Insight
From bikes to skates, for the last 90 years, Canadian Tire has been the go-to store for all things related to active living. In contrast to its competitors Wal-Mart and Target who are epitomes of the large faceless US corporation, Canadian Tire works with, and is dedicated to the promotion of local programmes that lead to healthier communities.
In 2014, Canadian Tire wanted to signal a renewed commitment to the ordinary Canadians that are the heart and soul of those communities. The media/communication solution needed to demonstrate the role the brand plays in Canadian lives and in communities across the country by leveraging national patriotism that is at an all-time high during the Winter Olympics. Canadian Tire could genuinely own his community-driven approach as a grassroots brand, which would be impossible for its monolithic competitors.
The cornerstone of this initiative became the 2014 Winter Olympics, where Canadian Tire was a first time sponsor. As a winter nation, The Winter Olympics are Canada’s # 1 sporting event. For Canadian Tire’s debut as Olympic sponsor, it was a huge task to develop a campaign that would resonate with all Canadians, and enable it to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other well-established brands that have long been associated with sports and were perennial Olympic sponsors.
Strategy
This community-rooted strategy was based on a concrete consumer insight. Indeed, research has demonstrated, over and over again, that consumers are more likely to buy from companies that are involved and make a real difference in their community.
With its nationwide footprint - an advantage many retailers cannot claim in the second largest country in the world, Canadian Tire is well-established in each community that raised an Olympian. Therefore, during the 2014 Winter Olympics, the retailer became the storyteller who let Canadians know that it takes a village to raise an athlete.
Touché! Toronto did this by paying homage to the hundreds of people who shouldered Jonathan Toews, a key member of the Men’s Canadian Olympic Hockey Team, from his humble start in the minor leagues in the city of Winnipeg, all the way to his triumphant glory in Sochi.
The central idea of the communication strategy was the truest team photo ever taken: it featured Jonathan Toews and 300 people from his hometown who had carpooled, coached, parented, cheered and contributed to his illustrious career.
In the photo all 300 people wearing a red (Canada’s official colour) shirt, were positioned in the shape of Canada’s emblem, the maple leaf. It was a powerful, patriotic symbol that evoked that together, acting as a community, we could do great things. The Olympics was the pedestal used to showcase Canadian success, leveraging strong patriotic feelings and tying it back to community roots.
The photo was the perfect illustration of the insight – it evoked the idea that it takes a village to raise a hockey and Olympic star!
Execution
For consumers, Team Photo, meant that every one was capable of great things. The Olympics were the perfect pedestal to illustrate this: showcasing Canadian success, leveraging strong patriotic feelings and tying it back to its roots at the community level.
Paid:
• Digital: A website served as the main hub and housed 13 mini-documentaries that featured volunteers seen in the Team Photo TV spot. Each documentary could be viewed by clicking on the volunteer in the team photo. The documentaries were supported by an extensive online strategy including native advertising and social media seeding. The agency created social thank-you cards that were shared online, allowing Canadians to thank their own community leaders such as their child’s coach.
• Documentary: Touché! Toronto convinced Canada’s national TV broadcaster, the CBC to air a documentary in primetime featuring the team photo volunteers.
• Media first: The TV spot featured a song that struck a chord. The song became so popular, it was made available for download online. The agency then implemented a new way to promote increased downloads through a TV to Facebook synched ad. When the TV spot aired, a Facebook sponsored post was triggered through a Shazam-like technology, encouraging people to download the song.
Owned:
• Locally, all individual stores engaged their own communities with the content through in-store displays, further strengthening Canadian Tire’s grassroots positioning. Canadian Tire’s social assets and flyer programme also promoted the content.
Earned:
• Many other celebrities joined the movement. Soon, “We All Play for Canada” became the rallying cry of a nation.
Results
Objective 1 - To reinforce the positioning of Canadian Tire as a grassroots brand: Canadian Tire outperformed all brand KPI’s tracked by Ipsos. For instance “… had meaning to me personally: +100% over norms.”
Objective 2 - To engage with consumers and therefore, increase YOY sales: Canadian Tire left Target and Wal-Mart in the dust increasing sales by $93 million during the quarter (a very big number for a country like Canada)
Objective 3 – To Break through the Olympic advertising clutter: The campaign ranked #1 of 25 Olympic Campaigns, after only one year. It is a prowess that had rarely been accomplished in the Canadian advertising history! (Source: Charlton Strategic Research)
Content Performance metrics:
- The documentary attracted over 3.2 million viewers (14 rating points). The audience was stable all throughout the show, proving its appeal for consumers.
- Most downloaded song in Canada during the campaign span.
- In just FIVE DAYS, the campaign delivered 85 MM impressions on Facebook total …for a population of 30MM people in Canada.
- Engagement rate on Facebook was 4X the standard Facebook engagement rate in Canada.
- The Tweet promoting the Men’s Hockey Finals (with Jonathan Toews) drove an engagement rate of 11.11%, vs. Canadian Tire’s benchmark of 1.25% for promoted tweets.
- The #WeAllPlay hashtag appeared in 4.13MM Twitter user’s feeds.
- Pre Roll video specifically performed phenomenal and had an 88% completed view rate.