Decathlon is offering discounts to victims of bike theft.

If a customer brings a police report for a stolen bike to one of Decathlon’s six stores in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, they will get a $50 discount towards the purchase of one of the retailer’s bikes.

To let victims know about this recourse, the retailer has released a campaign featuring grainy surveillance footage of thieves making off with bikes. It also using transit ads, placing cut-outs with QR codes in bike racks and posting on Facebook Marketplace and bike sharing platforms.

Bike theft in urban areas is universal, explains Xavier Blais, ECD at Rethink, the agency that developed the campaign, though it was informed by data that approximately 4,000 bicycles are stolen annually in Toronto.

The campaign is launching as the weather gets warmer and more people in urban settings are travelling by bike – and the hope is to get Decathlon more consideration against the likes of Canadian Tire, which is better known for its bicycle assortment and its own Supercycle private brand.

Blais says awareness is still a major goal for Decathlon, which has been expanding across the country but remains a relatively new brand for most Canadians.

“Doing stuff like this brings [Decathlon] to the light and makes their products shine,” Blais says, adding that even if people aren’t coming into stores with police reports in hand, the concept is spirited enough to drive consideration and boost walk-in business.

This new effort is launching as Decathlon’s “Play It Smart” continues to be in market. The campaign, similarly focused on the products Decathlon manufactures itself for 65 different sports, is centred on a message that being value-conscious was the “smart” play when buying sports equipment. Both campaigns also used value to emphasize Decathlon’s brand positioning around making sports accessible, as a bike can be a major expense.

The bike theft program will run until July 30.