A Uniquely Smelly Canadian Adventure
Pretty much says it all and still leaves you wondering WTF huh? Buckle up for a quick, entirely too Canadian adventure.
It all started when a tall man from a branded apparel company approached good ol' Zeke with a promotional contest idea for the marketing company. Make a little more sense yet?
Bring the Smell
I spent a whole week sniffing stinky damn hockey bags from players aged 8 to 58 en route to qualifying them down to the 3 finalists. Amazing how readily parents will out their stinky hockey players when there is a prize at stake.
The hulking trophy, a full set of customized hockey jerseys, and huge local fame were on the line. The finals were to be held live, during the second intermission of the home opening game for the local team Stratford Fighting Irish! A couple days before that, I was voluntold that I would be the MC for the event...
Come game day, we watched the home team take a lead into the second intermission and it was our turn to shine...er smell.
Here We Go!
The contestants and celebrity judges made it onto the ice for the final ceremony and I had the mic to talk the crowd through the proceedings.
From right to left, we have the Tall Man himself, Fighting Irish coach, contestants, and the Mayor of the city!
Martin is so present in the community and has so much fun at events that involve sports, kids and plenty of people. It was surprisingly easy get coax him into bein a celebrity judge.
The Smell Test!
Along with #7 Matt Fuller, these judges actually did it! They stuck their nose in the bags and smelled to judge the winners!
Just take a look on the mayors face and guess how he felt about the first contestant! This is the very image I was hoping would happen when we were recruiting the judges! PEE-EWW!
Undeterred by olfactory trauma, they continued with each bag with the determination of legitimately choosing the city's smelliest hockey bag.
The contestants waited nervously for the final announcement. Perhaps even a bit incredulous at having one of the players, the president of a local company, and the mayor smell their stinky bags.
Our brave adjudicators conferred and contemplated as a unit, unanimously declaring the winner...
Hunter and his proud grandmother would take home the coveted title. What an experience and rollercoaster of emotions to this champion and his prize-winning malodour. A full set of custom jerseys for his team, lamentation of the women, and a picture with the mayor and his new trophy.
I don't get the mic in front of hundreds of people too often but try to make it as fun as possible for all when I do. My initial WTF thoughts on the contest have completely gone away as it ended up being so different, odd and enjoyable for everyone.
In the end, our digital campaign reached 8400 targeted people in a town of 35k and had over 22k impressions on our paid advertising. Then there was the organic reach of another 12k people. Imagine the power we will have when the world catches up with us and augments #web2 marketing with organic #web3 engagement and individual attention like Hive!
I am honoured to curate for:
Pee-yewwww is right!
As sensitive to disgusting odors as I am, I would dislike being a judge in this contest. I remember all too well how boys' sweat saturated apparel smells after the "eau" fermented in a sports bag forgotten in the trunk of a car after a weekend tournament in the summer time heat.
Canadians host some strange contests!😅
Seriouly though, I love hockey and you have some fantastic players up north! @zekepickelman
🏒💨 🥅 🚨
!PIZZA
!LADY
View or trade
LOHtokens.@ninahaskin, you successfully shared 0.1000 LOH with @zekepickleman and you earned 0.1000 LOH as tips. (2/9 calls)
Use !LADY command to share LOH! More details available in this post.
Haha all true!
When the idea was presented to me, I said okay but though “what a stupid idea.” The more people talked about it, the more fun it became and the more I realized that different is good.
Hockey is life here for many which makes for some good hockey players for sure. The American hockey program has been producing so very well the last few years and Europe as well. So much fun to watch!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@ninahaskin(2/5) tipped @zekepickleman
Dude, this is literally the weirdest contest I've ever seen hahaha. I don't even want to imagine what they smell like. Still, it's great that you're reaching such a huge audience. It seems like people are enjoying it.
The beauty of the weird idea is that even non hockey non sports people were talking about it. Takes a big weird Dutch brain to come up with something like that and I love being proven wrong.
That's some funny stuff, and what a huge hit. Voluntold, sounds very similar to Volunteered, but with a totally different meaning. I'm going to add this word to my personal dictionary, love it.
You must have thought the tall guy had lost his mind when he first approached you with this wacky idea, but isn't that what marketing is all about, coming up with a unique idea that draws eyeballs? The guy is a genius. I wonder what his bag smells like, that's probably how he got the idea.
The mayor seems like a real character, fun-loving dude who seems to know how to play the audience. The kid who won got some great gear for himself and his teammates.
If you decide to run this event again next year I would expect the gym bags to be extra smelly.
Haha it is all true. The kicker is the tall man is not a hockey guy. So you know who ran the entire campaign.
The best part was having the mayor agree. I had to do a sales job on that one and leverage a relationship with him I have been nurturing a while. Good to have the big guy on your side for community stuff and exposure for sure.
This is quite strange, lol
I have never seen this kind of contest in my life but it looks quite cool
WTF is wrong with y'all.
Just having fun promoting small business and perhaps some jazz cabbage.
Quite still amused the need for the smell test. How on earth will that be a justification to determine the winner
It was really just a funny promotion but these guys wanted it as legit as can be with 500 witnesses. ;)
I think the Smelliest Hockey Bag Contest sounds like a hilarious and unique idea! It's a great way to get people talking and engaged with your brand. I'm glad to hear that it was a success, and I'm sure Hunter was very proud to be crowned the smelliest hockey bag champion!
I also think it's great that the proceeds from the contest went to support the Stratford Fighting Irish youth hockey programs. It's important to give back to the community, and this is a fun and creative way to do it.
We tried to involve as many people and partners as possible to make it a community thing.
Mom said he had fun and plenty of laughs for sure.
I have never seen such a contest in my life where the dirtiest bag wins and people participate in it with great pleasure.