Though winless in its first four away games of the MLS season, CF Montréal is hoping a new campaign launched today will energize fans and players alike ahead of its home debut. 

The spot features drone footage of Montreal and the Stade Saputo, plus quick-cut highlights from games and fan reaction – to reflect the passion for the game and to reach fans in a powerful way, says Jean-François Béliveau, co-creative director of 360 at Pigeon, which handled the creative.

“Soccer is about emotion,” Béliveau says.

The name of the campaign, “Allez Allez Allez” is also an in-game chant for CF Montréal, variations of which can be heard in Europe with the phrase most popularly associated with Premier League club Liverpool.

The spot concludes with the Club’s motto: “Tous ensemble, droit devant” (“Together, straight ahead”) a unifying call to action used to mark several elements of this year’s campaign, and as a reminder that the entire organization progresses through victory, but also through adversity.

Attendance could be seen as one obstacle.

According to recent figures, pre-lockdowns, average attendance dropped year over year from 2018 to 2019 for all three of Canada’s MLS teams: CF Montréal, Toronto FC, and the Vancouver Whitecaps. However, attendance for the league as a whole has been steadily growing for that period, reflecting demographic changes and the sport’s accessibility.

Soccer has also been top of mind of late in Canada, thanks to the men’s national team’s World Cup qualifying performances, as the national team seeks to secure a top three slot to represent the CONCACAF division in Qatar.

The campaign will appear throughout Montreal starting March 24 in different formats including billboards, online, social media and television. Communications Infrarouge assisted with the PR, with Cartier handling the buy. 

In early 2021, the team rebranded. It jettisoned its “Impact” moniker, which some critics thought was nondescript or more closely associated with other sports, like arena football, and opted for Club de Foot, or CF Montréal. This not only better reflected that it was a soccer club, but the city’s culture and to acknowledge that the club plays in a primarily French-speaking city in a French-speaking province.

Later that year, the team made news again when appliance brand GE announced a three-year sponsorship deal with the club to extend its support of Canadian soccer.