Chronicle - Fall 2012

VICTORIA • VANCOUVER • CALGARY • EDMONTON • WINNIPEG • KITCHENER • TORONTO • OTTAWA • MONTREAL • QUEBEC CITY

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ADVICE SQUAD How social media platform ChickAdvisor has grown and the reason more brands want to work with the duo behind it all.

Ali de Bold and husband Alex

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FOCUSED

INDEPENDENT

Longstanding photo lab Toronto Image Works continually reinvents itself to serve artistic community.

Top Montreal software firm GFI cuts its French ties and goes it alone as ACCEO Solutions.

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• In Calgary: UPPERCASE publishing in Art Central • In Montreal: Wooky Entertainment looks beyond the toy shelf • In Toronto: Cologix connects its tenants’ IT to 100% reliability

FALL 2012

THE ALLIED PROPERTIES REIT TENANT MAGAZINE

INCOMING...

Allied adds more Calgary buildings to its Western portfolio

Built in 1913 as corporate headquarters for Burns Foods, 237-8th Ave. S.E. was renovated on several occasions from 1983 onward. The building is designated by the Province of Alberta as a historic resource.

With the closing of the Chamber of Commerce building acquisition and the scheduled close on the acquisition of the Demcor building in November, the number of Allied buildings in Calgary will grow 14 strong, totalling more than 600,000 square feet.

The summer’s purchase of the Burns building (237-8th Avenue S.E.) on the north side of the Stephen Avenue Mall, just west of Calgary City Hall, adds this jewel in the rough to a string of high profile Calgary buildings, including Arts Central, Fashion Central, the Alberta Hotel and the Lougheed building.

All are close to the core and all exhibit the historic character that is consistent with other Allied buildings across Canada.

While the Burns building is in need of restoration, work can’t begin fast enough for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, which has temporarily located on the third floor of the building while crews complete its 10,000 square feet of office due for move-in next March.

The summer purchase of the Burns building was a redevelopment opportunity from the start, explained Allied President and CEO Michael Emory earlier this year.

“It will enable us to take advantage of the strong demand for Class I office space that we’ve experienced since establishing our Calgary portfolio,” he said. ■

Urban intensification strategy spurs Allied joint ventures The two-storey building on Spadina south of King Street West currently features a Winners retail location and a handful of office tenants, but Allied expects to see it become much more following a joint venture with land development company Diamond Corp. to make it a mixed-use property.

Allied sold a 50% interest in the property to Diamond, which will oversee the re-zoning of the property for residential, office and retail use. On completion of the re-zoning, Allied and Diamond intend to engage a partner with condominium expertise to oversee the further development of the property.

“As in the case of our ongoing intensification joint venture with RioCan REIT, we want to work with ‘best-in-class’ organizations for each project,” said Michael Emory, President and CEO. “We believe Diamond is just that in relation to the project contemplated at 57 Spadina.”

In the summer, RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust and Allied entered into an agreement to create a joint venture

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57 Spadina Ave.

to acquire sites in the urban areas of major Canadian cities that, on a stand-alone basis, are suitable for mixed use intensification.

The joint venture will also seek to identify properties currently within the Allied and/or RioCan portfolio that are suitable for redevelopment or intensification. Projects currently in the works include two Toronto sites, one at College and Manning and the other at King Street West and Portland. ■

COMMUNIQUÉ Allied Outperforms National Tenant Service Benchmarks

Are you registered with Allied Tenant Services?

Results of a national survey launched throughout Allied buildings earlier this year in May found that tenant satisfaction exceeded the industry benchmarks in Canada. The survey focused on asking respondents whether they would recommend Allied buildings, as well as how they felt about issue resolution and overall satisfaction of the ‘Allied Experience’. Results will help Allied identify areas outlined for progress and improve the general provision of services consistently across its geographically diverse portfolio. Visit alliedreit.com for a summary of the survey results.

Our Tenant Services Request System allows you to easily submit, log and track work orders relating to building and or in-suite concerns. Our team is hands on in responding to and resolving these issues in a timely manner. Not a User? Need to reset your Login ID? Contact Property Management today and use the system to:

Allied surclasse les comparables nationaux : sondage

• Track the progress of a repair.

• Submit online service requests • Receive immediate assistance • Access information easily • Receive important notifications

Les résultats d’un sondage national mené dans les édifices d’Allied plus tôt cette année au mois de mai ont révélé que la satisfaction des locataires dépassait les normes de référence de l’industrie au Canada. Le sondage se résumait à demander aux répondants s’ils recommanderaient les édifices d’Allied et leur point de vue sur la résolution des problèmes et la satisfaction générale de « l’expérience Allied ». Les résultats aideront Allied à identifier les domaines où des progrès sont souhaitables et à améliorer la prestation générale des services de façon cohérente d’un bout à l’autre de son portefeuille géographique varié. Visitez alliedreit.com pour un résumé des résultats du sondage.

Kids & Company Wins E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award Victoria Sopik and Jennifer Nashmi took top honours in the business-to-business category this year at the Ontario Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Awards for their work developing progressive childcare and eldercare options for companies. Their firm, Kids & Company, an Allied tenant at two Montreal sites, currently operates 44 child care centres across Canada. See the full story on page 16.

Victoria Sopik et Jennifer Nashmi ont remporté cette année les grands honneurs dans la catégorie des produits et services d’entreprise à entreprise lors de la remise des Grands Prix de l’entrepreneur 2012 d’Ernst & Young pour la région de l’Ontario pour leur contribution à l’élaboration de nouvelles solutions de gardiennage et d’aide aux aînés pour les entreprises. Leur firme, Kids & Company, locataire d’Allied dans deux emplacements de Montréal, exploite actuellement 44 garderies à travers le Canada. Lisez l’article à la page 16.

Êtes-vous inscrit aux Services aux locataires d’Allied?

Notre Système de demande de service aux locataires vous permet de soumettre et d’enregistrer des demandes de travail en lien avec l’immeuble ou des problèmes dans les bureaux et d’en effectuer le suivi très facilement. Vous n’êtes par un utilisateur?

Vous devez réinitialiser votre identificateur d’utilisateur? Communiquez avec la Gestion des immeubles et faites appel au système pour : • soumettre vos demandes de service en ligne • obtenir une aide immédiate • accéder à l’information facilement • recevoir des avis importants • faire le suivi de l’avancement des travaux de réparation

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Send your company info, events and story ideas to news@alliedpropertiesreit.com Editor: Yvan Marston • Design: Gravity Design Inc.

3 • AUTOMNE 2012

[PHOTOGRAPHY]

TheWORKS

One of the city’s last standing film processing labs, Toronto Image Works is focused on high quality digital output and education. By Yvan Marston KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - Despite the Spadina began early on to expand its courses beyond traditional presence of its state-of-the-art, large format, high-speed digital portraiture and lighting to graphic design and web production.

