Scotiabank’s “Hockey for All” platform, aimed at making the sport more accessible and inclusive took a new approach in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs by offering merchandise customization.

The “Make It Merch” campaign, designed with the bank’s AOR Rethink, offers NHL team patches to customize clothing, so fans can show their allegiance to their favourite team without having to buy a jersey. 

The goal, the bank says, is to make merchandise team spirit feel more accessible for all types of fans. And to bring individuality to team merchandise, playing off of trends the bank and Rethink has seen in customizable team merchandise across sports.

Since launching the “Hockey For All” initiative in 2021, Scotiabank has tackled issues of inclusion at multiple levels in areas where some feel like they don’t have access to the sport. In the past, this has included distributing Pride Tape at its branches. Scotiabank vice-president of global brand management John Rocco says the goal has always been about bringing fans into the game.

“If you’re a sponsor of a property, that property is of value if it grows and its vibrant and people are connecting to it. So we have a vested interest in ensuring the game grows,” Rocco tells strategy.

Rocco adds that it’s important for the bank to be a greater part of the communities it operates in across Canada. He adds that as Canada grows, and more newcomers arrive in the country, this campaign helps facilitate relationships with newcomers as people become fans of the NHL, but face accessibility issues sometimes with how expensive some elements of fandom can be.

“It matters to care about the things that our customers care. We care about it. We’re fans,” Rocco says. “For us, it’s really extending our brand to the communities where we work, where we live, where our customers live. And that’s why we’re involved in the sport from the grassroots level, all the way up to the professional level.”

Scotiabank is the official sponsor of three NHL teams currently competing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sponsoring the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets. So, select Scotiabank branches in Toronto, Edmonton and Winnipeg have offered “At-Home Kits” with patches to “Make It Merch.”

New Canadians who are also new fans to hockey, as well as younger fans, are key target demographics for the “Make It Merch” campaign, as the brand endeavors to grow the sport’s fandom.

The campaign’s creative, strategy and PR was led by Rethink, with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment supporting on XM through offering the customizable patches at Maple Leaf Square in Toronto during each of the Leafs’ first-round games. Rocco adds that this campaign is a cost-effective, grassroots way to reach a lot of people, requiring less of a marketing spend than its typical campaigns.

The campaign runs during the first round of the NHL playoffs. It’s led on social media, and supported by in-branch and owned assets.