Sport Chek is showcasing young female athletes on the heels of a big commitment to women’s professional sports.
The campaign is also the first for the retailer by agency Cartier, which was recently named Sport Chek’s AOR. Cartier also leads creative for Mark’s, another Canadian Tire-owned banner.
The new spot highlights the grit and determination of female athletes of all ages across sports, part of Sport Chek’s “What Moves You” platform.
The campaign also brings to the forefront recent investments made by parent company Canadian Tire into women’s sports. In March, the company became a founding partner of Canada’s first women’s professional soccer league, unveiled at the same time as a new Women’s Sport Initiative. The initiative is meant to bring half of the company’s sponsorship dollars to women’s professional sports, alongside a dedicated media fund meant to bolster their visibility.
“With the recent announcement of our partnership and sponsorship it’s a lovely build up to our spot,” says Stephanie Wall, Sport Chek’s VP of marketing.
Wall tells strategy the latest work also represents an evolution of the brand, which is taking a more narrative approach than a product-centric one to generate an emotional response. That’s an approach that especially makes sense at this moment, as the investment in women’s sports is something bigger than the company, Wall says, particularly the notions of sports building character and being empowering.
Cartier was chosen as Sport Chek’s agency in part because its work on the Mark’s brand showed that it understood how to tie emotions to retail selection, as well as the realities of retail to drive conversion. It is also deeply familiar with the Triangle loyalty program, a big driver when it comes to boosting Mark’s and Sport Chek’s business.
There is a traditional TV buy for the new campaign, as Sport Chek customers tend to over-index on live television as major sports head into the playoff season. Ad spend is in line with previous efforts.
The timing is also meant to coincide with the warmer weather and the WNBA season, increasingly a focal point for brand attention.
The traditional media buy was handled by Touché, while the digital buy was led by Canadian Tire’s internal digital team.
