Supporting minor hockey in cities and towns across Canada is a perennial component of TIM-BR MART stores' commitment to community,
so when the opportunity arose for TIM-BR MART to sponsor the 2010 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships being held December 26, 2009 through January 5, 2010 in Saskatoon and Regina, TIM-BR MART asked Bedford, NS based Revolve, their national branding and advertising agency since 1991, to negotiate the sponsorship on their behalf. Leveraging this sponsorship, Revolve has developed an innovative campaign to generate brand awareness and excitement at a grassroots level for TIM-BR MART by merging Canada's favourite sport with the power of viral marketing. TIM-BR MART is Canada's largest group of independently owned building supply and hardware stores, representing over 740 locations across Canada.
Revolve created TIM-BR MART's World Junior Hockey Video Challenge, an on-line battle that leverages social media and grassroots support as primary engagement channels. The call to action prompts hockey fans to visit timbrtube.ca, the contest portal developed by Revolve, where 'The Ref' challenges minor hockey teams across Canada to demonstrate their team spirit, Canadian pride and love of the game for a chance to win a trip for their entire team to cheer on Team Canada in Saskatoon as they go for gold for the sixth consecutive year. The TIM-BR MART World Junior Hockey Video Challenge is the first contest of its kind to engage an entire hockey team and benefit the whole team with such a significant prize.
'We wanted a strategy that heavily leverages social media and the power of pass-around in the hockey community to create buzz and brand awareness, and drive traffic to timbrtube.ca,' said Revolve President & CEO, Phil Otto. 'We developed sharing tactics including comical 'Ref Rant' videos that could be passed around between people within their own social groups, a Facebook Fan page to get the latest timbrtube news, and you can even follow our spokesperson 'The Ref' on twitter (@timbrref) to see how the contest is progressing.'
The innovative approach appears to be working: timbrtube.ca is averaging over 5000 visits per day and new entries are being uploaded almost daily since hockey teams began organizing themselves around the middle of October. The current videos have already garnered over 100,000 views.
'This is a very exciting initiative. We've seen tremendous support from our Dealers, Hockey Canada, minor hockey associations, communities and hockey fans across the country,' said Steve Stremecki, VP of Retail Services at TIM-BR MART. 'Our challenge to Revolve was to create a strategy to leverage our World Juniors sponsorship from an 11 day event in Saskatoon and Regina to a seven-month event creating brand awareness and excitement right across Canada.'
The contest, which runs until November 21st, is open to all Canadians (except residents of Quebec) to upload videos, however hockey community outreach is creating brand awareness for TIM-BR MART globally. Facebook pages from Canadians living in Finland, China and across Europe are asking their friends to vote for the hockey team from the Canadian community they grew up, and most likely – played hockey – in. Local Canadian media has gotten in on the action as well, with grassroots newspaper and radio stations promoting their local teams' entry and encouraging the community to support their team by visiting timbrtube and voting. Paid media has been insignificant, with only a small buy on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada in the maritimes. Many TIM-BR MART stores have been aggressively promoting the challenge instore and in their local media.
Visit timbrtube.ca to upload a video, vote on your favourite video, click to connect with our Facebook community, or follow 'The Ref' on twitter.