On Friday, August 20, Canadian Tire opened the doors to one of its average neighbourhood stores to announce their five-year partnership with the NHL® . Opened to the public, the press event’s over the top staging, flocks of executives and media, foreshadowed the big announcement that was to come. Click here for the official press announcement and partnership details.

The authenticity of the launch was immaculate

As 30 kids sporting Canadian Tire Hockey School (CTHS) jerseys marched in, the buzz began to rise. Proud parents watched while their little budding hockey stars took their seats behind life-size hockey boards and dotted the stage’s adjacent perimeters to surround the media with honest, excited grins.

The branding and logo placements for the NHL®, Canadian Tire and CTHS, were naturally integrated into the arena-style staging. The main stage saw ice skates strategically showcased against an illuminated ice rink backdrop, while the media were seated on wooden “players” benches. I nearly expected a teenager carrying a confectionary basket above his head to offer me some Twizzlers!

With all of their ducks (errr… mini hockey players) in a row, local dealer Ted Magnall opened the floor and introduced Mike Arnett, President of Canadian Tire Retail and Keith Wachtel, Senior Vice President, Integrated Sales & Marketing, NHL®. Arnett and Wachtel spoke about how the partnership of the two iconic brands will create a positive hockey experience and provide helpful resources for parents, players, coaches and fans alike. After their messages, the duo introduced the Hockey School’s founding member, Chicago Blackhawks’® team captain Jonathan Toews. The Manitoba native was presented the same CTHS jersey that the tiny tots were sporting. After symbolically putting on the jersey, the day came full circle when the Toews spoke about getting his first pair of skates at Canadian Tire. The event closed with all 30 kids, Wachtel and Arnett surrounding JT for a photo-op.

TrojanOne consulted Canadian Tire on the partnership with the NHL® and played a large role in the activation of Hockey School from POS to web to the camps. Naturally, I was excited to be present at the unveiling of the highly confidential project that my coworkers, the T1 team, had been eating, sleeping and breathing for months.

One of my favourite moments of the day is two-fold.  A mom was standing behind the media, with her two little girls, watching her son who was one of the young hockey players in a CTHS jersey chosen to be part of the launch and photo-op. She had this thrilled look on her face, barely containing itself from announcing, “That’s my son over there! Two feet away from his idle, Jonathan Toews!” Her camera was snapping and flashing and you just knew that moment would be remembered forever.

Now, the marketer in me emerges: the other great thing about that moment was the proof that getting real moms (the consumers) and their kids involved in the launch of a new property like CTHS is the pinnacle of brand activation and consumer engagement.

Without a doubt in my mind, that mother is more engaged in her child’s passion for hockey than ever before. Fostering that passion, she’s likely to register all of her hockey-playing kids for Canadian Tire Hockey School, enter for a chance to win the $25,000 NHL® Dream Season Contest, and is counting down the days until the details of the hockey camps in her area are announced.

“The ideation of Canadian Tire Hockey School stemmed, most importantly, from a strong understanding of the consumer passions needed to be tapped into,” said Mark Harrison, President, TrojanOne. “We know that hockey is more than just the game once the skates come off.  Parents, players, coaches and fans needed an outlet to support and reinforce their passion. That’s what Canadian Tire Hockey School is all about and will deliver to Canadians.”

Long live hockey!

Sport is a powerful tool – it has the power to reduce crime, foster character and citizenship, introduce newcomers to their communities, stimulate the local economy, provide adult mentorship for young people, teach kids important life lessons and strengthen community connectedness.

Unfortunately, sport participation is on the decline in our country.  Over the past two decades, sport participation rates in Canadian youth aged 15 to 18 dropped from 77 per cent to 59 per cent–and in adults, from 45 per cent to 28 per cent. Over half of Canadian adults are considered inactive, and only 12 per cent of our children and youth are active enough to meet Canada’s physical activity guidelines.
There are over 30,000 sport and recreation organizations in Canada, offering programs and opportunities geared to all levels and backgrounds. Given this commitment to community sport, CBC Sports, ParticipACTION and True Sport teamed up to create Sports Day in Canada to help profile and raise awareness for these organizations and the impact they’re having on their respective communities. Long term, ParticipACTION is striving to increase sport participation rates all across Canada.

