Why Chevrolet Is Celebrating Good Deeds Done across Canada
On January 20th, the Chevrolet ‘Good Deeds Cup’ launched for its seventh and most exciting season yet, challenging young hockey players in Canada to bring determination, teamwork and sportsmanship from the rink to their communities. But this year, the initiative by Chevrolet, which has seen more than a thousand good deeds conducted in towns and cities across the country, now has a new twist. Specifically, the event’s format has changed from a voting-based competition – to determine which team has done the best good deed – to a volume-based competition, meaning the ‘Good Deeds Champion’ title will be awarded to the hockey team with the most good deeds done by March 4th. With an additional $100,000 prize to donate to a charity of their choice, it’s up to each team to do what they can to out-good-deed each other.
However, an initiative of this magnitude wouldn’t be the same without an exciting campaign to accompany it. Enter Momentum Worldwide, who, alongside Alfredo Films’ director Amy Becker-Burnett, created a playful, dynamic, big-impact, comic-book-style film to inspire and empower youth to do more good than ever before. Running across TV and social, the spot serves as a reminder that whether it’s cleaning up the park, salting sidewalks, donating clothes, or organising the whole team to maximise the impact, there’s more flexibility than ever for participants to perform acts of kindness on their own time.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Momentum Worldwide Canada’s senior vice president and executive creative director, Patrice Pollack, as well as Chevrolet Canada’s brand director James Hodge, and director Amy Becker-Burnett, to discuss how this campaign came to life.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign, and why was Momentum the right agency for the job?
James> We want to ensure Chevrolet has a purpose in Canadian hockey and not just a presence. As such, the goal of this campaign was to inspire Canadian youth by promoting the positive values learned through the sport, such as comradery, accountability, respect, and a strong work ethic help promote better life skills off the ice.
In terms of agency choice, Momentum is a wonderful integrator. They get that this program relies on the gargantuan effort of multiple teams - from creative to experiential, our great media partners at Rogers to our wonderful ambassadors – and serve as the glue and driving force behind the good being done by our IAT partners Commonwealth//McCann, Weber Shandwick and Carat.
LBB> This year, for the first time, the goal is to fill the cup with many good deeds, rather than voting on a singular one. What inspired this change, and what made it the best approach for the Cup?
Patrice> The ‘Good Deeds Cup’ has always been a movement encouraging young hockey players to take the values they learn on the ice and apply them to their community off the ice. But what we’ve realised in our seventh season is how important cumulative effort is. Even small acts of good can impact the culture of hockey and improve communities across Canada. They can quite literally change the game. By prioritising the sheer number of good deed submissions, rather than focusing on the best good deed, we opened the program up to celebrate all good deeds equally.
James> We want to celebrate all good deeds - even ones that are smaller in size – and we want to see more good done and more communities impacted for good. We also want to celebrate collective community action by making sure no good deed goes unnoticed, and through that, hopefully inspire many more. Everyone’s contribution, no matter the size, fills the cup.
LBB> Creating a playful, comic-book-style film is a great way to grab attention. What made this the best way to proceed with the campaign’s development?
James> The comic-book-style film was the work of Momentum’s creative team, who had the wonderful idea to make the campaign vibrant, fresh and more invitational. And then, director Amy Becker-Burnett took a great idea and made it beautiful. She really knows how to bring out the best in the kids!
LBB> Speaking of Amy, what made her the right director for the job?
Patrice> Amy took our script and made magic. She breathed a childlike life into it – bringing an energy that we hadn’t seen before. She understood that the ‘Good Deeds Cup’ was more than a program; a rallying cry that could sweep the nation uniting kids to do as much good as they can. Her treatment leaned heavily into hyperbole, but with a playful optimism and attitude, something we needed the spot to have.
LBB> Amy, what was the script for this campaign like? What immediate ideas came to mind, and why was it something that you were keen to get involved in?
Amy> The script was great! It was full of life and energy, with loads of possibilities for where it could be taken creatively. I immediately imagined larger-than-life characters where the kids were the superheroes of their own stories. I wanted it to feel vibrant and wild - like a child’s imagination.
LBB> Tell us more about this! How did this goal impact the creative process, and as a whole, what was concepting like?
Patrice> Kids see and experience the world through a different lens. Their imagination is unfiltered: it’s raw, it’s expansive and it’s larger than life. The campaign needed to cultivate that childlike spirit, as if a wide-eyed kid were sitting in the director’s chair.
We also wanted to meet these kids where they are, and lean into their expansive world which doesn’t just live in our physical reality. We pulled inspiration from social, gaming, comics, and pop culture to create a tone of voice that brings them into a visceral, immersive world that shows them what doing good can do for the greater good.
