2021 Winner
GoldBest in OOH/Ambient/Place-Based Media - Budget Over $100,000
Canadian Tire
"Operation Puck Drop"
Touché!
"Operation Puck Drop"
Touché!
COVID-19 imposed a complete halt of the country’s beloved national sport, hockey. Canadian Tire is the number one retailer of hockey equipment globally. They needed to make up for the loss of sales and consumer connections resulting from a season-long stoppage.
After months without hockey, there was a palpable nostalgia for the game. However, the campaign was built on a stronger insight: Canadian consumers felt powerless when faced with the impact of the pandemic. This was true for every consumer, but even more so for Canadian Tire consumers. Indeed, their core consumer base is made of “fixers” and “do-it-yourselfers”. Canadian Tire is a mass retailer competing with home improvement retailers such as Lowes or Home Depot. On top of its sports offering, it sells a wide range of tools and material to improve Canadian homes. Their “do-it-yourself” consumers typically take matters into their own hands and the agency felt they could help them channel their energy into a positive and meaningful movement.
A season-long interruption also meant loss of sales and opportunities for the brand to engage with its core consumers. They needed to reinvent their hockey sponsorship strategy overnight!
If you can’t access arenas and outdoor rinks, why can’t you build your own network? This is the big idea behind ‘Operation: Puck Drop’. By building hundreds of ice hockey rinks in backyards, Canadians would have a chance to strap their skates back on.
Canadian Tire relied on the passion– and the arms! – of “do-it-yourselfers” to build a nation-wide network of community rinks. ‘Operation: Puck Drop’ supplied Canadians with the tools and know-how to take matters into their own hands. After all, Canadian Tire is a store for DIY’ers and builders. The brand believed they could truly make a difference one backyard at a time! Through this program, Canadian Tire would be the enabler of hockey, providing a moment of joy to Canadian families
across the nation.
Puck Drop allowed a socially distanced country to come together, virtually share experiences and be a part of one of the things that unites Canadians the most, hockey! This campaign was rooted in solidarity for bringing back hockey to Canadians. With partners like Hockey Canada, and TSN & RDS (Canadian Sports stations), they had the perfect team in place.
First, Operation Puck Drop integrated seamlessly into Canadian Tire’s existing ecommerce platform, the #4 most visited website in Canada (all categories included). This campaign-specific landing page included ‘How To’ videos teaching Canadians how to build their own rinks in their backyard and shoppable links to find all necessary tools and materials in a simple click. The how-to videos and shoppable links were promoted via digital and social channels.
Then, Canadian Tire, Hockey Canada and TSN/RDS asked Canadians to share the impact that an outdoor rink would make in their neighborhood. Canadians nationwide delivered: over 11,000 submissions in less than 2 weeks, cutting short the submission period in half! To kickstart the movement, the brand awarded 200 of these participants with a turnkey outdoor rink installation kit, and then do-it-yourselfers built hundreds more, as proven by their sales spikes for related products.
The campaign peaked during their sponsorship of the World Juniors on TSN & RDS. Vignettes highlighting the campaign’s impact were broadcasted in-content, during the most exciting moments of World Juniors. The content was also amplified on social and digital channels through custom content pieces and hockey celebrities’ engagement!
Because they needed to reinvent their hockey sponsorship strategy overnight, they created their own nationwide network of OOH advertising, thanks to the branding on the rinks. Hundreds of thousands of hyper qualified impressions were delivered to hockey enthusiasts, right in their backyards.
It is also the authentic purpose that made this campaign stand out in an otherwise dark reality of COVID-19. At the end of the day, this program turned lemons into lemonade, boosted spirits and enabled people to see the light at the end of the confinement tunnel.
Custom content was viewed for a total of 592 hours by Canadians from coast to coast, and the integration in the World Juniors delivered 150% the expected audiences. The campaign reached a total audience of 33.5M (in a country of 38M). 98% of hockey households found the program relevant considering the pandemic; 83% took positive action toward the brand; 38% of those surveyed stated an increase in purchase consideration, with an increase of 26% for sales conversion. Success was further validated through retail metrics; CT’s market share grew 47% over this period.
