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JOIN THE
Vision Marketing Conference 2011: Exploring the concept of community and how it’s reshaping our marketing landscape.
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All others fade away. Grey. Famously effective since 1917. greycanada.com
contents
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Case Study: Illuminate Yaletown A community celebration with light-art installations
26 Message from the President
Message from the Editor
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Vision for the Future of the BCAMA Senior Executive Program An interview with new program Chair Steve Mossop
VISION 2011 Building community in the ‘new brand world’
Q&A with a BCAMA Member Greg Lui’s passion for coffee and for developing enduring brands
Case Study: An Excuse to Say Hello Wrap a Red Band around the old coffee cup
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Top 10 Random Recent Poll Findings
Case Study: Canstruction Playing with your food makes good business sense
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Sponsorships Tips to wow your target audience
Build Our Community Follow, find, like and tweet about BCAMA!
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Brands and Communities – Beyond the Hype Wanted: marketers who can build meaningful relationships
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How to Build a Community NOW When online, for starters, be human
How to Destroy Your Brand’s Online Community It just takes three easy steps!
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Adding Value to Communities
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Social Media – A Revolutionary Community Tool?
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30 Million Flames Connecting communities to consumers
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The BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association has been this province’s leading marketing source since 1955. As one of the most highly regarded chapters in North America, BCAMA has consistently ranked among the top 10 professional chapters for overall performance, and has won the prestigious international “Chapter of the Year Award” in 1995, 1996 and 1997, “Best in Class” in 2004, and the “Membership Merit Award” in 2007.
board of directors
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VP, Programming Claire Booth 604.551.6553
To become a member of the BCAMA, please call our office at: 604.983.6AMA. sponsorship info To inquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Regina Leung at 604.961.7866 or Jason So at 604.780.8275. event info To make reservations for a BCAMA event or to obtain information regarding upcoming events, call the BCAMA office at 604.983.6AMA or visit our website at bcama.com.
President Darrell Hadden 604.682.5500 Ext. 113 Immediate Past President Georgia Dahle 604.759.4370 President-Elect Steve Kim 604.630.7943 Treasurer Pauline Craggs 604.468.5227
VP, Communications and Director of Web Services Lionel Matecha 604.682.5500 VP, Operations Kerry Plowman 604.671.0393 Social Media Minna Van 604.780.8540 Special Event Programming Ryan McKee 604.669.9283 Volunteers Michelle Coates 604.351.8648 Breakfast Speaker Series Rachel Johns 604.628.9415 Membership Bradley Shende 604.626.1057
Creative Maya Lange 604.484.3254 Creative Jenna Visram 604.484.3254 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) Samantha Shah 604.565.8098
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Special thanks goes out to the marketline team: Grey’s Creative Directors, and Jenna Visram and Dennis Isaacson; Michi Miserre, Wayside Printers; ProofingQueen Sharon McInnis, and to all of the contributors who were instrumental in the making of this issue.
Kimberly Davidson Tel: 604.983.6262 Fax: 604.682.1312 info@bcama.com publishing
Collegiate Relations Alicia Fruhm 778.846.7699 marketline Lanei Lee 604.782.1473 Marketer of the Year Sarah Clayton 604.341.4559 Communications Mirjana Galovich 604.682.5589 Sponsorship Regina Leung 604.961.7866 Sponsorship Jason So 604.780.8275 VISION Conference Sophie Chambers 604.996.0537 Senior Executive Program Christine Jakovcic 604.664.1120 Administration Katherine Rinehart 604.461.0733 Executive Director Kimberly Davidson 604.983.6262
marketline is published by the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association. marketline welcomes input from all BCAMA members. If you have any suggestions or contributions, or would like to advertise or sponsor an issue, please contact marketline Editor Lanei Lee at: marketlinemagazine@ymail. com or call 604.782.1473.
To make reservations for a BCAMA event or to obtain information regarding upcoming events, call the BCAMA Office at 604.983.6AMA or visit our website at bcama.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the BCAMA, its officers or staff. Copyright 2011 by the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Printed in Canada
When we think about community, our theme for this year’s VISION Conference, we come to realize how telling and meaningful it is for all of us. Vancouver’s memorable hosting of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has resulted a fundamental shift in our marketing community – a new approach, with brands reaching out to communities. At the beginning of this year, our intention was to assist the marketing community by providing insights to businesses to help them build stronger ties with their own communities. Tactically, the Board of the BCAMA has provided our members and our audiences with valuable events that I hope have been inspiring, educating and engaging. This year we will host a series of amazing events: • Our annual VISION Conference – a day of provocative and informative speakers • Pure Networking Gatherings, which offer attendees the opportunity to network, socialize and share business strategies
Message from the President
• Our Breakfast Series events, featuring innovative and leading-edge speakers • Our Special Interest Group Sessions (SIGs) • Finally, our 41st annual Marketer of the Year award and gala in the fall It has truly been a spectacular year and I feel fortunate to have worked with our talented, passionate and committed Board of Directors. I would like to personally extend my gratitude to our sponsors, partners, Board of Directors and members for their support and loyalty to BCAMA. Darrell Hadden 2010/2011 BCAMA President In addition to his role with BCAMA, Darrell is also the President of Graphically Speaking – a full-service web development and design company.
