Canadian Tire is using its Olympic spots as a chance to launch synchronized TV and social advertisements.

Starting today, to amplify the retailer’s “We All Play For Canada” Olympic “Celebrate” commercial, an ad will appear in active Facebook users’ News Feeds within minutes of the ad appearing on CBC’s broadcast. With media by Touche! and technology from Optimal Inc., a US-based social ad analytic and buying platform, the Facebook ad will invite users to download the song featured in the television ad or send an email thank-you card to “someone who helped (them) play.”

Susan O’Brien, VP strategic marketing, Canadian Tire, tells MiC that for each piece of content in its multi-pronged marketing plans for the Olympics, there was a specific call to action Canadian Tire hoped to achieve. For the “Celebrate” commercial, she says, that call to action was for the viewers to download the song, so syncing Facebook ads with the TV ads was a perfect fit, she says. O’Brien adds the spot is intended to reach families, particularly people with young children, across the country.

In an October 2013 release, Optimal claimed News Feed ads synced to TV ads yielded a 60% lift in click-through rates compared to a control group running the same day for a campaign in partnership with Civolution, a UK-based media management firm. The same report showed News Feeds ads synched to competitive ads yielded a 35% jump in click-through rates.

O’Brien is hoping to see numbers like that and is also curious about how the cross-platform experience might increase engagement with the brand, but adds that Canadian Tire saw synced ads as an opportunity to try something new.

“The time to try something new is with the audience that you get through the Olympics,” she says, adding the event has the size and scope to reach a large cross-section of Canadians. “You have that stage in which to try these things and see if there is real impact with them.”

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