NHL's Frozen Frenzy fails the marketing test — again

On Tuesday, the NHL held what it calls its Frozen Frenzy, an annual event — now in its third year — where all 32 teams play on the same night.

The NHL is arguably the fourth-most popular sport in the U.S., but when you have an event you want to market to draw eyes — why not market it correctly?

The Frozen Frenzy took place on a random Tuesday night, with the first game starting at 6 p.m. ET and the last game starting at 11 p.m. ET. It wasn’t up against the NFL, but there were NBA games going on and, even more importantly, the World Series — featuring MLB's lone Canadian team no less — was on.

The NHL gets a pass there because it couldn’t have possibly known the World Series teams in advance, but it certainly knew the dates. In a sport that is begging for more eyes, you need to market it when more eyes are available and work to pull those eyes in.

How? Hold the Frozen Frenzy on a Saturday. Start the first game at noon for a full slate of games all day. You will also have the chance to get more kids and families at the games.

If you’re going to market it as a “frenzy,” then make it a real frenzy. Have pucks drop on the hour and have two games start at the same time to reach your 16 games, with the last start time at 8 p.m. That way, every hour across the U.S. and Canada from noon on, two games start each hour.

Run a prediction contest online and give away merchandise or tickets to drum up more buzz. Do a focus group with fans about how to actually grow the sport. The NHL clearly isn’t doing that. Have fan ambassadors act as marketers and paid social media participants. The NHL clearly isn’t doing that, either.

If you’re going to play on a Tuesday night, make the schedule full of rivalry games. There were only two real rivalry games on the docket: Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings-San Jose Sharks.

The NHL has had its moments but hasn’t been able to build on them or create momentum. The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament was an excellent idea, but if the NHL wants more eyes on its games throughout the year, it needs to admit it has fallen short in the marketing department — again — with the Frozen Frenzy and work to correct it for Year 4. It is a great idea that is dying a slow death.