Canadian Olympic Committee begins We Are Winter campaign
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Olympic Committee has launched a new campaign called "We Are Winter," described as the largest brand undertaking in the organization's history. The campaign includes two 30-second television commercials, four 30-second commercials and one 15-second commercial, all in English and French. The campaign broke nationally on Jan. 1 during the CBC broadcast of the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic and online at CBCSports.ca.
The creative was shot in Calgary, Montreal, Quebec City and Whistler. It depicts the training regimens of Canadian athletes along with Canadian landscape imagery. The full campaign will feature 17 athletes from 10 sports, including seven athlete documentaries. Supporting social media activities will take place on Twitter, including messages from athletes and the team as a whole. This will be the first time the Canadian Olympic Committee has named an official social media channel. The organization has also redesigned its websites at Olympic.ca and Olympique.ca to make them better adapted to mobile devices.
"The essence of this campaign originated from conversations with our athletes who all said the same thing," said Derek Kent, chief marketing officer at the Canadian Olympic Committee. "Winter defines them and defines who we are as a country. We wanted to inspire Canadians by showcasing the drive, determination and grit of our athletes as they train for the Olympic Games. We wanted Canadians to really get to know our athletes and their remarkably inspiring stories. We are proud of what we have built and that we are putting a brighter spotlight on our national sporting heroes."
The athletes appearing in the campaign are: bobsleighers Kaillie Humphries and Chelsea Valois; speed skaters Denny Morrison, Charles Hamelin, François Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais; snowboarder Mark McMorris; freestyle skiers Mikaël Kingsbury, Roz Groenewoud, Alex Bilodeau, Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Noah Bowman; figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford; hockey player Meaghan Mikkelson; skeletonist Sarah Reid; and luger Alex Gough.
Media outlets participating in the campaign include CBC, The Globe and Mail, Bell Media, Rogers, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, Airtime Media, Cineplex Entertainment, Quebecor Media, Sun Media, NewAd, Cieslok Media, Twitter, AOL and Juice Mobile.
The campaign was developed by Proximity Canada of Toronto. Media planning and buying were conducted by OMD Canada. Public relations are being managed by North Strategic.