CTVglobemedia’s TSN broadcast an eight-game Canada vs. Russia Super Series over two weeks last fall with some of hockey’s fastest and most intense next-generation players. Toronto-based Cossette Media took advantage of the excitement to get Thornhill, Ont.-based Nike Canada in the faces of young hockey fans and generate interest in Nike’s summer training program.
Goal
To encourage young hockey players to sign up for Nike’s training regime, The Summer Shift.
Target
Hockey-crazed kids, primarily boys 10 to 16.
Insights and strategy
To get ahead in today’s fast and physical hockey game, players need to train more than their peers, pushing their limits even in the off season to fulfill their true potential on the ice. In order to inspire the next generation, Nike needed to showcase not only how today’s star players train, but how their motivation paid off when it mattered.
The plan
To inject the Nike Summer Shift message into the game broadcasts, the team tapped TSN anchors to throw to a short film created by Portland, Ore.’s Wieden+Kennedy to document the training regimes of Canadian players during each game. The producers wrote intros and outros, inserting the content into their analysis between the first and second periods. The films were also screened at rinks and arenas. The team then took the strategy online to TSN’s broadband player and created a Nike Summer Shift section where young players could watch the training content, along with the live action on the ice.
Results
With Canada sweeping the series, the audience was 39% higher than estimated. And nearly 7,000 kids enrolled at niketraining.ca to build their own training programs.
Credits
Cossette Media: Brock Leeson, media supervisor; Kate Clement, buyer
Nike Canada: Andrew Stewart, brand communications manager
Wieden+Kennedy: Matthew Hernholm, account executive
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