Nike Canada released a new 90-second film during the tournament, and a different version of the same commercial ran every day of the championship—the first time this has been done with a commercial. This innovative new approach gave the story two arcs—one in the 90-second spot and one throughout the entire tournament. The hero became less and less nice each day, culminating with peak intensity on the day of the championship game. As the spot progressed throughout the tournament, we invited viewers to play along and see if they could notice the differences from day to day. There were subtle changes, like new bumper stickers on his car, and major changes, such as cameos from four top Canadian athletes.

Play Less Nice originally aired on December 20 in the pre-tournament round of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship on TSN. The main tournament began on December 26 and concluded with the gold medal game on January 5. Play Less Nice aired during each game of the tournament, totaling 31 airings over nine days. Version 1 of the spot aired on the first day of the main tournament, with a new progression running each game day after that, concluding with Version 9 on January 5. New versions were added to the YouTube playlist as they were broadcast on TV. French-Canadian versions of the spot also aired on RDS during the tournament. Nike also used 30- and 15-second cutdowns to promote the campaign on social media channels. Nike athletes Bo Horvat, Melissa Bishop, Spencer O’Brien, and Mark McMorris used their social channels to promote the campaign.

? 11% Sport Chek total sales lift

? 44% Yorkdale sales lift

? 11.9MM total impressions

? 522K consumer engagement

? 3.7MM campaign views

? 130 media stories