Coors Original Gives $40,000 Boost to an Emerging Canadian Fashion App with Legacy Lift Campaign

Since the original recipe dating back to 1873, the Coors family of brands has cemented a lasting legacy that many companies only dream of achieving. This year, to celebrate that lasting Coors legacy, Coors Original is helping Canadian entrepreneurs establish a story of their own with the Legacy Lift grant.

Business legacies often celebrate lasting accomplishments and look back on previous achievements to showcase their success. But all legacies have to start somewhere on their journey, and taking your passion from sometimes to serious requires relentless commitment, determination, grit…and funds to fuel your passion.

$40,000 Funding & Mentorship

That’s why this August, the popular beer brand hosted a Dragons’ Den-style elevator pitch competition to give Canadian business owners, entrepreneurs and makers of all kind the chance to win $40,000 in funding and a 1:1 mentorship session with David Coors to support the early stages of their development and growth.

The beer company sought out to look for businesses that are founded in Canada and have the potential to make a lasting impact on their communities, with owners who demonstrate a passion for their craft and clear grit, courage, conviction and willingness to persevere through hardships. Eligible Canadians could apply online from August 9-27 by submitting a 150-second video about their business and how they plan to build a lasting legacy. From those applications, five finalists were selected to travel to Toronto in early September to share their best elevator pitch in person with Legacy Mentor and Senior Brand Director at Molson Coors, Leslie Malcolm.

The budding entrepreneur and winner of the Legacy Lift grant was Marley Alles, founder of rax, a peer-to-peer clothing rental company. Marley’s compelling elevator pitch set her apart, impressing the judges with her inspiring career lead to build a lasting, sustainable business that would create a positive impact for the people of Canada, innovate an industry way of thinking and lead a lasting legacy.

"The Coors Legacy Lift pitch competition serves as a reminder that just like Coors’ legacy, with a lot of grit, determination and hard work, startups have the potential to build their own enduring legacies often starting from humble beginnings,” states Marley Alles, “As a startup, access to capital is one of the hardest things to obtain and lack of funding is one of the main ways startups fail. Winning this grant from Coors Original enables rax to reach new heights that wouldn't have been possible before. It will help power rax's app development and marketing for our version 2 app launching this winter, and bring us one step closer to creating our own legacy, just as Coors did in the brewing industry."

The Coors Original Legacy Lift grant stands as a new initiative introduced by the brand, rooted in its commitment to inspire and bolster Canadian entrepreneurs and small businesses, providing them the resources and encouragement they need to continue crafting their own legacies.

The campaign was developed and executed by global integrated communications agency, Citizen Relations. It ran in tandem with the brand’s Start Your Legacy creative campaign which was in market this summer from June to September. It featured a strategic media mix of OLV, social, Spotify podcasts, and OOH in Calgary and Toronto. Wavemaker supported the Start Your legacy media buy with VOLT handling social and DDB out of the U.S. assisting with creative development.