Canadian sporting goods retailer, Sport Chek, wanted to establish its credibility in the emerging basketball market. A hard task since the American giant Footlocker is the official NBA sponsor and held the monopoly of the game. Toronto was the primary market of the campaign as it is home to the NBA Raptors, Canada's only professional team.

We earned our basketball cred: #MyNorth was mind-blowing! 15 million social shares were generated in a city of 6 million people. The campaign artwork was swept in record time. The exclusive product line sold in less than 2 months, and due to its success a new line will launch to coincide with playoff season.

To be invited in, we partnered with the Raptors broadcaster to produce documentaries featuring the neighborhoods and player stories. We deployed a guerilla campaign trafficking iconic creative representing each neighborhood's colours. We hand-picked 500 locations, like basketball boards, bleachers, and street furniture. We installed detachable posters and magnetic stickers. In community centres, magnets were installed in changing rooms. By making this campaign 100% detachable, each player proudly wore his neighborhoods, and Sport Chek's colours. All of the #MyNorth callouts were reposted on social media. To encourage sharing, an entire section was offered to fans at each of the 41 Raptors home games. Finally Sport Chek's basketball clinics were held in each community.

The amateur B-Ball players live in a microcosm, where passionate rivalries are defined by neighborhoods. There, the affluent and underprivileged coexist, united by their common love of the game, each expressing a unique style of play. There are nine such neighborhoods in Toronto and the ''NO OUTSIDER'' rule is in effect at all times - to win here, we had to earn our credibility in the inner sanctum of basketball. It was important that each neighborhood feel the campaign was about them. The #MyNorth campaign, a nod to the Raptors ''#WeTheNorth'' tagline, celebrated just that. Sport Chek launched the #MyNorth apparel line along with the ad campaign.