Crafting a 15-Month Love Letter to Bruins Fans and Boston

New Hampshire-based agency GYK began working with the Boston Bruins ice hockey team in 2022, and were honoured when asked to help create a campaign celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the legendary sports franchise. 

The 15-month-long celebration has involved short films directed by Matt Doyle, ‘Stitches’ and ‘For the B’, as well as a host of experiential activations throughout the season, including podcasts, alumni events for fans and even a one-of-a-kind fashion show in partnership with Jet Blue.

Discussing the centennial campaign, GYK’s creative director, Scott Nicholson, calls it “a white whale project” for himself and the Bruins fans at the agency and on the production team. He describes the partnership with Boston Bruins’ marketing team – including VP of marketing, Andrea Mazzarelli, and creative director, Mark Majewski – as a seamless collaboration that “set a high bar” while remaining a fun process.

Ahead of the official anniversary on December 1st, LBB’s Ben Conway spoke with Scott and Andrea to find out more about the season of celebrations so far.

LBB> What was the brief from the Bruins like? How did you develop the ‘Blood, Sweat & 100 Years’ line? 

Scott> The ask from the Bruins was simple but overwhelming at the same time. How do you celebrate and sum up 100 years of such a storied franchise while still giving the nod to future generations of fans? 

We needed to create a brand platform that could capture the spirit that has been there since the team’s inception. Things like grit, passion, hard work and legacy were important for the tone. After a late night of brainstorming and putting up all sorts of nonsense on a whiteboard, we connected the dots between the words blood, sweat, and 100 years, and landed the plane. We knew that would be the foundation upon which the centennial campaign was built. 

Right away, ‘Blood, Sweat & 100 Years’ became the ultimate rallying cry and took on a life of its own. We created a logo lock, and it was used everywhere, from out-of-home to merchandise to in-arena activations and more. It would even become the title of the Bruins’ centennial coffee table book.

LBB> GYK’s hometown of Manchester isn’t too far from Boston – are there any personal connections on the GYK team to the Bruins?

Scott> The thing about the Bruins is they have fans all over; many are far outside of Boston, or even New England. The core team that led this work across GYK and our sister company, Big Brick Productions, are all lifelong Bruins fans, including Matt Doyle (EP and director), J.R. Roach (ACD), and me (CD). Hockey and the Bruins are a big part of my life, so this was sort of a white whale project for me. I told Matt that if we got the chance to work on the centennial campaign for the Bruins, I’d get a Bruins tattoo. And I’m a man of my word. 

LBB> One of the main elements of the campaign is the new brand identity – was that all done in-house? How did you create these designs? 

Andrea> Our award-winning centennial brand identity was a team effort! The overall look was constructed primarily by our in-house creative services team, however, our agency partners were critical contributors. FanBrandz developed our primary centennial logo and secondary assets, and Chameleon DG brought the centennial to life inside our arena with a package of motion graphics specially designed for HubVision and other digital displays.

The vast majority of the key art, graphic elements, and specific channel applications were created by our in-house team, and, of course, the ‘Blood, Sweat & 100 Years’ logo was a collaborative effort between the Bruins and GYK.

LBB> The campaign used a wide variety of modern marketing techniques and channels to reinvigorate the brand – what were some of these new avenues?

Scott> Boston is an educated and passionate hockey town and region. The whole slate of celebrations did a great job of having something for everyone, no matter your age, where you consume content, or how you like to experience the brand. The Bruins brand team needed to find a way to deliver over a year’s worth of programming and content to continually excite and engage the community and generations of fans, players, and alumni - while also capturing the spirit of a century of Bruins history. Not a small undertaking!

One interesting thing to see was the Era Nights and live podcasts that were held at Kowloon restaurant (an old Bruins post-game spot). Each live show featured alumni from different eras of the team’s history – and the crowds that attended to see players from the ‘70s, ‘90s, or more recent were starkly different. But it always felt very ‘Bruins’ nonetheless. 

LBB> These Era Nights and other experiential activations – including a particularly unique fashion show – played a big part in the campaign. What were some of your favourite moments from putting these together?

Andrea> One of the things that we set out to do in planning our centennial year was to find more ways to create memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experiences for fans outside of the arena. Our ‘Opening Night’ gold carpet event stands out as one of my favourites of these experiential activations, with hundreds of fans lining the famous gold carpet for a chance to catch a glimpse of alumni like Zdeno Chara, Bobby Orr, and nearly 50 others. It was an incredible way to kick off a special season!