Chromira 5x photo printer, the light vinegar smell of stop PLACING 87% OF ITS STUDENTS Initially, students were bath continues to haunt Toronto Image Works’ post-industrial asking for various computer skills so TIW sought out industry studio space. Twenty-seven years on, the photo printing experts and assembled a few courses. But now it offers studio is still anticipating the needs of full-time, Ontario-accredited college-level photographers at every tumultuous step diplomas in both digital publishing of the digital revolution, all the while “There’s a thirst for and multimedia web, and the photo remaining faithful to its fine arts roots. lab’s classrooms are turning out approxiknowledge in this sector mately 50 students a year with an 87% Starting with 2,000 square feet in that is being driven by the placement rate.

1985, and fulfilling a simple need for darkroom rentals in a city devoid of such need to understand Its students are always in search of facilities at the time, Toronto Image hands-on skills, says Baxter. The school application, to think beyond Works (TIW) founder and renowned helps them develop portfolios of applied just taking the photo.” photographer Edward Burtynsky sought work so that one’s ability to take good to cater to all levels of Toronto’s art photos forms the basis for projects such community. Now occupying 11,000 as a balanced magazine layout, a striking square feet, TIW remains one of the movie poster or an eye-catching package design. city’s last-standing film processing labs, but focuses its efforts “Now we have a lot of people coming from ad agencies who on high quality digital output and education. are looking to learn the web side – art directors and creative “There’s a thirst for knowledge in this sector that is being directors who never worked on web sites but were doing the driven by the need to understand application, to think beyond conceptual stuff,” she explains, adding that her team saw the just taking the photo,” says Jeannie Baxter, TIW’s managing need for graphic designers to become web savvy some seven director, explaining how the lab at King Street West and years earlier.

“

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Photos: Toronto Image Works

TORONTO

Photo: Yvan Marston

A dedicated gallery space changes shows monthly and is also used to exhibit 4th year Ryerson photo student works as well as host a dedicated show for Ryerson’s graduating MFA in image arts students.

Edward Burtynsky needed a darkroom

When Edward Burtynsky graduated from Ryerson in the 1980s it meant that he no longer had use of the school’s darkrooms. This was a problem because there were no darkroom rentals available to professionals in Toronto (the nearest facility was in Buffalo, NY). So, despite a lack of experience running a photo lab, Burtynsky secured space downtown and started offering rental darkrooms in 1985.

While he remains president of Toronto Image Works, he has distinguished himself with his work, and is known best for his remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes. His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places. His work is featured on over fifty major museums around the world.

Workstations let clients load files for printing, or scan from the Imacon or flatbed scanning stations.

“WHO WILL BE OUR FUTURE CLIENT BASE?” While digital helped to drive the demand for education, it had a reverse effect on the film processing side of the business.

“When most of our competition went out of business,” recalls Baxter, “we asked ourselves, who will be our future client base? It would be artists because they will always have a need for high quality prints. But they won’t want to have to maintain a printer.”

TIW kept the film processing to serve the needs of its specialist clientele, but shifted its energies to printing quality digital files.

Baxter says the early years of running digital output were a lot of hard work, mostly because the printing technology hadn’t caught up to the quality of image being captured.

FINE ART PRINTING But TIW has remained at the forefront of this technological change and now offers such services as fine art printing, where prints are made using archival inks on archival substrates, including a wide variety of fine art papers available in considerable widths – depending on the medium (60 inches wide on photo-inkjet paper, for example).

Painters, illustrators, mixed media artists, photographers, designers and architects use this service to create a fine art version of their work, explains Baxter.

Besides offering a full range of photographic services (processing slide, colour and black and white film, high quality large format prints and a host of mounting and framing options) TIW also remains actively involved in the community is serves.

It has been active with the Scotiabank CONTACT photography festival since its start and has 460 square feet of dedicated gallery space that features a new show monthly. The space is also used to exhibit 4th year Ryerson photo student works as well as a host a dedicated show for Ryerson’s graduating MFA in image arts students.

Despite its expertise in the digital field, Baxter says she has seen a recent rise in the amount of film processing work the lab is doing. “You can’t beat the speed of digital, but for some applications, film is just better.” And in that respect, it is unlikely the scent of stop bath will ever truly leave the TIW premises. ■

torontoimageworks.com 5 • FALL 2012

[INFORMATIQUE]

L’ENVOLÉE

Photo: Denis Bernier

Après avoir établi un partenariat européen il y a six ans pour prendre de l’expansion, ACCEO Solutions – et vole de ses propres ailes pour aller encore plus loin. Par Yvan Marston

CITÉ DU MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / - Les préparatifs du changement allaient bon train depuis des mois avant que les employés ne se présentent en ce matin de septembre. Le hall d’entrée du 75 de la rue Queen était décoré de ballons bleus et les portes d’ascenseur garnies de petits points bleus.

Bien que l’annonce officielle aurait lieu plus tard en matinée à 11 h – en simultané aux 1 000 employés répartis dans huit places d’affaires de l’entreprise (y compris le bureau situé en France) – les sphères bleues indiquaient clairement la fin de GFI Solutions d’affaires Inc. C’est avec tambours et trompettes que l’un des chefs de file des solutions TI au Canada changeait son image de marque pour ACCEO Solutions en cette journée chaude d’automne, six mois après le rachat de la part de son partenaire français GFI Informatique par un groupe d’actionnaires locaux.

Le groupe français visait une croissance en Europe alors qu’à Montréal, Gilles Létourneau, président et chef de la direction de GFI Solutions d’affaires Inc., faisait de même pour l’Amérique du Nord.

ENTIÈREMENT CANADIENNE « L’entreprise est maintenant entièrement canadienne et nous sommes déterminés à alliedreit.com • 6

poursuivre activement notre stratégie de développement à travers l’Amérique du Nord » confiait M. Létourneau au quotidien montréalais The Gazette lors du lancement. « Ce changement de nom marque un tournant clé pour notre entreprise. » C’est en effet une étape importante pour cette entreprise qui a débuté sous sa direction en 1988 sous le nom de Conceptum.

Elle compte maintenant sur un chiffre d’affaires annuel de plus de 100 millions de dollars et propose des solutions d’affaires pour les PME et les municipalités, ainsi que pour diverses industries, y compris la construction, les quincailleries et les centres de rénovation, les garderies, les cabinets de notaires et de comptables, et les banques.

Avec cette nouvelle dénomination sociale, inspirée par les idées d’accélération, d’ascension et d’accessibilité, et une autonomie renouvelée, ACCEO Solutions n’a pas tardé à s’établir, grâce à diverses acquisitions présentement en cours, comme fournisseur essentiel de solutions d’affaires électroniques.

