It’s here. In 2024, the Czech Republic once again hosts the world’s biggest hockey event — for the first time in nine years. Back in 2015, the last time the IIHF World Championship came to Czech soil, we didn’t just cheer for great hockey — we set an all-time attendance record. Now, expectations are cooler than freshly smoothed ice. With fans from Russia and Belarus understandably absent, and the usual Czech skepticism about our team’s chances, many doubted whether we could come close to that historic turnout. Our collaboration with the tournament's organizing committee was led by our friends at Unicorn Attacks, who oversaw the overall marketing strategy. We handled full-scale social and performance marketing, while the visual identity came from the creatives at superlative.works. Our first campaigns dropped more than a year before the tournament. Across the Czech and English IIHF profiles, we launched a distinctive visual concept developed by Unicorn Attacks and superlative.works. Fans weren't shy with their criticism at first — the logo featuring a puck emoji ("puckoticon" — a term coined by our co-founder Štěpán) faced heavy online checking. But we immediately started targeting campaigns in Czechia and across Europe.

We produced videos featuring head coach Radim Rulík and ex-player turned rising star commentator Jakub Voráček. Weekly content planning sessions with the Czech Ice Hockey Association helped us steadily build and engage the fan base online, while subtly teasing upcoming ticket sales. Those began alongside performance campaigns in September 2023. By January 2024, we'd already exceeded expectations with over 400,000 tickets sold. Czech fans are deeply loyal, especially when the national team hits the ice — or top global teams like Canada or Sweden. But early ticket sales weren’t great for "less attractive" matchups. Even playoff games saw underwhelming interest. Initial ticket bundles included both blockbuster and lower-profile games, but with low trust in the Czech team's chances, fans hesitated across the board. We had to engage them emotionally — testing themes, targeting, and creative executions under our "Heart of the Game" slogan. Christmas and Valentine’s Day campaigns followed. We targeted parents of young hockey players and women surprising their partners with the ultimate gift: tickets to a once-in-a-lifetime championship. We tested videos, statics, and carousels in every campaign, using advanced audience segmentation and real-time performance tracking. We explored every path, pivoted fast, and pushed what performed. Early 2024 saw bundled tickets split, triggering a massive spike in sales. We launched fresh international campaigns, focused on neighboring countries with strong hockey cultures and manageable travel distances. We brought out the legends: Jagr inviting Czech fans, Uwe Krupp rallying Germans, Jari Kurri energizing Finns. With the final weekend approaching, we boosted sales for unsold matches and built momentum for the main event. We even targeted tourists already in Prague, inviting them to experience a world-class game — regardless of who was playing. With that pitch, it was easy to get results.

The 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Prague and Ostrava welcomed 797,727 visitors. We broke the 2015 record by over 55,000 attendees. Digital campaigns — managed entirely by our team — played a major role. The entire agency came together: - SoMe specialists brainstormed for over a year - Motion designers created non-stop using the vast IIHF archive - Vojta’s PPC team optimized daily against ambitious targets - Project managers, led by co-founder Štěpán, maintained around-the-clock comms with IIHF and the Czech association From our Prague office, we truly showed hearts of the game. Read the case study: https://www.digital-ant.com/work/iihf-2024/