And, of course, the fashion show is unlike anything we have ever done before. I am still in awe that we pulled off being able to flip an active aeroplane hangar into a true Fashion Week-calibre event! But we did it, and we made a huge splash with our retail collection and jerseys launch. So much so that we won the NHL’s Stanley Award for sponsorship activation for this event in partnership with JetBlue! 

LBB> You also launched the ‘Cue the Memories’ podcast with alumni interviews – why was this an important medium to tap into? 

Andrea> While we are keenly aware that podcasting has become increasingly popular, this also goes back to really wanting to create access and experiences away from the arena, especially experiences that bring our alumni, who are so beloved, closer to our fans. We noticed that similar live podcast-style events had been gaining popularity so saw the centennial as a unique opportunity to revitalise our ‘Cue the Memories’ podcast programme and kick things up a notch.

LBB> The ‘Stitches’ film involves lots of archival footage and photos of the Bruins, telling a cross-generational story of Bruins fandom. How did you bring this to life? 

Scott> This was the most fun part of all! It was also overwhelming thinking about how you show 100 years of what it means to be a Bruin in just a couple of minutes. We landed on two themes that would bring the spot together and take the viewer through waves of different emotions: 1) The fans and the ‘passing the puck’ to new generations, and 2) The symbolism of the gold thread (used on Bruins uniforms) that stitches these stories together. 

We built a set that was overflowing with Bruins memorabilia and artefacts representing key franchise memories. With this set, we relived the best-of-the-best Bruins moments through the lens of a lifelong Bruins fan: our ‘stitcher’. Matt Doyle directed the spot perfectly, Dan Dunn was our DP, Josh Drake married our footage with archival film, and Chris Plante composed the music, which really elevated the whole thing. In the end, ‘Stitches’ is a love letter to Bruins fans and the city of Boston. 

LBB> For this project, how did you find a tone that was relatable and enjoyable for both long-standing fans and younger, newer audiences?

Scott> The goal of ‘Stitches’ was to bring viewers on a journey through the ebb and flow of emotions we all experience as fans of a storied franchise – the excitement and passion, even the heartbreak and tears. From chills to ready-to-run-through-a-brick-wall energy and everything in between. The tone was beyond any specific era, player, or moment. It took cues from the region and Boston itself. A storied team in a storied city. 

For new or younger fans, we wanted to show them just how deep the black and gold runs in Boston and have them feel intrigued or drawn in. For the diehards, we needed to tap into nostalgia plus the excitement of the current team and its future – something truly special and exciting on the surface but with lots of hidden Easter eggs, too. The standards and the identities of Bruins teams across 100 years really do have a common thread. So, we told it like it is. 

LBB> What was the hardest challenge you faced on this campaign? How did you overcome it? 

Scott> For the larger campaign, I think having restraint was challenging. There are so many ideas, so many stories, so many people and memories. Having each element be purposeful and not trying to do too much was tricky. But that is what made it unique and fresh in the end. 

For the ‘Stitches’ short film, the challenge was building the set to feel as authentic as possible; it was something we couldn’t whiff. A lot of curation and sourcing of authentic one-of-a-kind items went into the effort. When the set was complete, we all just stood back and stared at it, feeling like it was a living, breathing thing… and that it belonged in a museum. 

Andrea> We had to keep reminding ourselves throughout the celebration that it was a marathon, not a sprint, though it admittedly felt like a 26.2-mile sprint at times! We had a large volume of activations, programmes and events all year, so naturally, the sheer amount of work that went in was a challenge. 

But really, it was about being able to maintain a consistent drumbeat all year long with creative and authentic ways to celebrate, ensuring that this campaign didn’t start and stop with Opening Night. There was something new and different happening every few weeks, whether it was an Era Night, a new content series, a retail collection drop, etc.

LBB> And now the Bruins are reporting their highest attendance in six seasons, and the best social engagement in the league!

Andrea> To finish the year at the top of the NHL for social engagement is a massively impressive feat when you consider the competition. Our colleagues around the league continue to raise the bar with their content execution, but some of our marquee programmes, like the ‘All-Centennial Team’ campaign, helped to drive incremental engagement through a multi-channel approach. I’m so proud of the body of work from our digital team this past season.