Kraft Canada has launched a community improvement competition that will see the winning entry’s recreational facility receiving a quarter-million dollar renovation.

Kraft Project Play, launched today, invites people to share a short video or picture of their community rec facility, hashtagged with #comeoutandplay, to give them the chance to win the $250,000 prize.

Targeting 35- to 55 year-olds, the project will be supported by an in-store POS campaign, ad spots on both TSN and RDS, participation from Toronto Raptors star Morris Peterson, as well as extensive promotion on social media.

To kick off the campaign, Peterson has posted a “video selfie” of the playgrounds he used to play in, inviting others to follow suit.

The in-store promotion is crucial to the campaign as this is where consumers actually see Kraft products, says Irene Daley, director of portfolio marketing at Kraft Canada. Grocery retailers such as Loblaws, Sobeys, Safeway, Overwaitea and others will support the campaign with in-store activations rolled out over the coming days and weeks.

The insight behind the campaign comes from Kraft’s research which says that more than two thirds of Canada’s recreational facilities are over 25 years old, says Daley, and the cash prize is the largest winning sum Kraft Canada has ever given in support of a campaign of this nature.

Media on the campaign was handled by Starcom MediaVest and creative and social media strategy were handled by New York-based Anomaly. Toronto-based Union designed the website and Edelman in Toronto is handling PR.

The campaign is set to run throughout the summer. Once all submission are received, they  will be narrowed down to a top four by a panel of judges. The winner will be decided via public voting on KraftProjectPlay.com on August 17 and 18.

The winner will be announced on Bell Media’s TSN SportsCentre and RDS Sports 30 on August 21.