We, The North
Toronto gets such a bad rep. Far removed from the Vince Carter era, many Americans consider Canadian hoops obscure at best and inferior at worst. However, with the Toronto Raptors assembling a playoff-worthy team, and with college stars such as Andrew Wiggins and Tyler Ennis breaking into the American basketball consciousness, Canada’s NBA team is aggressively embracing any perceived notions of neglect by taking pride in their distinction.
Creative services agency Sid Lee produced the first spot in a mutli-year re-branding campaign for the Raptors; this strategy coincides with a new team uniformed for the 2015 season, an Canadian All-Star Weekend in 2016, and rapper Drake assuming the role of “global ambassador” for the team. Although one may consider how a fiercely urban ad might be polarizing towards a diverse, national audience, Dustin Rideout (Sid Lee’s VP of Strategy) considers the other side of the coin:
“This is about getting people excited about owning a place,” he says. “It’s about celebrating that. It’s very much a declaration of pride about being from a specific area.”
Petrichor 