INCREDIBLE MOMENTS...
Creating a first-time Playoff experience for our fans.
2017-2018 AHL Playoffs round 1. Get Hyped. The coolest thing for a player is hearing the fans chant for you before you even take the ice. As a way to rally our fans, and hype up our players for the start of Playoffs, after the Player Intro video and before the players taking the ice we went to full black. Giving our fans a few minutes to hear themselves. The noise level slowly increased to the point that you didn't even notice nothing was being fed to them. It was a moment often experienced at the end of a concert, before an encore. A rumble.
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But I wanted to take this one step further. I wanted to get the fans engaged in a singular action. The arena was pitch black until 3 spot lights circulated their way to the center of the ice to join in unison. Our mascot, meLVin, was standing there with a small, singular drum. The audience quieted as meLVin lowered his hands. Preparing the audience for his next action. Boom...Boom...Boom...let's go phantoms is slightly heard...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...let's go phantoms even louder than before...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...LET'S GO PHANTOMS. 9,000 fans in unison. The players begin their walk down the tunnel to the ice. And at that moment meLVin speeds up and the crowd goes wild. What a moment...
Playoffs - what does it mean to you?
I like to emotionally connect to a season. You'll see that in a few other videos I've made during my hockey career. We made the Playoffs in 2017-2018 for the first time and it was by the skin of our teeth. We were fighting for every points and every extra game. It reminding me of the Dylan Thomas poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. What a powerful poem. Every sentence is more visual and powerful. Playing off the whole darkness, we started the intro video with black on the mainboard and simple text with the reading of specifically selected lines of the poem. Alex Schempp, the video editor, did an excellent job of capturing this vision and creating a stellar video to follow. If you weren't pumped up for the game you probably weren't paying attention.
Mascot fun.
Every season I'm asked how do we create excitement for the season? We don't have a typical sports community and therefore our branding normally targets families. How better to connect to a variety of fans than with your mascot.
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Leading up to opening night our mascot, meLVin, went missing. We started bringing it up slowly. His social media dark and no appearances had been booked. We started putting up posters and the local news station, who is also a founding partner, started doing live hits in front of these posters. Focusing mainly on social media we pushed - meLVin's missing will he make it for opening night?
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Pregame on opening night we produced a short recap of the previous 2 weeks followed by meLVin taking the ice via a ramp and four wheeler. It was no surprise he was going to make it to opening night. The exciting part was how and would it live up to the hype.
Are you ready?
Another series I created leading up to opening night, and years before the New Jersey Devils did the same thing, I created an Are You Ready campaign. The campaign would consist of five 30 second commercials that featured our some of the famous faces of our arena. We had Joe (the PA guy), Bow-tie-Ben (in-game host), Crazy Beard Guy (an energy team member), Phan Force (energy team), and meLVin (mascot). Each character(s) was featured doing what they would typically do on a game night only it was. In fact, the whole arena was empty and the ice wasn't even in.
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It was a fun way to tell our fans and community that hockey was around the corner.
Unique Promotions.
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SNHL THEME
TRUFFLE SHUFFLE CAM
HOLIDAY LYRIC EXCHANGE
FORTNITE CAM
MINI HOCKEY SHOWDOWN
SAUCER STACK
SNAPBACK
FIGHT CLUB
GIRL STUFF
TOY STORY BINGO
Hockey is just like church.
Take me to church! Take me to the game! For some the dedication is equal. In good times and bad. For better or worse. And some seasons are for the worse. We came off a hot season and just tanked. It was so painful. The whole season. And I think everyone felt it. We had the same players and we were less successful. We has injury after injury. I wanted to make something that showed that fan dedication and that player dedication. And this was what came out of that emotion.
Joan Jett Intro
I created this video my very first season in professional hockey. I've learned so much since then, but I still take some pride in these videos created from emotion.
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When I joined the Florida Panthers it was a rollercoaster season. There was so much potential on the ice but no one in the media would acknowledge it. Even when we were leading the division they were still posting un-supporting content and saying things like it was a fluke. I was listening to this song one night and thinking about all the negative headlines and the rest is history. I got into a zone and just kept editing until I came out of the cave with this video.