2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

As Canada’s Family Grocery Store, Sobeys has always supported every Canadian. From communities to customers to employees, everyone is a member of the Sobeys’ family. When they became the Official Grocer of the Tokyo Olympics, Sobeys had new members of the family they needed to support: Canada’s Olympic athletes.

The dinner table is the place where families gather for meals; but more importantly, conversation. Growing up, it’s where Canadians of all backgrounds were fed love and support, where families explored and pursued their dreams.

This year, our sponsored Canadian Olympic athletes are heading to Tokyo alone, without the support of family, friends, or even fans, due to pandemic restrictions. They know support plays an important role in driving the passion and performance of athletes and they wanted to ensure that they know and feel our support despite
restrictions and distance.

To encourage our athletes, they created a one-of-a-kind, 260 ft² tablecloth, a monumental symbol of love, hope, and inspiration to help bring them together over a piece of home. The tablecloth was stitched with messages of encouragement from their family, friends, and fans who continue to believe and nourish their dreams.

Tablecloths typically mark a special occasion of family and friends coming together. To commemorate something as significant as the Olympics in support of our Olympic athletes, they created a 260 ft² tablecloth: a monumental symbol of love, hope, and inspiration.

Taking inspiration from the maple leaf in the Canadian flag, Team Canada’s Tablecloth is made from over 1,300 patches representing the voices of their family, friends, and fans, each patch cheering them
on during the Games.

Their “Words to Live By” anthem spots - words of encouragement from those closest to our athletes - set the tone and ignited a movement for Team Canada. The campaign rallied Canadians from coast to coast to coast to send messages of support for our athletes. Messages began to pour in from athlete alumni, notable Canadian influencers, and even the athletes themselves. The most moving messages were
stitched into history.

Canadians submitted their words of support through social media or on their microsite, and those words were then embroidered onto a patch that became a piece of their massive tablecloth. Behind the scenes, it was a complex production process. The vetting process selected the most motivating messages. Those messages were embroidered onto their tablecloth, captured on video, edited by leveraging automation formulas, and then sent back to the user, resulting in approximately 1,300 unique videos showcasing messages of support. Recipients were encouraged to share with their networks and incite further submissions.

Their campaign microsite and social channels were their campaign catalysts, driving engagement and serving as their content hub, collecting thousands of messages. Once they had collected enough messages to complete their physical tablecloth, they continued to accumulate additional messages that would live on a digital version
of Team Canada’s Tablecloth.

After two months in market, and with the Olympics just about to begin, the new Sobeys Feed the Dream Tablecloth campaign exceeded target messages by over 70%, generating over 175MM impressions. The campaign drove a 300% increase in average time spent on their site FeedTheDream.ca (4:03 vs 1:23 on previous Sobeys campaign). Their “Words to live by” spots drove over 4.4M impressions, of which 2.7M were completed video views. At 61%, their completed video view rate was 77% above the YouTube benchmark.

Credits

Client:
SVP, Marketing: Sandra Sanderson
Marketing Director, Media & Sponsorship: Erika DeHaas
Manager, Media Sponsorship & Brand: Conner Higgins
Manger, Sponsorship: Zak Bannerman
Director: Derek Kent
Manager, Social: Tara Thomas

Agency Credits
Creative
Chief Creative Officer: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna
Chief Creative Director: Jeff Hilts
Group Creative Director: Troy McGuinness
Sr. Copywriter: Ariel Riske
Sr. Art Director:Adam Tuck
Sr. Copywriter: Jason Soy
Sr. Art Director: Naeem Walji
Art Director: Zuheir Kotob
Art Director: Jerry Yang
Account Management
VP, Managing Director: Ricky Jacobs
VP, Group Account Director: Hanh Vo
Account Coordinator: Ajeevaan Sivan
VP, Broadcast Producer: Stef Fabich
Broadcast Producer: Jana Desjardins / Tess Waisglass
Director, Editorial & Animation: Tyler Strahl
Project Management
Integrated Producer: Cori Pettit
Strategy
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Senior Planner: Meg Siegel

Other:
North - PR
XMC - Experiential
UM - Media


Production Credits
Director: Scott Drucker / Pat Moore - Director
Post: Alter Ego
Editorial: Outsider
Audio/Music: BoobBox Sound
Printing: Emmerson Group Inc.
Embroidery: Makelab Creative Technology Studios
Seamstress: Shoppe and Tailor Studios