Hawk Rising From The Ashes: Reviving The Chicago Blackhawks Brand

About 4-years ago, I was having dinner with a friend of substantial means and connections. In addition, he has deep ties into the NHL and been around the league for the past decade. The topic of our discussion was revolving around his possible joint bid to buy the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, which at the time were for sale. I had been living in Chicago for a few years, at that point. Coming from another original six city, Boston, I understood the unique passion those fans could have for their teams. (We’ll cover the Bruins some other time.)

Our conversation shifted from talking about the Ducks to the Blackhawks. I proposed to him that the Blackhawks would be the biggest lay-up to create additional value once the team was wrested from Bill Wirtz. If he would sell it, the upside would be incredible, depending on how low he could buy the franchise. My rationale was that the brand was tarnished and becoming less relevant in a City with a deep heritage of sports. The value of the team was latent and buried in the mud because of the way the customers (fans) were treated for the past decades. It was amazing to witness the neglect and lack of empathy that Bill Wirtz was bestowing on the people that truly ‘owned the brand’, the fans. The stories I heard from native Chicagoans about the Hawks always started with ‘back in the day’ or involved the old Chicago Stadium. For such a successful businessman, I was shocked that Mr. Wirtz didn’t understand the value he was sitting on with this brand.

Then, Mr. Wirtz passed on and his son Rocky took over the team. When that happened it was incredible to see the disdain that the Chicago fan base had for Mr. Wirtz, hearing comments like “Good, now hockey can come back to Chicago.” I mean, this man just passed on and left behind a family – I never wish that on anyone. I had imagined that his son was torn that he had just lost his Father, but now he could implement all of the changes he had been thinking about as he was in the background while his Dad was alive.

Rokcy made a couple of quick moves that I’ve always thought were in the works for years, just waiting for the right time – he hired John McDonough from the Chicago Cubs marketing fame and named him team President. He understood that the Blackhawks had a brand-issue and having someone at the helm that understood how to re-build a brand was critical. From there, they started to implement their strategy at breakneck speed.

Here is how I deduce the strategy the Blackhawks put forth and have been implementing for the past 24-months:

Fan-Driven Product Design: Watch any Blackhawks game and you will most likely see Rocky Wirtz walking around the United Center engaging with fans, signing autographs and taking the time to talk to his most important constituent, the fans. He truly puts the fans at the top of the organizational chart. He does what the best brands in the world do on a daily basis, listen. He knew he needed to field a competitive team that gave fans ‘hope’ for the near and long term. And, the #1 complaint I am sure he heard was put the Hawks on TV. Even people can’t make more than a few games a year whether for monetary or time-starved reasons. Let us watch our beloved team on our time. That was a no-brainer.

Develop a Long-Term Strategy For Brand Growth

Very few teams can survive if they don’t field a competitive team, however their sister-team to the north, The Cubs, have survived just fine thank-you-very-much. But, for the most part winning cures all that ails. Instead of going out and getting high-priced veterans on the downswing of their careers, they acquired and farmed young, charismatic players like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Cristobal Huet anchored by winner-veterans like Nikolai Habibulin and Duncan Keith. They also made a quick decision about their coach and brought in a more experienced Quenville, but did not push away the Hawk legend that was the coach, Savard – they asked him to be a part of the team as an ambassador.

Give The Brand It’s Voice

For me, the voice that I associate with my favorite team, The Boston Red Sox, is Jerry Remy. Forever, I will think that the Rem Dawg is the voice of the Red Sox. The voice of any team is the auditory, almost Pavlovian trigger that fans expect when they hear or watch their team. The Chicago Blackhawks had lost their voice years ago when Pat Foley left Chicago. Mr. Wirtz knew that bringing him back would be a signal to Chicago fans that the ‘good ol’ days’ were on their way back. The fans went crazy when Pat came back. Still to this day, people swoon over this guy. Brilliant move to give the brand its voice back.  And, Rocky mended fences with former Blackhawks greats Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito in essence naming them  brand ambassadors.