SOLUTIONS DE GESTION Et comme son offre est constituée essentiellement d’un mélange de services de TI, de développement de logiciels et de consultation d’affaires, les clients d’ACCEO Solutions peuvent être à peu près tout type

CITE DU MULTIMEDIA, MONTREAL / - The change had been in the works for months before employees arrived that September morning. The lobby at 75 Queen was decorated in blue balloons and the elevator doors decaled with blue dots. While the official announcement would be made later that morning at 11:00 – simultaneously to the 1,000 employees across the company’s eight offices (including one in France) – the blue globes signaled clearly that it was the end of GFI Business Solutions Inc. With much fanfare, one of Canada’s top software companies was changing its name to ACCEO Solutions that warm fall day six months after its French partner GFI Informatique had been bought out by a group of local shareholders.

Une Beetle VW portant la nouvelle dénomination sociale, inspirée par les idées d’accélération, d’ascension et d’accessibilité.

d’entreprise, peu importe leur stade de développement d’affaires.

Certaines des solutions commencent avec des entreprises à domicile, où un logiciel de comptabilité à la fois simple et puissant comme Acomba peut être utilisé tout au long de la croissance de l’entreprise alors que les besoins deviennent de plus en plus complexes et exigent des solutions de gestion plus spécialisées, comme des outils d’intelligence d’affaires.

Parmi d’autres solutions offertes, mentionnons la solution de paiement intégrée aux points de vente, utilisée dans 90 000 caisses enregistreuses à travers le Canada et les États-Unis par des détaillants tels que les Boutiques Apple, Burger King, Ikea, Winners et Jean-Coutu; ses logiciels financiers ou de cour municipale sont exploités dans les systèmes de la quasi-majorité des municipalités au Québec.

SYSTÈMES QUI COMMUNIQUENT « Notre vision des affaires électroniques ne se limite pas au commerce électronique : il s’agit plutôt de systèmes qui communiquent avec d’autres systèmes et qui optimisent la gestion et les opérations » explique André Desjardins, directeur marketing de l’entreprise et membre de l’équipe derrière les activités de changement de marque. « Toutes nos solutions sont conçues pour faire circuler l’information – à partir de la prise des commandes en passant par leur exécution jusqu’à la facturation aux clients – toutes ces étapes peuvent être automatisées à l’intérieur d’un même processus » affirme M. Desjardins, ajoutant qu’un grand nombre de clients d’ACCEO Solutions sont de petites et moyennes entreprises qui ne sont pas assez imposantes pour justifier d’importants investissements dans des infrastructures de TI mais qui pourraient profiter d’une solution d’affaires électroniques complète et adaptée.

The French group was focused on growth in Europe while in Montreal, GFI Business Solutions president and CEO Gilles Letourneau had been pursuing opportunities in North America.

“Now we are wholly Canadian and can pursue our development strategy across North America,” Letourneau told The Montreal Gazette at the launch. “It’s a major turning point for our company.”

Indeed, it’s effectively another major turning point for the company that began under his leadership in 1988, then under the name Conceptum. Now it counts annual revenues of $100 million, providing business solutions for SMBs and municipalities, as well as for a number of industries, including construction, hardware and renovation centres, daycares, notaries, accountants, and banks.

With a new name – inspired by notions of acceleration, ascent and accessibility – and a renewed autonomy, ACCEO Solutions has wasted little time establishing itself, through a series of ongoing acquisitions, as an essential provider of electronic-based business solutions.

And given that its offering is essentially a mix of IT service meets software development meets business consulting, ACCEO Solutions clients can be almost everyone, and at any stage of business development.

Some solutions start with home-based businesses, where a simple but powerful accounting software like Acomba can serve a business through its growth as it becomes a larger firm with more complex needs requiring specialized management solutions like its business intelligence tools.

Other solutions include its point-of-sale integrated payment system used in 90,000 sales points across Canada (continued on page 8)

(Suite à la page 8)

7 • FALL 2012

MONTRÉAL

GFI se donne une nouvelle identité –

It forged a European partnership six years ago to move ahead but now GFI is rebranding itself ACCEO and branching out alone – to go even further. By Yvan Marston

(continued from page 6)

and the U.S. with retailers such as Apple stores, Burger King, Ikea, Winner’s and Jean-Coutu, and its financial or municipal court softwares run in the systems of almost every municipality in Quebec.

“Our vision of e-business is not just e-commerce: It is systems talking to other systems and optimizing management and operations,” explains Andre Desjardins, the company’s marketing director and part of the team behind the rebranding effort.

ACCEO Solutions se concentre donc sur la prestation de services permettant de trouver et de gérer chaque maillon de la chaîne d’affaires qui unit les clients et les consommateurs.

Depuis 1988, le cheminement de l’entreprise a été marqué par une série d’importantes acquisitions et d’importants partenariats.

L’acquisition d’ActiveMedia, Fortsum, Bell Solutions d’affaires, Accovia et Tender Retail l’an dernier a permis à l’entreprise d’accroître la portée de sa mission et de passer officiellement d’un fournisseur de services à un fournisseur de produits et services. À titre d’exemple, l’acquisition de Tender Retail (solution de paiement intégrée au point de vente), dont le siège social est situé à Toronto, a permis de boucler la boucle en s’appropriant des segments verticaux de la chaîne d’affaires électroniques de sorte que tous les aspects d’une transaction soient gérés par des solutions ACCEO. DANS CE DOMAINE DEPUIS LONGTEMPS Bien que l’entreprise elle-même ait fait sa marque pendant plus de 20 ans, certaines de ses filiales œuvrent dans ce domaine depuis plus longtemps encore. Son équipe est formée d’experts spécialisés dans certaines des solutions PGI (ERP) les plus en demande sur le marché : Sage 300, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics AX et IFS, de même qu’Acomba et Avantage, deux des solutions comptables les plus populaires auprès des PME québécoises.

«

« Ses logiciels financiers... sont exploités dans les systèmes de la quasi-majorité des municipalités au Québec. » Aujourd’hui, quelque 55 000 clients au Canada seulement comptent sur les produits et services d’ACCEO Solutions pour payer leurs employés, gérer leurs transactions, faire évoluer leurs produits à travers la chaîne d’approvisionnement et gérer les innombrables étapes logistiques qui font rouler l’économie.

La synergie derrière cette offre unique de produits et services stimule également la croissance professionnelle de ses employés.

L’entreprise a instauré divers programmes de RH pour la formation, le perfectionnement professionnel et la gestion de la contribution – qui reposent tous sur ses valeurs fondamentales de qualité, créativité, intégrité, responsabilité et respect. Le lancement de la nouvelle image de marque d’ACCEO Solutions a ainsi favorisé encore plus la création de cet environnement de travail stimulant et mobilisateur. ■

acceo.com alliedreit.com • 8

“All our solutions are designed to make information go around – from taking orders, to filling them to invoicing clients – it can all be automated into a process,” says Desjardins, adding that many of ACCEO Solutions’ clients are smal-and medium-sized businesses who aren’t large enough to warrant investing in IT infrastructure but could benefit from a full-fledged and adapted electronic business solution.

