Marketing Monster

Montreal is Hockeyville

I live in Montreal, a serious hockey town. The Montreal Canadiens were founded in 1909,and according to Wikipedia, they are “the longest continuously operating professional ice hockey team and the only existing NHL club to predate the founding of the NHL, as well as one of the oldest North American sports franchises. The franchise is one of the “Original Six” teams, a description used for teams that were part of the NHL from 1942 until the 1967 expansion.”

Right now, the Habs (short for Habitants), are playing the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals. The winner of this series of  games will go on to play the Stanley Cup Championship, the pinnacle of every hockey player’s aspirations and the stuff of dreams for boys with skates, most particularly here in Montreal. To an extent, Montrealers feel like they own hockey. It’s our game. It’s part of the lifeblood and pulse of this city and a unifying force between all cultures who live here.

Much to the chagrin of my friends in Montreal, I am not a hockey fan. This is close to sacrilege. I have nothing against hockey, I’m just not big on sports in a general sense. I ignore them universally.

But, it’s impossible to ignore when Montreal is in the playoffs: after each goal, there is honking in the streets, and shouting spills out of open windows as neighbours erupt in cheers or frustration over every point won or lost. Hockey playoffs in Montreal compel you to pay attention.

Twitter Hashtags to Track the Game

And so it was a few weeks back when I found myself checking Twitter for the Habs score against the Washington Capitals. At that time, I noticed several hashtags: #habs #gohabs #gohabsgo and #habsDC. I had assumed that the final one, #habsDC had to do with the fact that the game was against Washington and was played in DC.

So why is it tonight, when Montreal was playing game 3 against Philadelphia, the #habsDC hastag was the top trending hockey tag on Twitter in Canada?

Thinking back, while the Canadiens were playing all seven games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the #habsDC tag was ever-present. I thought perhaps people who were Tweeting the Washington game simply didn’t bother changing the hashtag. However, I find that a bit strange. I know Twitter is new to many, but, you’d think there were enough users out there who would know to change hashtags and have that be of influence.

I went on the search for services that give more information about specific hashtags and found several (thanks oneforty.com!) According to What the Hashtag?!, the tag is defined at” Montreal Canadiens fans hashtag initiated by @DenisCoderre.”

Political Sports Fan

Who is hockey fan Denis Coderre? He is a federal politician with a riding in Montreal. Prominent in national politics, he appointed the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport for three-years and helped to establish the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal. He also accused NHL player Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes of uttering racists slurs against French-speaking referees in a game in Montreal, resulting in legal action on each side.

Denis Coderre is also one the country’s most active and engaged politician on Twitter and will live-tweet Canadiens games with enthusiasm.

Let’s think about this for a moment: a politician’s personal hockey hashtag overtakes the more generic and natural #habs to become the top trending topic in Canada on the night of a winning semi-final Canadiens playoff game. That, in a city that lives, breathes and riots over hockey.

Extraordinary.

Manipulation or Enthusiasm?

As I was pondering this achievement aloud on Twitter, Habs fan and hockey blogger Kyle Roussel of Montreal took this view of the custom hashtag: “It would mean a lot more to the #Habs twitter community if he’d use the regular one instead of usurping one for himself.” Though, he did concede that no one forced the Twitter public to use one hashtag over another, he didn’t see the connection between a politician and a hockey team.

I suspect that the general cynicism that the public has about politicians leaves some with the feeling that perhaps Denis Coderre is manipulating the association with the Habs for his own personal gain.

However, I think that most people use the #habsdc hashtag without knowing that it references the politician. Geneviève Côté believed it it to be “DC to shorten Washington in hashtag and it survived when Pitt started.” After viewing the link I had to What the Hashtag?!, she replied, “I may be wrong… he’s a very good marketer, he may have used the DC synchronicity.”

Given his past, it’s likely that Denis Coderre is simply an enthusiastic fan who enjoys using Twitter in the same way that others do when they gather around a shared event.  When asked why he chose to start his own hashtag vs. using the more universal #habs, he responded:

@AdeleMcAlear simply because I enjoy direct interaction with my 10225 followers and it became a trend. No competition just fun and passion

What do you think? Is this a case of a politician riding the wave of a popular topic for his own purposes? Are Habs fans sheep for re-using a hashtag that they may not understand? Should Denis Codere be congratulated for achieving something that most marketers dream about for their clients? Are the Habs going all the way to the Stanley Cup?

Let me know what you think in the comments.