Restaurant chain Boston Pizza – which oddly has no connection to its namesake city, but is a Canadian company – leveraged the NHL Playoffs through a Toronto Maple Leafs supporting campaign called ‘BP Fanalytics’ which purports to adopt advanced sports analytics techniques to create the ultimate Playoffs viewing experience and an evolving Playoffs menu
Developed in harness with creative agency John St and rolling out from the first half of April, the ‘BP Fanalytics’ idea is to create a proprietary field of statistical study that uses data analysis and research to understand the food and drink preferences of hockey fans, to optimize all aspects of the sports watching experience and to prove that watching the sports at Boston Pizza is better than anywhere else. This culminated in an evolving Playoff menu.
The campaign opened with an initial wave of Boston Pizza ‘Fanalytics’ videos dropping on 12 April and including ‘Home v BP’ and ‘Dip Test’ backed by a set of social supporting content.
A further campaign strand even saw ‘Boston Pizza’ temporarily change its name to ‘Auston Pizza’ to disassociate its brand name and to troll the Maple Leafs’ fierce rivals the Boston Bruins by renaming itself after young Leafs’ star Auston Matthews – the former number overall pick who has played a key role in the Leafs’ recent success.
Three of the Leafs’ most recent early Playoff exits were at the hands of the Boston Bruins, so when the Leafs made it through to the second round of the 2023 NHL playoffs on 29 April and the Bruins were knocked out, BP showed its support for Canada’s most popular hockey team with a word play name change.
This was promoted through a billboard which appeared on 1 May on Toronto’s busiest expressway – The Gardiner – declaring that ‘Boston’s Out. Auston’s In’. This was accompanied by an unofficial franchise name change from ‘Boston Pizza’ to ‘Auston Pizza’.
“Our Fanalytics campaign is centred on research and optimization. Our marketing research indicates that fans are more inclined to visit sports bars that exude a sense of shared fandom,” said Boston Pizza Director Of Marketing Niels Van Oyen. “We created this billboard to speak directly to our Toronto audience and demonstrate that we are fully committed to supporting them throughout the playoffs. We also acknowledge the significance of Toronto’s advancement and the rarity of their bitter rivals losing in a heartbreaking series.”
The campaign was created for client Boston Pizza Canada by a team at creative agency john st which included Executive Creative Director Cam Boyd, Copywriters Jimmy Wei, Emma Lorenzi and Curtis Chapman, Art Directors Jon Barnes and Ben Nusca, Designers Caio Oyafuso and Erin Feldman, Chief Strategy Officer Matt Ball, Account Manager Tishan Canagasaby, Account Director Harjot Tatla and Account Executive Ankita Surendan.
Post production and VFX were from Darling VFX, the edit house was Saints Editorial with Editor Mel Hider and Producer Mackenzie Goodwin, while music and sound was handled by Grayson Mathews.
Comment
Hope is high amongst fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs: a team which has some of the most committed and long-suffering hockey fans. After all, despite its storied past and status as Canada’s most followed hockey team, the Leafs haven’t won a title in 55 years and, until late April 2023, hadn’t advanced beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 19 years.
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