Strong to the Finnish: Upper Deck Hockey in Europe

In an effort to fuel the collecting passions of the NHL’s international following, Upper Deck recently made hockey and hobby history by producing its first-ever packs of Finnish- and Swedish-language Upper Deck Victory packs.

The cards were produced to take advantage of this week’s 2009-10 regular-season puck-droppers between the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues in Stockholm, Sweden, and between the Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers in Helsinki, Finland. The cards will be on sale both at those games and through off-site retailers in those respective markets.

“The overseas games provide us with an excellent opportunity to share our product with European fans,” said Kerri Kauffman, Upper Deck’s Director of Marketing. “We’ve developed an exclusive sampling of our Victory brand with a special insert set dedicated to the top Swedish and Finnish players. All of the cards and packaging are printed in Swedish and Finnish.”

Both the Swedish and Finnish versions of the product include a 200-card base set and an insert lineup consisting of Victory Rookies (1:2 packs). Each product also includes an exclusive one-per-pack Swedish Superstars or Finnish Superstars insert.

Upper Deck also will be running print ads in corresponding game programs for both games in each city (Oct. 2 and 3) as well as airing its latest hockey commercials during the games.

— Tracy Hackler