CANADA'S ROCK OF FAME

This historical, one-of-a-kind awards show had complex strategies, logistics and production, as well as unique opportunities and challenges. We needed to achieve multiple goals; honour recipients, recognize sponsors, educate guests about the organization, and build emotional connections with the audience that would leave a lasting impact and build support for Canada’s Walk of Fame.  Although taking place in Toronto, it was a Canada-wide celebration with tickets that sold out in 10 minutes. 

The event was a 3 hour musical, video and story telling extravaganza that commemorated the Canadian music industry over the last 50+ years, and every element revolved around creating moments of connection between the bands, DJs and VJs, legendary radio hosts, producers, broadcasters, who were in attendance to tell those stories. 

We designed the stage in a way that transported people back to a rock concert in the 1970/80s. Instead of updating any of the elements to fit current trends, we chose lighting, screens, and an overall stage design that paid homage to the era.

To honour the musicians, we took every opportunity to play their hit songs; one for walk-up music, one live performance either by the original band or a tribute group, and one during walk-off. Esteemed Canadian DJs and VJs presented the awards and conducted MuchMusic-style interviews which created opportunities for personal connection between the people on-stage, people in the crowd, and those tuned in through media.

This groundbreaking event had 3,130 media hits and reached an audience of over a billion people (1,207,408,975) across all platforms. The audience was fully engaged from start to finish - the room came to life as people sang along with songs from their youth and were brought to their feet for 15 individual standing ovations.

Seeing iconic Canadian rockbands come together [potentially for the last time] with new generations of performers, including Fefe Dobson and Brooke Lyne Hytes to celebrate their successes and legacies.