Tim Hortons Has Lost the Plot

A weird World Series discount

Something that stood out to me while watching the Blue Jay's World Series run back in November was how strange / calculated / insincere Tim Horton's playoff promotion came across:

If the Blue Jays recorded nine or more hits in any playoff game, Tim Hortons would let a customer purchase a medium Iced Capp the next day for $1, as long as you spend at least $3 first (and you are a Tims Rewards Member). How elegant! I hate(d) it.

For starters.. why would Restaurant Brands International (RBI, our Brazilian overlords) pick 9 hits to trigger this promotion? That's such an arbitrary threshold - it overtly comes off like some trade marketing analyst needed to underwrite the promotion to ~50% odds, and without understanding baseball, dragged the "number of hits" slider until they reached their goal:

And even if ~50% probability was the threshold to launch a promotion.. why not at least choose something punchy, like.. the Blue Jays win? Or hit a couple home runs? Or strike out the opposing team a bunch of times? Hits are fine, but 9 singles isn't really why you watch playoff baseball. Maybe that's just me!

Regardless: once you factor in the minimum spend of $3 and margins on Iced Coffee, I think it's reasonable to assume very few dollars actually went into funding this promotion. And given how often this was advertised during primetime broadcasts that ultimately turned into the most-watched sporting events in Canadian history, I'm convinced Tims must have spent 10x more money on their advertising slots than they actually spent giving away coffee to Blue Jays.

Which leads me to my real question: if you are Tim Hortons/RBI, what exactly was the goal with this promotion? To build Tim Hortons loyalty among baseball fans? To drive adoption of its long-maligned loyalty app (which is now partnered with Canadian Tire, for some reason)? Why not commit to a traditional spot with some playoff baseball flavour (like the good folks at Home Hardware)? To me, this came across as another poorly executed attempt by Tims/RBI to appropriate Canadiana, and it really missed the mark.

Taking more than you give

There is a concept in brand marketing that brands shouldn't take more than they give to any particular culture, lest they risk being perceived as exploitative rather than authentic supportive. This should feel intuitive, but I think it's really hard to find the line when you are a marketer desperate to make your brand popular with your "aspirational" consumer.