THE HOME DEPOT HAS TAKEN a step back from sponsorship of hockey at the elite level, opting not to renew partnerships with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and the National Hockey League. Instead, it will focus on an expanded portfolio of local hockey properties in markets where it has a retail presence. The Home Depot now has 56 contracts with AHL, junior and university hockey teams, and it is using Stellick Marketing Communications to build turnkey activation platforms to bring the local team, the local store and hometown fans together.

However, the strategy may leave the company vulnerable in the country's biggest and most competitive market in the home improvement category: Toronto. The Home Depot is sponsoring the St. Mike's Majors, formerly a Toronto team but now based in nearby Mississauga, but they and the Oshawa Generals are as close as The Home Depot's hockey program gets to Toronto's downtown core. There is no obvious "community" hockey team in Toronto except for the Leafs, and they are now sponsored by competitor Rona, which is planning a strong activation program in the Greater Toronto marketplace (see story, page 5).

Stellick's Brian Findlay says the focus is on the advantages that the new strategy affords – deeper community penetration across the country, and a total live audience of close to 9 million in 2008, more than the combined attendance of all six NHL franchises.

The Home Depot has been sponsoring hockey at the local level from the moment it set up shop in Canada, says Findlay. Ongoing research has revealed, however, that the local partnerships were carrying far more weight with consumers than bigticket properties like the Leafs and the NHL. The Leafs partnership could only be activated in a narrow geographic area, and the NHL partnership was an expensive complement to the local partnerships. The core of the hockey program remained with the local team and the local store together speaking to the hockey-loving community. "What really brings the partnerships to life is the local activation and the participation of the individual store managers," says Findlay, something that will be part of programs in those 56 markets where The Home Depot now has local partnerships.

The objective, and it will take time, says Findlay, is to establish The Home Depot as "authentically part of the community." It is a battle for the consumer's heart, where the principal challenger, Rona, is loudly trumpeting its Canadian heritage.

Programs that will be activated by the local teams include The Home Depot's popular backyard rinks program and the On the Bench Coaching' Clinics. The backyard rink contest offers an opportunity to have the local partner hockey team conduct a practice literally in the winner's back yard. "On the Bench" is an enter-towin contest that gives minor hockey teams an opportunity to be coached by the staff of The Home Depot's local partner hockey team. Both programs reinforce The Home Depot's positioning as the source for "know-how."

The Home Depot will own (at least) one promotion night per sponsored team, and the objective there is not to sell, but rather to have fun, says Findlay. Events range from shopping cart races to leafblower races to drilling contests, sometimes involving co-sponsorship from The Home Depot suppliers.

"It empowers the local store managers and gives them something to work with," says Findlay. Store managers also receive an allotment of tickets that they can use to host their own top customers, who are usually prominent players in the local construction trades.