With the FIFA Women’s World Cup now in full swing, BMO has launched a new campaign reaffirming its commitment to soccer at all levels.

The campaign is built around a series of TV, streaming, video and social spots featuring face of the brand Lamorne Morris alongside soccer players of all ages, including Canadian national team star Julia Grosso. Each video has fun with staples of soccer like jersey swaps and keep-ups, but all ladder back to the bank’s “#BMOGrowTheGame” message of supporting youth players and teams across Canada.

BMO will complement the TV and video campaign with social posts on TikTok and Instagram featuring the star midfielder that will appear at key moments during the tournament.

“We took an approach of multiple creative options,” says Michael Sanders, VP and managing director of brand at BMO, who tells strategy this is important as, often times, ads can blur together during big events like this.

The bank is applying learnings from the campaign it ran during the 2022 World Cup, featuring Team Canada and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies, which had a wide array of different assets that Sanders notes were “unmistakably BMO.”

“The mix of athlete and our recurring character played by Morris, those two things are important pieces for us,” he says.

There is lots of investment by a variety of brands in soccer, reflecting growing fan interest. BMO welcomes it, and talks about growing the game all the time, Sanders says, particularly at the grassroots level. It’s part of the bank’s broader CSR purpose, to “Boldly Grow the Good,” which includes driving equity in sport.

Last week, the bank hosted a panel at BMO Field to talk about equity in the game. However, BMO is taking a fun and joyful approach that shows its commitment to women’s sports in a more subtle way, through, for example, including house league girl soccer players in the creative.

Including Grosso in ads, Sanders says, makes sense for the “Bank of Soccer,” as she’s the future of the sport, currently making waves playing professionally in Italy. Her personality and joy, he says, is a nice complement to pitchman Lamorne Morris.

FCB is the lead creative agency, with media buy being handled UM Canada.

BMO is leaning into broadcast as a sponsor of World Cup broadcasts on TSN and RDS, but will also have OOH at BMO Field and BMO Stadium, digital video assets on YouTube and media partnerships with The Gist and TheScore.

Sanders says the spend is line with last year’s World Cup.