As I get set to open the 2011 Canadian Sponsorship Forum today, it is only fitting that a young man named Robert Wickens has become the first Canadian driver to land a job with an F1 team since Jacques Villeneuve. While he will only be on the track Sunday, due to an injury or other emergency, Wickens will test with the Red Bull team and be fully immersed in all of the weekend’s activities. Regardless, for the 22-year-old who is currently second in the FR 3.5 development series, it’s a great opportunity.
2011 marks the second year that the Grand Prix has been back in Canada and judging by the lack of hotel rooms and restaurant tables available, the excitement of race fans can only possibly be exceeded by Montreal tourism officials.
Wickens’ ascent and the F1 race top off a wild few days for the Canadian sports marketing and sponsorship scene.
Last week the Grey Cup 2012 festival was launched, in anticipation of the 100th Grey Cup. Typically, festivals don’t launch before the current year’s Grey Cup. But considering the magnitude of the 100th,
the league (and I assume the BC Lions), deemed it too important to hold off. I am sure lead partners Molson & Scotiabank are thrilled to get an extraordinary 17-month run-up to the 100th!
Speaking of the CFL, Steve Mazurak’s presentation at this week’s Marketing Magazine Sport Marketing Conference blew me away. The Riders are an incredible marketing success and Mazurak told the audience they sell more licensed merchandise than 50 per cent of the teams in the NFL. Rider Pride!
Speaking of Scotiabank, I love the ads they’re running during the Stanley Cup finals. A brilliant approach by a league sponsor to leverage the excitement of an individual team’s success (the Canucks), without official rights. Take a peak if you haven’t seen them yet. Scotia proved, during last year’s Olympics, that they have become masters at this. Some would call it an ambush, I consider it more of a gentle lawn mow than a full bushwhack!
There will soon be one more Canadian team for Scotiabank to get behind.
The return of the Winnipeg franchise is just one more sign of the incredible roll Canada has been on in the past couple of years.
It’s fashionable to give all the credit to the Olympics. They were certainly a seminal “marketing” moment for our national ego, but I think this surge is much more than sizzle. The meat of the matter has much more to do with the stability of our economy, when all around us is a mess. In the movie Too Big to Fail, now showing on The Movie Network, there is a great line where the British government tells the US government they won’t allow Barclay’s Bank to buy Lehman brothers because, “we don’t want your cancer.” Thankfully Canada avoided the financial ills that befell our U.S. neighbours. This is making Canada a pretty attractive place right now. Whether you are the NHL, Target, or FIFA.
Thanks to FIFA and the CSA, 2015 is looming large as one of the greatest years in Canadian sport. On top of the previously awarded Pan Am Games, Canada’s winning bid of the Women’s World Cup event will have far reaching benefits for our sport. Stadium construction could result. Personally I am hopeful that Halifax’s Atlantic Schooners will re-surface and give the CFL the coast-to-coast presence I would love to see.
Throw a Quebec City team in the mix and a wonderfully Canadian, imbalanced, eleven-team league, with six in the East and five in the West, would really drive the sport of football in this country.
Speaking of Quebec City, I think they’re next in line for an NHL franchise; certainly ahead of Hamilton or Waterloo, and Toronto as well. I was on the Andrew Krystal Show last week talking about this very topic. There is no question that the “416” could support another NHL team (or in some people’s opinions a real NHL team!); I just don’t see how that is going to happen. Too bad. Because to me, Toronto is on par with every other North American megaopolis that has the luxury of a Cubs-White Sox, Mets-Yankees, or Lakers-Clippers setup.
Okay, I have to head off to the track. Time to Rev Up My ROI!