2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

As the eponymous beer for Canadians, Molson Canadian has served as the unofficial beer of hockey and has been there for every win of the Cup for over 50 years. But, American competitors like Budweiser have tried to invade our territory by outspending them. So, they had to do something big. They needed to earn back their share of hearts and minds, and reclaim the mantle as the beer of hockey. To reclaim their spot in the fridges of Canada’s hockey fans, they needed to win over the hearts of rookie and diehard fans alike. The fan who dreamed of going all the way, but blew out their knee in the minor leagues. The fan whose dreams will never die
thanks to beer league.

The agency pitched the idea: let’s bring the Stanley Cup to a Molson Canadian brewery to do something never done before and pass their beer through the Cup. Then, let’s bottle it to create a limited-edition batch to give Canadian fans a chance to drink from the Stanley Cup. The NHL said ‘let’s do it.’ They launched with a big bang. On the June 6th edition of Hockey Night In Canada, Ron MacLean himself gave a personal introduction to their :60 TV spot, with paid support behind online flights of the :30 and :15 cutdowns. They were fortunate enough to have Brad May and Willie Mitchell as spokespeople speaking of their memories winning the Cup with media outlets. They also created seeding kits including the Stanley Cup batch beer along with special white gloves to Stanley Cup-winning NHL alumni such as Hall of Famer Paul Coffey and Kris Versteeg to relive those wins.

The campaign was broadcast nationally during Hockey Night in Canada earning over 3 million impressions within the first 24 hours. Following, they reached a total of nearly 15 million earned media impressions from 194 placements during the campaign period, with an additional 5.1 million OLV impressions and 4.2 million paid social impressions from NHL alumni content. With bottles made available from British Columbia to Newfoundland, Molson Canadian brought dreams to life for thousands of Canadian hockey fans. Volumes of the 6-pack SKU were +27.8% versus the plan. From a distribution perspective, the new SKU listings in New Brunswick and PEI had 70% distribution amongst both provinces, with overall distribution +1% versus last year.

Credits

Agency: Rethink
Client: Molson Canadian
Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Creative Director: Joel Holtby, Dhaval Bhatt
Copywriter: Mike Dubrick
Art Director: Joel Holtby, Joel Arbez
Designer: Brandon Methner
Secondary Designer: Jake Lim
CSO: Sean McDonald
Strategist: Nicole Rajesky
Producer: Olia Dallimore
Production Company: Revolver Films
Executive Producer: Luc Frappier
Director: Mark Bone
Line Producer: Craig Fleming
Editorial: School
Executive Producer: Yumi Suyama
Editor: Lauren Horn
Assistant Editor: Fiona Alvarez
Colour/VFX: Alter Ego
Senior Producer: Jane Garrah
Colourist: Eric Whipp
Jr VFX Artist: Sebastian Boros
Audio House: Vapor Music
Partner, Executive Producer: Lindsey Bates
Creative Director: Ted Rosnick
Sound Designer: Kevin Chamberland
Group Account Director: Karim Tubbeh
Account Director: Tori Zenko
Account Manager: Megan Christopher, Jessie Durand
Media: Wavemaker
Strategy Manager: William Hart
Strategy Director: Jared Aldridge
Manager, Media: Peter Forde
PR: Citizen
Senior Director: Joe Cariati
Account Director: Jayne Cassidy
Account Manager: Natalie Gardner
Senior Account Executive: Jake Pare
Account Manager: Jennifer Nagy
Social Media: Volt
Account Manager: Georgina Sahota
Community Manager: Eric Zaworski
Social Strategist: Emma Cunningham
Business Director: Kristine Kobe
Hockey Hall of Fame: Phil Pritchard Vice President, Resource Centre & Curator