2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

With over 1,700 stores in 60 countries, Decathlon is the largest sports retailer in the world, and since its creation in 1976, the retailer has been committed to making sports and their benefits accessible to everyone. Over the years, Decathlon has built its success through affordable prices, innovative products, passionate employees and experiential stores. However, despite its iconic status internationally, Decathlon has remained a relatively unknown brand in Canada, where it has only been present since 2018. Since Decathlon was about to open its 10th store in the country in 2021, the retailer wanted to boost its fame while making its commitment to the democratization of sport known.

The market was already heavily populated by established players with much larger marketing budgets, such as Sports Experts in Quebec or Sport Chek in the rest of Canada. It was also ingrained in Decathlon’s culture to favor grassroots initiatives over mass media-heavy campaigns. To break through, they had to find a strong and cost-effective initiative that reflected their mission to make sports more accessible. And to compensate for considerably smaller resources, this initiative had to be buzz-worthy enough to be amplified by the media and the general public.

The International Symbol of Access, one of the most recognized signs in the world, only reflects the limitations of people with disabilities.

Ability Signs: to change the way we look at people with disabilities, the universal accessibility symbol was reimagined to spotlight what they can do rather than what they can't. Using Decathlon’s existing retail signage system, they designed 25 custom symbols. Called Ability Signs, these 25 new icons now depict the symbol with a sport, such as basketball, rugby and tennis to name a few. These new icons are intended to help broaden how we see people with disabilities.

Launched in the fall of 2021, In addition to in-store signage and parking space stencils, a website was created (abilitysigns.ca) where people could download every icon available under a Creative Commons license to use, for free, with the ultimate goal of having individuals and other brands join the movement.

Since its launch, Ability Signs has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from international Decathlon stakeholders, disability advocates and the media. While the initiative started in Canada, things took off with professional sports teams, recreational centres, gyms and even competitors agreeing to install their own
Ability Signs.

The movement now extends to Paris, where several cities of Seine-Saint-Denis added 16 accessible parking spots using Ability Signs visuals 1,000 days ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic games. The Decathlon headquarters, located in France, also depict the Ability Signs in parking lots and inside main office buildings.

The Ability Signs initiative earned 227 million organic impressions, 439% increase in brand mentions and reached 73 countries, making it the most shared social campaign in Decathlon’s history.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Chief Strategy Officer: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick, Nicolas Quintal
Creative Director: Maxime Saute, Xavier Blais
Art Director: Rachel Leblanc, Ryan Cookish, Maxime Sauté
Writer: Xavier Blais
Interactive Producer: Terri Winter, Todd Harrison
Developer: Steve Lam
Designer: Claudia Barberio
Lead Strategist: Pascal Routhier
Studio Artist: Cadu Rocha
Agency Producer: Sarah Longpré, Johanne Pelland, Katia Dupuy, Samuel Bonneau, AJ Merrick, Steph Walker Wells
Account Services: Alex Lefebvre, Rose Napoléon, Aïcha Diallo
PR: Rethink - Meredith Montgomery, Sara Lemmermeyer
Production house: ContentContent
Director: Simon Ronny Lebrun
Producer: Raphaëlle Rousseau
Editor: Leigh O’Neill
Client: Décathlon Canada - Jaylone Lee, Marie-Lou Blais, Maeva Reffo, Manuela Comte