With the NHL having Washington Capitals legendary scorer Alexander Ovechkin in China as the NHL ambassador, lets touch up on multiple ideas, and points from a New Jersey perspective as a fan. How could the New Jersey Devils take advantage of the Chinese markets?
Young Stud Centers: Having a timeline of Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier for the next 10 to 20 plus seasons is a great place to start. Having an excellent two-way center in Nico Hischier would be ideal for new fans to garner interest in a developing market in China. With a guy that can pickpocket opponents and create scoring drives similar to Pavel Datsyuk, this would help gain new fans and a very elite playing style for Chinese skaters to adopt.
Jack Hughes is another stud center that the Chinese crowd would salivate over. He has speed, agility, and graceful skating. He’s also very intelligent in even facet of the game. His ability to nearly score at will will make those bang bang plays for youth hockey players in China will want to learn, and become similar to Jack in his play style.
Managing Content: With the recent hiring of Chris Wescott managing the New Jersey Devils content, this is where things get really interesting. Although China has bans on companies like Facebook and other companies like it, the platform of WeChat is a gigantic platform to start with for the Devils content team.
However, the next hurdle Wescott needs to do is get Devils ownership to invest in someone who knows how to speak and write all of Mandarin, Cantonese, and English to do more effective marketing. Especially with players like Nikita Gusev bringing a very special dynamic to New Jersey’s very lethal core of offensive forwards.
TV and Streaming: With China having its own TV channel to broadcast live and recorded games it is clear that owners Joshua Harris and David Blitzer want to up their investments in getting 82 game live feed on the airwaves of a whole new market. The sponsors like Alibaba (Amazon of China) and Baidu (China’s Google) as ad revenue via television and streaming services can bring in extra cash to the Devils that will likely be classified as hockey related revenue. Having players like Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and P.K. Subban getting into commercials to grow their brand internationally seems like the best option.
Last season, the Devils hosted the Los Angeles Kings in the Lunar New Year game live on Chinese television. That game didn’t get the publicity they may have hoped for, but with a bunch of talented players garner more interest, and having people excited to rock a Devils shirt or even a jersey.
Podcasting: Back to what Chris Wescott is able to do is have great success in New Jersey with the New Jersey Devils Podcast. However, in China the Devils could get a personality to do something similar and more specifically marketed in Mandarin or Cantonese. There will be more listeners that can gravitate day in and out. This will help new fans of the Devils also become consumers of the NHL style of play and more specifically the Shero-Hynes style.
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Expanding The Devils Culture: GM Ray Shero and his staff have done an outstanding job building the whole organization from scratch. Shero has been able to get a lot of new, young talent to come on board and buy into being part of the “brotherhood not a neighborhood” mentality.
When in person at a Devils game, and on Devils social media platforms, fans feel very welcomed by fellow fans and the players. If The Devils can get more fans from China and surrounding regions to come to The Prudential Center for the first time the in-game experience should always be top priority as Ray Shero did getting top end talent. Another great thing is the pre-game culture from ball hockey to music festivals to even the non-arena restaurants like Mercato Tomato Pie will gain a lot more business.
Getting new Devils fans from China and abroad to interact with Devils fans at the new Mulberry Commons for game events is integral. Building a network of existing and new fans is important for the near and long term of a franchise. Especially the way Devils fans will learn to build chemistry before, during and after games is critical. The way you market the team is to be treated like a family.