The year Little Caesars became the Official Pizza of the NHL for the 2020/21 season was a little different, to put it lightly. With no fans in the stands at arenas across Canada, we needed a sponsorship idea that would move beyond the expected rink-board logo. Combined with a limited budget and a desire to amplify the effort through earned media, we found a way to connect with pizza-loving hockey fans in a unique and authentic way right in their own dens, family rooms, living rooms, and sports caves. And, at the same time, increase delivery with people stuck at home.

Companies spend millions of dollars on the naming rights to arenas. And since fans weren’t allowed in the stands this season, as the official pizza of the NHL, we decided to buy the naming rights to where people were actually watching - their living rooms.

Introducing The Little Caesars Naming Rights Deal: all the excitement of the NHL arena experience - brought to your home every Wednesday night.

Fans were invited to sell the rights to their living rooms by signing a “not-legally-binding contract” on pizzanighthockey.ca. Once they officially changed their rooms’ name to the Little Caesars Hockey Room, they gained access to exclusive Wednesday deals for the rest of the 2020/21 NHL season.

But the naming rights weren’t enough. We wanted more brand presence in their homes and asked our new partners how much pizza it would take. That’s when the live negotiations began and things got spicy.

League sponsorship campaigns tend to be standard, run-of-the-mill, and expectedly safe – a sponsored segment, a logo on the ice, or, if you’re really pushing it, branded playing cards. But with the pandemic in full force, people craved that in-arena experience and were open to brands helping them get it.

Our target was NHL-loving young adults who missed going to games and watching together with friends. There was an opportunity to help them enjoy the game more and create a new weekly ritual - NHL and Little Caesars on Wednesdays. But to speak to them effectively, we had to do it in a way that felt born of fan culture. They’d see through the same old noise from brands.

If we were able to turn Wednesday night, the dullest evening of the week, into the best one for hockey (and pizza) fans, we knew the program would be a success.

In Spring 2021, we gave fans an opportunity to name their price in pizza to brand their homes with Little Caesars signage. To spread the word, our first deals were with the country’s most beloved hockey influencers, @stevedangle and @on.the.bench.

Offers quickly came pouring in on social and we’d negotiate right there in the comments section, responding back with a cheeky counter-offer. These hilarious negotiations saw fans offer up the naming rights to their dogs, their homes, even their kids. One guy actually painted his room our trademark orange, we just had to supply the paint and a stack of pizzas.

To continue the “at-home” arena experience, every box sold on Wednesday came with a “seat number” sticker that let you enter to win a grand prize announced live on the broadcast of the game, just like on the Jumbotron when you’re there live.

Thanks to featured NHL games every week on Wednesday Night Hockey, Little Caesars saw a 21% increase in store traffic on Wednesdays, a 15% increase in sales on Wednesdays, and a 10% increase in sales for delivery. We drove over 10 million impressions across both traditional and social media. On Little Caesars social media channels, we saw an astronomical increase of 8.6x in follower growth and an incredible 17.7% of overall engagement on our platforms. And, for the first time in Canada, fans got to speak with the brand in real time, loving every minute of it.

And, as a nice feather in any Canadian marketer’s cap, the successful kick-off of Little Caesars Naming Rights Deal in Canada resulted in it being adapted by the Little Caesars U.S. team.