The latest season of CBC’s original unscripted series Dragons’ Den premiered last night, and with the new season came two new sponsors: Desjardins and Candian Tire.

The two Canadian brands join longtime series sponsor BDC.

For Desjardins, the sponsorship serves as a stage for its new “GoodSpark” brand platform. The nationwide push is a values-based campaign focused on giving back by empowering social entrepreneurs. Through Dragons’ Den, Desjardins has identified key social entrepeneurs with businesses it believes in and want to support by providing key resources. Robin Neufeld, director of content marketing at CBC and Radio-Canada explained to MiC it would focus largely on aspiring entrepreneurs who were committed to “environmental and social goods.”

“You’ll see the platform come to life in Dragons’ Den with social entrepreneurs in the episodes, as well as branded content pieces in broadcast, digital and social.”

She added that Desjardins and CBC have also partnered with Star Metro to create weekly print articles as part of the program.

Canadian Tire is also joining this season. Neufeld says although Canadian Tire is commonly known as a reliable retailer, she says this season of the Den will see Canadian Tire position itself as a “fuel for innovation in the country.”

She cited Canadian Tire’s launching and selling of “thousands of new products” every year. So, she says, Canadian Tire’s presence on the show will focus on driving entrepreneurialism. It had an on-site presence on audition tours this past spring, but since then, she says, “We’ve grown the partnership into a very big multiplatform sponsorship that is anchored in a lot of branded content.” In addition to broadcast and digital integrations, Canadian Tire will allow some of the successful entrepreneurs to have their products featured on shelves in all 503 Canadian Tire stores across the country.

This is the first time a product has received this opportunity, as Canadian Tire stores are franchised and it is normally up to each individual franchisee what products are available at their store.

Although both partners are signed only for this season, Desjardins’ GoodSpark is an ongoing program.

Both the new sponsors brokered the deals through their respective media agencies of record: Desjardins through BBR’s Glassroom (CBC also worked closely with its creative AOR, BBR, to create 20 pieces of video content and eight text pieces) and Canadian Tire through Touché!