One of the greatest brands in my neighborhood to embrace the social media concept is that of our beloved Vancouver Canucks.

Although I do follow the team throughout the year, I don’t post about them very much. I had the pleasure of attending three games this year, including Game One of the Western Conference Quarter Final against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. For those who don’t already know, the game was a franchise-record 138 minutes long, and resulted in a 5-4 Canucks win. Big thanks to my darling wife for getting us the invite to Rod’s executive suite for the most exciting game I’ve ever watched.

Which, on its own is enough to want to write a blog post about. But the reason I’ve waited all this time to write about the Canucks is not merely because they could use the moral support as they continue after taking Game 3 in Dallas, (ahead 2-1 in the series) but because the Canucks have truly embraced social media, and it’s bringing the community of their fans closer together.

Case in point: The Fan Generated Content Challenge, which includes several categories with prize packs associated with each. View the “Round One” winners at that link, or just click one of the YouTube vids below.

In other “engaging social media” news, the Canucks almost treat podcasters like the media that they are; giving access to practices and interviews (and of course sidebar widgets) to the likes of the Crazy Canucks, who collectively host a Canucks podcast and blog, and several other fan sites and podcasts as well. Hey, Canucks front office! Give these cats some tickets to sit amongst the fans, and bask in the glory of the customer evangelism that results.

(Canucks Ultimate Fan Search sidebar widget)

Between periods and during TV timeouts, the massive screens above the ice at GM Place display some of the videos photos that have been submitted by fans.

Or take the much-debated but undeniably community-minded slogan of the Canucks this year: “We are all Canucks.” They have certainly re-embraced the fans, in the wake of an assault lawsuit and an epic lockout.

And so it is with a warm heart and a healthy dose of Canucks nostalgia that I present you with the four winners of “Round One” of the Canucks’ Fan Generated Content Challenge, followed by my own submission, at the very bottom:

The Ultimate Canucks Sacrifice

Two-Year-Old Ultimate Canuck Fan

“Trapper’s Delight,” The Canuck’s Rap

Canucks Chase Flames

And The Crowd Goes Wild!

(Shot by Alex Lee Behan at Game One of the Western Conference Quarter Finals)

We are all Canucks, etc.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 2:16 pm and is filed under cool stuff, new media, social media, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.