Under attack from its American competitors, Canadian Tire won the market share battle by leveraging the role it plays in developing active living and building healthier communities.

As a winter nation, Hockey is Canada’s #1 sport, and Canadian Tire is the go-to store for all things related to active living and hockey. Following the enormous success of Canada at the 2014 Olympics, positive sentiment, pride and patriotism was at an all-time high in the country; not able to compete in a price war against our American rivals, we fanned the flame of patriotism, to win consumers share of heart.

Year over year sales grew by $93 million during the quarter of the campaign, and over-delivering on the following KPI’s tracked:

• Had meaning to me personally: +100% over Ipsos norms

• Highest positive sentiment on Canadian Tire’s Facebook page ever - 4X Average

• Facebook & Twitter Engagement rates: 3x Industry Standard

• Ranked #1 Likely to consider buying - Charlton Study

• Ranked #1 Improved Opinion of Company - Charlton Study

• Ranked #1 Connected with me - Charlton Study

• Ranked #1 Most Enjoyed Advertising – Syndicated Research.

The original song titled “We-all-play-for-Canada” featured in the television ad struck a chord with viewers, soon we were inundated with demand for copies of it. Reacting to this influx of requests for the song, we made it available on iTunes. Inspired, we imagined a new way to promote it, we created a TV to Facebook synch-ad. When the spot aired on TV, a second-screen post was promoted to Facebook user who were watching. Shazam-like technology imbedded in Facebook recognised the song and triggered the post, lowering effective cost per download by 150% and boosting song downloads by 4,400%!!!

Hockey is a platform where Canada dominates, we used it as a patriotic lever to represent the fight it was leading against giants Target and Walmart. The central idea of the campaign was “Team Photo”. It’s based on the insight that it takes more than athletic ability to excel in sports. It takes the collective efforts and sacrifices of an entire community. Canadian Tire came together with Jonathan Toews, captain of team Canada and 300 volunteers from his hometown, who had contributed to his illustrious career, demonstrating that by working together we could surmount the opposition and achieve great things.