And finding and managing every piece of the business chain that links clients and customers is what ACCEO Solutions is focused on delivering.

Since 1988, the firm has been on a path marked by a series of significant acquisitions and partnerships.

Acquiring ActiveMedia, Fortsum, Bell Business Solutions, Accovia and Tender Retail last year have helped the company broaden its mission and complete the shift from being a services provider to being a products and services provider.

The purchase of Toronto-based Tender Retail (pointof-sale integrated payment solution), for example, served to continue closing the loop by capturing vertical segments of the e-business chain so that every aspect of a transaction can be managed by ACCEO solutions.

Indeed, while the company itself has been making its mark for over 20 years, some of its subsidiaries have been on the scene for even longer. Its team brings together experts specializing in some of the most in-demand ERP solutions on the market: Sage 300, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and IFS, as well as Acomba and Avantage, two of the most popular accounting solutions used by Quebec SMBs. Today, some 55,000 clients in Canada alone count on ACCEO Solutions to pay employees, process transactions, move goods along the supply chain and manage the countless logistics that make an economy function.

The synergy that is driving this unique product and service offering is also fostering professional growth among its employees. The company has various HR programs in place for training, career development and performance management – all of which is based on its core corporate values of quality, creativity, integrity, responsibility and respect. And creating this stimulating and engaging work environment has been tidily bolstered by the new ACCEO Solutions corporate identity. ■

Handling Holiday Hors d’Oeuvre Hors d’oeuvre can be time consuming, but if you’re up to the challenge, they can really demonstrate a host’s skills for planning and execution. Indeed, the real art of hors d’oeuvre is to be able serve them without neglecting your guests. And that takes preparation, says Susie Reading, Executive Chef at Toronto’s Caphalon Culinary Center at King Street West and Spadina in Toronto.

Check the Calphalon Center course calendar for December and you’ll find a couple of hosting-focused classes – including the sit down holiday dinner class and another of holiday hors d’oeuvre. If you don’t have the time to spend an evening learning, here are a few of Reading’s tips to serving up a memorable evening of hors d’oeuvre.

OFFER VARIETY. Serve a selection of cold, warm and hot, says Reading. “This relieves last-minute fussing,” she says because you can prepare the cold items in advance and concentrate on finishing the warm and hot items, which of course are already assembled and ready to heat. Just pop them in the oven at the last minute or throughout the event. And keep your oven set high at around 375F, advises Reading.

HORS D’OEUVRE INSPIRATION SERVED COLD:

SERVED WARM:

Smoked salmon on dark rye round with dill cream

Melon wrapped with prosciutto and goat’s cheese

Rare roast beef on herb crostini with grated horseradish Seared scallops wrapped in pancetta

Veggie salad rolls

Dips with a selection of olives, charcuterie and breads (“This is always a hit, says Reading, “but be sure to include a dish for the olive pits.”)

SERVED HOT:

Crab and mango salad on crisp wontons Salmon ceviche on tortilla chip

USE QUALITY VEGGIES. Veggies and dips are always a great add-on platter because they’re easy to put together and require very little maintenance from the host. “When putting together a crudité platter, use the freshest vegetables available and offer a selection of textures and colours,” says Reading.

SAMPLE VEGGIE PLATTER Grape tomatoes Broccoli Cauliflower Tri-coloured peppers Carrots Celery Cucumber

Hot brie melt on crouton with pear chutney Stuffed mushroom caps Mini pizzas

5

STEPS TO HOSTING AN ELEGANT HORS D’OEUVRE EXPERIENCE

1. Build a menu that does not require cutlery.

2. Start early. Plan, shop and prep (as much as possible) two days in advance of party.

Green beans (blanched and refreshed)

3. Visualize your event. Draw a diagram of how the rooms will be set and where food and drinks will be placed.

Also try something exotic like: • Jicama (a sweet, root vegetable that looks like a turnip) • Daikon (long white crunchy vegetable from the radish family).

4. Set up two beverage stations to avoid congested areas. And don’t forget to pre-cut lemons and limes, have plenty of ice and include a selection of non-alcoholic beverages.

5. As guests arrive, set your oven at around 375F so that it’s ready for the hot hors d’oeuvre.

For class schedule and details, visit Calphalon.com/centers

9 • FALL 2012

TORONTO

[CALPHALON CULINARY CENTER]

[MEDIA]

STRONG RECOMMEN

From electronics to electrolysis, user-generated reviews are the lifeblood of social media platform

By Micayla Jacobs

Photo: Greg Tjepkema

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - It’s been three years since ChickAdvisor broke onto the scene offering its brand of common sense product reviews from real women and building an online community of activist shoppers. But a new partnership announced in the spring is set to broaden its reach and bring its business to the next level.

In May, ChickAdvisor announced its partnership with Beyond the Rack, a Montreal-based startup named one of the fastest growing e-tailers in the U.S. last year by Internet Retailer Magazine. Essentially an online shopping club, Beyond the Rack’s members access authentic designer apparel, accessories, beauty and home décor products at a discounted price through limited-time sales.

Beyond the Rack reaches 7 million consumers across North America and ships 129,000 products each month. It’s a distribution bandwidth ChickAdvisor.com can leverage to expand its reach, explains Alex de Bold, who founded the site with his wife and business partner Ali. Operating from its sunlit offices at King Street West and Spadina, in Toronto, jammed with eight employees, ChickAdvisor currently acts as a facilitator for major brands like CoverGirl, L’Oreal and Garnier and their target audiences.

“Many brands right now typically use high velocity sampling where they have someone stand at Union Station handing out samples, but that’s expensive and it isn’t targeted,” he says.

ChickAdvisor currently runs sample distribution programs for its clients, but they’re on a small scale sending out 200 to 1,000 samples to a targeted audience. Working with Beyond the Rack’s North American distribution network could push that number to ten times its current size.

“

“Many brands right now typically use high velocity sampling where they have someone stand at Union Station handing out samples, but that’s expensive and it isn’t targeted.”

Going forward, the new model might look like this: a Beyond the Rack client ordering a pair of shoes also receives a sample of a new perfume that hasn’t yet hit the market. That client is then invited to use the product and post a review on ChickAdvisor.

Despite a close relationship with its advertisers, ChickAdvisor’s product reviews are user-generated, providing a trustworthy place for women to share advice on everything from beauty products to restaurants and retailers.

Authenticity is its currency and given that it’s a social site, there are also plenty of chats chronicling relationship issues, wellness and pop culture, but for the most part, users tend to be in search of product advice.

