Calgary athletes star in We Are Winter
Local training facilities featured in ad campaign
The Canadian Olympic Committee has launched the largest advertising campaign in its history — a video, web and social media blitz in which Calgary athletes and locations feature prominently.
With just more than one month until the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, the “We Are Winter” campaign features two 60-second and four 30-second television spots, as well as one 15-second spot. The videos — which highlight 17 athletes including Calgarians Kaillie Humphries, Roz Groenewoud, Noah Bowman, Sarah Reid and Alex Gough — are based on more than 100 hours of footage that was planned, shot, and edited over a 16-month period. Some of that footage was shot on location at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, as well as on the southern Alberta prairies.
“I would say that Calgary and Canada Olympic Park play a starring role in the advertising campaign,” said Derek Kent, chief marketing officer for the COC.
The first video aired nationally during CBC’s coverage of the NHL’s annual Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.
There will be print and online ads, and the COC has announced its first partnership with Twitter, which will give Canadian Olympic Team partners the chance to promote tweets from approved athlete Twitter handles and official team handles.
The Twitter hashtag #WeAreWinter was already trending in Calgary as of Tuesday afternoon.
The campaign is expected to have twice the media reach of anything the COC has ever done before, Kent said, adding the goal is to raise the profile of Canadian athletes in the aftermath of the Vancouver Olympic Games.
“People get behind the athletes when the Games are at home, but it can be challenging to continue that momentum,” he said. “Priority one for us at the COC was really taking that baton from Vancouver, and all the momentum that the country brought us, and building off that.”
Dale Oviatt, spokesperson for WinSport — which owns and operates Canada Olympic Park — said the campaign means Calgary and its athlete training programs will be in the spotlight as the 2014 Games begin.
“A lot of people take for granted what we do have in the city, and seeing clips like these really does show what world-class facilities we have right here,” Oviatt said.
Marco De Iaco — vice-president of sales, sports and major events with Tourism Calgary — said the ads help raise awareness of Calgary as a centre of high-performance winter sport.
Hosting major events regularly, including the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association moguls and half-pipe World Cups that will take place here in January, is an important aspect of the city’s tourism industry.
“Calgary is pre-eminently one of the top winter sport cities in the world, certainly in Canada, and that helps us attract and motivate people to come and visit our city,” De Iaco said.
In addition to promoting the Olympics and Canadian athletes, the COC ads — with their images of evergreen trees, big skies, and falling snow — play off Canadians’ relationship to winter and the idea that there is fun to be had during the coldest season.
The COC is promoting a “frozen faces” contest, encouraging Canadians to submit photos of themselves being active during the winter.
It all combines to make for an integrated, full-throttle brand push that Tara Molina — president of Calgary marketing agency New Wave Media — said gives her “chills.”
“I would be curious to see the after-effects of this campaign, in funding and sponsorships and all of the trickle-down factor,” Molina said. “I think it’s absolutely genius.”
Molina said she is particularly impressed with the #WeAreWinter Twitter hashtag, as she said that will help unite the country behind the campaign.
“We’re going to be able to connect directly with the athletes themselves, and with fellow Canadians, in real time,” Molina said.
“That’s likely the reason they’re moving forward with such a big campaign, is to leverage the voices of Canadians and really increase that pride.”
The We Are Winter videos can be viewed online at www.olympic.ca