When it comes to communities, it's not the size of the population that matters, it's the people. The Kraft Celebration Tour embraces and rewards outstanding communities across Canada.

For the fourth year in a row, the Kraft Celebration Tour (KCT), with its partners Kraft, TSN and RDS, successfully assisted 10 communities across Canada with refurbishing their local sports facilities and enhancing their recreational programs.

This massive four-month initiative, which began April 27, 2012, culminated with a live broadcast on TSN’s flagship show, Sportscentre, where each of the 10 winning  Canadian communities were featured over 10 consecutive summer days. The winning Francophone community was also featured in an RDS Sports 30 broadcast.

Communities from across the country were invited to nominate themselves for the chance to win $25,000 to be used to improve a community facility or enhance a recreational program.

In April, communities began entering the competition with photo submissions as well as an essay outlining why their community deserved to be a part of the KCT and what upgrades the award money would go toward.

The nomination period ended June 10, 2012, and on Canada Day, communities across the country gathered together as Kraft, along with TSN and RDS, announced the 20 finalists live on Sportscentre and Sports 30.

The public was then invited to vote for daily head-to-head match-ups between the 20 communities to determine the 10 final grand prize winners. After receiving 4.1 million votes, the tour hit the road, and from Aug. 17 to 26, KCT made its way across the country to each winning community.

Thousands of fans joined the tour stops from Clarenville, NL to Creston, BC. Kraft “summer” brands played host to celebrations in the 10 winning communities, which included barbecues, sampling, branded interactive games, sports activities for kids and adults – all broadcasted on Sportscentre.

The program was supported by a multi-faceted marketing campaign that utilized TSN and RDS broadcast and online platforms, as well as other Bell Media channels. TSN and RDS on-air personalities became the faces of the program and were featured on the website, in-store POS, trade videos, radio and TV.

Sportscentre also produced live vignettes announcing the start of the program and the reveal of the 20 communities that would go head-to-head. These segments highlighted the details of the competition and drove viewers online for more information. Kraft also aired short segments on Sportscentre and Sports 30, which included information updates, highlights and special community features.

The in-store program included customized Kraft anchor displays, header cards, base wrap and Kraft recipe tear pads. A customized product displayer that was shaped like the actual Kraft Celebration Tour bus included TSN and RDS talent.

The program delivered a 10% increase in sales for participating Kraft products during the promotional period. The program received nationwide accolades from Kraft customers (Loblaw, Sobeys Regional Accounts) and stores across the country utilized over 2,716 in-store POS kits, which included a 77% pull through rate from 2011. Sportscentre community features and winning community video segments, TSN host blogs and photographs from previous Kraft Celebration Tour events.

Between April 27 and Sept. 19, the website received a total of 444,501 visits (up 5%), 280,434 unique visits (up 8%), over 1.3 million pages views as well as 13,920 comments from visitors. The average time spent on the site was seven minutes and 30 seconds.