The tried and tested technology of ChickAdvisor, meshed with the scale of Beyond the Rack allows for what de Bold argues is an unprecedented opportunity for brands across North American to have a really targeted process-driven platform that is extremely efficient.

With over 2,000 Proctor & Gamble and Unilever products in each category and some 56,000 reviews, brands working with ChickAdvisor are not only able to target consumer segments, but also collect metrics on who is receiving a sample and what they thought of it.

And it is information brands use, explains de Bold, citing ChickAdvisor reviews being referenced in ad campaigns both in print and social media. The new partnership between ChickAdvisor and Beyond the Rack will only help to broaden that reach. ■

ChickAdvisor.com alliedreit.com • 10

TORONTO

DATIONS

Photo: ChickAdvisor

ChickAdvisor and the reason brands are working with the duo behind it all.

Despite a close relationship with its advertisers, ChickAdvisor’s product reviews are user generated, providing a trustworthy place for women to share advice on everything from beauty products to restaurants and retailers.

Offering direct access to ‘flash sales’, Beyond the Rack is a private shopping club for women and men that offers designer brand apparel and accessories at prices up to 80% off retail. Sales are always limited-time events and each starts at a specific time and typically lasts only 48 hours. When an event ends, the merchandise is no longer available. Members are notified by email in advance of each upcoming event according to their preferences. Membership is controlled to ensure members have adequate access to the merchandise. Typically you must be invited to join but you can submit a request for membership directly.

11 • FALL 2012

alliedreit.com • 12 Photos: UPPERCASE Publishing

CALGARY

[PUBLISHING]

CONCEPTQUEEN Nine books and 15 magazine issues in, UPPERCASE publisher Janine Vangool is a creative force to be reckoned with.

Vangool’s space at Art Central in downtown Calgary started as a graphic design studio/retail space/ gallery but is now the home of UPPERCASE – a magazine for the creatively curious.

ART CENTRAL, CALGARY / - In a way, it started with Shatner. Inspired by a 2006 cross-Canada road trip during which she and her husband repeatedly listened to William Shatner’s spoken word album Has Been, Janine Vangool decided to curate an exhibition of Shatner illustrations.

The Calgary graphic designer put a call out to the international illustrator community and opened a show in her 580-square-foot gallery at Art Central in the summer of 2007 featuring 76 original images of the ubiquitous showman, one for every year of his life. Then, she published her first book: The Shatner Show.

Vangool admits it was an odd choice given she’s not a Star Trek superfan, but she was intrigued by the possibilities and potential interest it might bear. And indeed there was.

Besides an endorsement from the actor himself (see sidebar on next page), several newspapers picked up the story.

“That was a turning point. It really put us on the map,” says Vangool, whose space in downtown Calgary started out as a graphic design studio/retail space/ gallery but is now best known as the home of UPPERCASE magazine, a quarterly craft, illustration, and design journal.

In 2005, Vangool moved into the bright space on the third floor of the building, tenanted by art galleries, small retailers and studios, to open a graphic design firm serving Calgary’s art and culture industry.

She started the UPPERCASE brand as a side project but quickly became engrossed in the task of creating her own notecards, handmade notebooks, hand-sewn paper pouches, assembled packs of wood type and other type treasures.

“I enjoyed the challenge of conceptualizing, designing, packaging and selling my own things,” she recalls. “When I had the retail environment, I could gauge the success of a product by seeing a customer’s reaction. Now that interaction and engagement typically happens online through our blog and social media.”

The 2007 Shatner Show and subsequent book changed things: it helped Vangool realize that conceptualizing content and bringing it all together was what she really wanted to do.

In 2008, a magazine she had been working on stopped publishing and she took what she’d learned there, combined it with her love of creativity, and in January of 2009, launched UPPERCASE – a magazine for the creatively curious. (continued on page 14)

13 • FALL 2012

(continued from page 13)

“Every artist has their muse. Leonardo was inspired by the ceiling in the great chapel. Michaelangelo found his art in the Italian marble. Who am I to stand in the way of all these fine artists and artisans who want to use my lumpy, aging face for inspiration?”

– William Shatner on being informed Calgary art gallery UPPERCASE had curated a show featuring 76 illustrations of the actor.

Subscribers are typically creative in some way and many are designers and illustrators.

“But being creative in a professional way is not a prerequisite for enjoying the magazine,” she says, adding that many work on crafts and art in their spare time and are simply looking for inspiration. Currently counting some 2,300 subscribers, UPPERCASE’s fan base is chiefly in the U.S., with 50% of the magazine shipping there, 25% throughout Canada and 25% to other countries – mostly the U.K. and Australia.

Now into its 15th issue, UPPERCASE explores a broad range of subjects but always with an eye to the creative. Its inaugural edition featured articles about the history of the screw, Heini Koskinen’s fashion style, Blanca Gomez’s illustrations, and Toronto crafting business The Workroom.

This latest explores the creative side of science, with a look at the art of retro science books and field guides to an article on the rat’s keen awareness of changes in its environment. Other pieces include profiles of furniture designers and a small stationery firm as well as a collection of illustrations united by their ability to glorify the bitmap (the tiny squares that make up digital print).

Besides managing the demands of a young family and running a quarterly magazine, Vangool still finds time to develop book projects. UPPERCASE has published nine so far, and each bears witness to the powerful creative force Vangool channels into every project. ■

uppercasemagazine.com

UPPERCASE Publishing’s nine titles are a celebration of printed matter by attending to every detail in making these objects of beauty. Each is characterized by a playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of typography.

A Collection a Day by Lisa Congdon Housed in a collectible tin, 365 eclectic collections amassed

by San Francisco-based illustrator Lisa Congdon are presented here. The foreword was penned by Fritz Karch, the collections editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine.

Work/Life 2: The UPPERCASE directory of illustration This second edition of Work/Life features 100 illustrators from around the world with peeks into their studios, sketchbooks and insight into what fuels a creative life.

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The Suitcase Series Volume 2: Dottie Angel An exploration of the peachy, crafty life of a British woman living in the suburbs of Seattle. Features how-to craft tutorials, personal anecdotes and lots of inspiring images of vintage-inspired decor and craft.

TORONTO

[TOTUM TIPS]

START IN NEUTRAL Maintaining good form while exercising all comes down to knowing how to find your neutral spine position.

In a Pilates class or working with a trainer, you’ve probably heard the term neutral spine used to describe the start position of an exercise. While most of us just pull our shoulders back, stand up tall and hope for the best, finding neutral spine involves a bit more than that. And it’s important.

“Neutral spine is about keeping the natural curve of your spine. Not too much flexion or extension,” explains Rianna Alvarez, the personal training director at Totum Life Science on King Street West. In this position, she says, you decrease the likelihood of injury and, used every day, you can reduce long term back problems.

Alvarez

You should practice getting into neutral spine when sitting, standing and when exercising prone.

