As its Canadian expansion continues, Decathlon is once again leaning into the idea of accessibility by showing someone doesn’t need to break the bank to play sports.

“Play it Smart” aims to show that in a simple way, with spots conveying the difference between expensive equipment and Decathlon’s own store brands: there is none, as the ball hits the court and the net in the exact same way.

The campaign also draws connections to other realms where Canadians might be feeling an economic pinch, such as a billboard that boasts how one of its backpacks costs “only $0.70 a litre.”

Accessibility has been a concept the French sports retailer has leaned into for its Canadian expansion, positioning itself as a place where anyone can play sports. That has been communicated with things like the “Ability Signs” campaign, which aimed to make sports more inclusive for people of any physical ability, but also a holiday campaign that showed someone doesn’t have to have gone through elite training to tap into their inner athlete.

The new campaign continues that approach, this time looking at cost as a barrier to entry for sports, and positioning seeking value as a “smart” approach, instead of something only done by athletes that aren’t serious, by showing how the results are the same whether your tennis racket costs $120 or $65.

Marie-Lou Blais, Decathlon’s director of communications, says affordability and accessibility resonates with Canadians a lot when it comes to sports equipment and apparel, an insight informed by Leger research. Decathlon, Blais explains, has already succeeded in serving the value-conscious consumer by conceiving its own products, and controlling the whole process from creation to manufacturing and distribution from A to Z.

For the moment, Decathlon is focusing on its in-house brands for its value-focused messaging, but Blais says it isn’t ruling out bringing in other brands for categories it is not active in.

The store experience has been a key differentiator for Decathlon, Blais notes, with the ability for people to trial products, store footprint permitting.

“We like to see our stores be alive with kids testing our products,” she says, and the company is honing in on young, price-conscious families, and active lifestyle enthusiasts, be they beginners or advanced.

Decathlon first came to Canada in 2018 and, last summer, opened a 3,500 square foot concept store in Toronto’s Union Station. Blais says engagement with commuters is helping it see in real-time what urban buyers are looking for compared to its suburban locations. Decathlon is promising more store openings in Quebec, Calgary, Ontario and British Columbia in the near-future, and currently boasts 14 locations.

Emily Manuel, Decathlon’s PR and partnerships project manager, tells strategy that when it announced it was going to open a Vancouver location, the response was “unbelievable,” indicative of how successful it has been trying to boost its brand awareness, a challenge it faced when pushing outside of Ontario and Quebec.  “People are putting a lot of input into where they want to see us,” Manuel says.

“Play it Smart” is running in out-of-home, radio, digital and in-store media. The company is also testing Twitch in terms of digital placement.

Rethink handled the creative, 1Milk2Sugars the PR, and the media buy was done internally, which Decathlon has been doing for the past year. Ad spend is slightly higher than the company has done in the past.