Florida Panthers
I was the Social Media Manager for the Florida Panthers during their two Stanley Cup Championships. I managed the social media team and directed our strategy, pioneering a data driven approach to content planning, resulting in a 170% growth in audience across all channels. Our team also drove a 249% growth in audience on the FLATeamShop accounts leading to greater merchandise revenue.
I prioritized engaging with our audience with an emphasis on fun content, creating inside jokes to create community as with our “six fans” posts. With a strategic distinct voice, I was able to increase our average engagement from bottom 10th in the league to top three.
I worked closely with our video, creative, and PR departments to ensure we were able to get all the content we needed for success. Specifically, I worked with our video department to target new audiences by creating ‘brain rot’ videos that were a huge hit with our audience.
Additionally, I built out a sponsorship tracker for our Community Partnerships department to guarantee we were fulfilling all of our agreements. I prioritized our Foundation channels (FLAPanthersCARE) to highlight the work we do in the community and to assist in our Community Relations team surpassing their goals including selling out our Stache Dash for the first time and having one of the largest Toys for Tots drive in South Florida.
Case Studies
With each hockey season serving as one long narrative arc, there were several specific narratives and moments that stood out. Notably, during playoffs, it was always the goal to step up our content to the greatest extent.
Additionally, our trade for Brad Marchand, the celebration of a milestone night for Dmitry Kulikov, and the season long charity campaign of Benny’s Buddies were highlights.
Meeting the Moment
Along with prioritizing long-term narratives, I made sure to jump on trends that also supported the broader story we were telling and helped us to capitalize on the social zeitgeist of the moment.
The ‘in da clerb’ post is a perfect example of using a trend to maximize our story. The trend had been circulating for several days, but I waited until we had a moment in a game that actually fit instead of pigeonholing it in. The game against the Boston Bruins was the perfect fit. After multiple seasons beating them in the playoffs, the rivalry was heated. I had built a good rapport with the Bruins photographer and communicated with her so she knew what I was looking for. Thankfully, she was able to get me the perfect photo. Playing into the tension between the two teams became even more impactful later in the season when we traded for the Bruins’ captain.
Trends
On April 23, 2024, our goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky (nicknamed “Bob”), pulled off a truly incredible save. During the NHL playoffs, many of the broadcast partners (ESPN, TNT, etc.) and the league are also posting the same plays. Analytics have repeatedly shown that whoever’s content is up first usually performs the best.
The Bobbery
I knew in this moment, that we had to work even faster than normal to post this save. We also had the added benefit of having an additional angle from our video team that the other accounts wouldn’t have access to.
I began with a quick text post on Twitter/X while waiting for the broadcast angle to be ready. I ran that on Twitter/X and Facebook while waiting for our video team to send the additional angle. I then posted that additional angle everywhere and as a carousel with the broadcast angle on Instagram and we were able to win the “race”.
From there, the goal was to continue to build on an incredible moment with additional content and memes. The posts went viral and spawned into media coverage and new merchandise. Furthermore, now additional incredibly Bob saves are referred to as another “bobbery”.
