Tim Hortons is the biggest coffee shop in Canada, and was founded by the hockey player Tim Horton. Surprisingly, Wayne Gretzky actually reached out to Tim Hortons to tell them an interesting story. His father was cleaning out the basement and found an old Tim Hortons napkin signed by Tim Horton for Wayne when he was a child. Our goal was to tell the story of how that napkin and the encounter influenced the life story of the greatest hockey player in the world.

In The Autograph, we see the spark that began the greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky’s, journey to become The Great One. We open on a shot of an old man finding a dusty box in his basement. He brushes it off, but before we see what’s inside, we flash back to 1968, to see a young Wayne arrive at a Tim Horton café with his father to get an autograph from a large man. As the man begins to sign a napkin, we see a big bang effect to highlight the importance of the moment the pen hit the paper and we’re guided alongside Wayne’s journey from a young hockey player to a star. We resolve in the house from the beginning of the spot to see the old man, Wayne’s father, give Wayne the napkin. Wayne reads it aloud, “Wayne, best wishes — Tim Horton.”

Tim Hortons is the biggest coffee shop in Canada, but over time, it has become seen by a younger generation as their parents’ or even grandparents’ coffee shop. In order to become more relevant to young consumers, while not alienating their core audience, we focused on one thing that unites all generations in Canada — the love of hockey. The fact that this story was a multigenerational story also, of a hockey father taking his hockey loving son to meet one of his heroes helped land the feeling that Tim Hortons is still the coffee shop for everyone, no matter how young or old.

We recreated this historical moment to the last detail, showing how it rippled in time and motivated a young hockey fan to become a professional player. We researched historical archives of both Wayne Gretzky’s career and Tim Hortons, in order to recreate an exact replica of the original 1968 Tim Hortons cafe´, both interior and exterior spaces. In collaboration with the Gretzky family, we borrowed the original jerseys that Wayne wore throughout his career, all to faithfully recreate his journey. Over 50,000 Canadian kids auditioned for the role of young Wayne — an advertising record for the country.

The Autograph was covered by major publications and organically reposted by the National Hockey League. It generated 123 Million impressions amounting to $1.2 Million dollars in earned media, and won the hearts of Canadians and hockey fans everywhere.