We discovered that we shared an obsession for hockey with our consumers, and our past gestures were only experienced by a select few. We limited ourselves by focusing on the in-game groups and realized we needed an opportunity to go bigger and execute a fan experience at a grander scale.

The price of tickets along with their high demand made it obvious to us that not everyone can attend a game, let alone in the front row. With that in mind, we looked to technology to help us bridge the experience gap for passionate fans. Utilizing VR, we found the perfect approach to putting consumers in the heart of the action and at an unlimited capacity. And with that, Molson Canadian created a gesture for the masses, built on the shared obsession of hockey and unaffected by economic status or physical location

Branded VR cardboard goggles were placed in cases of Molson Canadian with pin codes for exclusive content and camera feed selection. Leading up to the first VR broadcast in Canada, broadcast spots ran to drive awareness and direct drinkers to stores to pick up their case of beer and VR viewer. Teasers on Facebook and Instagram further built excitement and drove to the website for more details. This website leveraged Sportsnet’s mobile app, and housed the three 360 camera live streams which were broadcasting from the arena during each game. Additional 360 VR VOD content was shared in real time across social channels and within the Sportsnet App. During the VR games, branded integrations took place in Hockey Night in Canada’s pre-game shows reminding viewers that tonight’s game would be broadcast in VR. This included the branded goggles being used by the hosts as they interacted on camera.

The brand saw huge success! Delivering 114,838 total front row experiences over the course of 6 games, averaging a total of 5+ minutes, and over the goal by 40%. If we were to buy every viewer with a front row ticket the total cost of this would have been $45,935,200

Viewers were most engaged with the VOD content which had 3,908,328 total views over 46 videos and were engaged with website significantly with 1,403,320 pages views

The campaign generated huge buzz and significantly over-delivered on our earned media impression goals by +2600% delivery (53,930,930 impressions).

Through a Facebook brand lift study on our teaser VR post there was a shift at 80% significance level in ad recall for Molson Canadian. We also saw a 10% lift in Purchase Intent amongst “Friendly Drinkers” which was 669% greater than the Canadian CPG average.