With baseball season about to begin, Sport Chek is tapping into the considerable Blue Jays buzz with its latest athlete vs. drones video.
Published earlier this week, the short film shows rising Blue Jay star Kevin Pillar showing off his power arm by fielding balls in the outfield and nailing targets at second and third base. The finale comes with Pillar hitting a target hanging below a drone flying down the third base line toward home.
It’s the third such execution from Sport Chek since last fall when the retailer had hockey superstar Steven Stamkos hit targets just ahead of the NHL season. That was followed by a similar spot starring the popular Toronto Raptor Kyle Lowry just as the NBA season was getting underway.
“When it comes to Sport Chek, a key area of focus for us is around training… Everything we have done is through the lense of training,” said Rob Daintree, associate vice-president, marketing for FGL Sports.
With that brand positioning all about healthy lifestyles and next level training, Kevin Pillar was a perfect fit for the spot, he said.
“We talked about what will make for the most challenging training execution we could think of and what position would be best for that and Kevin’s name came up right away,” he said.
The spot was from the Toronto office of Rethink with creative director Aaron Starkman calling the shots (so to speak) from behind the camera as director for the first time.
“We only had a day with him so it really had to be locked down,” said Starkman. That meant testing different shots and angles before the Blue Jay showed up. “I was out there throwing balls at targets to see what it would look like on film.”
In terms of distribution, Daintree said no TV buy has been planned with the focus for now on social and influencer seeding. A second film with Pillar was also part of the shoot, though Daintree would only say it’ll be out later in the season and will also highlight Pillar’s defensive skills.
