There was a time when the National Hockey League's idea of fan engagement was a between-periods Zamboni race and a grainy image on the Jumbotron. The league has come rather a long way from there.
The N.H.L. announced on Tuesday that it had signed Adobe as an official creative, marketing and artificial intelligence partner, a deal that will give the league and all 32 of its teams access to Adobe's suite of enterprise tools for personalizing the fan experience. The agreement is the latest example of a major sports property embracing the vocabulary of the moment — "content supply chain," "real-time customer needs," "generative AI capabilities" — in the hope that technology will accomplish what technology is always supposed to accomplish: make people pay more attention.
Under the terms of the partnership, the league will use Adobe GenStudio, an AI-powered content creation system, to tailor experiences across NHL.com, the league's mobile app, social media channels and digital advertising. Adobe Experience Platform will help the league track fan preferences in real time, the better to serve up customized content at what Adobe calls "the right moments." (What constitutes the wrong moment was not specified.)
Perhaps more unusually, the deal will also put Adobe Express and its Firefly generative AI tools in the hands of fans themselves, along with N.H.L.-themed templates, allowing them to create their own images and content. Whether this will result in a flowering of hockey-related digital art or simply a great many AI-generated pictures of the Stanley Cup remains to be seen.
"Adobe will help us unlock new ways to tell the stories of our players, clubs, and moments that define hockey," said David Lehanski, the league's executive vice president of innovation and growth strategy, in a statement that deployed the word "unlock" in the manner to which such statements have become accustomed.
The N.H.L., which has spent years working to expand its audience beyond its traditional base, has shown a consistent appetite for technological partnerships. Whether artificial intelligence proves to be the key to the casual fan's heart is, for now, an open question — though the league, at least, appears to be skating toward it at full speed.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Holy H-E-Double Hockey Sticks: Adobe Is Bringing AI to the NHL"