Not Weird. Wild. Season 2.

The Minnesota Wild

When you handle marketing as the agency of record for a pro hockey team, your success relies on your ability to do two things very well: 1) create a regular season advertising campaign that bonds fans to players and 2) design a motivating playoff theme capable of upping the ante in the postseason.

For the regular season, we continued year two of our player-centric, personality driven “Not Weird. Wild.” campaign. The Wild roster was filled with big personalities, new additions, and players we’d yet to feature. The biggest shift in year two was to create more live-action, scripted spots—and to shoot most of them before the season began so we could roll them out throughout the year.

Often the secret to great sports advertising in to stay out of the way, and let the fans see the team up close and personal. This has been the successful recipe behind the “Not Weird. Wild.” campaign, a recipe we continued year two.

If you have a power forward the guys call “Moose,” you plop him in a lake . . . 

If your fans wish every player on the team was as good as your young Russian superstar, you clone him . . .

If your head coach “Mean Dean” has a habit of punching his assistants after big wins, you get them some protection . . .

If you have a future Hall of Fame goalie “The Flower” in net, you turn his locker into Little Shop of Horrors . . .

If the team starts to do all their postgame interviews “tarps off,” you make it a thing . . .  

If the locker-room turns into a dance party postgame, you hang a disco ball . . .

When you’re looking to get the fanbase to double-down for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the best postseason themes often will come directly from the team and “the room.” The 2022-23 edition of the Minnesota Wild was a physical, blue-collar group that decided to commit to grit embracing a playoff style of hockey for most of the regular season. For the 2023 playoff theme we circled a phrase that head coach Dean Evanson had been preaching all season long, “GRIT FIRST.” Said simply, if the Wild were going to win in the playoffs, their approach had to be “GRIT FIRST.”

To best resemble the team, the “Grit First” playoff theme required some sandpaper. We used stencils, and distressed design with paint dripping and rugged materials like corrugated metal throughout the execution. 

In summary, year two of the “Not Weird. Wild.” campaign continued to push the Minnesota Wild brand to connect with a younger audience and have more fun while pushing the players themselves onto the stage in starring roles. The creative was built in true partnership with the Wild’s production crew, reducing costs while delivering a best-in-class product.

Additional Work.

Radio.

Annual Holiday Letter.

Additional spots.