This week Toronto had more than 50 NHL players training for the upcoming season at sports drink and nutritional supplement company BioSteel’s #Camp.

Started by former Toronto Maple Leafs strength and conditioning coach Matt Nichol and his partner John Celenza, the company launched the summer training camp to help build buzz around the brand and engage its professional hockey-playing fans and consumers alike without the benefit of a huge marketing budget. The event has grown to include sponsors, like Sport Chek, which used the event to shoot and bank content for its own use.

Frederick Lecoq, VP of marketing and e-commerce at FGL Sports, tells MiC the event, which it is sponsoring for the second year in a row, allows the company to build on its strategy of creating more content around hockey as part of its year-long efforts around the sport, including the recent “Back to Hockey” spot with Sidney Crosby. Leqoc adds the kind of content generated at the BioSteel #Camp allows the brand to activate around the sport in a new way, phasing out past sponsorship methods such as buying rink boards at the arena.

Check out footage of the event and hear more from Lecoq and Celenza on how the training camp is building both brands.

Videography by Jennifer Horn

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