NEW YORK - The National Hockey League?s use of mobile to distribute content and offers as well as drive traffic to games prove the company gets the medium.

A NHL keynote discussed the company?s mobile offerings and how it uses the channel to further engage fans. The ?How Mobile is a Game-Changer for the National Hockey League and What it Can Teach Other Marketers? panel was moderated by Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily.

?The mobile industry has grown,? said Chris Golier, vice president of mobile marketing and strategy at NHL, New York. ?It?s here now.

?We want to deliver a game to you in whatever venue format situation it can be,? he said.

Which OS?
When deciding what operating system to build on, NHL opted to build its applications on Android, Apple, BlackBerry and Nokia devices. 

According to Mr. Golier, you have to be on all platforms depending on your objectives.

?Apple has a better consumption level as far as paid content,? Mr. Golier said.

NHL?s mobile offerings include mobile apps, a mobile site and tablets.

The company has an array of mobile applications.

NHL?s GameCenter application includes information on scores, schedules, news and information.

The NHL GameCenter premium application features added content such as video highlights, audio, scores and an ice tracker.

The NHL GameCenter Live app includes a live game video, as well as highlights from games.

Via its mobile offerings, the company offers a sampling of videos to consumers so that they can get a taste of what they will be playing for.

?For the money that they?re going to pay for the video, we?re giving them a little snippet,? Mr. Golier said.

All about tablets
NHL is going to be investing a lot of money in tablets, per Mr. Golier.

The company has an iPad app and is looking at the type of content that it needs to focus on.

?We?re offering exclusive content that no other sports portal is using,? Mr. Golier said. ?We did a TV program with HBO that was real behind the scenes stuff.

?There?s also an iPad watch page where all the games are highlighted,? he said. ?We just want to get to the meat of it.?

Applying data-driven findings and optimizing video player user interface increased NHL.com starts by 344 percent.

NHL mobile follows broadband?s lead with 43 percent of broadband subs coming through sampling and more than 2,000 broadband authentications on GCL iPad within the first month. 

Additionally, the company noticed several in-app user behaviors.

?There?s a huge shift in behavior,? Mr. Golier said. ?No one just sits and watches TV anymore.

?Especially for us, hockey and any sporting event is a social engagement and that?s why the iPad and iPhone are incredibly important.?

In terms of mobile Web versus broadband, Mr. Golier said that the company saw that 55 percent of mobile pages views happen from 7-11 p.m.

According to Mr. Golier, mobile?s ability to identify consumer location provides fans relevance.

?There are ways to make personalization sticky between Web and mobile,? Mr. Golier said. ?There is a lot of content in the cloud.

?Push notifications are also important,? he said. ?It?s something that works and it gets people involved.

Free vs. paid.
According to Mr. Golier, each company should decide whether they want to do free or paid applications.

?We all want to make money,? Mr. Golier said. ?We launched a free app with an idea for an in-app upgrade potential.

?There?s a free segment of the population and a paid segment,? he said.

The company is also looking at how they are extending arena commerce and the idea of consumers ordering items while they are sitting in their seat, watching a game.

?We?re looking at the NFC revolution,? Mr. Golier said. ?Visa and Mastercard are on to some big things.
?Mobile commerce certainly has a presence."

Final Take