The NHL is skating on thin ice by cozying up to BookTok

FastCompany: The National Hockey League is rolling out a “Hot for Hockey” campaign intended to build upon the success and popularity of the hockey romance genre. League executives told ESPN they were going to court BookTok creators and market their players in a way that will “demystify what’s happening behind the helmet,” said Sean Eggert, the NHL’s new senior executive VP and chief marketing officer.

The NHL is releasing a series of short-form audio books on Spotify with names like “The Storm Between Us” and “The Summer I Turned Gritty” (we’ll hand it to them, the latter title referencing the Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot is hilarious) that spotlight real players, per Sports Business Journal. They’ll be written by contracted hockey romance authors, beginning with C.R. Jane, author of the Pucking Wrong series . “Hot for Hockey brings together the NHL’s biggest stars and fiercest matchups, told in a way you’ve never heard before,” the description reads. “Some will rise. Some will fall.

All will leave us wanting more.” While these bites won’t be smutty or involve romance between players, they play off the tropes and tone of the genre. [Cover Images: NHL] At first glance, “Hot for Hockey” might seem like a good idea. Ice hockey has long dominated the sports romance book category , even if some of its most popular offerings attempt to rewrite less savory elements of the sport’s culture. This past year has seen television adaptations of books like Heated Rivalry and Off Campus inspire obsessive fan bases that have driven ticket sales at the so-called boy aquarium, also known as actual NHL games.

A slew of hockey romance-related shows and movies are in the production pipeline. The NHL did not respond to specific questions from Fast Company about the campaign, but did provide a statement over email: “This was a small way to give a playful nod to something that’s clearly going on in the cultural zeitgeist – among many different marketing activations.

We were very proud to partner with real hockey authors, illustrators and voice actors in the space and we’re grateful the players were willing to have a little fun with it too and approve their creative.” To me, this feels like the beginning of a movie where a group of kids stumble upon an old book of magic and start reciting spells, completely ignorant about the dark power they just unleashed. Except the NHL is a professional sports league that should know better, because they’ve tried this before and it has ended in disaster.

Back in late 2022, the Seattle Kraken began making content referencing BookTok, the TikTok community that discusses books, especially romance. Already BookTok was filled with videos casting real hockey players as their favorite “book boyfriends,” or male protagonists, often over images of said players stretching on the ice before a game. (As Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams exhibited on The Tonight Show , these stretches look like . . . another kind of physical activity.) Among BookTok’s favorite players? Alex Wennberg, then a center for the Kraken, who genuinely looks like a Disney prince.

Article truncated for readability. Read the full piece →

The NHL's campaign represents a significant attempt to broaden its audience and engage with new demographics, which is impactful for brand strategies in sports, though leveraging social media trends is becoming more common.