NHL's Digital Board Advertising Explained: League Unveils Latest Advertising Technology

The NHL’s latest form of arena signage has been installed for this season. Digital ads are projected along the board for fans watching the game live.

Seven years in the making, this ad is the NHL’s newest source of revenue, joining jersey and helmet ads.

Fans watching games on TV or streaming have been bombarded with these digital ads during the first few nights of the 2022-23 season.

of @NHL We are replacing traditional billboards on link boards with virtual advertising using digitally enhanced dashboards.

(via @wyshynski) pic.twitter.com/7lqfiatiq8

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) October 3, 2022

However, the technology has some initial drawbacks.

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Here’s what you need to know about the new NHL Digital Dashboard Ads.

When did the NHL put digital ads on the board?

The 2022-23 NHL season will be the first season to feature digital advertising on game broadcasts. The ad took him seven years to produce and the development process cost the league tens of millions of dollars.

Advertising on boards has been around since 1981. The Minnesota North Stars were the first team to do so.

How are your digital ads performing?

There were some early bumps on the road. Digital advertising appeared to malfunction during Wednesday’s Sportsnet broadcast of the Oilers-Canucks game, prompting many fans to vent their frustration online.

These new NHL digital ads are wild pic.twitter.com/uN6InE68Zr

— Brady Trettnero (@BradyTrett) October 13, 2022

The league anticipated some missteps early in the season with the idea that fans would eventually adjust to advertising.

Keith Wachtel, NHL Chief Business Officer and Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships, said before the season: “But over time, like everything else, people will get used to it. We’re not worried at all.”

How does digital advertising work?

The NHL has partnered with virtual advertising company Supponor to develop “remote artificial intelligence-based keying technology to automatically program dashboards.” All dashboards are programmed through a central hub.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported on the league’s process for determining which ads are shown and where they are placed.

There are five different “zones” sold to sponsors: both nets and all three zones. Ads are sold like commercials and brands buy in 30 second increments based on the game clock. Each game, teams must program 120 increments. Each broadcaster and the NHL itself gets his 90 seconds of institutional time for their own advertising. Boards may resemble those traditionally found in arenas. Also, one advertiser may take over the board for a particular zone or an entire link.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said before the season that the league was working on ways to maximize revenue from advertising.

“We’re going to see more revenue as a club. We’ll figure out the best way to revitalize it and monetize it,” Bettmann said. and the home team. And you have to be very closely watching how best to utilize it.

“It also gives us the opportunity to generate revenue opportunities using our international feeds, as it allows us to serve domestic advertising.”