Nick Donnelly had a simple question for the Devils through Twitter. “How many retweets for season tickets?” Nine thousand, four hundred and fifty retweets later, Donnelly became the newest Devils season ticket member.
The Devils PR team arrived at this unique number by multiplying 35 (the amount of years the Devils have been playing in New Jersey) by 4 (Scott Stevens’ retired number) plus 3 (Ken Daneyko) plus 27 (Scott Niedermayer) plus 30 (Martin Brodeur) plus 26 (Patrik Elias’ soon-to-be-retired number) which equaled 3,150. They then multiplied that number by three (the number of Stanley Cups the franchise has won) to come up with 9,450.
The team then gave Donnelly a week to achieve those retweets. If he hit the first number (3,150), he would get the 5-game Patty Pack. Hitting the full number would net him full season ticket membership for 2017-18. That is when things really took off.
Soon, Devils fans and players on Twitter and even fans of other teams were retweeting Donnelly in an attempt to help him hit his goal.
Adam Henrique and Keith Kinkaid pitched in with retweets and support. Brian Born on the Devils’ official website reported that less than ten minutes after Taylor Hall retweeted Donnelly at 9 PM on September 12, the final few retweets came in. Donnelly had his season tickets. His final tally was 11,476 retweets all between 1:32 PM when he initially tweeted the Devils and 9:19 PM when the Devils officially welcomed him as a new season ticket member. All in less than eight hours!
This was a cool impromptu promotion that the Devils did through Twitter. It also shows the power of social media in this day and age. Donnelly really put himself out there by thinking outside the box and, amazingly, the Devils responded. It was a fun thing and some good PR for the Devils to boot. Many on Twitter were lauding the Devils for doing what they did and really giving them credit for doing something so cool.
Their only regret, perhaps, is that they gave him a week to meet his goal, not knowing it would take less than a day to exceed the number that they gave him.