Sports Day in Canada is a national day of sport celebration! Essentially it is a support mechanism geared towards sport-delivery organizations, teams and clubs.  As an initiative created to bring the many sport communities of the country together, under one umbrella, to better profile the variety of sport-related activities taking place across the country, it encourages all communities to participate. Whether it’s a sport demo, league game, ongoing neighbourhood sport rivalry or athlete appearance, be sure to register your event as a Sports Day in Canada event and gain access to promotional tools to help increase its visibility in your community.

This year, Sports Day in Canada will be held on Saturday, September 18, 2010. CBC Sports will be compiling a list of all registered events and will feature a selection in a special national broadcast hosted by Canada’s own sports anchor, Scott Russell. Create your own Sports Day in Canada event today and be a part of this special national initiative. Be sure to register it in our database at www.cbcsports.ca/sportsday.

Also, another big part of this initiative is Jersey Day, taking place on Friday, September 17. This is a national day to show your love and support for sport by wearing a jersey, team or club uniform to school, work or play. From municipal council chambers to the National Capital to news desks, office buildings and classrooms across the nation, we envision a sea of Canadians wearing their hearts on their sleeves on national Jersey Day. Which team will you wear on the 17th?

Sports Day in Canada, is already a part of many Canadian communities; some of the events taking place include the National Rugby Championships, 100th Anniversary of Queen’s University Women’s Basketball, World Wheelchair Rugby Championships and the Grand Opening of the Creekside Community and Recreation Centre in the Vancouver 2010 Athlete Village.

A prime example of a community taking Sports Day in Canada to the next level is the Edmonton Neighbourhood Community League (www.efcl.org) Day – a local organization that empowers local level volunteers to energize their neighbourhoods through sport – a truly inspirational way to make sport related activities accessible to everyone.

You can get in the game today and make any sport event, taking place during the week of Sept.11-18, a part of Sports Day in Canada.  Register now at www.cbcsports.ca/sportsday and join our LinkedIn Group for ongoing announcements and event profiles. On August 20, customizable promotional tools will be made available to you to help promote your Sports Day in Canada event.

Show your Canadian spirit and love for sport by being a part of the first ever Sports Day in Canada. Whether you get in the game by supporting your favourite team on Sept.17 for Jersey Day or by organizing or attending a sport event on Sept.18 for Sports Day in Canada, the entire country looks forward to your participation and encourages you to spread the word in your communities!

Sports Day in Canada related websites:

CBC Sports – get in the game and register your event today!

ParticipACTION

True Sport

LinkedIn

Three hours later they were lakeside, and instead of concentrating on my work I was limping (this is your cue to ask me how my knee is doing!) down memory lane of my own camp experiences, over thirty years ago.

I loved camp as a kid. Thinking back, I realized I was pretty spoiled. I got to go to Camp Summerland, which was run by the Y. What a name! Summerland. Its like our camp owned the entire holiday.

Summerland was rustic. Summerland was cheap. Summerland counselors were rejected by all other camps. Summerland kids were ragtag. We were the Bad News Bears without the happy ending. Always losing in softball to the rich kids camp down the road.

But we were in heaven.

Bunk beds. Marshmallow roasts. No parents. Fun counselors. A beautiful stretch of Lake Couchiching. How could it not be great?

After Summerland I was elevated to a real treat. Haliburton Hockey Haven. Now this was heaven.

What Canadian kid didn’t want to go the best hockey camp in Canada? I went for two weeks for two summers. I still don’t know how my parents afforded it.

