Nike Training, the hockey arm of Nike Canada, is giving teenagers who eat, sleep and breathe hockey the professional training they are looking for this summer with The Program. 

The Program, created by digital agency Proximity Canada with media by Jungle Media is a series of 92 YouTube videos hosted by former NHL player and current hockey trainer Gary Roberts and top hockey trainer Matt Nichol.

With a goal of making Nike Training the source for hockey, The Program is organized into a 12-week workout regime aimed at giving serious hockey players aged 14 to 17 the edge they need to get ahead, says Nike Canada digital and social media strategist Anthony Zanfini. 

“Working with Toronto-based research company the Palmerston Group, we found out target market are not the creator types,” he says. “They go to TSN, Facebook and YouTube, go to the rink, go home, play hockey videogames and go to school when they have to. We thought why should we spend our media dollars pushing them to our website when we could put the videos on YouTube and get them where they already are going.”

To accompany the online program, which is being promoted on Nike’s social media channels, as well as through Google Ad Words and online advertising on TSN, the company has launched “Be the One,” an in-person training session where kids can train for the chance to work one-on-one with NHL trainer Gary Roberts.