Finding neutral spine by lying down is the easiest of the three. Here’s how:

PRONE 1

1. Lying on the floor, tilt your pelvis up so that your back is flat on the mat (think: pushing your navel though your body and out the back).

2

2. Now exaggerate this motion the other way and pretend that your navel is being pulled up to create a curve in your back (enough for someone to put their hand through).

3

3. Now, relax your core, keeping the pelvis slightly tilted and abs slightly engaged.

STANDING 1. Stand normally in front of a mirror with knees slightly bent, tuck your pelvis backwards pushing your butt out and accentuating the curve in your spine.

2. Now tilt your pelvis forward keeping your shoulders back.

3. Next, relax enough to bring your core

1

2

3

between the tuck and tilt positions, tighten the muscles around your stomach and buttocks so your lower back becomes very flat. Keeping your pelvis in this neutral position, stand tall with your ears and shoulders lined up over your hips and your shoulders.

totum.ca 15 • AUTOMNE 2012

[SERVICE]

A National Childcare Strategy With 44 locations (and counting) across Canada, Kids & Company’s corporate clients are discovering the strength of child care as a creative benefit. By Micayla Jacobs

SAINT CATHERINE STREET, MONTREAL / - For working parents, finding quality child care is both a challenge and a financial drain. But increasingly, companies seeking to attract and keep excellent employees are offering more creative benefits like flexible full and part-time child care, and emergency back-up child care and even elder care.

Enter Kids & Company.

Ten years ago it was a Toronto-based child care centre with quality care givers and a solid educational program.

Now, it counts 44 centres across Canada, and continues to grow (and it just recently won an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Award).

Kids & Company offers a list of proprietary programs – from a physical activity program designed to teach balance and coordination, to sign language, early literacy, arts based program, and second language skills. Its attention to quality, flexible offerings and no late pick-up fees has made it attractive to working parents. And that makes it attractive to employers.

“Most of our centres are corporate focused,” explains Linda Starr, director, sales and marketing at Kids & Company, discussing one of the latest facilities to open in Montreal.

alliedreit.com • 16

This one on St. Catherine Street is the third in the city’s core and offers guaranteed full-time, part-time and emergency back-up child care for the employees of several blue chip clients.

Managing child care is one of the top stress inducers of contemporary life, says Starr. Studies consistently show that this inability to balance work, family and community has been linked to reduced work performance, increased stress, higher employee turnover and poor morale.

It’s one of the reasons organizations in the banking, accounting, law, government, services and many other industries buy memberships at Kids & Company as they can offer a variety of custom child care benefits to their staff.

Some corporations will pay for the basic membership and help subsidize the cost to their employees. A basic membership gives employees guaranteed access to care, shortening the wait time for a spot from 18 months to six.

Many companies will do this as well as provide employees with a fixed number of emergency back-up child care days each year as support when existing care arrangements breakdown or to help when school-aged children have a PD day, or other school related holidays and closures.

“The emergency back-up package is very inexpensive and a number of our clients’ employees use it to manage those situations where they just can’t miss work,” says Starr.

Kids & Company goes beyond the standard in child care offering a number of proprietary programs that are consistent across the country. These programs include Alpha-Mania, an early literacy program, and Mini Masters, an art program teaching kids about famous artists from around the world.

They also offer basic French (English in Quebec centres) and beyond the mandated two hours of physical activity, have a program called Munchkinetics, teaching kids gross motor skills like catching a ball and hopping on one foot.

Beyond child care, Kids &Company partners with other organizations to offer elder care services, nanny placement and after-hours babysitting service. ■

kidsandcompany.ca

Une stratégie nationale de soins aux enfants RUE SAINTE-CATHERINE, MONTRÉAL / - Pour des parents qui travaillent, trouver une garderie de qualité représente à la fois tout un défi et un gouffre financier. Toutefois, les entreprises qui désirent attirer et conserver d’excellents employés offrent de plus en plus d’avantages sociaux créatifs et adaptés à leurs besoins tels que des services de garde à temps plein ou à temps partiel, des soins de dépannage et même des soins aux aînés.

Et voici justement l’arrivée de Kids & Company.

Il y a dix ans, c’était un centre de garde d’enfants de Toronto où travaillaient des éducateurs de qualité, avec un programme éducatif solide.

Aujourd’hui, l’entreprise compte 44 centres à travers le Canada et elle continue de croître. De plus, elle vient de recevoir tout récemment un prix Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Award.

UNE GAMME DE PROGRAMMES EXCLUSIFS Kids & Company offre une gamme de programmes exclusifs – à partir d’un programme d’activités physiques conçu pour enseigner l’équilibre et la coordination jusqu’au langage des signes, en passant par l’apprentissage précoce de la lecture et de l’écriture, un programme axé sur les arts et des compétences en langue seconde. L’attention portée aux services souples et de qualité offerts et l’absence de frais de retards rendent l’offre attrayante pour les parents sur le marché de travail et par le fait même, pour les employeurs. « La plupart de nos centres sont centrés sur les entreprises », explique Linda Starr, directrice des ventes et du marketing de Kids & Company, à propos d’un des plus récents centres qui ouvrira à Montréal. Ce dernier, situé sur la rue Sainte-Catherine, est le troisième à voir le jour au cœur de la ville et offre des soins garantis à temps plein, à temps partiel et en cas d’urgence aux enfants des employés d’un grand nombre de clients de premier ordre.

GRANDS FACTEURS DE STRESS « La gestion des soins aux enfants constitue l’un des plus grands facteurs de stress de la vie contemporaine », déclare Mme Starr. Les études révèlent année après année que cette incapacité à équilibrer le travail, la vie familiale et la vie communautaire est liée à une baisse de rendement au travail, à un stress accru, à un plus haut taux de roulement des employés et à un moral à la baisse.

C’est l’une des raisons pour lesquelles les organisations des secteurs bancaire, financier, juridique, gouvernemental, des services et de bien d’autres industries s’abonnent à Kids & Company car elles peuvent ainsi offrir à leur personnel une variété d’avantages personnalisés en matière de soins aux enfants.

Certaines entreprises paieront les frais d’adhésion de base et contribueront à financer le coût pour leurs employés. Un abonnement de base permet à l’employé d’avoir un accès garanti aux soins, réduisant ainsi la période d’attente pour obtenir une place de 18 mois à six.

Bon nombre d’entreprises procéderont ainsi et accorderont en plus à leurs employés un nombre fixe de jours de services de garde de dépannage chaque année pour les dépanner en cas de problème avec les dispositions de garde existantes ou lorsque les enfants d’âge scolaire ont une journée pédagogique ou tout autre congé scolaire ou fermeture d’école. « Le service de garde de dépannage est très peu dispendieux et bon nombre d’employés de nos clients l’utilisent pour gérer les situations où ils ne peuvent tout simplement pas s’absenter du travail », affirme Mme Starr. ■

17 • AUTOMNE 2012

MONTRÉAL

Facilities, like the one on St. Catherine Street in Montreal (TOP), have been opening across Canada with regularity. Kids & Company offers a list of proprietary programs from a physical activity designed to teach balance and coordination, to sign language, early literacy, arts-based programming, and second language skills.

