Client: Bauer Hockey

Introduction:
For decades, Bauer Hockey has been an international leader in hockey equipment, selling its product exclusively through vendors. In 2015, they made a bold commitment to open retails stores and sell directly to the public. That next year, “Own The Moment” hockey experience opened in Burlington, MA and Bloomington, MN. The stores featured trained personal fit experts and an indoor rink, creating a one-of-a-kind buying process and experience.

Summary:
Their core target market is elite teen hockey players (ages 12 to 17) and parents within a 200-mile radius of each store. They had budgets in place for the year, including the grand openings, holiday promotions, and new product launches. While their resources didn’t allow for any saturation, we were able to cast a wider net through digital, while using broadcast and outdoor to target their immediate communities.

Recommendations and Rationale:
Medialink presented a 49-page PowerPoint presentation brimming with research, statistics (including CPM figures), proposed schedules, and profiles of each media type. At the time, CBS Media in Chicago was testing a new digital initiative called geofencing, which targets designated audiences based on physical location. Up to this point, demographic, geographic, and qualitative targeting had only been based on a person’s online history. We targeted hockey and ice rinks within 100 miles of Minneapolis. Visitors to these rinks (coaches, players, parents, schools, etc.) were then served ads on their mobile devices—a perfect way to reach the exact target market.

Value Added:
We negotiated a very low CPM, as this brand-new technology was only six months old.

Review:
Geofencing delivered a total of 352,121 mobile impressions within a six-week period, which garnered 3,924 clicks to their website, an average click rate of 1.1%*. Each ad size had its own stats, the largest of which had a click rate of 1.68%! The rep commented that this campaign had one of the best results of all CBS properties in the country!

*National Digital campaign results averaged around a .05 to a .1 click-through rate. These results were unprecedented—more than ten times a typical digital schedule.