Innovative CSR campaign involving toasters lights up social media

Canadian Tire (more than a tire store, non-Canadians might be surprised to learn) is behind Jumpstart, a national charity that helps kids overcome financial and accessibility barriers to sports and recreation. In 2017, Canadian Tire wanted to expand the audience of people aware of and donating to Jumpstart to include transitional millennials (those buying their first homes and becoming parents). Its success has earned it first place in the “Social Media Campaign” category of PR Daily’s 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Rather than approach a giving campaign traditionally, the Canadian Tire team explored outside-the-box options and finally settled on … toasters. For $25, Canadians could buy a toaster with all proceeds directed to Jumpstart. 

These were no ordinary toasters, however. One burned the image of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky onto the toast. The other two repeated the feat with images of hockey stars Jonathan Toews and Connor McDavid. 

Social media was the key channel for marketing the toasters (and Jumpstart), supported by media outreach, videos, a Facebook Live session and much more, all of which led to more than 79,000 visitors to the e-commerce site and a conversion rate of 12 percent (leading the toasters to sell out in 24 hours). The plan was to raise $250,000 over the life of the campaign. Instead, the Jumpstart donation was raised in a single day. 

Congratulations to Eva Salem, Erica Juba, Emily Lloyd, Kaleigh Henderson, Brandy Barrie, Andrée Dillon, Jayesh Mistry, Darryl Boynton, Taylor Durand, Lindsay Joseph, Leah Gaucher, Julia Wilkinson, Joseph Nanni, Robby Frankel, Stephen White, Sante Mazzulla, Jordon Melaragno, Benjamin Birch, Alyssa Guttman, Zach Ashbee, Patrick Naphan, Geoff Jones, Matthew Taylor, Ian Berkowitz, Leslie Uy, Karl Pawlowicz, Mark Matthews, Alan Lukatela, Dale Giffen, Liam Benstead and Didier Tovel.