Boston Pizza Turns Billboards into Scoreboards to Support Edmonton in Hockey Playoffs
With Edmonton being the only Canadian team left in the playoffs, Boston Pizza is showing its support by changing its brand colours from blue and red to orange and blue across social, web, TV, print, and on OOH billboards that read, 'Orange is the New Red, Bring it Home Edmonton.'
To ensure the whole country knows the score when it comes to ending Canada’s 30-year Cup drought, BP has also transformed billboards in cities across Canada into real-time scoreboards. The billboards work to dynamically update the score during each game with real time updates on how Canada’s final team is faring in the final round.
While the idea of supporting another team has been divisive for some hockey fans, many Canadians have joined in to support the nation's final contender in the playoffs. One recent poll from Angus Reid found that two thirds of Canadians are willing to get behind the only remaining Canadian team.
“Since the beginning of the playoffs, we’ve been encouraging Canadians to support all our teams in hopes of bringing home the Cup for the first time in over 30 years,” said James Kawalecki, vice president of marketing at Boston Pizza International. “Edmonton is ‘Canada’s hope’ and we’ve come this far and have only one round to go, so again, we’re calling for everyone to cheer on Edmonton. If you can’t watch a game at BP, you can see the score on one of our real-time score billboards.”
The initiative is part BP’s ongoing 'Team Up for the Win' campaign, created in partnership with its agency of record, Camp Jefferson. The campaign encourages Canadians to set aside their regular season allegiance to their favourite team and support all Canada’s teams competing in hopes of bringing the Cup back to Canada for the first time since 1993.
Previous initiatives in the campaign have included a national TV campaign, reactive OOH, contextual social, digital, and OOH, and PR initiatives like the Rage Room when Toronto was eliminated in round one.
