Canada Believes - A Simple Promotion Goes Gold
by Melanie Chambers
You’ve seen it on billboards, perhaps even on TV, and you’ve certainly heard about it as the Olympics gets closer and closer. It’s one word that has the country all abuzz. Believe. Believe
in the spirit of the Games. Believe in Canada bringing the world to our doorstep. Believe.
But this simple, humble slogan has very humble beginnings. Yet, it quickly became synonymous with Canadian Olympic spirit.
Canadians first saw the slogan on CTV clothing. “In the beginning, this apparel was developed just to appear within our advertising as props,” says Adam Ashton, Vice-President of Marketing for Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. But the campaign evolved into so much more.
In an attempt to introduce the athletes to Canadians, CTV created a campaign called Believe, which was aimed at making Canadian athletes household names. Part of the campaign involved short 30- and 60-second television vignettes called “Get To Know Your Canadian Athletes”, in which 25 English and French Olympians revealed little-known details about their personalities and lifestyles.
In the vignettes, athletes wore clothing bearing the word “believe.” The vignettes began airing in February 2009 — a year before the Games. As the campaign predicted, after the year-long ads, sure enough, Canadians knew alittle more about the athletes; but something they didn’t predict took hold of the campaign.
Mountains of requests poured in from Canadians asking where they could buy their own Believe clothing — the clothing the athletes were wearing in the vignettes; from this overwhelming demand, the Believe clothing started a life of its own.
CTV approached the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to acquire the necessary licensing privileges for Believe merchandise. And, after the decision to create nationwide retail apparel called “Imagine” in French-speaking Canada, the next step was to spread the word.
To let the nation know about Believe, each newscast of CTV created a contest revolving around the clothing; the gold medal prize pack was given out to five entrants — a batch of clothing with the chance to win a trip to the Games.
“In order to increase awareness for the Believe/Imagine merchandise, we encouraged our local CTV stations to create their own unique Believe/Imagine on-air spots and promotional initiatives. Each local station was able to focus on communityheroes and local athletes, which gives a regional aspect and another layer to the campaign,” says Ashton.
Conceived by Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium as a national marketing promotion designed to rally Canadians around our Olympic Games hopefuls and promote multimedia coverage, the Believe campaign permeates television as well as radio and other print media.
In Montreal viewers entered to win the gold medal package that included a toque, scarf, ball cap, long sleeve tee and both a women’s and men’s fleece full zip hoodie (a value of about $240). All CTV Believe entrants were also automatically entered to win two tickets to the Games.
In British Columbia, viewers watched Tamara Taggart’s weekly weather forecast to get the secret password to enter the contest. Viewers had only one day to enter.
Newspapers across the country announced winners like they were announcing winners of a lottery. The Believe campaign was beginning to spread a wave of Olympic spirit and pride.
And to ensure that those wearing the clothing were supporting their athletes, part of the proceeds from the Believe apparel will go to Own the Podium, a fund set up to support Canadian athletes.
Adding to its Canadian-made authenticity, all original shoots of the vignettes were produced and directed in-house. And, the Believe campaign was created and developed by the award-winning CTV Creative Agency.
With the help of some promotional apparel, a campaign with humble beginnings has evolved into a national movement. As the Games approach, Canadians aren’t just asking if they believe,
they already do.
