The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Team Canada marked the 100-day countdown to the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Wednesday morning with the launch of a campaign celebrating athletes’ pride and perseverance both on and off the field of play.

Created in collaboration with Toronto-based agency The Hive, the new work builds on the “Brave Is Unbeatable” campaign, a tagline established for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, to highlight Canadian household names and up-and-comers alike as they prepare to take the world stage in Italy for the Games starting on Feb. 6.

“The campaign is really meant to inspire Canadians, because that’s what Team Canada does,” says Jacquie Ryan, chief brand and commercial officer at the COC. “The Olympics does a wonderful job of amplifying athlete stories, showing the success of the athletes at the Games and afterwards and really inspiring Canadians and the next generation of Canadians.”

The creative was developed to reflect the grit and determination of Canada’s competitors, with athletes such as hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin, freestyle skier Mikaël Kingsbury and speed skater William Dandjinou, among others, featured across the campaign. Each athlete was selected to reflect Team Canada’s diversity in sport, geography, language and background, Ryan tell strategy. Canadian sprinting star Andre De Grasse narrates the video portion of the campaign in English, while Canadian R&B artist Corneille lends his voice to the French version.

“The stories that you’ll see in the campaign, they’re all about the unpredictable, often challenging, paths to the Olympic Games and ‘Brave is Unbeatable’ really portrays Canada as that resilient and unflappable nation that we are, and aims to build energy and lots of excitement across the country,” Ryan says.

The launch not only marks the 100-day countdown to the opening of the Games, but serves as a kickoff to a much larger marketing push planned for the coming months.

The not-for-profit COC will be partnering with the CBC and Radio-Canada to utilize broadcast and digital platforms for its marketing efforts in buildup to the opening ceremony and throughout the Games. To help launch the campaign, CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada will feature the one-minute “Brave is Unbeatable” video as part of its broadcast on Saturday night.

In addition to the video, which includes 30-, 15- and 10-second cutdowns, the campaign is rolling out through out-of-home, social posters and ad placements featured at Cadillac Fairview locations, in Globe & Mail newspapers and through other forms of donated media. The digital side includes a TikTok partnership with sports-media brand The Gist and the COC will also be using long-form podcasts and social channels to amplify Team Canada’s personalities and highlight medal moments and fan interactions.

“It’s a uniquely tailored approach that really has something for every Canadian,” Ryan says. “As it relates to the next generation of fan, it’s about showing up in media that’s more relevant to them. We do find that behind the scenes and unique approaches in authentic interviews with athletes is really particularly interesting to the next generation of fans.”

Looking ahead, Ryan says the COC’s 37 marketing partners will begin launching their Olympic-related integrated campaigns toward the end of the year and into early January on the eve of the Games approaches and excitement builds.

“It’s that notion that we help set the stage and get Canadians excited, and then the marketing partners start layering in their campaigns where they can tell their story,” Ryan says.

Alongside its digital and broadcast reach, the COC will be extending its presence into the real world through the Team Canada Fan Fest outdoor activation series. Taking place in major cities across the country, including Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, Calgary’s WinSport, Vancouver’s Jack Poole Plaza and Montreal’s Quartier Spectacle, the events wil feature live viewing parties and interactive sport demos that will give families the chance to lace up and try skating and  other Olympic sports. Developed with agency partner Wasserman, Ryan says the program aims to bring the inspiration of the Games into communities coast to coast, fostering the spirit of play and connection that drives the broader campaign.

Campaign performance of “Brave Is Unbeatable” will be measured by how effectively it engages Canadians with Team Canada’s stories and athletes, Ryan adds. That engagement will be tracked through audience growth and interactions across social channels like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, as well as listenership of the Team Canada podcast and viewership CBC’s broadcast coverage. Beyond reach, the COC will also look at shifts in brand equity.