Eighty-Eight Brewing Company in Calgary has created a beer called Personal Best, shown in a handout photo. Proceeds from sales of the drink will go to Olympic athletes Alison Jackson, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski and Nikola Goncin.Kevin Mitchell/The Canadian Press
When cyclist Alison Jackson jumps on her bike at the Olympic Games in Paris, she’ll be aiming for a gold medal, but at Eighty-Eight Brewing Co., it’ll be all about her Personal Best.
The Calgary business will split proceeds from its aptly named beer – a pale ale with a tropical aroma and a bright red can bearing a sketch of a retro jacket – between Jackson and fellow athletes, rower Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski and wheelchair basketball player Nikola Goncin.
“It doesn’t bring in a huge amount of profit for us because we give that money to the athletes,” said Kevin Mitchell, Eighty-Eight’s marketing manager. “But we find that with the brand recognition and [the athletes] exposing us to new consumers, it’s definitely a worthwhile undertaking.”
The partnership Eighty-Eight struck with the trio of Paris competitors is just one of the many endorsements and funding arrangements uniting small businesses looking to boost their brands with Canadian athletes, who know more cash or name recognition seldom hurts their careers.
Among the partnerships publicized in the years leading up to the Games and as athletes landed in France was a deal between rower Jill Moffatt and Big Wheel Burger in B.C., and another tying Kristina Walker, also a rower, to Surrey, B.C.-based turf and track installer Marathon Surfaces.
Gymnast Ellie Black is in on the action, too. She’s partnered with Montreal-based non-alcoholic beer company Sober Carpenter to sell a limited-time beverage emblazoned with her signature.
Cheri Bradish, director of the Future of Sport Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, said such partnerships are all part of the Olympic “halo” – a phenomenon where anything related to the Games gets a lift when the international sporting event is under way.
“Whether they’re sports-based [small businesses] or not, it adds legitimacy,” she said. “The marketing, at the end of the day, is a communications tool to drive sales.”
Major brands such as Royal Bank of Canada, BCE Inc. and Canadian Tire Corp., which have long partnered with Team Canada, know this well.
But small businesses are newer entrants to the Olympic marketing world. Their budgets often aren’t as big as the household names that can afford to blanket broadcasts, but they can target their marketing efforts to a more local or specialized audience.
While they often pay athletes to post on social media about their company or use their merchandise or services, other arrangements hand Olympians equity in the business or free product.
“The ask on our end is not all that great,” said Darcy Haggith, who runs Gruppo Nutrition.
The Windsor, Ont.-based sports powder and protein drink business is supporting eight athletes including track cyclists Sarah Orban and Nick Wammes along with paracanoe competitor Brianna Hennessy and wheelchair rugby player Zak Madell.
The agreements the company strikes ask athletes already using Gruppo to film videos of them unboxing free products or post shots of them “passively using” the merchandise.
The strategy is meant to be “not in your face” and it works, Mr. Haggith said.
“The nice thing about being associated with the top-tier sports is it often leads to [business from] the university level and the folks that are trying to make it,” he said.
Though Eighty-Eight’s name is a nod to the year Calgary hosted the Olympics, the brewery wasn’t looking to link itself to athletes when bobsledder Ryan Sommer approached the company for a deal ahead of the last winter games.
It took little convincing to get Eighty-Eight on board with the partnership, which grew to include backing for hockey player Micah Zandee-Hart and long-track speed skater Tyson Langelaar.
At those Games in Beijing, Ms. Zandee-Hart nabbed a gold medal and Mr. Sommer a bronze. Meanwhile, Eighty-Eight saw a wave of new customers from Hydration Station, an electrolyte-laden orange ale it had on offer to promote the athletes.
Because the brewery only produces a small run of its athlete-inspired beers each Olympics, Mr. Mitchell said it can be hard to measure the direct impact the drinks have on sales. The brewery, however, usually sees a lift in social-media traction and new customers visiting its taproom because of the athletes.
“It’s a success for us as long as the athletes are happy and we’re happy getting the publicity,” Mr. Mitchell said.