| ||||
|
Petro-Canada is helping make dreams come true for Canadian Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls through its Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE) program and IWillDreamBig.ca.
Each year, Petro-Canada selects 50 athlete and coaching pairs from across Canada who aspire to one day compete in the Olympic or Paralympic Games, and through FACE it provides the resources necessary to achieve “national carded status” for the athlete—a vital first step toward Olympic qualifying.
The oil and gas company launched IWillDreamBig.ca to showcase its athletes and to help rally support. The site features selected athletes and coaches, videos of Petro-Canada executives who have swapped roles with a FACE athlete for the day, an option to donate and a link to the “I Will Dream Big” Facebook fan page, which currently has over 1,000 fans.
Petro-Canada is promoting the site with 10 30-second commercials and banner ads created by TBWA in Toronto. Each TV spot features a different athlete who shares his or her dream of competing in the Olympic or Paralympic Games. The commercials can also be viewed online.
The spots are based on the belief that the next Olympian could come from anywhere in Canada, said Helen Winfield, account leader at TBWA.
“These men and women who want to do really great things…this is when they really need the money, because they aren’t getting sponsors, they aren’t really well-known, this is the time they need the funding,” she said.
Banner ads on CBC.ca, Yahoo.ca and MSN.ca also direct people to the site.
Petro-Canada is the exclusive national oil and gas partner of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and an Olympic team sponsor during the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Games.
The ads will run through the coverage of the Paralympic Games, which starts Sept. 6. Media Dimension handled the buy.
