"GERMANY ON ICE"TM is the catchy motto of the 2010 IIHF World Championship and is giving the name to a comprehensive advertising campaign that had been started with the beginning of the ice hockey season 2009/2010."An important goal for the world championship in Germany is to maintain the excitement among our longstanding and ever loyal fans as well as to win new friends for our fascinating sport", says Franz Reindl, secretary general of the organizing committee. "Our motto "GERMANY ON ICE"TM provides a perfect basis for this. It is comprehensive, easy to memorize, generates a lot of associations and it does provoke a bit, which is even intentional", adds Reindl, apparently happy about the creation, which has been conceived not by an expensive external agency, but in the inner circle of the marketing & communications department of the organizing committee. Even a special font with the name "ice2010" has been developed for the World Championship motto by designer Roy Wedema of IIHF marketing partner Infront.
Main character of the campaign is the World Championship Mascot "Urmel on Ice"TM. Created by children's book author Max Kruse, it is very well known in the German speaking regions as character from the famous “Augsburger Puppenkiste”. His previous involvement as the mascot of the DEB and the German national ice hockey team predestines Urmel to be promoted into the role of the World Championship mascot. As a figure of identification for young and old, it will travel across the country before and during the World Championship with the honourable number "10" on his shirt. Urmels mission is to put the people into World Championship mood.
A further component of the campaign are various image motifs, which are staging the motto in the environment of ice hockey itself, but also in other areas of life. The motifs are being used in posters, billboards, commercials, print ads and much more.
