In 2013, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team had the greatest season in franchise history. Records were shattered. And the team captured the coveted Stanley Cup Championship.

All of this happened on a sheet of ice that was about to be chopped up and melted away. We seized a rare opportunity and captured some of the actual ice the team skated to victory on before it was all gone. The ice was melted down, and poured into commemorative vials – each containing bits of blood, sweat and tears from the team’s players. We offered 2,013 vials for sale at $99 each, with all proceeds going to charities. A video was released to the fans announcing our intentions which quickly spread online.

The first step was simply to capture the ice, as it is commonly removed from the rink 2 days after the final game of the season. We put a small team together, and filmed the entire capturing of the ice, then created a video announcing what we had done that was released to the public.

It was quickly picked up by all major news outlets in North America, and created a huge demand on the Blackhawks’ website – where we collected pre-orders for the ice vials. While this was happening, we worked with a vender to properly package the ice in commemorative vials that would securely contain the water. A few months later, we released a second wave of PR surrounding the fulfilment of the ice vials, and received even more press coverage from the fact that they all sold out within one day.

Awareness was directed primarily at the team’s 2 million plus fan base around North America. We received thousands of pre-orders for the ice vials a few days after our promotion went live. There was so much initial demand that we realized we would not be able to fulfil them all.

We instead decided to cap the number of ice vials at 2,013 (in homage to the year the Championship was won) and individually mark the vials from 1 to 2013 to further enhance their value. The story was picked up by every major news network in North America – and internationally – earning an unprecedented amount of PR and millions of free media impressions for the team. In one day, all the vials sold out raising an instant $200,000 for charity. And on online auction sites, such as eBay, the ice is being resold for 4 times the original amount.

It turned out to be the most successful merchandise promotion in the team’s 88 year history.