Brand Awareness & Brand Understanding

Often, I hear people refer to the resurgence of the Blackhawks due to the their new ‘marketing campaign.’ Well, I think that is partially true, but only part of the story. The Blackhawks issued an RFP for a new agency almost immediately after Mr. McDonough took the reins to bring clarity to the Blackhawks brand position, promise and story. After the review, their new agency was selected, Ogilvy & Mather (bit of a surprise they went with a big shop) and they went to work. There were a variety of paths they could have taken with regard to the brand, the most obvious would be pulling on the brand’s heritage – much like the Chicago Bears had done this past season. But, they landed in a place that aligned the fans’ hopes, dreams and desires with that of the players and team. The insight was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of “Every person that loves the Blackhawk jersey shares a series of hopes and dreams and it has been long enough, it is time to awaken that latent passion.” Their new, deceptively simple ad campaign of “One Goal” did just that – it allowed the fans, players and team to share their individual and collective goals on a variety of platforms – whether at the game, on TV, on the web, through Twitter or wherever. The TV spots are a simple execution of a microphone standing alone on the ice of the United Center, almost metaphorical in that it has been there all along. Then, the players skate to the mic and share their Goal. Most are humorous and have a twist, which starts to build the brand’s personality of humility and not taking themselves too seriously, something I believe is highly-intentional based on the years of navel-gazing from the team.

 

Create Fans For Life 

Something I never understood from the perspective of customer-development and lifetime value, was the decision to not air the games on local TV. Certainly the theory is not hard to grasp, that if people can watch it on TV, they won’t fill the seats. Boy, that is a short-sighted perspective. The lifeblood of any team is the youth in the market. The kids that wear your jerseys to school, beg their parents to take them to a game and buy them all of the licensed merchandise for their bedrooms. The simple question was that how can a kid get passionate about the brand if he doesn’t know what to get passionate about? Putting the games on TV is like one long commercial for the team. It takes time to get to know each player and their playing styles, personalities and skills. Kids want to have favorite players. And since they don’t watch the evening news, the kids on the fringe of being a hockey fan, didn’t get that chance. The bigger issue is that they will grow up. They will have disposable income and they will not have a passion for the Blackhawks. Creating fans for life is a critical long-term strategy that MUST be in place for a brand to survive. Just sit in any CPG strategy meeting and you will inevitably hear about spinning the brand messaging to attract a younger demographic to ensure the brand stays relevant. Incredible that the team did not understand this. Now, you see kids everywhere wearing Hawks hats and jerseys. The team even did a TV execution where Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews surprised some young hockey players at their practice and played with them. The little things, people, it’s the little things.

 

Create Powerful Customer Experiences

Fielding a great team and having them win isn’t enough. People want and will pay a premium for excellent experiences, even in the recession. Mr. Wirtz understands that people want to ‘experience’ the brand, not just go to a game. So, he and Mr. McDonough devised some big and small experiences that brought the brand to life. The biggest so far being the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field against the arch-enemy, Detroit Red Wings. This became a must-have ticket, not only in Chicago, but for NHL fans around the US. I’d say that the energy level, passion and brand love in that building was like nothing I had ever experienced, before. It was absolutely incredible and ridiculously cold. Not only did people pay thousands for seat, but braved twenty-degree temps to watch a hockey game outside. Amazing. I would have given anything to be a player on that day. Some smaller elements of experience that has been added to the team are things like the “Ice Girls” Certainly, I am a male and appreciate the Ice Girls every time they come on the ice to clean the snow, I look forward to seeing them when I am at a game or on TV. It brings another entertainment element to the team, albeit mostly male-driven. Other parts of the experience include the Ketel One Club, The Budweiser Carvery & Pub, the better designed-team merchandise, deeper online experiences, including Twitter and more.

The results? Here are some figures to show the value he’s created in a short 18-months: Before Rocky took over the team, The Blackhawks had but 3,500 season-ticket holders. They had the second-lowest attendance in the league. One week into the 2007-08 season, the team was in danger of failing to make payroll and needed a $34 million loan from the Wirtz Corp. to help it stay afloat. The on-ice product wasn't much better, finishing fifth in the NHL's Central Division. Then, in early April 2009, the team set a single-season record for attendance. The average of 21,783 fans that poured through the turnstiles each night led the entire NHL. And Thursday night, the on-ice product confirmed its revival, as well, defeating the Calgary Flames 3-2 in overtime in the franchise's first Stanley Cup playoff game in seven seasons.