Sports equipment and apparel retailer Sport Chek is launching the next phase of a spring campaign that kicked off last month with a soccer stunt on the streets of Toronto.
In April, a small group of soccer players showed off their finest footwork on the city’s busiest intersections for a series of online videos that ran on YouTube and Yahoo.
With the help of Montreal-based agency Sid Lee, that footage has been turned into a 15-second teaser that will run on YouTube’s homepage this weekend and direct viewers to an extended 90-second version. “This is the first commercial we have run on YouTube,” said Duncan Fulton, chief marketing officer at FGL Sports Group. “With this campaign we are delivering seasonally-relevant TV commercials through a multi-screen strategy at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV advertising.” Forzani is expecting about 9 million impressions over the weekend.
The spots end with “Are you ready to kick off spring?” and the Facebook URL.
At the start of the campaign, Fulton told Marketing the objective is to present the retailer as a prime source of apparel and equipment for spring activity.
The mostly online campaign also signals the retailer’s decision to focus more of its efforts around digital advertising.
“Instead of a half-million-dollar production and a few million in TV buys, we shot an inspiring spring ‘TV’ ad for less than $40,000 and plan to run it exclusively online,” he said.
Fulton, who was made senior vice-president, communication and chief marketing officer of Forzani last August when Canadian Tire acquired the company (since renamed FGL Sports Group), is in the midst of brand overhaul for Sport Chek that includes a rebuilt marketing team to support it.
He plans to add 20 or more members—including a VP marketing—to the Calgary-based team, bringing its head count to 40.
