Dispatch From Soccer Nation: Grow the Game and You'll Grow the Culture

BMO's 'Hands-Free ATM' lands in Canada

For more than two decades, BMO has invested in the growth of soccer in Canada, from grassroots programs to the professional game. When Canada was awarded the opportunity to host matches in the FIFA World Cup, it marked something bigger than a sporting event. It was the culmination of years of growth for the sport in this country and a signal that Canada had arrived on the world stage as a soccer nation.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve watched Canadian cities transform. Transit stations are covered in soccer imagery. Watch parties are overflowing. Office conversations have shifted from weekend plans to match predictions. People are proudly wearing jerseys representing not only Canada, but the countries their families came from.

For the first time, soccer doesn’t feel like a niche interest in Canada. It feels like a national conversation.

What’s especially interesting is that one of the central figures in that conversation, Alphonso Davies, captain of Canada’s Men’s National Team and one of the world’s top soccer players, hasn’t even played yet.

Injuries kept Davies out of Canada’s opening matches, but his presence has been everywhere. As a BMO soccer ambassador since 2022, he’s featured in advertising, social feeds, news coverage and everyday conversations. In many ways, he’s become one of the faces of the tournament before stepping onto the pitch. With Davies expected to return to the lineup in the coming days, that excitement is only likely to grow.

That says something important about where soccer sits in Canadian culture today.

As the Official Bank of Canada Soccer and the namesake of BMO Field, where the tournament is being played in Toronto, BMO already had credibility in the space. The challenge wasn’t how to attach BMO to the moment. It was how to participate in it in a way that felt authentic, visible and genuinely fun for fans.

We saw this as an opportunity to show up in a way that matched the scale and energy of the moment, creating experiences across the city that bring people closer to the game and to each other.

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The insight was simple: most people won’t experience this tournament from inside a stadium. They’ll experience it from everywhere else.

They’ll experience it on their commute, at work, in public squares, on patios, at watch parties and scrolling through their feeds between matches. The city itself becomes part of the tournament.

That idea became the foundation for a campaign to turn Toronto into a citywide celebration of soccer, centred on a single goal: bringing the energy of the tournament into everyday life. Some of the most enjoyable ideas came from asking how soccer could unexpectedly show up in familiar places.

The “Hands-Free ATM” turns a routine banking interaction into a soccer challenge, rewarding fans with soccer fan gear when they use their feet instead of their hands. The BMO Deskshaw takes the now-famous BMO desk out into the city, bringing fans directly into the campaign rather than waiting for them to come to it.

At the center of it all is the BMO Guy, played by Lamorne Morris, joined by Alphonso Davies in a comedic national TV and OLV campaign. One of the advantages of having built this platform over time is that audiences already understand the relationship between the characters. We weren’t introducing a spokesperson or borrowing credibility from a celebrity appearance. We were building on a dynamic people already recognized in past BMO campaigns, allowing us to focus on the humor, fandom and cultural rituals surrounding the game rather than explaining why soccer matters.

The spots, directed by Benji Weinstein, lean heavily into comedy because fandom itself is often funny. Lamorne’s comedic timing brings those observations to life, while Alphonso’s willingness to play along allows him to be seen not just as one of the world’s best players but as someone who genuinely enjoys being part of the joke. That balance was important.

Consumers today are surrounded by event marketing. What they respond to are brands that understand the culture surrounding the event.

The most successful brands don’t simply sponsor moments. They contribute to them.