2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Founded over 58 years ago, Tims is one of Canada's most iconic brands. With over 4200 restaurants, Tims is a national institution and a part of Canadians' daily rituals. Despite being the symbol of Canada, the brand has been losing touch with younger Canadians. Over the last decade, Tims was starting to be seen as old-fashioned, and appealing only to older audiences. The truth is, Canadian culture, especially youth culture has been rapidly evolving, and Tims has not been keeping pace. This, combined with a downturn for QSR business due to COVID, meant that Tims needed to revitalise the brand and reconnect with the younger audience.

Tims has always been a brand that creates products that become iconic markers of Canadian identity. Products like the Canadian coffee order "double-double," the culture-shaping craze of "Iced Capp," or everyone's childhood favourite treat - "Timbits." To re-establish a connection with young Canadians, they needed to do what they've always done: draw on heritage to create Canada's next iconic, identity-defining product - one that could spark a new wave of Canadian culture. The answer was found in bringing together a Canadian celebrity with an authentic connection with the brand, Justin Bieber, and a truly iconic Tims product, Timbits. The result was more than a collaboration. It was a co-creation of the most memorable new product in recent Canadian history - Timbiebs.

The new limited edition Timbiebs included three new flavours developed with Justin himself. The partnership was more than a product, extending into a fully-scaled lifestyle launch with a limited edition toque, fanny pack and tote bag.

The fully integrated English and French campaign launched across TV, OOH, radio, social, in-store and digital with over 300 digital channel placements, from customized social content to performance driven media takeovers. There was exclusive content created for Tim Hortons team members and a BTS video available only to Tims app users. There was also a contest to win signed merch and tickets to one of Justin’s shows. A full takeover of Yonge and Dundas square supplemented the campaign during the launch week, but the key to the campaign’s success was staying rooted in Justin’s genuine love and admiration for the brand, taking it from “just a celebrity partnership” to a reflection of modern Canadian culture.

Timbiebs sent a wave of excitement throughout Canada and beyond. Sales exceeded the forecasted numbers and contributed to stronger than expected Q4 results. The campaign even inspired other Canadian icons, Michael Buble and Shay Mitchell to jokingly publicly ask for partnerships of their own.

Other highlights include over 2.1 billion earned impressions, earing #3 on global trending Twitter, #1 on Canada trending Twitter and #9 on YouTube trending. It was also featured in publications like The New York Times, CNN, Billboard, People, Fast Company, Hypebeast, TMZ and more.

But most importantly, Tims continues to be flooded with praise from young Canadians and new fans who can’t wait to see what Canada’s favourite brand will drum up next.

Credits

GUT
Athena Kouverianos, Director, Production
Kelly Mark, Sr. Producer
Vivian Poon, Producer
Brynna Aylward, ECD
Matthew Kenney, CD (AD)
Frederick Nduna, CD (Copywriter)
Andy Tamayo, ACD (AD)
Alexander Allen, ACD (Copywriter)
Sophia Kossoski, Sr. AD
Laura De Santis, Sr. Copywriter
Daniel Zhang, AD
Christopher Vena, Copywriter
Monica Herrera, Designer
Ryan O'Hagan, Business Director
Laura Cavalcanti, Account Supervisor
Ali Joyaa, Account Executive
Gurpriya Seth, Account Coordinator
Dino Demopoulos, CSO
Will Ramos, Social Strategy Director
Emily Barnes, Director, Content Strategy
Gvantsa Datuashvili, Sr. Strategist
Chantal Legge, Content Supervisor
TIM HORTONS
Axel Schwan, President
Hope Bagozzi, CMO
Solange Bernard, Sr. Director, Marketing Communications
Dibba Iran-Parasti, Director, Marketing Communications
Anthony Campos, Sr. Manager, Media
Michael Oliveira, Director, Communications
Rebecca Eidelstein, Director, US Marketing Communications
Pamela Estupinan, Sr. Manager, US Marketing Communications
TALENT
Justin Bieber
Eileen O'Connell, EN Team Member
Thomas Derasp-Verge, FR Team Member
SB PROJECTS
Allison Kaye, President
Jules Ferree, EVP
TFS
Émilie Maranda, Account Director
Sabrina Desjardins, Account Manager
Joëlle Fournier, MD, Adaptation
Valérie Forget, Adaptation Director
Brigitte Hébert-Carle, Adaptation Copywriter
Julie Lorazo, Producer
BOY IN THE CASTLE
Colin Tilley, Director
Jamee Ranta, EP
Cora Johnson, Head of Production
Clark Jackson, Line Producer
Elias Talbot, DOP

PHOTOGRAPHY
Rory Kramer, BTS Photographer
Evan Paterakis, BTS Videographer

ROOSTER
Paul Proulx, Sr. Editor
Jordan Giles, Jr. Editor
Melissa Kahn, EP
Mariam Fahmy, FR Editor
Austin Blackmore, Asst. Editor
Soch Nwakaeze, Asst. Editor

THE VANITY
Sean Cochrane, VFX
Kaelem Cahill, VFX
Andrew Exworth, Colourist

AUDIO: Grayson Music & Lamajeure

MEDIA: Horizon

DIGITAL MEDIA: Media.Monks

PR CANADA: Craft

PR USA: ABMC