Canadian Olympic Committee chief marketing officer Derek Kent talks #NowOrNever

The Canadian Olympic Committee made history Wednesday with the release of the #NowOrNever campaign, the first time they've ever launched a big marketing project for the Pan American Games. This is a natural growth from some of their recent Olympic campaigns, though, such as #GiveYourEverything (London 2012) and #WeAreWinter (Sochi 2014); those campaigns have sought to spotlight Canada's athletes and their road to the Olympics, and the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto this summer is going to be a big part of the road to Rio 2016 for many athletes. That's not the only reason for this, though. I spoke to COC chief marketing officer Derek Kent Wednesday about why the COC's backing the Pan Ams so heavily, and he said a big part of this is because it's an event in Canada that should help energize fans to come out and support these athletes.

"This is the first time we've ever done a major marketing campaign for the Pan Ams," Kent said. "This was a unique opportunity because it's a home-soil Games. ...The goal of the campaign was to get Canadians to come out to the Games."

Kent said these Pan Am Games are also notable because of their sheer scale. Around 6,135 athletes are expected to compete in Toronto this summer, more than the 6,084 who took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and way more than the 1,423 at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary or the 2,566 in Vancouver in 2010.

"It's the biggest multisport games in Canadian history," Kent said.

To reflect that, they came up with a big and involved campaign. The COC co-created #NowOrNever with marketing agency Cossette and is working with media agency OMD Canada and PR firm North Strategic. It involves Cossette's Chief Transformation Officer Glenn Hunt, who's known for his work on the original "I Am Canadian" Molson ads, plus a wide variety of others; the credits list for the campaign includes 24 names from the COC, Cossette, and various other film and online groups. Kent said the group they were able to put together was incredible, and they've been working for months to bring this to fruition.

"We assembled a dream team of people on this campaign," he said. "We started woirking with Cossette last fall in earnest."

The centrepiece of the campaign is the video, which features 14 top Canadian athletes who will compete in the Pan Am Games and shows a progression from starting in sports as a young child to training sequences to walking out to thunderous applause. Kent said it's a video that tells the whole narrative of what got Canada's best athletes to this point.

"You follow the journey that athlete takes and the support they get along the way," he said, noting that there are a couple of firsts for the COC in this spot; they showcase an athlete competing in a sport that's not yet in the Olympics (Whitney McClintock in water skiing) and they feature coaches for the first time, showing off those athletes' support networks.

The full 60-second spot (there are also shorter versions for different media placements) was created from 50 hours of footage shot over four days in March around Toronto and the surrounding area, including Pan Am venues York University and the Milton Velodrome. Canadian director Mark Zibert, who's done spots for everyone from Nike to Tim Hortons, helmed the shoot. There are obvious similarities to the videos for #GiveYourEverything and #WeAreWinter, which also both heavily featured Canadian athletes in the moments before competition, but Kent said this campaign's taken cues from what worked and didn't work in those previous ones.

"Like our athletes, we never rest," he said. "We're always focused on moving forward and getting better. ...This time, we didn't focus on radio, and we ensured the campaign is built more for social."

Kent said this athlete-focused approach really started with Give Your Everything.

"Give Your Everything ahead of London 2012, that was the first time the COC ever did a fully-integrated campaign," he said. "That was us announcing we were going to spotlight our athletes in a different way."

He said one flaw with it was that it wasn't really built for social media, though. That was something the COC addressed when they moved on to We Are Winter, which Kent felt also tapped into the Canadian psyche.

"Canadians and winter have a very special relationship," he said. "We had great success with We Are Winter."

While the campaigns for London and Sochi encouraged Canadians to tune in to the Games and support their athletes, only a few were able to travel across the Atlantic to do so in person. That's different this time around with the Games being held in Canada, making it easier for fans to come watch these athletes live. Kent said the campaign also looked to show off these athletes to encourage Canadians to come out and support them in person, especially as the Pan Am Games are a key part of the Olympic quest for many of these athletes.

"It's a golden opportunity for Toronto," he said. "It's a very rare opportunity to see athletes of this calibre up close. The road to Rio goes through Toronto 2015."

Kent said another part of the goal was to create a campaign that appealed to Canada's athletes and helped motivate them to do well in front of friends and family.

"We wanted a campaign that spoke to our athletes," he said. "It's a chance for athletes to compete in front of family and friends on home soil."

The COC and the Pan Am organizers would love for tons of Canadians to come watch these Games and boost the home-field advantage. To that end, the COC's doing another new thing with this campaign, giving away 25 pairs of Games tickets. They're hoping the campaign will help encourage those on the fence about attending the Pan Ams to buy tickets, too.

"We want fans to come out and wrap themselves in the flag," Kent said. "It's such a unique opportunity to support Canadian athletics."