As the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games edge ever closer, the next market to see a revival of P&G’s Olympic ‘Thank You Mum’ campaign is Canada – where early creative is led by Deborah Westlake (mother of Canadian ice sledge hockey player Gregory Westlake).
This first new piece of Canadian creative for the new Olympic-cycle focuses on the mum of the hockey-obsessed country’s ice sledge hockey team captain Greg Westlake.
Greg, who had both legs amputated when he was 18 months old, began playing ice sledge hockey in 2001 for the Mississauga Cruisers and made his debut for the Canadian national team in 2003.
He was part of the Canadian gold medal winning team at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Torino and at the 2008 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships in the USA (where he scored the winning goal against Norway).
Greg will again lead is country at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics – which, just like their summer counterparts, are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games in the same host city.
The multi-port Winter Paralympics, overseen by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), will run from 7 March to 16 March in Sochi (Russia).
The second (French language) spot to roll out focuses on Manon Goulet – mother of Canadian Olympic speed skating hopefuls Charles and Francois Hamelin.
These are part of a series of four online ‘Raising An Olympic’ films profiling Canadian athletes and their mothers in the lead up to Sochi.
The videos, created by agency Cossette and media by Carat, link to a Sochi 2014 Canadian campaign microsite.
This forms the campaign’s hub (with further support from the brand’s social media channels, as well as traditional advertising and experiential elements).
The work is part of P&G’s ongoing 10-year IOC/IPC global partnership and also leverages its sponsorship of the Canadian Olympic Committee (which it first backed in 2011).
As the web films rolled out, P&G also unveiled its sponsorship of a 12-strong team of Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes – in a similar approach to that P&G is taking in other key markets.
‘When a P&G brand supports an athlete we celebrate more than just their performance at sport. We also celebrate their everyday journeys and the amazing moms who helped them along the way,’ explains P&G Canada President Thom Lachman.
The team also includes figure skater Tessa Virtue (who will represent P&G’s beauty brands in Sochi 2014 campaigns) and hockey players John Tavares and Megan Agosta-Marciano (who will front P&G marketing for brands Gillette and Bounty respectively).
Other athletes in the P&G Canada team include: Tessa Bonhomme (ice hockey), Rosalind Groenewoud (freestyle skiing), Kaillie Humphries (bobsleigh), Scott Moir (figure skating), Jon Montgomery (skeleton bob), Maëlle Ricker (snowboard cross) and Tessa Virtue (figure skating).
Together they will form part of a wider, multi-channel program that will start roiling out in full in January 2014, that will range from TV spots to a partnership with CBC (the official Canadian broadcaster of the Games).
At the Games themselves in Russia, P&G will bring alive its ‘Thank You Mom work with its ‘Global Family Home’ – a space in which athletes and their families (especially their mothers) can spend time during the Games and receive some brand-led pampering.
Comment
The Olympics now form the world’s biggest advertiser’s biggest multi-brand media investment.
P&G began leveraging its Olympic rights for London 2012 by shining the spotlight on sportsmen and sportswomen’s mothers around the world and it continues to highlight the role they have played in the athletes’ lives through the ongoing Games cycle.
This global approach based around the role mums’ play in making Olympic and Paralympic dreams come true.
In Canada, the P&G creative focus for Sochi 2014 will reflect on mums by focusing on them as the motivating force behind Canadian athletes rather than as the ones who simply cook and clean for the athletes.
P&G is also partnering with Hockey Canada to target hockey moms specifically and as part of this alliance it will supply Canada’s hockey teams with its products
According to P&G communications director Melissa Karis, its Bounty brand will back a special event for the Canadian women’s hockey team and their moms ahead of a series of upcoming exhibition games against the USA.
Other additional activations will roll out as the Games approach.
Links
P&G Canada ‘Sochi 2014 Thank You Mum – Deborah Westlake’ YouTube Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEBpp9mKcYU#t=92
P&G Canada ‘Sochi 2014 Thank You Mum’ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/PGeverydayCanada
P&G ‘Sochi 2014 Thank You Mom’ Canada Website
http://pg.com/en_CA/mom/index.html
Greg Westlake Website
Sochi 2014 Website
