Molson has signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the Women’s Professional Hockey League (PWHL), and is kicking off the partnership with a new campaign, “See My Name,” which aims to bring more visibility and recognition to the league’s players.
Molson will sponsor the PWHL jerseys at the Toronto-Montreal game, which will be held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on March 8, International Women’s Day. The beer brand will appear in the space above the jersey numbers, which is normally hidden by the player’s hair, and their names will be moved below their numbers to make them more visible. The branded jerseys are a pilot project for Molson and PWHL, which will unveil more brand activations later this year. Their collaboration will continue for the duration of this season and the full 2024-2025.
The campaign will also be supported by a 30-second video featuring PWHL Toronto players Natalie Spooner and Blayre Turnbull, along with PWHL Montreal’s Ann-Renée Desbiens, Leah Lum and Catherine Dubois. Additionally, there will be ads on social media, Sportsnet and Breakfast Television, as well as OOH spots in Toronto and Montreal.
Wavemaker handled media buying, Citizen the influencer partnerships and Playbook Co the in-game activations. Rethink handled the creative.
According to Molson, “See My Name” promotes the sponsorship of the PWHL in a non-traditional way, while benefiting both the league and the players.
“Our main objective with this campaign is to elevate and bring more visibility to the PWHL and its players. We wanted to put the players and the league at the forefront of everything we did, from our OLV, to our Sportsnet and Breakfast Television broadcast integrations, as well as our out-of-home,” Molson Coors marketing director Kara Fitzpatrick tells MiC. “We want every Canadian to see their names and give them the recognition that they so greatly deserve…we want to foster and encourage greater equality in hockey.”
Fitzpatrick says the partnership with the PWHL was also a natural next step in Molson’s long relationship with the sport.
The PWHL has set attendance and viewership records since its creation in January, according to the league. However, despite the surge in popularity, the company says that awareness of individual female athletes remains low, which is partly due to a lack of media coverage. According to a Wasserman study, women’s sports accounted for 15% of total sports media coverage in the U.S. last year.
Another Wasserman study, published in August of last year, found that female athletes are developing a solid base of younger, more educated, and affluent followers who outperform content engagement rates. The survey also discovered that followers see female athletes as positive role models, and 89% are more motivated to take social action when brands are associated with this gender.
