Kraft Canada has launched the sixth iteration of its Kraft Hockeyville marketing program in partnership with the CBC, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA).
The annual program, which last week won a Gemini Award in the Best Cross-Platform – Non-Fiction category, aims to find Canada’s most passionate hockey community. The winner is given $100,000 towards arena upgrades and gets to host a pre-season NHL game. In addition, the top five communities host a special broadcast of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.
Developed by Toronto agency Momentum in partnership with the CBC, this year’s program features an updated Kraft Hockeyville logo (the first in the program’s history) as well as the dedicated website KraftHockeyville.ca. To ensure equal representation, the country has been divided into five regions, with a different NHL player serving as each region’s ambassador and producing a video testimonial for their area.
Introduced in 2006, Kraft Hockeyville has grown into one of the consumer packaged goods company’s most successful marketing programs. According to Kraft, sales of products featured in the program—which include well-known brands such as Kraft Dinner, Maxwell House, Ritz, Oreo and Cracker Barrel cheese—have increased between 4% and 6% over the past five years.
“It’s really grown beyond what we expected from a community engagement standpoint and an awareness standpoint,” said Julian Franklin, senior consumer promotions manager, corporate scale, for Kraft Canada.
“When it was developed six years ago… we felt we had a very strong idea here, but everyone has been pleasantly surprised by how well the program has captured the hearts and minds of Canadians.”
“What I love about the Kraft Hockeyville competition is the way it showcases the incredible community spirit and passion that Canadians have for their communities and the game of hockey,” said Dino Bianco, president of Kraft Canada, in a release. “With exciting new elements this year, including a regional format and NHL player representation in each region, we anticipate even greater inspiration for communities in their quest to become the next Kraft Hockeyville.”
This year’s Kraft Hockeyville program is being supported by TV, in-store materials and a Facebook page, as well as other social media elements such as Twitter (Twitter.com/hockeyville) and YouTube.
