Hartford Wolf Pack Communications Plan

Developing a one-year communications plan for the New York Rangers’ AHL Affiliate.

Skills
Strategic Planning, Research, Graphic Design

Team
Autumn Hirsch - President | Maya Labad - Research Director
Owen Kamuda - CFO | Michael Horblit - Content Creator
Marcelle McAdoo - Interactive Communications Director

Timeline
1/2023 - 5/2023

Project Summary

The Hartford Wolf Pack, the New York Rangers’ AHL Affiliate was looking to market to college students and bring them to the arena for the upcoming season. My team developed a one-year plan for the Wolf Pack to encourage college students to engage with the Wolf Pack.

Goals

Goal #1: Increase awareness of the Wolf Pack in Connecticut and around the country

Objective: Increase social following by 15% on each platform

Goal #2: Boost interaction between the Wolf Pack and its intended public (college students)

Objective: Have at least 7 schools represented in ticket sales per season

Goal #3: Increase college student attendance at Wolf Pack games

Objective: Introduce a student section in the arena

The Process

In February of 2023, our team met with an executive from the Wolf Pack to discuss his thoughts on where the team stood at the time and what he would like to see in the future. Combining our preliminary research with his goals for the team, we began to work on our year-long PR plan.

First, to understand the student perspective, we distributed a survey to college students across the northeast. The goal of this exercise was to understand our intended public (college students), their prior knowledge of the Wolf Pack, their motives to attend live sporting events, and what would convince them to attend potential College Nights at the XL Center.

From our survey, we found that:

  • Students enjoy interactive content on social media

  • College nights would be a well-attended event if transportation was guaranteed

  • Other incentives would encourage students to attend Wolf Pack games, like giveaways, theme nights, opportunities for students to attend as media, etc.

Then, as a group, we developed:

  • A needs analysis to understand our intended audience, what they’re looking for from a brand, and what values these interactions provide them with

  • The campaign timeline to give our client a clear picture of our recommendations over the year-long campaign

  • An event outline, proposing a College Night at the XL Center and detailing how we would recommend planning & executing the event

  • Success metrics to be able to monitor our campaign going forward

As the Art Director, I was in charge of ideating & designing the Wolf Pack’s proposed communication tactics. I proposed a button to buy tickets on the homepage, designed a college night poster, and re-designed the Wolf Pack’s Media Guide.

Single-game tickets button

Previously, fans had to dig around the website in order to find the link to buy tickets. By adding a button to the homepage, you keep consumers engaged in what they originally visited the website for and will automatically translate to ticket sales.

Media Guide Redesign

Putting effort into a media guide means strengthening the team's relationship with the local media. That was something the Wolf Pack executive really wanted to do during our meeting, and taking this simple step will begin that process.

College Night poster

It's all in the details. This poster is for the Quinnipiac University college night, so the #GoBobcats along with #BackthePack creates a connection between the students and the team. Additionally, having star players on the poster creates excitement and allows for an interaction between the players and fans after the game.

Click the image below to read the final plan of work!