2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

The Olympic Games generates $13,000,000,000 in revenue for the International Olympic Committee, celebrities and advertisers. But the same can’t be said of the athletes who participate in the games.

With strict rules from the IOC preventing brands from sponsoring them, athletes miss out on lucrative endorsement opportunities, often leading them to huge financial burdens. With a significant time and monetary investment going into their training year over years, athletes find themselves struggling with debt and are forced to find jobs to make supplemental income.

As an official sponsor of Team Canada during the Paris 2024 Olympics Games, Molson wanted to find a way to directly support athletes, and help to rectify this glaring financial issue. Because of the IOC rules, we knew we would have to find a loophole to get them paid. Enter: their parents.

Instead of signing the athletes to endorsement deals, we signed their parents, allowing us to launder the sponsorship money through the parents directly to the Team Canada athletes.

The parents did everything that would normally be included in a sponsorship – they starred in a TV commercial wearing Molson-branded gear, created their own social content, and participated in interviews on home soil and in Paris. They also worked with media partners to find targeted OOH in their hometowns, so that their local communities could join in and rally behind the athletes and their families.

This unique sponsorship of the parents flipped the average Olympics campaign on its head. Molson gave families a platform to share stories of how they’ve supported their Olympian on the road to Paris, and more importantly, it allowed us to shine light on the financial discrepancy that exists for the athletes.

In terms of financial impact, through their parents Molson contributed $15K to each athlete that participated, and generated visibility across CBC Gem, social media, PR and OOH placements.

The campaign was able to reach millions in the process, gaining buzz from Team Canada athletes on social platforms and receiving an overwhelming positive response from the public and media throughout the campaign.

By laundering sponsorship money through the parents, they got deserving athletes paid and helped them take home more than just medals.

“Paid Through Parents” garnered a total of 389,201,408 impressions across media, connected TV and OOH. They increased athletes' pay by 15,000% more than past Olympics and the total impressions on owned channels hit 19M+, garnering a 100% positive sentiment and over 700 new followers.

Molson received mentions from high profile athletes including Larissa Franklin, Tyler Mislawchuk, and Hannah Taylor.

Credits

CCO: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick
CSO: Sean McDonald
ECD: Xavier Blais
Group CD: Robbie Percy, Caroline Friesen
CD: Karine Doucet
ACD, Art Director: Mat Cruz
ACD, Copywriter: Alex Smith
Group Strategy Director: Crystal Sales
Broadcast Producer: Shannon Farrell
Associate Director of Integrated Production: Kate A. Spencer
Integrated Production: Terri Winter
Producer: Katia Dupuy
Studio Manager: Todd Bennett
Group Business Lead: Shar Khursigara
Group Account Director: Michelle Corsbie
Account Director: Jia Cau
Account Supervisor: Samantha Fabro
PR Group Account Director: Matt Milne
PR Account Director: Sara Lemmermeyer, Kristel Dupont
PR Specialist: Tara Lush-Benson
PR Coordinator: Sara Zivkovic, Mégane Landry, Janvi Singh
Production Company: Asymetric
Director: Kacper Larski
DoP: Bryn McCashin
Executive Producer: Evan Landry
Line Producer: Phillip Sywash
Stills Production Company: Coup and Co.
Photographer: Janick Laurent
Executive Producer: Ashley Barth
Editing: Saints Editorial
Editor: Christopher Chiang
Assistant Editors: AJ Lawrence
Executive Producer: Mackenzie Goodwin
Transfer / Online: Darling
Colourist: Kassi Bellamy
Flame Artist: Alexa Salsberg
Executive Producer: Kristen Van Fleet
Producer: Will Culverwell
Audio House: OSO
Executive Producer: Lauren Dobbie
Voice Director: Katie Corbridge
Engineer: Leo Hicks
Media: Publicis
Group Account Director: Dylan Montcalm
Associate Media Director: Ian Hall
Media Manager: Maddie Matson
Media Planner: Penny Pensotes, Justin Gonzales

Client:
CMO: Sofia Colucci
VP, Marketing: Leslie Malcolm
Brand Director: Kara Fitzpatrick
Senior Brand Manager: Maddie Gillmeister
Marketing Manager: Kristin Lucente
Assistant Marketing Manager: Thomas Tawaststjerna
Marketing Intern: Larissa Fernandez
Partnerships Manager: Brit Guthrie, Marlie McLaughlin
Director of Brand PR: Maya McDonald
Brand PR Manager: Tiffany Luong
APR Brand Executive Producer: Lori Estabrooks