Situation: Scotiabank has long established themselves as one of Canada’s leading corporate partners in hockey, rightfully earning the namesake "Canada’s Hockey Bank". That said, the hockey space is competitive, with brands fighting for the attention of hockey-loving Canadians. While Scotiabank Arena is Canada’s most popular sports stadium, they recognize the need to continuously prove their leadership in (and passion for) the sport — especially at the community level. And especially at a time when the sport was getting negative attention: bullying, racism, sexism, and a drop in enrollment.

Brief: Develop a breakthrough idea to positively engage with the hockey audience, amplify Scotiabank’s support for hockey, and cement their position as a leading brand in the hockey space.

Objectives:

1. Drive engagement and participation via user generated content (specifically in digital/social)

2. Reinforce Scotiabank as a supporter of community hockey

3. Increase positive sentiment and earned media impressions for Scotiabank Hockey

Hockey impacts Canadians in so many ways: our schedules, relationships, resilience, “vacations”, opportunities, etc. There are regional differences too depending on urban/rural, weather, facilities, social structures, community support, etc. No brand understands this more than Scotiabank: their branches and corporate offices across Canada are meaningfully involved in hockey communities. To demonstrate their deep understanding of, and commitment to, hockey we chose one day when hockey activity was at its peak, November 17, 2019, and would authentically capture stories of hockey’s impact on us from coast to coast to coast. We would need over 20 documentary film crews, and all willing hockey-engaged Canadians, to film their day and submit it on a specially created mobile-portal. Masterfully editing as much footage as we could, we would create an uplifting feature-length documentary film from eyes open to eyes closed, all on one day. We call it Hockey 24: A Film by Canada.

Early in 2019, research showed that Canadian families felt increasing negativity in hockey (bullying, sexism, and racism) and, as a consequence, enrolment in the sport was dropping. Hockey was losing its fun and its participants.

We couldn’t let our sport be less welcoming than our country’s immigration policies and we couldn’t let the media’s focus on negativity go unchallenged. That would be so un-Canadian of us. So, we searched for untold & uplifting stories that would move Canadians and open our eyes to hockey’s true inclusive nature. Like the Haitian Canadian who battled racism on his way to a championship for his home country, the paraplegic woman and the gay man who created, and play in, leagues that welcome others just like them, and the immigrant family who found belonging through hockey, just to name a few.

Telling these stories with unfiltered authenticity would connect with, and entertain, our audiences.

Hockey 24: A film by Canada is exactly that: a film by Canada. And a film aligned to Scotiabank’s corporate values. Which is to say, true representation of and inclusion and the celebration of each other’s differences: gender, sexual orientation, race, physical disability, new immigrants, and so on. And to ensure that all of Canada could see the film, it aired commercial-free on Sportsnet (Canada’s ESPN) in English Canada and on TVA (Canada’s French version of ESPN) in French Canada in May of 2020. The film was adapted for both of Canada’s official languages. And for anyone in Canada that didn’t have cable, the film was available to stream for free digitally on the Hot Docs Film Festival website as well as Scotiabank’s own hockey.24.film. It was essential that all of Canada could access it, regardless of their socio-economic status or geographic location.

We estimated 1,000 submissions. By midnight on filming day, we exceeded that with 1,049! (Some hours in length!) In the week following, that number more than tripled with submissions from every Canadian province & territory - unprecedented National participation & engagement.

From filming to world premiere, we kept ‘in touch’ with film teasers on Instagram & Twitter:

1. engagement rates double the benchmark,

2. a view-through rate 20% higher than benchmark,

3. CPM 38% above benchmark — people were watching and wanting more!

The night of the premiere (despite airing at the same time as the most watched golf telecast in history):

1. 500,000 Canadian households tuned into Hockey 24,

2. #Hockey24 became a top 3 trending Twitter topic.

Around the film premiere, 200+ articles & interviews generated 20+ million earned media impressions.

Hockey 24 also impacted a 99% increase in brand familiarity, favourability, consideration, and likelihood to recommend.