LIGHTNING HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY
Branding / Design / PR / Social Media / Community Relations / Events
Changing the game - on and off the ice.
The Lightning’s High School Hockey League was struggling with a problem of poor sportsmanship and negativity. PRESS was tasked with creating an engaging and relevant campaign to stem the negativity and encourage good sportsmanship among the athletes, coaches, officials and fans of the league. The National Hockey League chose Tampa as a test market for this campaign with the goal of rolling it out nationally as a turnkey campaign model to promote positivity and elevated play in the rest of their leagues.
The campaign was developed in collaboration with a number of national and local organizations such as the NHL, Positive Coaching Alliance, University of South Florida’s Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management Program and RISE.
Problem
Hockey is a tough sport with lots of aggression and passion. But that can evolve into something more negative, creating a toxic environment, on the ice as well as in the stands. This cycle perpetuates itself and becomes more about tearing others down than building each other up. To curb this, we needed to instill personal accountability in players, coaches, and fans and encourage them to drive out the negativity. We want them to think before they act on those feeling and allow positive attitudes & actions to prevail. In other words, “Check yourself”.
Strategy
To make the idea resonate with the players and be relevant with parents, coaches and officials, PRESS created the campaign idea of “Check Yourself”, incorporating hockey terminology with a slang saying that means “think before you act”. The Check Yourself campaign was created in answer to the NHL’s Declaration of Principles, launched by the organization in September 2017. The Declaration of Principles were meant to serve as an internal compass to help guide decisions and shift behaviors of all those that love the game of hockey.
The Results
The University of South Florida’s Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management program developed an extensive study including observations, surveys, athletic trainer interviews, penalty data and a social media audit.
