The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional hockey organisation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Audience: B2C
Type: Superhero: Innovative content that sets the bar by incorporating new formats or channels to engage with the audience outside of the usual mediums.
Campaign Title: Gritty The Mascot
Check out Gritty the mascot on Twitter.
As one of the only teams in sports without a mascot, the Philadelphia Flyers felt the organisation needed a way to engage with its fans apart from its product on the ice. Gritty the mascot, named after the phrase that fans identify with, stepped onto the scene in 2018 as the solution.
The Flyers' marketing team quickly made Gritty a hit on social media with their own version of Kim Kardashian's 'Breaking The Internet' photo, featuring the large orange character in the image instead. Gritty quickly became a hit among non-hockey fans thanks to a strong presence on Twitter and Instagram. It only took one month after its announcement to hit $151 million in earned media and 5 billion impressions.
Sports organisations are always looking for ways to connect their products with an engaging user experience and Gritty is one example of how they're doing it. The mascot ultimately transcended sport itself, earning airtime on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show (among others) and gaining over 400,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram combined
Gritty's rise to fame has largely been bolstered by the Flyers' marketing team's ability to insert him in pop culture and take advantage of trends. We'd like to see more original content that involves the team - whether via skits or videos - and potentially even fans.