Toronto Maple Leafs fans hate the Boston Bruins.

Part of the reason the team’s series win last week was the first time it had advanced past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 19 years were because of three eliminations at the hands of the Bruins.

So for many Maple Leafs fans, it felt like justice when their team moved on the second round at the same time that their rivals were being sent home in their series against the Florida Panthers.

Boston Pizza – which, as most Canadians know, has no connection to the city – wanted to show where its allegiances were. So after the Bruins were eliminated, it put up a billboard near Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway proclaiming that “Boston’s out, Auston’s in,” referring to the Maple Leafs’ player. To further drive the point home, the restaurant changed its name on the ad to “Auston Pizza.”

The billboard is part of Boston Pizza’s wider “Fanalytics” campaign. In addition to creative celebrating the dedication of stats-obsessed sports fans, the campaign has also included several pieces of digital out-of-home creative in Toronto, Edmonton and Winnipeg that have been updated in near real-time in response to those teams’ playoff performances.

“Our Fanalytics campaign is centred around research and optimization. Our marketing research indicates that fans are more inclined to visit sports bars that exude a sense of shared fandom,” said Niels Van Oyen, director of marketing at Boston Pizza. “We created this billboard to speak directly to our Toronto audience and demonstrate that we are fully committed to supporting them throughout the playoffs.”

A less antagonistic example is another billboard that ran in Toronto after Saturday’s win, boasting how it was “finally” time for another round – copy that appeared next to a pint of Molson Canadian, part of the two brands working together to activate a sponsorship of the NHL.

John St. is leading creative on the “Fanalytics” campaign, with UM Canada on the buy.