The Toronto Maple Leafs and Coca-Cola Zero have partnered up for a free pre-season hockey game on Sept. 16, distributing tickets to fans on Friday from the touring Leafs Nation Mobile Fan Zone, a trailer-cum-Leafs dressing room. The remainder of the tickets will be distributed through social media efforts starting July 17, as well as contests and promos through the Leafs’ media partners Toronto Star and AM640, in a city-wide giveaway that will fill the 18,800-person stadium.
The social media giveaway includes tweets from bloggers on Leafspace.com, like Monika with a K and sportscasters like Adnan Virk of Leafs TV, and will continue throughout the summer. ‘A lot of it is random and ad hoc and that’s what makes Twittering much more original and authentic,’ Maple Leafs spokesperson Rajani Kamath tells MiC.
This is the second year that Coca-Cola Zero has sponsored the game, which will be against the Boston Bruins at the Air Canada Centre. The Leafs Nation Mobile Fan Zone street team includes marketing agency TrojanOne handing out the tickets as well as Coke Zero samples at several locations throughout the city including the Metro Toronto Zoo, Ontario Place, and neighbourhoods like Little Italy. The tour was promoted Friday through ads in the Toronto Star as well as on Leafs TV. The goal of the free game and promo is to reach out to fans that don’t typically have an opportunity to attend a Leafs game, says Kamath.
An in-store Coke Zero retail promo will launch in August utilizing iCoke.ca, as well a final blitz in September. Media partners will hand out promo codes as a call to action to MapleLeafs.com. All media for the Leafs is done in-house, according to Shannon Hosford, senior director of marketing for Maple Leafs. ‘The big thing about this is just getting all Leafs fans access to the team,’ she says.
