Heather Latter
Residents of Fort Frances are thrilled Tim Hortons sent warm wishes their way.
A two-minute video, which was launched online on Friday on the company’s YouTube channel, features local residents reacting to “yarn bombings” around town and ultimately at the Tim Hortons’ restaurant here, which was covered from floor to ceiling with woolen trimmings.
“It was absolutely heartwarming to watch the new Tim Hortons’ commercial shot in good old Fort Frances,” noted a former resident, now living in Thunder Bay, after viewing the video.
“I’m also pretty sure the community was knit together before the yarn bombing but still . . . so sweet,” she added in an online post.
“This is so great,” enthused a local resident. “Nice to see Fort Frances being represented so nicely!”
“I love it,” echoed another. “Seeing all the hard work that was put into this, and all the smiles on those familiar faces, makes my heart happy.
“Awesome job on the commercial.”
“Seeing all the familiar faces, including my son, Joshua, in the Tim Hortons’ video was really neat,” enthused local resident Kerri Dittaro.
“Tim Hortons gave us one more ‘perk’ to drinking coffee and living in one of the coldest places in Canada.”
“Despite recent negative publicity of Tim Hortons being acquired by an American chain, it will always have its place as a unique Canadian icon—like the CBC, CN Tower, or poutine,” added local resident Paul Pirie.
The video, which was shot here Dec. 12-13, has reached more than 610,000 views as of this morning.
“It was about bringing warmth,” noted Glenn Hollis, vice-president of Brand Strategy, Marketing & Guest Experience at Tim Hortons.
“It was an extension of our campaign that was undertaken back in November, which was ‘Warm Wishes,’” he explained.
The campaign included the annual holiday cups, which come in a variety of festive sweater designs (one for each size).
There also was a social media campaign—using the new hashtag #WarmWishes—to encourage Canadians to do good for others in an effort to help spread some warmth this holiday season.
“Every time that #WarmWishes [was used], we ended up donating back to children through some of the community groups we work with—Cozy Toque,” Hollis noted.
“So this was really to create a video that also extended that, as well, and really helped us to bring warmth to a cold community,” he added.
“Fort Frances was a great place to do that.”
Hollis said they chose Fort Frances as the location for the video partly because the town typically sees colder temperatures in winter than a lot of other communities in Canada.
“We also talked to our owners,” he added. “Gord McQuarrie is a wonderful, wonderful Tim Hortons’ restaurant owner.
“We talked to him and he was super engaged.
“We knew that the stars kind of lined up—we found a cold place and we found a place we wanted to get to,” Hollis remarked.
“Gord was a great host and it turned out all of Fort Frances was a great host, too.”
Hollis said the production all started with a “mysterious” casting call here at the end of November.
Toronto-based Jigsaw Casting informed the Times it was casting a film about keeping warm, and that their “clients chose Fort Frances as it is a thriving community who also happens to have the coldest climate in the winter.”
“That really started the buzz more than anything,” Hollis said.
“The folks that we talked to, and ended up putting on the video, were wonderful.”
Cindy Homer’s children, Ashlee and Jesse, were just a few of the local youngsters who made an appearance in the video.
“We sent in our application not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, but that it would be a neat experience for our kids,” she noted.
After meeting with the casting crew, and then later with the director and producer, the family was booked for the gig.
“[We] still had no idea what it was all about,” Homer said.
The production crew filmed at their home on the morning of Dec. 12.
“We were finally told it would be for a Tim Hortons’ commercial but was asked to keep quiet,” Homer noted.
“They had ‘yarn-bombed’ our front yard and wanted to capture the kids’ reactions when they saw what had been done.
“Seeing all the film crew, trucks, and equipment was certainly out of the ordinary for a Friday morning in Fort Frances,” she added.
Homer said it all came together when they stopped in at Tim Hortons on Saturday.
“[It’s] such a cool thing to be a part of,” she remarked. “Getting to watch the video and seeing all of the familiar faces made for a great morning.
“Fort Frances is back on the map.”
Earlier in the week, people around town had begun noticing knitted decorations, such as a woollen covering on a bench on the riverfront, yarn decorating the railings at the underpass, and mailboxes, fire hydrants, and trees covered in yarn.
Hollis said the decorations started popping up early for a couple of reasons.
“One was to start to see the idea and give some examples of warmth,” he explained.
“We knew that we needed to shoot those as part of the video . . . so it was to lay down the seeds and get some interest and buzz going.”
But the highlight of the production was Saturday at Tim Hortons.
The location had been shut down Friday afternoon and the crew worked through the night, just like elves, to transform the interior into a cozy, warm atmosphere, complete with comfy couches and chairs—and even a fireplace.
“As we opened it up, everything was covered in wool, right down to the door handles,” Hollis remarked.
The drive-thru had been closed so as customers came in, there was quite a reaction to the transformation—and the cameras captured it all.
Even those who didn’t stop in, but drove past, were treated to the exterior decorations, which featured the building wrapped in a giant scarf and wearing a large toque.
“It’s been very exciting,” local Tim Hortons’ owner Gord McQuarrie said Saturday, though he didn’t take any credit for the company choosing Fort Frances.
“It’s been a fantastic ride.”
There had been speculation that what was being filmed was a TV commercial.
While it’s an online video instead, Hollis stressed this is a strategy Tim Hortons has been starting lately.
“We have a huge social community—Facebook, Twitter,” he explained, noting the video will be part of a series Tim Hortons has been putting together over the years.
“This is another one that our guests, and the wider Canadian community, are going to be able to go to YouTube [to watch],” he remarked.
“We’ve had millions and millions of views of videos that we’ve created over several years, and certainly through the last year more aggressively,” Hollis added.
For instance, a few months ago, Tim Hortons made a video when the company created a “dark store” to launched its dark roast coffee.
And back in May, it had a big 50th anniversary, where the company brought the first store from Hamilton and recreated it in Young and Dundas Square in Toronto.
“That was a video we put out there and that was the first time we crossed the million views,” Hollis noted.
“So we’re well-experienced in the video space, and it really is just about engaging our guests and being where they are.
“And the Fort Frances’ piece and the ‘Warm Wishes’ is another great extension of that.”
Hollis expressed thanks to all of Fort Frances on behalf of Tim Hortons, as well as to McQuarrie and the team.
“You guys were really, truly amazing hosts,” he enthused.
“We appreciate it and are really excited to have been there.”
