restaurants

Tim Hortons Scores NHL All-Star Game Sponsorship

NHL-Allstar-GameNorth American quick-service chain Tim Hortons is in the second year of a multi-year sponsorship as Official Quick Service Coffee, Donut and Breakfast Restaurant of the National Hockey League in Canada. But this year, the company has a jewel for its sponsorship crown: title sponsorship of this season’s National Hockey League All-Star Game, to be called the 2012 Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game.

The game takes place on Jan. 29 at Scotiabank Place, home of the Ottawa Senators. It is the first time Ottawa has hosted the NHL All-Star weekend.

As part of the deal Tim Hortons gets a Zamboni-ful of media and branding opportunities around the All-Star Game, including an in-ice brand position; camera-visible dasherboards; on-air mentions of the Tim Hortons brand in connection with the event name and Tim Hortons' logo on CBC broadcasts.

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Kyle McMann, VP of partnership marketing, based at the NHL's Toronto office, says the company will advertise during game coverage on the network and is also in talks with RDS (Réseau des sports) for ad buys around French-language game broadcasts. NBC Sports Network will broadcast the game in the U.S.

Tim Hortons' brand will also be prevalent on NHL-controlled media properties like NHL.com, NHL Network and NHL Radio, and the company has an opportunity to integrate its Timbits Minor Hockey players into promotional activities as well. The QSR chain will also be presenting sponsor of both the Tim Hortons NHL Elimination Shootout within the NHL All-Star Skills Competition and the NHL trophy exhibit within a fan festival at the venue called NHL Fan Fair.

Tim Hortons' involvement in the game isn't purely business. The chain was co-founded by Myles "Tim" Horton, who played defense for some two dozen seasons with several NHL teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres. The company, which has some 3,100 stores in Canada, is bigger there than McDonald's there, and has about a quarter of quick service revenue.

Though the chain also has close to 600 stores in the U.S., the effort is really focused on Canada, per McMann.

He tells Marketing Daily that other brands are lining up to have a presence in Ottawa during the All-Star Weekend. One is Canadian Tire, the nation's largest home-improvement retailer, which last year inked a five-year deal to be the League's Official Home Improvement Retailer of the NHL in Canada.

McMann says the company will have a presence at the game as part of a joint program launched last month, called Canadian Tire NHL Junior Skills Competition involving 15 regional competitions to find the best young players. They will compete at the Canadian Tire NHL Junior Skills National Championship during the All-Star Weekend in Ottawa. "We have number of initiatives being finalized right now so there will be significant numbers of brands in coming weeks," he says.

This year's All-Star weekend in Raleigh, N.C., saw a 42% increase in sponsorship revenue in Canada and the United States over the last All-Star Game held in the U.S., an all-time record for video starts on NHL.com and the best retail performance for a U.S.-based All-Star Game in seven years.

McMann says the All-Star game has had sizable viewership increases year over year" on both sides of the border. We have done things to make it more engaging starting with the All Star Player Draft, which gives players a chance to draft the teams. We are back with it again this year so, ultimately, it doesn't matter where it takes place. As a hockey fan, it is really about the best of the mid-season, so it should resonate both in the U.S. and Canada."

 

 

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