In order to launch the iPhone 14 in Canada, our task was to reinforce and bolster the perception that iPhone is “worth” the premium price in Canada.
Hockey is woven tightly into the cultural fabric of Canada. A recent study showed that as much as 93% of Canadian adults surveyed agreed that hockey was a part of Canadian identity. Something all Canadians can agree on. Unfortunately, advertisers seem to have agreed on a format to do this. They portray athletes in a conventional way: Retired or active players pitching products directly to camera, hoping to borrow equity from their likeness, or their team affiliation.
We set out to break these conventions, our intention was to capture what Canadians love about hockey: the drama…the suspense…the intrigue…the action.
This was the HOCKEY we set out to capture.
Along the way we found an insight that unlocked our storyline. We discovered that 85% of NHL players have lost teeth in their careers. Unfortunately, the stereotype is true. In fact, we discovered that each NHL team has a full-time Dentist on staff to manage the barrage of dental trauma.
In the video, we find ourselves on a bleak frozen lake in Northern Quebec, and we see that Canadian hockey players P.K. Subban and Joe Thornton are dredging through a biting storm at night frantically searching for something, relying on their iPhone 14 flashlight to illuminate their way. It’s not clear why they’re there, why those two would be together, why it matters so much. We don’t know what they’re looking for, but we can tell the stakes are high.
But when one of them goes to fit it into an empty slot in their mouth, in an unexpected twist, he finds that it doesn’t fit. Shoulders slump but otherwise unperturbed, he tosses it away, and the two players soldier on, reassured that their iPhone 14 batteries will persist long into the night. Or at least until hypothermia starts kicking in.
Long nights. Longer battery life.
Relax, it’s iPhone 14.
The campaign broke in TV during the Canadian broadcast of the Superbowl, as the first story after Rihanna’s half-time gig, giving it a great stage to be unveiled, before also hitting digital and social.
