Overview
Most sports retail pages sell products. This one picked a side. I conceived and pitched the Ultimate Fan concept directly to our NHL partners — a shopping experience built around rivalry psychology that asked visitors to declare their allegiance before they browsed. The animated header pitted rival teams against each other, turning a standard brand store visit into a moment of fan identity. The NHL renewed the campaign for three consecutive seasons.
The Brief
NHL fans don't just like hockey — they have a team, and that team defines how they see every other team. A shopping experience that ignored that passion in favor of a generic product grid was leaving the most powerful motivator in sports retail on the table. The brief was to build something that felt like it was made for fans, not just shoppers.
The Approach
I developed and pitched the Ultimate Fan concept to our NHL partners as the strategic foundation for the campaign. Rather than organizing the experience around product categories, we organized it around rivalries — the emotional engine of hockey fandom. The animated header presented visitors with a choice between two rival teams, immediately signaling that this experience understood them as fans first and shoppers second.
Key Features
— Rivalry-based animated header
— visitors chose between rival NHL teams before browsing, framing the entire experience around fan identity
— Market-first navigation
— the NHL's largest markets received prominent standalone sections, making the experience feel locally relevant at scale
— Targeted social media campaign
— ads showcasing team-specific products in each of the NHL's biggest markets, matched to local fan bases
— Three consecutive seasons of renewal
— the concept proved durable enough to anchor the NHL's walmart.ca presence for three years running
Campaign Support
The campaign was supported by run-of-site placements, native traffic drivers, and social media ads featuring team-specific products targeted to fans in the NHL's major markets — extending the rivalry concept from the page into the media plan.
Results
Three consecutive seasons of renewal by the NHL validated the concept at the highest level — the client. The Ultimate Fan framing resonated because it was built on genuine fan psychology rather than retail convention. Following the campaign, Walmart extended the "ultimate fan" concept to other sports and categories on their platform — a natural evolution of an idea that had proven its effectiveness.
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