Friday saw the return of Showtime’s acclaimed behind-the-scenes documentary series ALL ACCESS: Quest for the Stanley Cup, once again showcasing the pressure of the postseason through exclusive access to the four final NHL teams in contention – Anaheim Ducks, Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins. After season one of the series became “the first of its kind to nationally televise the championship of a major North American sport as it unfolded,” the program’s return continues the league’s content strategy of humanizing its faces to connect with fans. Cynopsis Sports spoke with NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer to discuss the second season of the show and how it fits into the league’s engagement strategy, convincing teams to take part, and what types of content are connecting with fans.
Mayer on the NHL’s approach to content: In any season, your biggest interest is to reach as many fans as possible – both the huge hockey fans as well as the casual fans – and provide them with content that they find compelling, and, at the end the day, they can consume in the long-form as well as in the short-form. This was a unique year for us because of the centennial, we knew that content needed to be a huge part of how we celebrated 100 years, and we’ve put out close to 1300 new original pieces of video so far, so we’ve taken a very thought-out and huge approach when it comes to content to get as many things out there to our fans to help understand the history of the game, as well as to highlight what’s going on in the league and put our stars out there in a compelling way.
On successful content: We are seeing a variety of content connecting with audiences. Of course, everybody loves game highlights, they love players being mic’d up and some of our more successful pieces have been about giving fans that deeper level of access within a game. The combination of music and content in highlights also works extremely well. Taking a popular song and blending it with the action gives us huge numbers. There are also those moments when players become human, whether it is inspirational stories or doing something off the ice or having fun, which also resonate extremely well. History pieces, showcasing the top 100 players or games, etc. are also very popular. It is amazing how the true, lifelong hockey fan can’t get enough of the great stories and memories and they love to hear from those alumni.
On the role of ALL ACCESS: This show is something that our fans have really enjoyed. We think we give a little more access in this show than you may see in other sports, so our players, coaches, managers, etc. are all used to it. When it comes to the Stanley Cup, we wanted to show the quest for a championship in a major sport like it’s never been done before. Last year, we were pleasantly surprised how much material ended up being incredibly compelling for this show. It shows the drama of the sport and how much these players want to win the Stanley Cup.
On getting teams involved: The key is to understand the benefits of doing a show like this and reassuring them that our cameras would be flies on the wall. We are not going to disrupt or change anything that they would normally do and because we have done so many of these shows and Ross Greenburg and his team have consistently been our producers, there is a trust factor that you cannot discount.
