Behind every athlete, there is a vast support network that develops throughout their career: from family and friends to teachers and teammates, these are the people who lay the foundation for an athletes’ success. When an athlete reaches the pinnacle of competition at the Olympics or Paralympics, many of these supporters are often unable to travel to the Games.

Armed with this insight, Canadian Tire wanted to make the Games more inclusive and leverage the power of strategic storytelling by bringing these important supporters to the Games through the Red Door: a life-sized door that facilitates real-time audio and visual interactions across thousands of kilometres. By adding the element of surprise, the Red Door facilitated heart-warming interactions between athletes and their communities, generating unique content in-line with Canadian Tire’s brand values of inclusivity and selflessness, and captured the Marketing campaign and brand sentiment of We All Play for Canada.

Working with a technology partner, Canadian Tire developed the Red Door technology and structures; one Red Door was installed in PyeongChang inside Canada House, with secondary Red Doors visiting different Canadian locations.

Canadian Tire pre-selected 14 athletes to participate in appearances at Canada House. Athletes were told they would be connecting with strangers, ensuring they were unaware that it would be their family and friends on the other side. At home in Canada, venues with a personal connection to the athletes, such as their hometown ski hill, were chosen to host the Red Door. At each interaction, family, friends and other special guests were on hand to surprise the athletes and together celebrate their achievements, leading to emotional moments for all.

Canadian Tire’s Red Door was in market during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, launching February 12th with Olympic bronze medallist Mark McMorris, a strategic selection given his notoriety.

Canadian Tire’s Red Door exceeded expectations against all objectives:

1. Generate high quality earned media coverage and significant impressions

a. The Red Door generated 26.4 million earned media impressions and 111 stories across more than 65 outlets, including major national outlets such as the CBC, Global, CTV, Yahoo!, Daily Hive and MSN.

b. The positive, local stories – all featuring Canadian Tire mentions – were picked up across the country.

2. Drive social engagement and views

a. Five Red Door videos generated 8.7 million views on Facebook.

b. Four out of the five videos surpassed one million views each, with a Paralympic video generating the most views at 2.1 million.

c. Red Door content generated 26.6 million social media impressions and garnered over 2,200 comments on Facebook.

3. Build an emotional connection with shareholders, employees, and customers alike

a. On Workplace by Facebook (Canadian Tire’s employee communication platform), Red Door content was the most-engaged with PyeongChang 2018 content amongst employees, generating 10,000 views and reaching more than 7,000 employees. It earned a 1:59 engagement ratio, significantly higher than the standard benchmark of 1:11.

b. The Red Door was part of the overall Canadian Tire Olympic campaign, which earned Tier-1 (top 10) aided awareness in Canada, alongside long-time global sponsors like McDonald’s and Visa.

c. Qualitative feedback from athletes, families and Olympic/ Paralympic partners was extremely positive.

Through strategic storytelling, the Red Door successfully communicated Canadian Tire’s brand values to shareholders, employees, and customers alike during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.