Ottawa businesses have come out in force to fill the familiar streets lining the capital’s first official Monopoly board.
Local promoter Scott McLaren, president of Festival Promotions and a former Forty Under 40 recipient, embarked on his campaign to create an Ottawa-specific version of the popular Hasbro game last fall. He teamed up with Urban Logic to create the game and has spent the past few months soliciting local businesses to help cover production and licensing costs by sponsoring every property, card and dollar bill.
As it turns out, the prestige – and advertising opportunity – that comes with planting their logo on Colonel By Drive or the ByWard Market Square was an easy sell for many Ottawa businesses.
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Most of the matches make implicit sense: the Ottawa Senators scored Palladium Drive, where the Canadian Tire Centre sits; local bakery Quelque Chose Pâtisserie took its home street of Montreal Road; and Broccolini snagged downtown thoroughfare Slater Street – perhaps a subtle nod to the developer’s recently unveiled plans to build a 22-storey highrise on the street.
The top-dollar properties named after Boardwalk and Park Place in the original Monopoly are replaced by Bank Street and Richmond Road in Ottawa’s version. CLV Group and the Westboro Village BIA scored those prime end-of-board properties.
Ottawa businesses also took the opportunity to sponsor non-properties in the game. Chance cards – renamed for Ottawa At Home magazine – include get-out-of-jail-free cards sponsored by Escape Manor and a visit from Mayor Jim Watson to your pancake breakfast. Monopoly’s most coveted asset, cash, features branding from Otto’s Subaru.
Monopoly Ottawa is available for pre-order now and will be ready to ship later this fall, just in time for the holiday season. Check out the full Ottawa-themed board here.
Retail proceeds from the game will be divided among three local causes: Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Ottawa, Do it for Daron and the Royal Ottawa Youth Mental Health Foundation, and the third portion will be shared among smaller grassroots organizations in Ottawa.
