Sports Interaction, a challenger brand in the sports betting category, is taking a shot at the U.S. with a bold new campaign, declaring “America doesn’t know jack about hockey.”
The statement is featured on a billboard on the Peace Bridge, a key crossing between Canada and the U.S. The OOH effort is just a small part of a much broader campaign that is anchored by two TV spots airing with a heavy buy on Sportsnet.
“We wanted to break through the clutter and we decided to focus on betting local,” says Michael Zitney, director of brand content at Sports Interaction. “Canadians love supporting Canadians, so that’s the angle that we took.”
When the Ontario sports betting market opened up in April of last year, major U.S. players such as BetMGM entered the space. “It became the most fierce competition in the world, as far as the betting space goes,” he tells strategy.
But that heightened competition also meant a lot of similiar content featuring big sports stars, bold claims and bright lights – a whole lot of noise in which messages were quickly lost. Sports Interaction poked fun at this approach with its first campaign, launched last fall, which featured hockey star Chris Pronger and that took “direct shots” at several of its key competitors.
To set itself apart from its competitors, Sports Interaction has now deliberately positioned itself as “the little guy who wants to punch with the big boys,” explains Zitney.
The new work takes a Rick Mercer-style (“Talking to Canadians”) approach to deliver the message. Shot on the streets of Los Angeles, the host for the spots asks a number of Americans questions about the game of hockey. The spot finds humour in the respondents’ relative cluelessness about the game, before the host concludes that Americans don’t get the sport, so Canadians shouldn’t bet with their sports books.
“We understand that there are Americans who are well-educated and understand the sport, but at the same time, we wanted to punch a bit to break through,” says Zitney. “It’s all in good fun. We’re not out to make anyone look stupid, though we might have. We want to create a debate.”
And it did, indeed, generate discussion. The campaign attracted the attention of Quick Shift podcast co-hosts Kevin Connolly and former NHL player Sean Avery, who devoted a segment of their show to the spot.
The campaign is set to run for the next three to four months, although it may extend beyond that time, Zitney says. Evolutions of the concept include potential spots shot in more hockey-savvy American cities that will develop the concept further.
“We could even go to Europe,” says Zitney. “We could go anywhere with this.”
Juliet handled the campaign creative, while Spark Foundry handled the media buy, supported by Sports Interaction’s internal team.