After months without hockey, there was a palpable nostalgia for the game. However, the campaign was built on a stronger insight: Canadian consumers felt powerless when faced with the impact of the pandemic. This was true for every consumer, but even more so for Canadian Tire consumers. Indeed, their core consumer base is made of “fixers” and “do-it-yourselfers”. Canadian Tire is a mass retailer competing with home improvement retailers such as Lowes or Home Depot. On top of its sports offering, it sells a wide range of tools and material to improve Canadian homes. Their “do-it-yourself” consumers typically take matters into their own hands and the agency felt they could help them channel their energy into a positive and meaningful movement.
A season-long interruption also meant loss of sales and opportunities for the brand to engage with its core consumers. They needed to reinvent their hockey sponsorship strategy overnight!
If you can’t access arenas and outdoor rinks, why can’t you build your own network? This is the big idea behind ‘Operation: Puck Drop’. By building hundreds of ice hockey rinks in backyards, Canadians would have a chance to strap their skates back on.
Canadian Tire relied on the passion– and the arms! – of “do-it-yourselfers” to build a nation-wide network of community rinks. ‘Operation: Puck Drop’ supplied Canadians with the tools and know-how to take matters into their own hands. After all, Canadian Tire is a store for DIY’ers and builders. The brand believed they could truly make a difference one backyard at a time! Through this program, Canadian Tire would be the enabler of hockey, providing a moment of joy to Canadian families
across the nation.
Puck Drop allowed a socially distanced country to come together, virtually share experiences and be a part of one of the things that unites Canadians the most, hockey! This campaign was rooted in solidarity for bringing back hockey to Canadians. With partners like Hockey Canada, and TSN & RDS (Canadian Sports stations), they had the perfect team in place.
First, Operation Puck Drop integrated seamlessly into Canadian Tire’s existing ecommerce platform, the #4 most visited website in Canada (all categories included). This campaign-specific landing page included ‘How To’ videos teaching Canadians how to build their own rinks in their backyard and shoppable links to find all necessary tools and materials in a simple click. The how-to videos and shoppable links were promoted via digital and social channels.
Then, Canadian Tire, Hockey Canada and TSN/RDS asked Canadians to share the impact that an outdoor rink would make in their neighborhood. Canadians nationwide delivered: over 11,000 submissions in less than 2 weeks, cutting short the submission period in half! To kickstart the movement, the brand awarded 200 of these participants with a turnkey outdoor rink installation kit, and then do-it-yourselfers built hundreds more, as proven by their sales spikes for related products.
The campaign peaked during their sponsorship of the World Juniors on TSN & RDS. Vignettes highlighting the campaign’s impact were broadcasted in-content, during the most exciting moments of World Juniors. The content was also amplified on social and digital channels through custom content pieces and hockey celebrities’ engagement!
Because they needed to reinvent their hockey sponsorship strategy overnight, they created their own nationwide network of OOH advertising, thanks to the branding on the rinks. Hundreds of thousands of hyper qualified impressions were delivered to hockey enthusiasts, right in their backyards.
It is also the authentic purpose that made this campaign stand out in an otherwise dark reality of COVID-19. At the end of the day, this program turned lemons into lemonade, boosted spirits and enabled people to see the light at the end of the confinement tunnel.
Custom content was viewed for a total of 592 hours by Canadians from coast to coast, and the integration in the World Juniors delivered 150% the expected audiences. The campaign reached a total audience of 33.5M (in a country of 38M). 98% of hockey households found the program relevant considering the pandemic; 83% took positive action toward the brand; 38% of those surveyed stated an increase in purchase consideration, with an increase of 26% for sales conversion. Success was further validated through retail metrics; CT’s market share grew 47% over this period.
Credits
Canadian Tire CorporationTouché!
Bell Media, TSN, RDS
Taxi Agency