The NHL is having some success marketing its events outside of the usual everyday games. From its New Year’s Day outdoor Winter Classics, which now feel like they’ve been around forever, to the televised “draft” of superstars at last year’s All-Star Game, the league is finding successful ways to draw in fans and marketers alike.

Now comes an attempt at another new tradition: the Thanksgiving Friday Game. (That’s the 2011 Discover NHL Thanksgiving Showdown to you, buster.) Discover will be sponsoring the game this year between the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins at 1 p.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

So those of you who don’t feel like heading into the craziness of Black Friday (or those recuperating from morning forays into the madness), now you can make a date with your TV screen since NBC will be showing the game.Continue reading...

In the best pro sports branding tie-in of the year, Stanley Cup-winning NHL goalie Tim Thomas showed up at Gillette's World Shaving Headquarters in Boston to say goodbye to his "playoff beard" in a charity event.

Thomas can be seen foamed up with the Gilette safety razor scraping his face in a video from Boston's ABC news affiliate, which is not embeddable because, apparently, WCBVtv news producers hate the web... and Gillette.

The 110-year-old Gillette brand is still headquartered in Boston even though it was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2005. Gillette's name, of course, permeates Boston-area sports. The brand has naming rights for the Gillette Stadium just outside Boston, home of the New England Patriots football and Revolution soccer teams.

Gillette wasn't the only brand getting a tie-in boost from Lord Stanley and his hallowed cup o' hockey.Continue reading...