Wayne Gretzky x Tim Hortons

In 2019, Tim Hortons, the iconic Canadian coffee shop, had as its main brand challenge to reconnect with Canadians in an authentic way to regain brand love and relevance. The solution was to relaunch the platform “True Stories”. I had the chance to meet Wayne Gretzky and discover he and his dad had a True Story with our founder, Tim Horton. “The Autograph” tells the true story of how a young Gretzky visited a newly opened Tim Hortons to meet his hockey hero – Horton. He realized he forgot to bring something to get signed and a quick-thinking Horton grabbed a napkin and wrote Wayne, Best Wishes, Tim Horton. Walter Gretzky, Wayne’s father, has kept the autographed napkin for more than 50 years because it meant so much to his son. Walter, the ultimate hockey dad, is featured in the spot alongside Wayne sharing the napkin he has kept for over five decades. The film won a Silver Clio in Sports Entertainment in 2020 and enabled Tim Hortons to regain brand love, consideration and positive sentiment with local med.