Canada’s largest sporting goods retailer, Sport Chek, has unveiled a new sponsorship program called “Undercover Pro.”

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Clarke MacArthur and the Ottawa Senators’ Nick Foligno posed as Sport Chek employees last week at stores in their respective markets..

Sport Chek filmed the players’ interactions with the public and posted the videos on the Sport Chek website, individual teams’ YouTube channels. Ambushes from Vancouver are expected to appear shortly.

“We wanted to elevate the perception of our brand as a place to shop for hockey products,” said Joanne Bjarnason, who arrived at Sport Chek’s parent company Forzani Group Limited (FGL) as vice-president of marketing in December.

Bjarnason said that the promo program, developed in association with Toronto-based S&E Sponsorship Group, is representative of a “rethink” of the company’s marketing approach.

“We’re focusing on activities and properties that are relevant to our positioning and allow us to drive traffic to our stores and develop a deeper connection with our consumers,” she said.

Sport Chek has also traditionally “invested heavily” in print in the past with some TV buys, but is now placing emphasis on digital marketing initiatives.

“We’re not eliminating print by any means, but we’ve certainly increased our budget” since FGL was acquired by Canadian Tire Corporation in May 2011, “and a lot of the extra budget is really focusing on the digital space.”

Sport Chek is “tweaking” its brand positioning as it moves forward under the ownership of Canadian Tire, which acquired FGL for $770 million.

The company is in the midst of extensive customer and employee research, she said. “We’re really trying to understand how customers are shopping in this category, their buying behaviour, their needs and the role of our brand and our vendor brands,” she said. “Very clearly, there’s an opportunity to focus on our biggest banners today, which are Sport Chek and Atmosphere.”

FGL also operates the Sport Mart, Nevada Bob’s Golf and Hockey Expert banners, among others.

Sport Chek hired Sid Lee and Sid Lee Architecture for a “top to bottom” rebrand of the chain in November. Speaking with Marketing at the time, FGL’s chief marketing officer, Duncan Fulton, said that while the chain has tremendous brand equity, it was lacking an emotional connection to its customers. “I actually think it is lacking some soul as a brand,” he said.