Agency staffers, media folks and their clients spent Friday targeting opponents – not audiences – at the inaugural Ad Cup, put on by Marketing, Canlan Ice Sports and DEC Sports & Entertainment.
Two hundred fifty players and their supporters arrived at the Canlan Ice Sports complex in West Toronto with their game faces on, ready to raise money for the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS).
“It was a fantastic day and it was great to hear all the positive feedback from the teams captains who thought the format of including agency, media and clients on the roster gave them the opportunity to get together to play and network with clients and suppliers,” said Lucy Collin, Marketing publisher.
Mark Lemmon, partner at DEC Sports & Entertainment, called the event a “tremendous success” overall. He said the industry was keen to take part in a one-of-kind event of this sort.
“It’s the first of hopefully many more to come,” said Lemmon.
On Friday, each team played at least three games, even though the schedule was fattened at the last minute when three teams were added to the tourney just days before the event (on a first-come, first-served basis) to accommodate high interest from the industry. In the end, 15 teams in total participated.
The division winners were Newad, Ideonmedia and MLSE.
Other teams that took part in the day represented CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, Kijiji, SDI Marketing, Shaw Media, Breadwinner.ca, Rogers Media, Rethink Canada, BBDO/Proximity (pictured), DDB Canada, Thom Partners, the Toronto Star and AOL.
Players were fuelled by meals courtesy of the event organizers as well as NABS and Canadian Primedia Sales & Marketing Inc.
