Nike Canada Ltd.

Canadians are a humble bunch, known for being polite and rarely boastful. But for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics there was a storm of patriotic pride brewing. 

Canada had started the “Own The Podium” program, an investment in Canadian athletes becoming world leaders in high performance sport – particularly for the 2010 Olympics.

The Nike sponsorship campaign, “Canada 1. History 0,” would show how we as Canadians control our own destiny just like our Olympians and the bold new “Own The Podium” program. The messaging needed to be larger than life and a part of our supportive cultural fabric – a Canadian anthem, appealing to this vast new Canadian pride.

So Cossette launched the largest interactive projection ever in Canada, and possibly the world. Through intense location scouting and negotiating with the City of Vancouver, they secured the largest continuous street level wall in the city centre.

It required five projectors to bring it to life, and the ability to update creative quickly. Cossette instantly acknowledged each Olympic performance with 20 people working around the clock to monitor events and upload the relevant message within minutes.

Canadians everywhere were part of the encouraging messages. By joining the Nike Training fan page, they were able to use a Facebook Podium Props application to send a message instantly to Vancouver and the athletes. The message of support would appear on the massive projection with their name and Facebook profile picture up in lights.  The projection image would then be posted online for them to see and share with their friends, spreading the pride through social media.

About 250,000 Canadians and international guests viewed the inspirational messages each evening for a total of over 20 million impressions over two weeks. By linking the projection to a Facebook application on the Nike Training fan page, 25,000 Canadian fans were then able to follow and discuss Olympic results as the content was updated regularly.  

Fortunately for Nike, Canada took home a record 14 Gold medals, so there was a lot to chat about.