With the hockey season in full swing, Canadian coffee and donut chain Tim Hortons celebrated its link to the NHL in particular and the game in general with a spot that links its founder to the sport’s greatest ever star.
‘The Autograph’, developed in harness with Gut Agency, tells the true story of a chance meeting in 1968 between a young Wayne Gretzky and hockey legend and chain founder Tim Horton.
This real life event occurred at a restaurant in Brantford (Ontario) and, according to The Great One changed Gretzky’s life and Canada’s hockey history.
Gretzky’s mother, Phyllis, took him to meet Horton at a local restaurant opening and the meeting ignited Gretzky’s passion for hockey and inspired him become a professional player and, arguably, the greatest NHL star of all time.
At that meeting Horton signed a napkin for the young Gretzky and wrote “Wayne, Best Wishes, Tim Horton” and Wayne’s father Walter kept that autographed napkin for more than 50 years.
Walter, positioned as the ultimate hockey dad, stars in the ad alongside Wayne and the real napkin.
The spot was socially teased in a movie style release style
days ahead of the 12 December TV and YouTube launch.
This event, which played a small in The Great One’s hockey career is supported socially using the hashtags #TimsTrueStory and#TheBeginningOfSomethingGreat.
The campaign was developed for Tim Hortons by a team at agency Gut (Miami) that included Founder Anselmo Ramos, COO Paulo Fogaça, ECDs Ricardo Casal and Juan Javier Peña Plaza, Managing Director Ricardo Honegger, Writer Jeff Hodgson, Art Director Eliana Ferrer, Senior Copywriter Frank Garcia, Senior Art Director Giulia Magaldi, Management Supervisor Monique Beauchamp Estrella, Senior Producer Renata Neumann, Producers Cecilia Salguero and Matt Wiele, plus Junior Strategist Wonsik Cho.
The Tim Hortons team included Regional President Axel Schwan, Chief Marketing Officer Paloma Azulay, Head of Integrated Marketing Communications Jana Goodbaum, Head of Marketing, Markus Sturm, Jenni McIsaac and Dibba Iran-Parasti.
The production company was OPC, the directors were Jon + Torey, with Executive Producers Harland Weiss, Donovan Boden and Isil Gilderdale, Producer John Scarth, Director of Photography Kiel Milligan, Production Designer Alex Saiapov, Wardrobe Stylist Angela Koszuta, Hair / Make-up Cathyann Cuthbert, editorial was by Cosmo Street Editorial, online by Cosmo in-house, with music by Human.
Comment:
Few brands market around hockey as consistently, creatively and authentically as Tom Hortons and this is another emotionally powerful and authentically relevant initiative to add to the brand’s hockey marketing heritage which also includes 2019’s ‘Kids Say The Funniest Things (see case study) and 2018’s brilliant ‘The Away Game’ (see case study).
Links:
Tim Hortons
https://www.youtube.com/user/TimHortons
https://www.facebook.com/TimHortons
https://twitter.com/timhortons
https://www.instagram.com/timhortons/
Gut Agency
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