Objective
Sports Experts, Quebec’s largest sports retailer, wanted to salute the small feats of everyday champions - those who might never attend the Olympics but deserve recognition for staying active. Although it has dominated the French Canadian market for the past 50 years, the sporting goods retailer is now facing fast-growing competition, with local, but also international players such as Decathlon, opening new brick and mortar locations in the vicinity of it’s long-established franchises. This campaign aimed at increasing sales by at least 5%, by focusing on everyday athletes, Sports Experts’ most profitable consumers.

A successful campaign

Sales in Q4 YOY
+10%
Sales for partner brands that were specifically advertised in the campaign YOY
+30%

Identify where people are active

These ordinary sports enthusiasts do not have access to the support system that high performance athletes enjoy.  Our focus groups showed that the everyday athletes wish they could sometimes get a tap in the back. Staying active, no matter the weather, no matter how busy life gets, requires perseverance and discipline. Without encouragements, it is tempting to give up on good health habits.

That’s why Sports Experts decided to act like the everyday coach that supports all active Quebecers and remind them at the same time that Sports Experts sells everything they need for their active lifestyle, whatever sports they are into. 

We lived up to Sports Experts positioning: the everyday coach! A good coach motivates, rewards and inspires his athletes. Throughout the campaign, Sports Experts acted like a good trainer and created an innovative media plan that rewarded and valorized every single physical effort, big or small.

Appreciate everyday physical effort

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First, we created the thermal discount and dominated the highest metro station in Montreal: Lucien L'Allier. Like any good coach, Sports Experts encouraged users as they climbed 164 steps and waited for them at the finish line with an interactive screen equipped with a body heat detector. Users who climbed the stairs were offered a discount in store proportional to the physical effort deployed. A campaign on social media helped to amplify the execution and aroused real enthusiasm among Quebecers.

We then transformed street columns into weather-activated signs to encourage runners to get out there even in bad weather. Thanks to invisible ink, messages of encouragement specially dedicated to courageous runners only appeared in the rain.

We have also adapted the out-of-home campaign to the locations where athletes train. Thanks to a matrix of 35 creatives, 12 formats and 500 positions, there were a total of 200,000 possible adaptations of the message. We selected the best locations such as gyms, parks and Bixi stations, going so far as to create locations where there was none with the domination of the Lucien L'Allier station.

We have developed hyper-localized SEM campaigns, specific to each location of training. When a consumer searched on his mobile for the product promoted on nearby displays, the user was redirected to the nearest Sports Experts store.

A succesful campaign

Prix Média Infopresse
2018
Prix Média Infopresse
2018
Mix Média $250k et +
Media Innovation Awards
2018
Best in Retail
Media Innovation Awards
2018
Best in Launch/Relaunch
Media Innovation Awards
2018
Best use of Technology

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Redefining

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We are steadfast in our belief that marketing and media creativity needs to be constantly redefined. Because we are emboldened by the ever-more meaningful, memorable and impactful connections this creates between a brand and its audiences. And most importantly, because it drives business success.

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