BMO Activates Toronto FC MLS Sponsorship With Community-Led #AllForOne Campaign

BMO’s strategy here is clear: engage through films that create memorable and positive impressions that will influence fan/consumer behaviour over time.

The bank is a founder sponsor of Toronto FC – having backed the team since it first began playing in MLS is 2007.

As well as Toronto FC, BMO has many other major local and national partnerships in its sponsorship portfolio – including deals with the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC soccer clubs.

And outside of the soccer sponsorship space, BMO has partnerships with the Canadian Hockey League and several marathons and distance running events and it is the official bank of NBA Canada and the Toronto Raptors.

Indeed, ‘community’ has been a core focus of BMO’s sponsorship strategy in recent years – as illustrated by previous initiatives such as its NVBA Canada campaign from 2015 (see case study).

In fact, across all these property partnerships, while BMO’s activation might vary, but its objectives and approach is largely similar.

‘Our strategy is really to engage and create memorable, positive impressions that will influence behaviour over time, and with our sponsorships we do this by recognizing and respecting the fan voice,’ says managing director of North American brand, advertising and market research at BMO Financial Group Jennifer Carli.

‘Every sport has something about it that makes it special and every fanbase has something that makes it unique. In soccer, there’s a camaraderie and togetherness among fans, perhaps more than in every other sport. We really want to demonstrate that we understand TFC fans and want to be a part of that excitement and energy.’

This campaign leveraging its Toronto FC aims to engage across the community and create more of a connection with the bank’s umbrella ‘BMO Effect’ marketing platform.

Something which is gradually happening across all of its sponsorship activities in order to tie all of them to its core brand promise: providing an exceptional, human customer experience.

‘The “BMO Effect” is the unifying force behind our marketing efforts now,’ explains Carli.

‘By tying our sponsorship activities together with the brand strategy of showing the genuinely human side to the things we do, it’s going to help us not just connect all our efforts, but amplify them.’