Sport Chek Wins Top Industry Award at Festival of Media Global in Rome for Innovative New 'Social Flyer'

Sport Chek's partnership with Facebook and Omnicom's Touché has proven digital marketing is replacing 'paper-based' marketing to drive both in-store and online sales

CALGARY, May 13, 2015 /CNW/ - Sport Chek (@SportChek), Canada's largest retailer of sports equipment and apparel, has won Gold for 'best e-commerce campaign' for its Social Flyer at the Festival of Media Global Awards in Rome, Italy. The global media awards attract the largest annual gathering of senior figures in media and features the world's biggest and most respected brands. The awards, which had more than 1,400 cases submitted, 213 shortlisted and a just a handful of winners at their annual event, wrapped up on May 12, 2015.

Sport Chek partnered with Facebook and Omnicom's Touché starting in 2012 to find a way to replace its long-standing paper flyer (also known as a paper circular in the U.S. and Europe) with digital marketing that could deliver comparable planned sales growth week-after-week.  The paper flyer is Sport Chek's single largest marketing expense – a common reality for most retailers around the world.  However, Sport Chek discovered that a majority of its customers were no longer reading the paper flyer and were instead consuming media and advertising online through desktop and mobile screens.

Sport Chek established a robust measurement framework for assessing the sales performance of its new digital-version of its flyer and partnered with Facebook's Canadian and global teams to establish a year of live-market tests until the new Social Flyer was optimized to deliver planned sales growth that the print flyer was formerly delivering.  Consistent positive weekly sales increases with the new Social Flyer and other digital marketing have prompted Sport Chek to shift 40 per cent of its paper-based marketing online in 2015, with plans to shift a substantial majority of its paper-based marketing online in 2016.

"We're very proud that the work of so many people to shift our single biggest marketing spend from paper to digital is being recognized at a global media event," said Duncan Fulton, Chief Marketing Officer for FGL Sports.  "The Social Flyer has demonstrated that digital marketing will consistently drive in-store sales, as well as e-commerce sales.  More importantly, we have now shown that we can replace decades of print-based marketing with digital marketing to drive planned sales increases week-after-week.  The success of this digital journey is largely attributed to the leadership of our Senior Vice President of Marketing, Frederick Lecoq, and to our terrific partners at Facebook and Touché that have invested with us for four years to demonstrate meaningful sales results," concluded Fulton.

"The best campaigns on Facebook often evolve from the simplest of ideas, such as bringing the traditional paper flyer online and onto mobile devices, where people now spend a significant amount of time," said Jordan Banks, Global Head of Vertical Strategy and Managing Director, Facebook Canada. "Combined with great creative, a strong media plan and a precise approach to measurement, Sport Chek has been able to achieve meaningful results for their business. We congratulate Sport Chek on this award."

"The Social Flyer is an extraordinary example of team work: Sport Chek, Facebook and Touché were committed to challenging a traditional marketing model and delivered outstanding sales results," said Karine Courtemanche, President, Touché. "Sport Chek has demonstrated tremendous courage to chart a profitable marketing path in the digital world – defying years of 'old school' marketing practices - and that ultimately earned them a gold standing on the world media stage."

In the winning category, Canadian-based Sport Chek beat out competitors from around the world, including AMP Capital (Australia), Babyshop (Norway), IKEA (Norway) and PayPal (Australia).

Launched in 2009, the Festival of Media Global Awards is now one of the world's largest advertising ceremonies by number of entries, attracting work from more than 40 countries.

About FGL Sports
FGL Sports Ltd. is Canada's largest national retailer of sporting goods, offering a comprehensive assortment of brand-name and private-brand products and operating more than 400 stores from coast to coast, under the following corporate and franchise banners: Sport Chek, Sports Experts, Atmosphere, National Sports, Intersport, Nevada Bob's Golf, Hockey Experts, Pro-Hockey Life and S3. FGL Sports also has websites for several of its corporate and franchise banners which can be accessed through its main website at www.FGLSports.com.

SOURCE FGL Sports Ltd.

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