With more U.S. retailers entering the Canadian market, Canadian Tire needed to prove that nobody understands life in Canada like it does. That's why, in 2013, it launched the "Tested for life in Canada" platform, designed to test products in unexpected ways under extreme conditions, proving Canadian Tire has what Canadians need for every season.
The objective for winter was to prove that Canadian Tire's in-house battery, the MotoMaster Eliminator AGM, could withstand the harshest winter conditions and start no matter how cold it is. Guaranteed.
Since Canadians often describe their vehicles as "cold as ice" in the winter, Canadian Tire decided to test its battery in a truck custom-built out of ice – 11,000 pounds of it, to be exact. And so the Canadian Tire Ice Truck, the first of its kind, was born.
In order for consumers to see past any "movie magic" biases, the brand needed to prove that everything was real. So the truck was taken on a two-kilometre drive through town, which was filmed and then put online with a behind-the-scenes, making-of documentary.
To make sure the sports-loving automotive male target saw it, a 60-second TV spot aired on Jan. 1, 2014, during the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, the closest thing Canada has to the Super Bowl. Finally, the truck was filmed melting and it was used to tease the entire program via Facebook and YouTube.
PR impressions totalled over 80 million; YouTube views of all the content were over 3.5 million; and stories were seen around the world via CTV, CBC, the New York Times, Fox News, CNN, the UK's Daily Mail, plus some of the top news outlets in Germany and Australia.
Ipsos tracking revealed the TV ad outperformed the industry on three key metrics among the target: prompted recall was 63% over the industry norm; brand link was 36% over; and main message communication was 24% above the industry norm.
Finally, the campaign met objectives: a sales record was set with a 70% year over year increase in MotoMaster Eliminator AGM batteries, and Canadian Tire was reinforced as the place to go for products "Tested for life in Canada."