Reaching a New Generation of Hockey Fans

When Evening MBA student Alex Sotiropoulos signed up for a marketing lab supported by the Kilts Center for Marketing, he hoped the project-based course would help him pivot from communications to a new career in brand management for consumer packaged goods.

“I’d never previously worked in a brand marketing or innovation function, so I was craving hands-on experience before making the switch,” he says.

The course Lab in Developing New Products and Services gives students a chance to apply innovation design principles they learn in readings, class lectures, and exercises to the real-world marketing challenges of various client companies. Each company works with a dedicated team of six students.

After being selected to take the course with Kilts Center executive director and clinical professor of marketing Art Middlebrooks, Sotiropoulos and his classmates formed a team that consulted with the Chicago Blackhawks. The National Hockey League team sought strategies to diversify its audience through increased engagement with Gen Z and millennial fans.

“They’re not typically as strong of sports fans as Gen X and baby boomers, but it’s not the full story,” says Matt Murphy, Blackhawks manager of strategy. “It turns out younger people just consume sports in different ways. They are really fundamentally a different consumer for us to reach.”

The Solutions Phase: Targeting Young Fans

Students presented the key challenges to Blackhawks executives, including CEO Danny Wirtz, and then embarked on the solutions phase. They brainstormed nearly 50 potential ideas, narrowed them down to 10, then picked three for a final presentation to the Blackhawks.

Their first idea was to add ticket packages that give fans more flexibility, such as attending a game only once every four to six weeks. “It keeps them engaged but it fits with their schedule,” the Blackhawks’ Murphy says.

Another idea would give fans something social to do before the game starts. Students recommended happy hours with local vendors and breweries—a good fit because younger adults are enthusiastic about supporting local and small businesses.

“That was an excellent one, especially coming out of COVID with so many companies that have been hurt,” Murphy says.

Their final solution was to convert unused corners of the arena into more flexible recreational space for fans to mingle. Most arenas were built to get people in and out, Murphy says, so young fans typically do pregame socializing at a nearby restaurant or pub. Sports teams could be missing a prime opportunity to build community.

“They’d take whatever feedback we had and really own the work themselves,” Murphy says. “They did a great job understanding not only our business but, particularly, where this stuff fits inside our business on the whole. They’d always bring fresh new material and ideas to the table, which was really inspiring to work with.”