"Give Your Everything"
Canadian Olympic Committee
Canadian Olympic Committee
In the fall of 2011, Proximity was named the Canadian Olympic Committee’s agency of record.
Our task was two-fold: to evolve the pre-existing brand in a way that best introduces and represents Canada’s elite athletes to the nation, and to create a campaign that could carry the nation’s athletes to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London and beyond.
A month’s worth of strategy breakouts, brainstorm sessions and creative exploration led to the creative platform that answered both asks: Give Your Everything.
Once the messaging platform was established, the creative direction and executions evolved naturally. The art direction, treated with semi-desaturated action photography, emphasized the raw athleticism and passion of the athletes. The copy picked up these same points with a punchy, confident swagger rooted in their unique backstories.
During the lead up to the London Games, a wealth of executions further developed the creative platform. Long-copy print ads and transit shelter ads told each of the key athletes’ unique backstories. Bold posters, billboards and transit ads conveyed their attitude and enthusiasm. And an update to the COC-managed Olympic.ca website brought the campaign messaging through to all elements of the Committee.
During the Games itself, with the key athletes already introduced and the platform established, we turned our attention to real-time responses to the events of the Games. Working with pre-established templates, we cranked out banner ads and a wide variety of social media update with every medal won by a Canadian in London.
Overall, the campaign met with great success in terms of reach and social mentions — not to mention a couple awards added to the shelf at the Canadian Marketing Awards and Caples.
A full-team effort led to a true 360º campaign introducing and representing Canada’s athletes to their country and the world, setting the stage for Sochi 2014 and beyond.
From The Cutting Room Floor
NOTE: These reflect earlier stages in the creative process, and therefore do not reflect the final visuals of the campaign above.
NOTE: These reflect earlier stages in the creative process, and therefore do not reflect the final visuals of the campaign above.
Like any campaign, some of the ideas we had ended up not getting produced due to a variety of factors (time, budget, etc). This included a digital push that would have brought Canadians closer to their Olympians than ever before.
To answer the primary asks, we proposed Athlete Connect, a Facebook Connect add-on to Olympic.ca. As soon as the visitor would have agreed to connecting with Facebook, they would have instantly been prompted with a few athletes to cheer for specifically based on their location, favourite sports, and other Olympic-related variables.
In addition, we also proposed a map of Canada containing these "pins" to further drive home just how local these athletes are to fans across the country.
Also, early in the process before any of the campaign and branding work began, we needed to create a direct mail invite for corporate sponsors to attend a fundraising event. My idea was to have a standard 6x9 clip-sealed self-mailer that would unfold into the shape of a maple leaf, with all the content contained within.
