It’s been a dream start to the NHL season for Canadian Tire. The retailer yesterday unveiled a new 30-second TV spot, “Hockey Dreams,” in support of its new online resource, the Canadian Tire Hockey School.
Created by Taxi, the spot features young children sleeping–some holding hockey equipment or a trophy–while giving a play-by-play account of a dream hockey game in which they are the star.
The spot features a “he-shoots-he-scores” moment and the super “Long live the dream,” followed by a shot of Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews–the hockey school’s official spokesperson and its founding member–waking from his own dream on the team bus as an NHL play-by-play announcer says “a spectacular goal by Jonathan Toews.”
“When you think about what we’re trying to do with hockey, it’s about inspiring and enabling,” said Cindy Graham, strategic marketing manager, playing, for Canadian Tire. “The creative does that nicely. It’s a bit of a reminder to parents, ‘This is why we get up at five in the morning and do all this,’ and the desire to be part of something big like that is a driver for young kids.”
Canadian Tire had been promoting the hockey school, which launched in August, through a combination of digital initiatives, print ads in publications such as The Hockey News, and a standalone print piece wrapped around each of its 12 million flyers–once in August and again last week.
“When you have a partnership with the NHL, you’ve got to do something for the start of the season,” said Graham of the TV spot, which began airing on both specialty and conventional channels (including CBC Television’s Hockey Night in Canada) and will run for the next three weeks.
Since debuting in August, the Canadian Tire Hockey School has grown to more than 10,000 members. The site features a series of instructional videos catering to every segment of hockey: players, parents, coaches and fans.
New content is being added “all the time,” said Graham. “As we go into planning for the next few years, the focus for me is the content,” she added. “How can this site work for us in different ways?”
Toronto’s TrojanOne helped build the Canadian Tire Hockey School–which also includes a series of on-ice camps–while MediaCom handled the media buy.
Canadian Tire announced a new five-year deal as the NHL’s official sporting goods retailer in August.
