The Away Game

Read the campaign story

Tim Hortons and Zulu Alpha Kilo brought members of Kenya’s Ice Lions hockey team to Canada for an encounter documented in The Away Game. Cresta records the film’s release as 15 October 2018 and credits director David Grabias. Contemporary coverage describes the involvement of Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Related edits are grouped together.

The sources describe the supported occasion and present enthusiastic participant accounts, but they do not independently establish lasting sporting development or a causal commercial effect. This case adopts neither conclusion. The communication question is how a brand can enable a meaningful encounter without taking ownership of the participants’ identity, exaggerating its long-term contribution or making a single filmed event stand for a whole community.

Editorial interpretation: a shared interest can connect people across unfamiliar settings more concretely than a broad statement about unity. The activity gives the audience a way to understand what matters to the participants. The brand’s role should remain specific and bounded. Existing commitment, skill and community should be visible before the sponsor enters the story, rather than portrayed as something the campaign creates from nothing.

Editorial interpretation: a special encounter provides narrative anticipation, but surprise is not a substitute for consent. Participants need meaningful control over filming, representation and any commitments beyond the occasion. Another organisation can borrow the idea of facilitating a connection without arranging travel or celebrity access. The central question is whether the encounter serves a participant-defined purpose, not merely whether it produces a compelling ending.

Start with the participants’ existing purpose

Ask what the group already values and what kind of support would be useful on its own terms. Do not frame people primarily as recipients waiting for a brand to discover them. An early concept should describe the participants’ agency and the sponsor’s limited contribution separately. This makes it easier to identify a genuinely relevant role and avoid an exaggerated rescue narrative.

Treat representation as part of the experience

Explain the intended audience, editing approach and possible uses of the material before participation. Provide an appropriate way to raise concerns and avoid making access conditional on revealing personal hardship. For initial research, fictional storyboards are enough. A campaign should not require real people to perform gratitude or accept an unexpected public identity in exchange for an opportunity they value.

Distinguish the occasion from an ongoing programme

State what support occurred, what continues and what is not promised. A memorable event may be worthwhile without proving lasting development. If the organisation wants to claim durable benefit, it needs suitable follow-up evidence and participant perspectives beyond the launch film. Measure understanding of the actual contribution rather than encouraging viewers to infer a much larger commitment from an emotional conclusion.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: storyboard a fictional adult board-game club exchanging design ideas with another club in a local meeting room, with a sponsor providing clearly limited materials.

Measure whether reviewers can explain each club’s existing interests and the sponsor’s exact contribution. Ask which ongoing benefits or commitments they assume, then compare those beliefs with the storyboard. Revise the framing if viewers remember only the sponsor’s generosity or infer continuing support that the fictional arrangement does not include.

Stop if the concept erases participant agency, requires staged gratitude, implies unverified lasting benefit or depends on unsafe or nonconsensual activity.

• Use invented participants and original illustrations only.
• Make participation planned, voluntary and free of surprise filming.
• Exclude travel, physical sport, minors and personal hardship stories.