Vancouver Sports Marketer captures Los Angeles Kings side-of-the-story regarding “You’re Welcome Canada” tweet!

trevor — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:58:32 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 20, 2012, Vancouver, BC

The Los Angeles Kings not only broke the hearts of many Canucks fans with their first round upset win over the Vancouver Canucks. They also managed to incite a Twitter war in the process with a now infamous tweet that has been retweeted over 13,000 times, making it the 10th most retweeted tweet all time behind Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” tweet.

The tweet that read “To everyone in Canada outside of BC, your welcome”, not only stirred up emotions with Canucks fans, it also sparked a debate over whether brands should have an opinion on Twitter.

In an exclusive video interview with Trevor Turnbull – President, T3 CONNECT Sports Marketing, the Los Angeles Kings Director of Digital Media, Dewayne Hankins and Digital Media Coordinator, Pat Donahue discuss:

Who made the decision to send the tweet that has now been retweeted over 13,000 times
Why they decided not to remove the tweet despite some of the negative feedback online
Why they stand behind their decision to speak from an authentic voice on Twitter
The sponsorship impact of their edgy approach to Twitter engagement
Their response to any Vancouver Canuck fans that might have taken offense to the tweet

While some people found the LA Kings authentic voice approach to Twitter “refreshing” and “comical”. Others, thought that the tweet was “unprofessional” and “classless”. In response to the comments on Twitter, Dewayne Hankins – Los Angeles Kings, Director of Digital Media says “There have been teams that have sent unauthorized tweets that went back and deleted them later. It was important that we didn’t do this.” “It wasn’t like Pat meant to send the tweet from his personal account, it was something that we said and had wanted to say”.

It remains an open debate over whether the LA Kings are right or wrong in their edgy use of Twitter. But, if Twitter followers are any indication of success on social media, the LA Kings have done something right.

Previous to the tweet being send, the LA Kings were gaining approximately 300 followers per day on Twitter. Within 24hrs of sending the tweet, the LA Kings had gained 7000 new followers and have now gained 25,000+ new followers since the tweet.

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For more information about the video interview the Los Angeles Kings Digital Media staff, visit http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2012/04/30/la-kings-digital-media-staff-defend-infamous-tweet/ or contact:

Trevor Turnbull
President – T3 CONNECT Sports Marketing
trevor@t3connect.com
Ph: 604.715.2550

ABOUT T3 CONNECT SPORTS MARKETING

T3 CONNECT Sports Marketing enhances sales, marketing and social media efforts by incorporating online influencers, integrating sponsors and activating fans. To learn more visit: http://t3connect.com

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