Scotiabank has aligned young savers programs with hockey for more than 30 years, but recognizes communications has changed a lot since then. When the ‘Scotiabank Hockey College’ was introduced in 1971, kids read Hockey College News for Gordy Howe’s hockey stories and took banking tips from mascot Peter Puck.

Now, they can sign up for event alerts, e-newsletters or read Cassie Campbell’s blog on Scotiabank’s website, ScotiaHockeyClub.com. By signing up they also receive a tin savings bank that features logos of every Stanley Cup champion team and the year in which they won the title.

The idea is to start a conversation between parents and their children about financial responsibility, and also introduce them to the technical aspects of banking, says Rick White, Scotiabank VP, brand & marketing programs.  The bank conducted a poll that showed 91% of Canadian parents would like to be doing more to help their children learn good savings habits, and 98% of Canadian parents feel good savings habits should be established when children are young.

‘Parents who have kids in hockey indicated to us that it would be great if we could do something to engage their children with money, and that was a big impetus for it,’ he says about the program and focus group research that occurred before the launch. ‘They can go online and they can see how money works and how it’s transferred and all those things, which is really important,’ he tells MiC.

Scotiabank’s partnership with the CBC is the biggest part of the media push handled by PHD Canada, as the FI holds a title sponsorship of the Scotiabank Hockey Tonight pre-game show for the season. Several TV ads, created by Bensimon Byrne, will roll out on CBC and Sportsnet throughout the season. Scotiabank also has partnerships with the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames, and will be on stadium power rings on video projectors during their games.

This program is targeting kids between five and 14 years old, and White says the bank will be assessing the interest level of this junior demo, ‘we’re going to be watching it really carefully to see what the most intriguing parts of [the campaign] are with the children.’