers who we’ll face in the second round of playoff action beginning this Saturday.

Here’s a spoof involving my favorite player Milan Lucic taking center stage.

And here’s one for Marc Savard.

Fans are a critical part of the game too. Here’s a parody featuring the Vancouver Green Men.

The “History Will Be Made” campaign is currently running across all of the NHL’s national and local broadcast partners, NHL Network, NHL.com, in-arena, and through digital and social media networking websites. No doubt, new parodies will continue to have a viral appeal on the web throughout the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is absolutely great for the NHL and its fans.

Rask is up for the task

The Boston Bruins have finally arrived!

For most of the regular season, the team exemplified mediocrity through mistakes, injuries and a seeming overall lack of passion. Then all of a sudden things turned around and they found ways to win. The Bruins finished the season in spectacular fashion by earning nine points in the standings through their last five games, good enough to place sixth in the playoff lineup.

Now we are on the brink of eliminating the tough and gritty Buffalo Sabers with a 3-1 series advantage going into tonight’s game 5 matchup. It’s hard to image the Bruins have only held a lead in this entire series for a total of 20 minutes. They seem to thrive on desperation as their game consistently elevates in third period action. No doubt, this series is playing out as originally advertised with low scoring games, superb goaltending and tight defense. The difference maker here is the goaltending. The Sabers, backed behind Ryan Miller, was the favored team in this first round. Miller has had an outstanding year with 41 wins in the regular season and played on the US Olympic team where he gave everything he had to help win the Silver medal.

Add to that, he finished the regular season with the second best save percentage (.929) and goals

against average (2.22). But that means only one person finished ahead of him in these two categories and that person is Tuukka Rask with a .931 save percentage and Tuukka Rask again with a 1.97 goals against average. Albeit, Rask played considerably fewer games than Miller but he still posted a 22-12-5 record behind the lowest scoring team in the league…so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

The Bruins are winning games with rookie sensation Tuukka Rask between the pipes. When the pressure is on, Rask rises to the occasion while Miller cracks. Rask is keeping his team in games when Miller is giving up late-game goals. I therefore declare that the torch is being passed in this series. Rask is the best goalie in the league right now.

Tonight, the Bruins will defeat the Buffalo Sabers and go on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s hard to bring down a team when their goalie is hot and right now Rask is on fire.

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Photo Credits: Rick Fink