4 Nations Face-Off
For two weeks in February, 4 Nations Face-Off (4NFO) dominated sports media across North America. With over 43.9 million viewers tuning in across the continent, best-on-best hockey brought unmatched competitive edge and cultural relevancy. A compelling platform for brands to activate their story and connect with all audiences to drive impact, the CMA had a chance to sit down with the NHL and Tim Hortons to talk about the magic of sponsorship as a core component of a brand’s marketing mix. With over 40 years of sport marketing experience between them, Sophie Kotsopoulos, NHL’s Group Vice President, Integrated Marketing, and Solange Bernard, Sr. Director, Marketing Communications, Tim Hortons, outline the power of 4NFO and sponsorship done right.
On sponsorship’s ability to drive reach and relevance
Sophie:
With 4NFO, across various media platforms – national news, late-night shows, social influencers and podcasts – the NHL/NHLPA were at the forefront of the sports conversation across the continent. Patriotism was at fever pitch in arenas and households across the country with so much happening geopolitically at the time. The pace of play and rivalry on the ice was riveting. We delivered a particularly compelling, timely and relevant product and our games united not only fans of hockey but offered all Canadians a reason to rally behind their country. Skating alongside them, were our corporate partners – turning up the volume on 4NFO across multiple channels: broadcast, retail/on-premise, out of home, contesting, local activation and social campaigns helping to keep our momentum high leading into, during and post tournament. 4NFO delivered incredible reach with over 14.8 million unique viewers in Canada alone across Sportsnet and TVA tuning into the tournament. Partners who bought into our vision for the tournament benefited from the incredible scale and visibility it garnered, leveraging the platform to help differentiate their respective brands.
On sponsorship’s ability to increase emotional connections and engagement
Solange:
As a brand deeply rooted in hockey heritage and a proud supporter of Canada’s favourite game for over 60 years, Tim Hortons was thrilled to partner with 4NFO. With the goal of placing Tims at the heart of this highly anticipated hockey event, we executed a comprehensive, multi-pronged strategy designed to drive both business results and brand love.
Our approach was built around four key activation pillars, each crafted to celebrate Canadian pride during this unique cultural moment. From proudly featuring our maple leaf Tims logo on Team Canada helmets, to serving as the official coffee of NHL players from around the world, our presence was seamlessly integrated across every major touchpoint—paid, organic and on-site. Our on-site activations brought fans closer to the action, and we marked Canada victories with a first-of-its-kind mobile app offer.
Tims was everywhere our fans were—on the ice, in the stands and in their hands.
On sponsorship’s ability to drive customer loyalty, advocacy and sales
Sophie:
The wide appeal of the tournament brought avid and casual fans of course, but also attracted new Canadians, females, families and young audiences across our platforms. The highly coveted tournament also proved how effective sponsorship can be at rewarding loyalty, driving new sales with thoughtful activation targeting a far-reaching audience.
Solange:
As Canadians tuned in to the tournament, we wanted to celebrate their team’s big wins in a meaningful way. To do so, we launched a unique mobile app trigger offer designed to reward fans after every Canada victory.
Following each win, all Tims Rewards members received a celebratory offer: a free 10-pack of Timbits (with minimum spend) or a discounted $5 Flatbread Pizza. The response was overwhelmingly positive, driving a double-digit surge in app downloads and redemptions in-restaurant exceeded our original forecasts.
Social media and PR sentiment was equally strong, with hockey fans enthusiastically sharing their excitement with high-profile athletes like JJ Watt even taking notice of the Tims maple leaf logo placement on helmets. Our Instagram content saw a combined average engagement rate of 6.7 per cent outperforming our benchmark of 4 per cent.
On sponsorship’s ability to connect locally and nationally
Sophie:
With 4NFO, we were always on, and ready to meet fans where they were at to celebrate the magic of best-on-best hockey. Our big event strategy includes super serving the local fan base. Fostering a celebratory and fun experience for fans and partners is key to that vision and we executed just that in Montreal and Boston. Extending that energy for the platform across the continent and internationally, our rightsholders brought the very best hockey viewing experience for fans watching at home. As fascination with the tournament grew, pick up and coverage extended beyond traditional outlets and influencers. Our content earned 2.5 billion views across social media throughout the tournament per Videocites. All of this in tandem helped drive audience growth across all channels. It added lore, momentum and excitement heading into an epic championship final where we dominated the social conversation, occupying 31 of the top 50 trending topics on X in Canada at tournament’s end.
Solange:
A true strength of the Tim Hortons brand is its ability to connect with Canadians—both nationally and locally—through authentic storytelling and shared moments. 4NFO gave us a powerful platform to do this in a uniquely Tims way.
We started by putting ourselves at the heart of the action, uniting fans from all teams around their love for hockey. Our iconic red coffee truck stood proudly at Fan Fest, cutting through the snow and freezing temperatures to serve thousands of fans, while creating connection and celebration.
On broadcast, we cemented our presence as the official coffee of NHL players with our “Four Nations, One Coffee” spot. Seeing international stars proudly holding our iconic red cup as they entered the arena was a powerful symbol of our place in the game. With Canadians watching in massive numbers—from pre-game to post-game—our brand was front and centre throughout, with this content and strong in game ad placements (i.e. DED), making an undeniable impression during every moment that mattered.
The tournament’s massive reach also brought a surge of social conversation, which our team leaned into with purpose, to keep Tims near the top of the comments section. Over 10,000 engagements—and individual comments with thousands of likes—proved we weren’t just seen, we were felt. That kind of genuine dialogue with our guests is priceless.
On sponsorship’s ability to inspire
Sophie:
Nothing taps into passion, quite like sponsorship. All participating partners achieved memorable results. 4NFO as a platform was wide in its appeal, programming and reach. It wasn’t just B2C brands who excelled. The platform was customizable for B2B partners to exceed their objectives too. New and legacy partners alike were able to carve out ownable platforms to differentiate their connection to 4NFO and meet the moment in their own voice. For a brand like Tim Hortons with high brand linkage and awareness scores tied to our sport already, they were able to defend and protect their leadership position in hockey, and realize meaningful gains related to consideration and favourability. Their sponsorship drove traffic to retail across different dayparts and provided an expansive canvas to powerfully communicate their brand story.
Solange:
For Tim Hortons, this was more than just a sponsorship; it was a strategic celebration of our shared identity and our emotional love for the game.
But above the strategic alignment, was the efficiency and cohesion of our integrated approach that delivered results. From our on-the-ground activation at Fan Fest to our national broadcast presence and digital engagement strategy, every element worked in harmony. Paid, earned and owned channels were tightly orchestrated to maximize impact—driving awareness, conversation and in-store traffic.
We didn’t just show up—we showed up smart. And the results spoke for themselves: real connection, real engagement and real business results. It was a win that extended far beyond the final buzzer.
Sophie:
Now let’s talk about that final. A whole generation will be forever inspired by that stunning overtime win. We’ll remember the cultural significance of that win at that time, and what it meant to the Canadian psyche in that moment, and with 4NFO, we witnessed a fairy tale ending for Canada.
Authors:
Solange Bernard, Sr. Director, Marketing Communications, Tim Hortons
Sophie Kotsopoulos, Group Vice President, Integrated Marketing, National Hockey League