Amy> After writing the concept, the agency presented an initial script which they asked directors to interpret. I kept the core of the concept the same, only re-working some scenarios so as to try and create as visually rich scenes as possible, while drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of arts and crafts, cartoons, TikTok and computer games.
Specifically, I wanted to create something that empowered children to do good deeds. It needed to feel expansive and expressive - talking to the kids on their level, and not down to them. A child’s world is exaggerated, and that’s what the thinking behind this was. It was important to use playful distortion and experiment with scale and quantity to enhance every aspect. I wanted to use a layered approach with diverse textures and graphics so it felt rich and alive, but also resonated with the world of our audience.
LBB> How long did it take to shoot, where did you shoot, and what was the experience like?
Patrice> The shoot days were amazing, but truthfully, the lead up to the shoot days were even more so. Together, we were all onboard to push for the best possible spot we could make, and what we ended up with was a group of people who leaned on each other for their expertise, and who challenged one another to want more. We came to the shoot as a group of people who trusted one another, who were aligned on the vision, and that allowed us to simply let go.
Amy> We had a super tight schedule and had to shoot the spot over two days, at various locations in Toronto. The shoot was super fun; it’s always great working with kids and feeding off their energy and unique perspective. But equally, it was tough. We were shooting some tricky lines to deliver, there were camera tricks to capture, and we were fighting daylight in mostly exterior locations. Definitely a challenge!
LBB> In particular, the ‘got mom an ice cream’ shot is hilarious. How did you go about capturing this specific scene?
Amy> We wanted this scene to feel like a real anti-climax to the extreme energy and overly exaggerated scale of all the other good deeds, but at the same time, make it feel like a really grand finale. The idea was to make the character feel tiny in frame, so we shot from high up on a wide angle lens so he appeared small in the scene - enhancing the idea of the gesture feeling somewhat insignificant to the others. This was then counterbalanced by the celebration and dynamic finale, the notion being there really is no deed too small!
LBB> The visual effects and comic-esque text is brilliant. Who did you work with to achieve this aspect of the spot, and what was that process like?
Patrice> Fort York VFX is brilliant! They were incredibly collaborative and excited about working on this project, and the process was truly amazing. We had Mike Bishop lead the charge, and he leant in early. In fact, Mike and his team were involved in brainstorming sessions and daily connects before we even started shooting. He worked alongside Amy to create storyboards that weren’t an afterthought, and he was there at the shoot, which was incredibly helpful. And then post shoot, he had a massive team that spanned across the globe at the ready to dig in.
LBB> The music is also incredible! Who did you work with on this aspect, and how did you find the right track to capture that fun, comic-book feel?
Patrice> TA2 also worked really closely with our team to unpack what we were looking for from an original piece of music, but also sound design. Connecting them with our editor, Michael Barker, made things seamless. They definitely understood the brief and the vibe. Music is so subjective, but they hit all the right notes (pun intended)!
LBB> What challenges have you faced during this project? How did you overcome them?
James> Like every major campaign, we prepare as best we can with our partners, but there are always a few surprises. On social platforms, it will always be difficult to maintain ownership over a hashtag when people use them to beat algorithms and ride content waves. However, when we think big picture, every challenge we face on this program pales in comparison to the good deeds Canadians are doing across the country, so we think this program has a long life ahead, challenges et al.
LBB> What does a campaign like this represent to Chevrolet, and how does it fit into your branding?
James> It represents a wonderful way for Canadian families to ‘find new roads’, and to feed that optimistic spirit within the country’s youth. Chevrolet recognises that while the role of sport may change throughout our lifetime, we all benefit from the spirit of play and sportsmanship
LBB> Do you have any memorable lessons learned from this new campaign?
James> That no matter how great you feel a program is, it can always be made better!
LBB> What has the initial response been like? How many good deeds have been done thus far?
James> The initial response and reaction to the program changes has been very positive. We’ve had lots of feedback from teams and the hockey community that making it easier to participate and evolving the campaign to be about the most good deeds has meant a greater impact on communities across Canada. To see that impact, you can go to the website and check the leaderboard!
LBB> Is there anything you’d like readers to know about the ‘Good Deeds Cup’?
James> Now in its seventh season, the program has seen more than a thousand good deeds conducted in local communities across Canada, and $750,000 donated to community organisations since the program’s inception.
Other than that, the Chevrolet ‘Good Deeds Cup’ is as big as the Stanley Cup… and man, is it heavy!
