After a devastating Game 3 loss to the Golden Knights, a Las Vegas restaurant group bought ads on more than 160 billboards in Edmonton around Rogers Place to torment Edmonton Oilers fans and players alike.
“Hopefully, one of these superstars (on the Oilers) is dropping their kids off at school, and they look up and they just catch the glimpse of that out of the corner of their eye. And later tonight, when they’re skating down the ice, they remember it,” said Jonathan Fine, whose idea it was to buy the ads.
“(A) cute little mental curveball,” he added.
As the clocked ticked down on Game 3 of the Oilers and Golden Knights game on Saturday night, with less than a second to go, the flame of yet-another Oilers comeback was extinguished when Knights’ Reilly Smith banked a (literally) last-second cross crease pass off of Leon Draisaitl’s stick to take the lead. 00.4 seconds is how close the Oilers were to overtime, which is exactly what Fine’s advertisement takes aim at.
The billboards show a clock at 00.4 seconds, a banner saying “Go Knights Go!” and an advertisement for PKWY Tavern Taphouse and Grille, which is an eatery that Fine’s company, Fine Management, owns.
Using a software platform called Adomni, for a maximum spend of $5,000, Fine and his team were able to purchase the ads, which appear on 165 billboards within a roughly five kilometre radius of Rogers Place, appearing between 20 and 30 times an hour on Monday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., just before the puck drops for Game 4. The whole thing came together in just a couple of hours Sunday night when Fine had the idea at dinnertime.
“Probably the best return on investment we can get for our bars,” said Fine.
It’s not the first time that the group have taken aim at a competing NHL team to support the Knights. Previously, Fine recalled that after a heated game against the Nashville Predators, his group purchased ads for billboards and cab signs all around the Vegas Golden Knights’ T-Mobile Arena before fans had even left the venue. Spying another opportunistic chance to antagonize another team, Fine jumped at the chance but this time at the expense of the Oilers.
“(It) was such an amazing moment for us and such a terrible moment for you guys. I thought, let’s highlight the 0.4 seconds all around Edmonton and kind of troll — in good fun — the fans up there,” he said.
Fine says the campaign has been “really” well-received, despite his initial concerns that he might have to hide his face until mid-summer after the playoffs. Fine insists the jeering is meant in good fun, which is why the ads will stop just before Monday’s game.
“You guys have a great team. You guys are a great hockey city. I don’t know that there’s necessarily a dislike of the two cities, but creating a friendly rivalry is kind of fun,” he said.
And good for business.
Perhaps not to the same extent as the Oilers fans flocking to Downtown Edmonton and restaurants around the city, but Fine said business is good when the Knights are playing in Vegas, too.
With no hate towards the city, the Oilers, or its players, Fine just had one final message before the game.
“We just want to say one last thing to kind of get under the skin of everybody up in Edmonton, and that’s, go Knights go.”
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