The Olympic torch has already begun its journey from Greece to the 2024 Games in Paris, but Montreal is calling for a stop along the way.

The torch will travel through different French regions before arriving in the host city this year, but Tourisme Montréal has launched a new campaign asking the French Olympic Committee to include the city in the torch relay.

Through a 60-second video, the “Bring the Flame to Montreal” campaign highlights that more than 65,000 French people live in the Canadian city, which should make it an essential stop on the torch route. The campaign also underlines Montreal’s many attractions, including its gastronomy, as well as its various parks and its emblematic Olympic Stadium.

“The media landscape during the games is cluttered. We therefore had to find an original idea that would set us apart,” Mylène Neufcourt, communication and advertising senior manager at Tourisme Montréal, tells strategy. “The idea is based on a very Montreal-specific insight in connection with the games: that there are more French people in Montreal than almost half of the French cities where the torch relay will pass.”

The campaign’s creative plays with the familiarity that already exists between the two cities, and the relationship between the people of Quebec and France, Neufcourt says. She adds that the campaign presents an ideal itinerary for the torch in the Canadian city.

Using familiar elements, Neufcourt says the petition serves as a platform to create an emotional connection with French audiences while showing what Montreal has to offer.

“The torch relay is an essential tradition that brings together all the residents of the host nation. We saw a great opportunity to continue the dialogue with France, an important tourist market for Montreal,” she says. 

Tourisme Montréal rolled out the campaign a couple of days before the torch’s official arrival in Marseille on May 8. Since then, the company has recorded nearly two million completed views of the video and has garnered roughly 25,000 engagements on social media. The timing of its launch has played an important role in these good results, Neufcourt says.

“It not only allowed us to give more credibility to our symbolic request, but also to avoid being lost in all the media noise surrounding the event,” she says.

The campaign relies on paid media tactics, such as video ads on YouTube and Meta platforms. The company also invested a portion of the media plan in Google Demand Gen ads.

Lg2 is behind creativity and strategy, while Touché! handled media buying.