The NHL Launched A Bizarre ‘Sizzling For Hockey’ Romance Audiobook Marketing campaign. This is What They Bought So, So Incorrect

The NHL tried to cash in on Heated Rivalry and Off Campus with romance audiobooks about real players. Fans saw right through it.

Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. Photo:

Hockey has never had a bigger public renaissance than the one it’s had over the last twelve months. Between Heated Rivalry and Off Campus launching on television within months of each other, the internet has never had such a public and vocal love of romances that take place at the boy aquarium.

For some reason that eludes every single instinct I have ever had as a marketer, the NHL thought it would be a good idea to release a set of “Hot for Hockey” romance audiobooks featuring real hockey league players.

I will tell you the data is overwhelming

“I will tell you the data is overwhelming in terms of new fans that we acquired last year who were first introduced to hockey either through Off Campus or Heated Rivalry … so since it seems to be a cultural phenomenon, we figured why not get on board,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman when asked about the campaign last week.

According to reporting from Sports Business Journal, episodes were meant to be released “on audiobook platforms throughout the season that present real-life NHL storylines in the style of romance novels. The league has contracted popular hockey romance authors to write and narrate the 60-to-90-second pieces, which will direct listeners to tune in to upcoming games to see how the stories play out on the ice.”

The daily digest for entrepreneurs and business leaders

The league appears to have changed its tune, having ended that campaign just a week later after online criticism, while claiming it was meant to be a week-long initiative. But episodes have disappeared from Spotify altogether.

The campaign was a poorly thought-out idea

The campaign was a poorly thought-out idea from the start. Hockey has very little to do with why the majority of the series’ fans love the books.

Real-person fiction is controversial

Although real-person fan fiction (RPF), in which writers write about romances between two real famous people or a famous person and a fan, is having a moment, it’s controversial, even among fandoms. The often sexual scenarios are written without those people’s consent.

Source: www.inc.com