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How social media helped the Tampa Bay Lightning's marketing success

 
Eric Blankenship returned to his roots 11 months ago when he took on the role as vice president of marketing for the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Blankenship is a part of the marketing squad that has inspired viral social media campaigns for the Lightning brand, like #BeTheThunder and playful slogans for new T-shirt designs like "Bish Please" and "Stammer Time."  [JAMES BORCHUCK  |  Times]


Eric Blankenship returned to his roots 11 months ago when he took on the role as vice president of marketing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Blankenship is a part of the marketing squad that has inspired viral social media campaigns for the Lightning brand, like #BeTheThunder and playful slogans for new T-shirt designs like "Bish Please" and "Stammer Time." [JAMES BORCHUCK | Times]
Published May 29, 2015

Eric Blankenship's first job out of college was with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That was more than 15 years ago.

He spent a few years working in the marketing industry in Seattle, Portland and Philadelphia before coming back to Florida as the chief marketing officer for Ruth Eckerd Hall.

But the University of South Florida graduate and Tampa native returned to his roots 11 months ago when he took on the role as vice president of marketing for the Lightning.

And what an exciting 11 months it has been.

Blankenship is a part of the marketing squad that has inspired viral social media campaigns for the Lightning brand, like #BeTheThunder and playful slogans for new T-shirt designs like "Bish Please" and "Stammer Time."

As the 2015 NHL playoffs ramped up, Blankenship, 41, was tasked with coming up with new ways to inspire fans and strengthen the brand behind the Bolts' name in Tampa Bay.

Just like everyone else, his fingers are crossed that come Friday, the team will leave New York with a win.

#BishPlease: @BenBishop30 was the first goalie to reach 10 wins during the 2015 #StanleyCup Playoffs. pic.twitter.com/2hjEyxXCZn

Q: How has social media become an important role in marketing the Lightning?

A: The Tampa Bay Lightning have been active with social media for a number of years (their Twitter handle is @TBLightning). Sometimes there's a fine line to walk when we mix real content like game recaps and scores with marketing messaging, like promoting new merchandise in our retail stores. At the end of the day the goal is to use social media to provide information that the fans want, and give them extra information about the team that they may not know they want yet. For example, we usually post photos of new Bolts merchandise on social media first to give our fans an exclusive preview and taste for what's coming.

Q: How has social media changed the way you reach fans?

A: Social media is such a creative space that gives us a lot of freedom of how we want to deliver a message. We have an audience that is constantly tuned in to what we're doing and engaging with us on a daily basis. It's the first time we've gotten real-time feedback about what we're doing right away.

Q: Can you give me an example?

A: A fan tweeted at us during the playoffs and said "TBLightning has never won the cup in my eyes." Within 20-30 minutes, our social media manager replied with a tongue-in-cheek snipe that said "Sounds like you might need to get your eyes checked," and attached an image of a mock eye chart our graphics team made just for the tweet. The graphic mimicked a real eye sight chart but it said "2004 Stanley Cup Champions" with the Tampa Bay Lightning branding all over it.

@jr22tank Sounds like you might need to get your eyes checked pic.twitter.com/ixaFa3FgyI

Sports Illustrated wrote something about the exchange. So did a bunch of other online media outlets. We were timely and it was fun. There was nothing demeaning about it.

Q: What's been your strategy to amp up excitement about the NHL playoffs?

A: Lucky for us, the playoffs are so energizing in nature that we haven't had to do too much to keep the momentum going. A winning team obviously helps and a fabulous owner adds to that. We are, however, constantly finding new ways to capitalize on that excitement and spread it out in many directions.

We love seeing photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram of our fans' cars with their Lightning flags hanging from the windows. Or businesses sharing photos of Lightning banners in the office or at the front doors. The hashtag #BeTheThunder is actually a tagline we've been using for four seasons now, but it continues to grow. So many people are jumping on the Lightning bandwagon now, and I mean that in the best way possible, so they're excited to use it and join the conversation.

#STAMMERTIME http://t.co/5OX2PiN81P pic.twitter.com/Si1h2gosGb

Just as the regular season ended we released a line of new T-shirts. From an organizational standpoint, we put a lot of emphasis on retail merchandise and are always trying to expand our offerings. We wanted to come up with something new that spoke to a younger audience — basically the millennials. That's where the shirts like "Bish, Please," "Johnny B. Good," "How Swede it is," and "Stammer Time" came from.

They're blowing off the shelves. "Bish Please" (a reference to goalie Ben Bishop) is definitely the most popular. What's great is we're seeing fans of all ages buying them. Just this week we saw on Twitter that the Anaheim Ducks launched a similar T-shirt line. It's great to see our marketing work and inspire others.

Q: What kind of advice do you have a business looking to expand their social media marketing?

A: Be relevant and be timely. If you can do that on social media, you're already halfway there.