When the CFL kicked off on Thursday night with its season opener between the Montreal Alouettes and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, it returned with a new campaign that the league hopes will be versatile in its use across the country, and continue the league’s work to reach a wider, younger audience.

The “Keep it Unreal” campaign, developed with full-service agency Juliet Creative, looks to appeal to both die-hard football fans, by highlighting unreal feats of athleticism and plays, as well as more casual fans, by showcasing unreal community, fandom and players’ off-field stories around the sport.

CFL senior vice-president of marketing and communications Craig Garvie says the league started speaking with Juliet in the fall about the campaign, and gave them an “impossible brief” to try and come up with a campaign that was flexible enough to be led by the league, and used by all nine teams as well as key partners like the league’s broadcaster TSN.

“It needs to fit within [teams’] brand, look and feel as that connective tissue, but alongside their [own] taglines,” Garvie says.

“The flexibility of this does allow us to get more reach, and that’s a priority for us especially as we talk about attracting younger fans. We wanted to make sure this was something that could be picked up TSN, RDS and our network of clubs.”

He adds that the new campaign is simplistic, stripped back and cinematic, doing away with some secondary elements and macho sports marketing tropes that try to simulate the speed of the game. Instead, the “Keep it Unreal” campaign uses slow, orchestral music while showcasing the intensity of competition among players and fans, while Garvie says does a better job of capturing viewers’ attention, and is a simple enough approach to allow the league to turn marketing assets around efficiently throughout the season.

The campaign also already includes offshoot cutdowns for each of the nine teams, celebrating moments from the 2023 season.

The idea of the campaign is to develop something that can resonate with casual fans or non-fans, largely targeting a younger, more diverse and more urban audience. The league says it saw a 9% increase in ratings last year, including a 34% increase in the 25-54-year-old demographic, as well as increases in online engagement, video views and audience growth.

Garvie says the campaign targets first-time fans, or people who may know the league but have never seen it presented in a way that’s forced them reconsider what the CFL is and if they should watch it.

“We’re at a point where we have a product on the field where the data says it’s a compelling, exciting game, and we also in conjunction with our teams really stepped up in building our casual fan atmosphere at all of our games,” Garvie says, adding that the campaign will also highlight the gameday experiences available to fans at stadiums around the league.

The CFL’s marketing has shifted to a much more data-driven approach since the COVID-19 pandemic, Garvie says. A brand audit during the pandemic found various strengths for the league to capitalize on including the league’s accessibility, presence in communities, rivalries and athleticism on the field. The CFL now tests everything in its marketing, and presented these findings to Juliet in a brief, which then conducted its own research as well.

Along with some digital media buy, the campaign’s media strategy largely leverages the league’s existing channels, as well as the channels of its teams and broadcast partners.

Garvie adds that the campaign’s creative will evolve throughout the year, including touchpoints at Labour Day weekend and ahead of playoffs and the Grey Cup championship game. The league is also looking at adding a retail component of the campaign geared towards younger, casual fans.