CBC Sports has blown it by losing the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song (especially following their loss of the Olympics following Beijing). As many, many Canadians have said over the past few days, the song is our 'unofficial' national anthem, and it's a forty-year-old component of a long-standing, successful national brand.While the Executive Director of Marketing, Scott Moore shrugged off the loss of the theme song as an opportunity to help 'refresh' the brand, CTV picked up the jingle for use by its TSN/RDS and during Vancouver's 2010 Olympics. As opposed to keeping its venerable brand intact, CBC plans to launch a national contest to generate citizen submissions for a new theme. This instead of paying the $2-3 million price tag to own the song outright after building its equity over the past four decades. Sounds like small-thinking, tactical marketing is driving business strategy, versus the other way around.
The big questions moving forward will be:
- will Canadians condemn CBC for not caring about the HNIC brand and its elements as much as they do?
- do Canadians really care who carries their beloved hockey programming to them as long as it's a great experience (e.g. fun, inspiring and respectful to the tradition of hockey in Canada)?
- does CTV/TSN/RDS have what it takes to replace CBC as Canada's home for hockey programming?
- did CBC Sports not learn when they tried to let Ron MacLean go?
Whether this will be a big deal or minor gaffe for CBC remains to be seen.
3 comments:
I wonder if Don Cherry will join CTV/TSN? If that happens I don't think the Canadian public would know the difference.....there's the song, there's the game and there's Don Cherry, it's Hockey Night in Canada!
I am a huge fan of CBC and couldn't even imagine watching hockey on anything else! The song is a historical treasure. Why we can pay millions for paintings to hang in our national art gallery, but not pay $2 for our unofficial national anthem is beyond me.
As an aside, yes, we are happy in Victoria! When are YOU visiting?? :)
okay, here goes - my name is Mika and I've never heard the hockey night song. But with all the recent publicity, I'm tempted to go out and buy the CD.
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