AN INTEGRATED, MULTI-PLATFORM CAMPAIGN DRIVING AWARENESS & EXCITEMENT 

On March 12, 2020, the NHL announced the postponement of the season due to COVID-19. Canadians are fanatical about hockey, and they longed for the return of the NHL season. When the NHL announced its Return to Play Plan on May 26, Pepsi had a clear goal: tap into the excitement for the return of hockey and engage fans. 

It was time to ‘Get Ready’ for puck drop. The Pepsi #ReadyForHockey campaign was launched with an anathematic video featuring the Canadian band Walk off the Earth, NHL players, hockey analysts, broadcasters and mascots. With this all-star cast and content, PRAXIS was tasked with engaging hockey fans online. 

What started out as anathematic video celebrating that hockey is back, quickly turned into a campaign idea to go the distance. #ReadyForHockey was born!  

PRAXIS partnered with nine Canadian celebrities including Tessa Virtue, Nathan Dales, Gerry Dee, Rick Campanelli, Steve “Dangle” Glynn, Les Denis Drolet, Sebastien Benoit, Pavel Barber and Zac Bell. All influencers created videos focusing on the CTA for UGC and content was strategically posted across multiple social platforms. 

When the #READYFORHOCKEY UGC campaign went live, fans were eager to share their content from home, showing their love for hockey, their favourite team and that hockey was back! With no time wasted, user generated content began to flood in through Instagram, Facebook and through a TikTok #CHALLENGE. Fans’ submissions were then selected based on a criteria to be added to 30 second TV ad which aired during the remaining weeks of the NHL playoffs! 

SOCIAL RESULTS 

• 1 million+ impressions 
• 95,000 engagements 
• 79% positive sentiment 

INFLUENCER RESULTS 

• 1 million+ impressions 
• 4.8% engagement rate 
• 91% positive & neutral sentiment 

We asked and Canadian hockey fans delivered! Canadians shared over 135,000+ UGC submissions, all tracked and evaluated by the PRAXIS SOCIAL team. In fact, we received so many submissions that THREE Pepsi commercials featuring Canadian fans were developed!