Could we start seeing Sidney Crosby dancing on the Philadelphia Flyers’ logo before faceoff at Wells Fargo Center?
Highly unlikely, but the Pittsburgh Penguins announced a formal partnership with the social-media company local sports fans became familiar with after some pregame logo dances in the fall.
Until Wednesday, the most significant intersection between short-form video platform TikTok and a Pittsburgh professional sports team had been last season’s dances by Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster after warm-ups for road games. Smith-Schuster said he wasn’t getting paid for those posts, but the Penguins and TikTok surely are involved in a financial relationship of some sort.
According to the Penguins, the partnership is the first of its kind for TikTok and a professional hockey team. In a Penguins-issued release, the organization said it plans to “significantly increase (its) presence on TikTok.” The team and platform also will produce custom content.
We are proud to announce a partnership with @tiktok_us.
It is the first of its kind with a professional hockey team.
Details: https://t.co/KQufQ1PRUE pic.twitter.com/XmmGbmdm0P
The Penguins also said they are the first professional sports team to partner with TikTok to produce customized advertising content that will be utilized outside of the app. The team release said TikTok initiated the partnership because of “their successful social media presence within the sports industry.”
According to statista, for example, the Penguins have the third-most followers of their official Twitter account among the 31 NHL teams.
@penguins It’s the ✨partnership✨ for me.
♬ original sound - Pittsburgh Penguins
Most videos uploaded to TikTok last between 15 seconds and 1 minute. Published reports attribute more than 45 million U.S. users.
Smith-Schuster’s pregame dances — set to “Corvette Corvette” by Popp Hunna — gradually built up ire from some opposing players who saw it as disrespectful. After the Cincinnati Bengals’ Vonn Bell cited Smith-Schuster’s TikTok before and after a Steelers’ upset loss in Cincinnati in December, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he would tell Smith-Schuster to cease recording the videos.