Founded by Jim Gregory in the 1960’s, the camp featured instructors such as Lanny McDonald and Dan Maloney when I attended. But my favourite instructor was the “China Wall” Johnny Bower.

Bower won four Cups for the Leafs as a goalie, even though he was essentially a 34-year-old rookie when they claimed him from the Cleveland Barons (AHL) in 1958. He went on to be the oldest goalie to ever start a playoff game, at age 44, and almost had to dress as an emergency goalie at age 56. Through my hero-worshipping eleven-year-old eyes, he could have done it.

Johnny Bower taught me how to poke check.

I wasn’t a very good goalie. And I was horrible on breakaways. Besides being chicken poo, I had no technique. Until I met Johnny Bower. He fixed both my technique and my spine.

The next season I drove my coaches crazy. Every time an opponent got a whiff of a break, I was racing out of my net to take him on. After the first few victims wound up in a pile in the corner, word got out that I was a madman with a vicious poker. Thanks Johnny.

Johnny Bower taught me how to tell stories.

We had a “goalies only” table at camp. Most kids sat with their cabin. I sat with my fellow crazies. Because goalies are crazy. We all got along except for this fat kid from St. Catharines. He and I had a fist fight every day in our cabin. Eventually it would result with two of his fingers ripping my nose off, while I was two-handing his oversized underwear as hard as I could. Ask any man what is more sensitive, the nostrils or the cup “area”, and you’ll know I won every time.

Back to the goalie table. There I listened with rapt attention as this fifty-five year old man told us stories of the war, of playing in the minors for twelve years, of growing up dirt poor in Saskatchewan. But Bower didn’t just tell a story. He “sang” it. His words lifted and floated across the table, his eyes kept time like a metronome, his grizzled face held the notes of his every ballad. I loved listening to his lyrics.

Until dessert time.

Johnny Bower liked to sniff his food. I don’t know why. Maybe he thought the Canadiens were trying to poison him. I didn’t mind the sniffing except for the fact that at dinner, the dessert was always served as one big pie or cake to the head of the table. I was a germ-o-phobe, even then and I didn’t like his big snout near my pie!

So one day I decided to take matters into my own hands. It was lemon meringue pie night. As Johnny leaned in for his sniff, I pretended that I was headed to the outhouse for a pee. But on my way by, this eleven year old with a paper route from Orillia, Ontario… shoved Johnny’s Hockey Hall of Fame face right into the pie. All of it.

Our table gasped. The dining hall inhaled. I froze. The pee I made up, was now very real and very ready to run down my leg.

Johnny rose up from his chair, covered in egg whites. He never wore a goalie mask in his career. Now I know why.

His furious eyes made short work of my skinny frame. Someone write my parents. I’m about to die.

Before I could apologize, run, cry, or hide; Johnny made his move. Cat-like he seized the pie from the next table and returned the favour. Face, neck, and Michael Jackson Afro were all covered in pie. It would take a week for me to comb it out!

Bower’s response triggered a riot. Lemon meringue pie… dinner buns… ice… you name it, was soon being hurled around the dining hall. A food fight worthy of a Leaf’s Stanley Cup parade was underway.

Kids. NHL stars. Counselors alike. Covered from head to toe.

When the camp director stormed in and demanded a CSI-like investigation, I learned a true lesson in teamwork. #1 for the Leafs, and in my heart, took the bullet for me. Bower claimed he started the pie fight!

Now I owed Johnny for more than just a lesson in poke checking. When it was all said and done it was less than five minutes, from pie to white lie!

The action didn’t last long. The memory has.

35 of the best and brightest of Toronto’s marketing personnel showed that their skills were not limited to knocking out flawless executions, but also knocking down pins! The crowd was treated to pizza, chicken wings and Labatt 50 brewski’s.

Big Ben McConnachie proved that he could throw down strikes and didn’t SPARE much as his score was high enough to earn him the top bowler prize of the night.

Overall a fun night out of good laughs, spirited competition and really tacky shoes!