Photo: Yvan Marston

Cologix Canada president Sean Maskell in one of the company’s suites at 151 Front Street West.

The last decade has seen IT move from office server closets to colocation in secure centres with perpetually cooled spaces, miles of cabling, back-up power, and multiple connections. Now, the demand for cloud computing is driving growth in this sector even further.

alliedreit.com • 18

TORONTO

[TELECOMMUNICATIONS]

RELIABLY REDUNDANT

By Yvan Marston

FRONT STREET WEST, TORONTO / - It’s a bit stark.

CONNECTING CLOUD “Clients are now asking for access to The long rows of matte-black mesh cabinets, raised white-tiled multiple geographies, each with redundant infrastructure, floor and über-bright overhead LED lighting look like a high and access to multiple network carriers in order to connect school locker room as imagined by a James Bond villain. And their cloud infrastructure as well as facilitate services to their while it may appear plain and simple, it’s anything but that customers,” he says. for Sean Maskell, a telecommunications entrepreneur who In response to these trends, Cologix recently completed two went from supplying racks and server equipment to becoming new suites in 151 Front Street West that use industry-leading President of Cologix, one of Canada’s technologies to increase reliability and premier colocation providers. efficiencies, explains Maskell.

Colocation is the business of Part of the new technology platform outsourced infrastructure management, Clients are now asking for includes a shift to more efficient racks providing secure space, reliable power access to multiple geographies, for holding servers and a highly effective and cooling to support customer servers cooling system focused on containing each with redundant and switches. This now represents a the heat output of the equipment. This multi-billion dollar industry, set on a path technology enables Cologix to develop infrastructure, and access to of growth – in part by business’ near efficient layouts, which in turn, allows multiple network carriers pathological need for 100% reliability them to distinguish themselves by and broad connectivity. Technology in order to connect their offering scalable solutions for cloud researcher Gartner estimates the global providers, content providers and cloud infrastructure...” distributed control systems market financial firms with growing needs. generated $150 billion globally as of EXPANSION SUITES In addition, 2011, and is projected to grow to Cologix has made significant investments to bring more $200 billion in 2012. network-neutral capacity in Toronto’s downtown, where OUT OF THE SERVER CLOSET Maskell witnessed an initial networks are most present. The company is near completion stage of growth in the industry in the wake of the 2003 of its new Tier 3, state-of-the-art data center at 905 King Street Northeast Blackout as companies moved away from using West, which is also owned and managed by Allied Properties. their office server closets to instead backing things up off-site Both the expansion suites and 905 King Street West, feature in early 2004. “IT departments started to say: We need to the industry’s highest standards for space, power, cooling and move our systems out of the office because our business security. The 905 King Street West data centre offers a diverse, requires a higher standard of system reliability,” he says. but natural extension to 151 Front Street West by leveraging To take advantage of guaranteed performance and the the dedicated, low latency fiber ring connecting the two added benefit of reduced costs, enterprise clients have been facilities. increasingly moving mission critical IT infrastructure to thirdUpon completion of 905 King Street West (early Q1 2013), party colocation datacentres, a trend Maskell estimates has Cologix will operate 50,000 square feet of data center space been developing over the last eight years. in downtown Toronto where it hosts more than 140 carriers, Now, he is seeing is a push from clients already operating in networks, and ISPs available for interconnection, says colocation datacentres for additional space, often to replicate Maskell, attributing Cologix’s success in Toronto to leading a system at another site to provide redundancy in the event infrastructure, high touch local service and access to a larger the first centre goes down. platform that also includes Montreal, Vancouver, Dallas Reliability requirements to support services like cloud and Minneapolis. ■ computing are moving beyond individual sites and appears cologix.com to be driving much of this demand, says Maskell.

19 • FALL 2012

Custom prints create a modern [FINE ART]

niche for Love’s Olde Towne Gallery YATES ST., VICTORIA / - After 33 years of selling fine art and posters, Love’s Olde Towne Gallery on Yates St. in Victoria finds it is catering to a new crowd – today’s mobile phone photographers. A mix of everything is available on its walls – original work by local artists, posters and prints. But the printing and framing of self-produced pictures is now a bigger part of business for gallery owners, brothers Adam and Chad Love. It’s just the latest trend in an ever-changing landscape.

“About 12 or 13 years ago, the biggest part of our business was posters and poster framing,” Adam explains. “Then the trend was to mount posters on canvas. Following that, it was reproducing images from posters directly on a canvas [a technique that allows the character of the canvas to be appreciated behind the image.]”

While all of these products and techniques are still good for their bottom line, customized printing and framing are now at the heart of what Olde Towne does.

“People are taking pictures with their digital cameras and iPhones,” says Adam. “And they want to see those images blown up to huge proportions. They want to see something of their own hanging on the wall.”

FROM ORIGINALS TO REPRODUCTIONS To accommodate this demand, the gallery offers high-quality prints as wide as 44 inches, and pretty much as long as a customer could want. The company’s printer is an Epson 9800 wide format printer. It uses eight very high quality archival inks. “We chose this because it was user friendly and can be used with any computer,” says Adam.

alliedreit.com • 20

“Much of the time, people bring in their own images to use on these huge canvases, but sometimes they just want an image that will fill a condo wall. Of course, we have plenty to suggest,” Adam continues.

Old posters and classic works of art are available for reproduction, but the gallery also features a selection of original pieces.

‘PROMOTING ARTISTS WE LIKE’ “It’s fairly easy for artists to manage their own reproductions of their works, so there are a number of cool, younger artists that we carry,” says Adam.

“Again, it makes us a little more diverse, and at the same time we can promote artists we really like.”

One artist in particular is a favourite of Adam’s – his wife Leslie Wiegand (wiggylove.com). “We keep it in the family a bit,” he jokes. Much of Wiegand’s work is acrylic on wood – portraits and special commissions are her specialty.

Adam and Chad bought the business from its original owner 13 years ago, and in November 2010 relocated to their current address. It was a strategic move as much as it was an aesthetic choice.

“I had been aware of this spot for some time, so when it became available, I jumped at the chance to move in,” says Adam. “This is the direction that our business is going – a smaller, more custom shop.”

PURSUING A ‘LOCAL VIBE’ At the old location, the gallery was primarily serving the tourist trade, selling lots of posters.

For that, they required a lot more square footage. In the newer space, there is still two storeys worth of wall space, but it’s a more intimate setting – off the main strip, close to many restaurants and places where locals hang out.

