It's That Time of Year Again...

For a lot of us when we think of Tim Horton's we automatically think of several things: A Canadian icon, Timbits Hockey, timbits themselves, Boston cream donuts (or is that just a personal thing) and of course Roll Up the Rim to Win.

I know it is Springtime in Canada when the snow starts to melt, the birds start chirping, and Roll up the Rim to Win starts at Tim Horton's.

It is day two of this year's Roll up the Rim to Win contest and already social media is buzzing with action. It reached trending topic status on Twitter both with "Tim Hortons" and their #tag #rolluptherim. In addition to being the hot topic of maybe Canadian bloggers.

Canadian's become so obsessed with this time of year that it has sparked the creation and invention of new products...enter the rim roller. Apple has even made an iTouch and iPhone app to keep track of your wins and loses.

In addition, this years contest coincided perfectly with the end of the Olympics. Tim Horton's received a lot of attention and publicity and is considered the most popular/successful ad run through the Olympic coverage despite the fact that Tim Horton's sponsored the Olympics in no way and their ad does not reference the event at all.

So what does this mean for PR? Tim Horton's has created such a great brand association with roll up the rim that it basically promotes itself now. While in the past they had launced ad campaigns promoting the spring blitz there has been relatively little coverage this year. They are getting more media coverage because of their competitors (specifically McDonald's who has been giving out free coffee) that they don't really need to do too much!

UPDATE: So despite my enthusiasum for Roll Up the Win and purchasing a coffee one or more times a day for its duration I only managed to win a donut. Maybe my lack of winning has something to do with this....click here. Considering how popular Roll up the Rim is they should do a better job of explaining the odds and chances of winning...so people like me don't get their hopes up.