Key themes from this year’s Canadian Sponsorship Marketing Awards

Each year, the Canadian Sponsorship Marketing Awards (SMAs) celebrate the campaigns and sponsorships that set new benchmarks for creativity, authenticity and impact in sponsorship marketing. The 2025 Gold winners reveal how Canada’s best work is being driven by four big ideas: hockey as the cultural anchor, talent as the messenger, capitalizing on historic moments within cultural movements, and Olympic storytelling as a vehicle for national pride.

Quick snapshot: 2025 Gold winners

Several standout campaigns earned multiple Golds across categories – a reflection of how integrated and multi-dimensional sponsorships have become.

• Molson “See My Name” (with Rethink): Gold in both “Professional Sports – Under $500K” and “Best New Initiative” for moving its logo to highlight women’s hockey players’ names, sparking a national conversation on visibility and equity.
• OLG “Sponsored By You” (with WPP/Media Sports & Entertainment): Gold in “Talent or Ambassador” and “Olympics/Grassroots/Amateur Sports” for reversing the sponsorship model and turning OLG players into the backers of Ontario’s Olympians.
• RBC Avion × Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (with Salt XC): Gold in “Entertainment, Tours & Attractions” showing the power of brand access and cultural fandom with 700K engaged members and 400K new signups.
• Rogers × NHL Four Nations Face-Off × Sportsnet (with Publicis and SDI Marketing): Gold in “Professional Sports – Over $501K” leveraging a rare international hockey event to unite fans through national pride.
• Tim Hortons NHL Trading Cards (with NHL): Gold in “Sustained Success” maintaining momentum through ten years of fan tradition.
• PWHL – Beyond the Boards: Gold for “Property of the Year” for record growth, purpose-driven partnerships, and the role it played in fueling the broader movement in women’s hockey.
• The T1 Agency earned Gold Agency of the Year and its founder, Mark Harrison, was the Hall of Fame honouree as an individual contributor to Canada’s sponsorship industry.

For the full list, visit the SMCC Past Winners page and official press release.

Theme 1: Hockey as a heartbeat of Canadian sponsorship

Hockey remains an emotional pillar of Canadian sponsorship – and this year’s winners demonstrated its versatility as both a commercial and cultural platform.

Rogers × NHL Four Nations Face-Off turned a rare international tournament into a national moment, combining in-arena, PR, digital and community activations to cement Rogers’ status as Canada’s premier hockey brand. Read more about it here.

Tim Hortons’ NHL Trading Cards, anchored by Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, proved the power of consistency, selling 15 million packs annually and strengthening fan ritual year after year.

The PWHL’s “Beyond the Boards” showed how women’s hockey has become a progressive sponsorship canvas – aligning partners like Molson and Canadian Tire with inclusion, youth access and women’s equity.

Theme 2: Talent and ambassadors as authentic connectors

Talent drove nearly every winning campaign, providing the authenticity and relatability modern audiences expect.

Leon Draisaitl × Molson Dry exemplified the power of authentic alignment, capitalizing on the Stanley Cup Finals and Draisaitl’s national spotlight to drive a 660 per cent sales lift without paid media.

PWHL players and Billie Jean King amplified Molson’s “See My Name” turning purpose into shared advocacy and cultural leadership.

Crosby and MacKinnon remained the emotional heartbeat of Tim Hortons’ NHL
Trading Cards, embodying consistency and credibility.

Olympic and Paralympic athletes brought integrity to both OLG’s “Sponsored By You” and Lululemon’s Paris 2024 Paralympic Kit, shifting the focus from endorsement to empowerment.

Theme 3: Capitalizing on a movement’s historic moment

This year’s Gold-winning campaigns succeeded not just by creating “one-off” activations, but by seizing historic moments within larger cultural movements.

Molson “See My Name” launched on International Women’s Day, and gained lasting impact by aligning with the broader movement for visibility in women’s sport.

Leon Draisaitl × Molson Dry tapped into the Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup Finals run, bringing an iconic beer brand back into the national conversation through a natural, timely fit.

RBC Avion × Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour bridged entertainment and emotion, leveraging the world’s biggest cultural tour to spark loyalty and growth among fans who craved access.

Rogers × NHL Four Nations Face-Off captured the resurgence of international hockey pride at a moment of shared anticipation.

Theme 4: Olympic and national pride – the return of purposeful patriotism

Several winners showed how the Olympic and Paralympic movements continue to inspire year-round storytelling grounded in pride and inclusion.

OLG “Sponsored By You” reframed sponsorship entirely, turning everyday lottery players into the supporters of Ontario’s Olympians.

Lululemon × Team Canada’s Paris 2024 Paralympic Kit embedded athlete-led design into every detail, ensuring inclusivity and performance were part of the product, not the promotion.

OLG × Toronto Pride extended that same spirit of visibility and representation beyond sport.

Key takeaways

Below are four important takeaways from each of the above themes:

• Hockey continues to be a strong cultural connector in Canada – a stage where heritage and innovation meet.
• The most effective sponsorships no longer feature talent – they flow through them. Alignment and authenticity are the new influence.
• The most successful sponsorships don’t chase moments – they join movements already shaping culture.
• Today’s patriotic sponsorships aren’t about flags and medals – they’re about participation and belonging.

Final thoughts

The 2025 Gold winners prove that Canadian sponsorship marketing is thriving at the intersection of emotion, authenticity and timing. When brands align with cultural movements, amplify human stories, and recognize historic moments in sport and society, they don’t just sponsor – they shape what Canadians remember.