“We have local people coming in now who had no idea about us when we were around the corner,” says Adam. “It’s a very different clientele.”

Adam notes that with U.S. tourism being so affected by the high Canadian dollar, it was important for them to pursue more of what he calls “a local vibe”.

The shop has taken on a very family-focused management style as well. When neither Adam nor Chad can be on site, their mom, Gail, takes over the running of the gallery.

“We couldn’t keep this business going without our mom,” says Adam. “Both Chad and I have outside pursuits that fascinate us – I’m fascinated by archaeology, and Chad is building a cabin during the summers up in Cariboo. Our mom encourages us to follow these interests when we can.” ■

oldetownegallery.com

VICTORIA

While it carries a number of works from original artists, Love’s Old Towne Gallery also prints client photos, offering high-quality prints as wide as 44 inches. Original works seen here include: Model Car 1, Leslie Wiegand; Logger, Bus Griffiths, and; Crow, Rudi Hurzlmeier.

21 • FALL 2012

Photo: Yvan Marston

[ENTERTAINMENT]

Brand New Game Bringing innovative play to international markets is one thing, but as Montreal’s Wooky Entertainment builds its brands, it is setting its sights beyond the filling of toy department shelves.

CITE DU MULTIMEDIA, MONTREAL / - Between developing play patterns, designing collectability and building the DNA of several brands, running a toy company can be serious business.

Worldwide toy sales topped $83.3 billion in 2010*, and most of that money was made in the last quarter of the year as holiday gifting drives parents to search for the season’s hottest toys.

But almost 18 months before any December sees lineups for Beyblade action figures and Lego minis, Kevin Richer and his team are hashing out ideas – not just for actual toys, but for brands.

“Toys are just one element of a much larger business: the entertainment business,” says the 34-year-old president of Wooky Entertainment. “The toys getting coveted places on the shelves of the big retailers all have strong brands rooted in entertainment.”

The Montreal-based toy company started in 2007 and went from a few small games to developing and distributing 200 products in some 45 countries.

“We don’t want more than 300 products at the most,” says the stocky Richer, dressed casually in jeans and an un-tucked shirt, and sporting a three-day beard. “Really it’s about increasing the production run of each product. But you don’t want to grow too quickly because it puts a lot of pressure on your distributors.”

There’s no shortage of ideas in the company’s third-floor offices at Cite du Multimedia, explains Richer, but the goal *Global Toy Market Estimates: 2011 Edition, The NPD Group.

alliedreit.com • 22

is find concepts that can be developed and manufactured with a minimum of fuss.

Development takes anywhere from three to 18 months, explains marketing VP Christina Sklavenitis. It depends on the product, she says, adding that a paper product can generally be developed faster than something requiring molds and special materials.

“And for something more complicated, we have to come up with the brand’s DNA – so not only what will it look like but what is the play pattern, how will it be adapted,” she explains.

The Style Me Up jewelry kits are by far the company’s fastest growing product line. Other brands such as its innovative stackable Block Crayons for toddlers, its click together Mixy jewelry for the 4 to 7 crowd and Mathable, a math-focused board game with a style of play similar to Scrabble, are also driving growth in the company that is continually looking for designers to help develop its brands.

All the brands have their own web sites and in some cases, even more.

The Artzooka line of art products was developed in conjunction with a production company and is also a half-hour CBC kids series blending live action and animation to show kids that art is everywhere. And Mathable, a Scrabble-meetsmath board game that has been popular since the 1980s has been reinvented in five variations as an iPad paid app. ■

wookyentertainment.com

Mathable, a Scrabble-meets-math board game popular since the 1980s, has been reinvented in five variations as an iPad paid app.

What’s the hot toy trend for 2012?

“Collectability,” says Kevin Richer, president of Wooky Entertainment, Toy’s R Us’ largest supplier of creative products for girls 5 to 12.

“If you look at all the huge successes of the last few years, they are lines based on collectable concepts.” Wooky’s own line up consists of a number of creative tween products – from build-your-own jewelry kits to fashion sketchpads, tattoos, messenger bags and iron-on transfers. This year, Mixy, its click-together jewelry sets for younger girls, features collectible plastic beads in a variety of colours and shapes – some even with prints and sparkling gems.

CITÉ DU MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / - Mis à part le développement de concepts de jeux, la conception de produits de collection et la création de l’ADN d’un grand nombre de marques, la direction d’une entreprise de jeux peut parfois être une affaire sérieuse. Les ventes de jouets à travers le monde ont atteint quelque 83,3 milliards de dollars en 2010* et la majeure partie de cette somme avait été amassée au dernier trimestre de l’année, alors que la tradition des cadeaux de Noël pousse les parents à vouloir dénicher les cadeaux dernier cri pour les enfants.

Mais près de 18 mois avant les files d’attente de décembre pour se procurer les figurines Beyblade et les mini Lego, Kevin Richer et son équipe sortent des idées – non seulement pour des jouets mais aussi pour des marques. « Les jouets ne constituent qu’un élément d’une industrie beaucoup plus vaste : l’industrie du divertissement » déclare le président de Wooky Entertainment, âgé de 34 ans. « Les jouets qui se méritent des places convoitées sur les tablettes des grands détaillants portent tous des grandes marques reliées à l’industrie du divertissement. » L’entreprise montréalaise a vu le jour en 2007 et elle est passée de quelques petits jeux à la mise au point et la distribution de 200 produits dans quelque 45 pays.

Les trousses de bijoux Style Me Up sont de loin la gamme de produits de l’entreprise qui a connu la plus forte croissance. D’autres marques telles que ses crayons blocs empilables (Block Crayons) innovateurs pour tout-petits, ses bijoux Mixy dont les pièces s’imbriquent les unes dans les autres, destinés aux 4 à 7 ans et Mathable, un jeu de société axé sur les mathématiques qui s’apparente au Scrabble, connaissent également une croissance au sein de l’entreprise qui est constamment à la recherche de concepteurs, pour l’aider à mettre au point ses marques.

Toutes les marques ont leurs propres sites Web et même plus dans certains cas.

La gamme de produits d’artisanat Artzooka a été mise au point en collaboration avec une compagnie de production et elle fait également l’objet d’une série d’émissions pour enfants d’une demi-heure à CBC, mélangeant action en direct et animation pour montrer à ces derniers que l’art est partout et que chacun possède en soi un côté artistique.

Puis, il y a le fameux Mathable, tel que mentionné, un jeu de société qui est en fait un croisement entre le Scrabble et les mathématiques; il est populaire depuis les années 1980 et a été réinventé en cinq déclinaisons comme application payante sur iPad. ■

23 • AUTOMNE 2012

MONTRÉAL

Artzooka line of art products ties into a half-hour CBC kids series.

Wooky Entertainment vise plus que de remplir les étagères des départements de jouets

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