A Good Olympics Tie-in for HBC with a Dash of Corporate Social Responsibility
July 12, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
I have to admit I expect very little from companies jumping on the Olympics bandwagon.
A logo in the corner of their materials, and many TV ads leading up to and during the Olympics seems to the extent of the imagination of many companies pouring millions into their sponsorships.
What a change to see the beauty of the HBC website promoting their official gear for the Canadian Olympic team. They are so elegant. And artistic.
Yes, you can click on a link to get to an online store, but the best reason to visit the site is the arresting solarized photos of athletes in action (in HBC gear, of course).
The company beat out Roots for the right to provide official gear to the Canadian team and sell related clothes and accessories to the public.
Rather than a boring corporate effort that might be expected from Canada’s oldest company, HBC (still know by many as The Hudson’s Bay Company, or The Bay) has raised the bar for hipness originally set by Roots at the Nagano Olympics, and again at Sidney.
In addition to making the after-sports apparel for the athletes (and paying customers), HBC is raising $20 million to help Canadian athletes over a number of years (the campaign runs to 2012).
Other Olympic athlete clothing stories:
Canadian Union Says Olympians Should not Wear Chinese-made Clothing (ChinaCSR.com); Russian athletes’ gear plastered with logos (Pravda); Olympic Athletes Wearing Home Grown Clothing (New Zealand); Dismay after Ban on Human Rights Badges for French Olympic Athletes (MonstersandCritics.com).
Photos courtesy HBC Media Centre.
