Passengers arriving at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport on WestJet flights the morning of Nov. 8 were greeted with a surprise: the CFL’s Grey Cup was waiting for them on the baggage carousel.

In collaboration with the league, WestJet rolled the Cup on the carousel for travellers flying from Saskatoon, Toronto and Edmonton as part of the Western Final, in which the Winnipeg Blue Bombers faced the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Nov. 9. The activation was run by the airline’s AOR, Rethink, and recorded with hidden cameras.

Mariam Wilton, senior manager of brand strategy and activation at WestJet, tells strategy that as the official airline and vacation tour operator of the CFL, WestJet understands how important these final games are to many of its customers who travel to support their teams. “The Grey Cup usually doesn’t travel to the Western or Eastern Final host city, so its appearance felt like an extra special moment for our guests in Winnipeg, getting them excited for the big game by reminding them what’s on the line: this iconic trophy,” Wilton says.

She notes that WestJet has also recently increased its capacity in Winnipeg, so when the Western Final was announced there, the team thought it would be the perfect community to launch the activation and reach both CFL fans and Canadians in general.

The activation is the first act under the airline’s new brand platform, “Where Your Story Takes Off,” which highlights the power of travel to shape personal stories and how WestJet has been a catalyst for those journeys. According to Wilton, WestJet has used airports – specifically baggage carousels – to surprise its passengers in the past; however, this event marked a first collaboration with the CFL, as well as with iconic Canadian sports figures such as Jeff McWhinney, who is the keeper of the Grey Cup.

“This new positioning will have WestJet show up in fun and innovative ways, like what we did at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, to help foster these memorable experiences that we hope our guests will continue to share for years to come,” she says. “Connecting our guests to the stories that they’ll continue to tell will be the focus as we move forward into this new brand platform.”

The moments that were captured at the airport are being cut down to 15- and 30-second spots and will air nationally via paid ads on YouTube, TikTok and Meta, with Media Experts leading the buy. Rethink’s PR department, Brand Narrative, led influencer partnerships, including collaborations with TSN sports anchor Kate Beirness and Sportsnet anchor Donnovan Bennett, who are speaking about the activation via in-feed reels and Instagram stories.

Wilton says the media mix is similar to that of other WestJet campaigns and, since the goal was mass reach and awareness, the strategy was to include channels with a wider coverage. “Social makes up a good portion of the buy based on our content outputs in collaboration with sports influencers,” she says.

WestJet also worked with experiential production agency The Deli.