Petro Canada wants all Canadians to feel like they can be a part of the Games.

The Olympic sponsor’s media campaign, launched late 2009, has been built on this concept, using its website and recruiting Canadians to join its World’s Longest Wave. The tool allows people to upload videos of themselves doing the wave, which are then linked together to show the wave in motion, like at any large stadium event. Over 1,000 Canadians have signed up so far.

The final-stretch TV buy starts Jan. 17 during the Golden Globes, focusing on Petro Canada’s Olympic glassware and its athlete support program. Online, the Suncor Energy-owned company is kicking off its four-week glassware gifting promo on Jan. 18 through Facebook and its over 26,000-member Dream Big fan page using a virtual glass called ‘Jericho’, which will be promoted on MSN.ca, Yahoo.ca and Sympatico.ca and on the French and English CTV Olympics sites. Media is handled by Toronto-based Media Dimensions.

The online buy promoting the athlete family support program – in which Petro Canada is sending two family members to support each of 250 Canadian athletes at the Games – will start Feb. 12 on the CTV sites as well, and will run though the Games.

Social media has been a key component of Petro Canada’s Olympic push, and one that the company has found to be very successful so far, Allyson Zarowny, senior advisor, Olympic programs, Suncor Energy, tells MiC.

‘Petro Canada has really found that social media is a great way to reach out to audiences,’ she says. ‘We have a great fanbase on our Dream Big fan page and the Wave was just another way to link our online audience to the Games. We’re trying to reach all Canadians, knowing that not every Canadian can get to the Games.’