One of Canada’s best-known retail promotions is moving south of the border. After two years of building its market share in the United States, Tim Horton Donuts is launching its popular ‘Roll up the Rim to Win’ campaign south of the 49th parallel.

The promotion has been running for 13 years in Canada. While there was considerable temptation to introduce the promotion early in Tim Hortons’ U.S. launch, the Oakville, Ont.-based company wanted to hold off until it had achieved a sizable and stable customer base, says Cathy Whelan-Molloy, Tim Hortons’ director of U.S. marketing.

‘Roll up the Rim was originally introduced not as a promotion to entice new customers, but to reward our loyal customers,’ she says. ‘We wanted to make sure we laid the groundwork and make sure Americans associated Tim Hortons with great coffee before we introduced Roll up the Rim.’

The month-long promotion is running simultaneously in Canada and the U.S. with support from television spots created by Toronto-based Enterprise Creative Selling. However, while the Canadian television spot plays on Roll-up-the-Rim’s unique Canuck identity, the U.S. spot continues to build on Tim Hortons’ positioning as a morning coffee destination.

The U.S. campaign features an exuberant ‘morning person’ performing gymnastics in her office. Her excitement is fueled both by her morning shot of Tim Hortons coffee as well as by the fact that she won a mini-van in the giveaway.

With 120 locations in Detroit, Mich., Columbus, Ohio and areas of West Virginia and Maine, Tim Hortons now has a substantial enough customer base to make Roll-up-the Rim worthwhile, says Doug Poad, vice-president, business director and strategic planner with Enterprise.

‘Our research showed that had we introduced (Roll up the Rim) earlier, people would have been asking ‘Hey you say you have this great coffee, but if you are using this gimmick to get me to try it, just how good can it be?”