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604-488-0282 mail@proofingqueen.com www.proofingqueen.com
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Marketers today, more than ever, are challenged to find a way to connect their brands with their customers and potential customers in order to clearly communicate their messages. The Internet has rapidly changed our communication barriers and distances, as users today can connect with anyone in the world. However, while the Internet has been helpful for users, businesses find it difficult to filter through the billions of messages in finding a clear path in trying to build a customer relationship with their brand. So what is a brand to do? The solution is to build a foundation of loyal customers by building a community around them, where customers can share their own love of the brand with others and feel more a part of the brand through the combined online and offline interactions. In this issue of marketline, we feature some great examples of how companies are enhancing experiences and customer engagement by building a meaningful relationship with their audience by forming a community, and how brands are being welcomed by consumers as valued members and leaders in their communities. This edition also features articles by talented contributors sharing their know-how. Paul Cubbon, UBC Sauder School of Business Marketing Professor, shares his insights on the challenges that marketers face in enhancing community engagement with their consumers in today’s economy. Also in this issue, Rina Chong, Business Development Manager of Socialized Me, helps us understand how social media tools help people do more than just advertise; they also provide people with the infrastructure to self-organize, thereby circumventing traditional hierarchies and organizations. We are honoured to host the 21st annual VISION Conference in May. There will be a great lineup of incredibly knowledgeable industry experts who bring invaluable experience in how your brand can create a community through the resources of authentication, trust and consistency. Check out page 11 to find out more about the VISION 2011 conference.
As we always seek new ideas, this issue features four case studies – contributed by talented agencies and enterprises around the province – with real-life success stories around the theme of community. This issue has been very exhilarating to work on, and I hope you find it helpful in provoking ways to build deeper, more momentous connections with your audience and to form a community through your brand. Thanks to all our loyal members, and I hope you enjoy this issue. As always, I welcome your ideas and feedback, and I look forward to hearing more about what you like – and what you want more of – from your marketline.
MessAge FroM tHe eDitor
With over five years of marketing experience, Lanei Lee is the BCAMA Editor of marketline magazine, and the Manager of Marketing at Tennis BC, a provincial sport-governing body committed to stimulating participation and excellence in tennis in all regions of British Columbia. Contact Lanei at marketlinemagazine@ymail.com or 604.782.1473.
Vision for the Future of the BCAMA Senior Executive Program by christine jakovcic
Christine Jakovcic, Director for the BCAMA Senior Executive Program, sat down with Steve Mossop, new Chair of the program, to learn about Steve's vision for the future. Steve, who is President of Market Research Canada West within Ipsos Reid, has been in the research industry for 20 years and with Ipsos Reid since early 1995. Steve spearheads the efforts of 60 client service staff in offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Seattle, including specialized practice areas of lottery & gaming, energy, retail and travel, and he is responsible for marketing, client service, staffing and administration of a business unit with annual billings of $20M.
When you were first involved with the Senior Executive Program, you were a participant. Could you please provide some perspective on why you got involved in the program and what some of the key benefits were for you as a participant? I got involved as a participant initially because I felt it was the only opportunity to share ideas, challenges and learnings with like-minded seniorlevel marketers here in Vancouver. Most other events in the city are geared to a different level of marketer, and I thought this is the one opportunity to network with and meet marketing executives who share the same challenges day to day that I face in my business. As a result, our presenters are able to hone in on the issues that impact us as marketers, and really help us with key takeaways and learnings. Also, I came across a Spencer Stuart Report that showed 50% of CMOs have been in their job for less than 12 months – which means that, for our group, networking is of the utmost importance!
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What types of individuals would get the most benefit from this type of program? The individuals who would most benefit from the program are the CMO, or the VP/Director of Marketing for the organization – anyone who is the most senior person in an organization responsible for the marketing budget of their company and who leads the team, budgets and creative strategy for their organization.
What are the key topics of interest for senior marketers in BC today? Even though BC-based marketers are often from very different sectors, it’s amazing how many of our issues overlap! Topics of interest include social media, mobile marketing, sponsorship, issues impacting the agency world, digital marketing, experiential marketing and, most importantly, how to capture the attention of your CEO/CFO in order to get those multi-million dollar budgets approved! We want to do this in a setting that is participatory, engaging and socially interactive for our participants, so events are usually roundtable format and, of course, include some good food (breakfast or lunch)!
As Chair of the Senior Executive Program, what is your vision for the program going forward? I have four primary objectives for the program in 2011. First, I want to attract a much higher number of senior-level executives to the program – we want to expand our membership by 30 to 40%, and I have a goal of universal awareness of the program by the end of the year for those who fit the criteria for participation. The reception thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. We have a network of 50 or 60 interested participants, and I encourage everyone to spread the word. Second, I aim to have the best presenters and topic areas moving forward. We’ve already held two excellent well-attended sessions to date. Andrea Shaw from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) presented “How to get the best out of sponsorships” in January, leveraging her experience in raising over $800M in sponsorship dollars for the successful 2010 Winter Games. We just held our second panel session in March – “The Agency Model in the Context of the Changing Media Landscape” with Lance Saunders from DDB Canada, Chris Briekss from 6S Marketing, Andrea Southcott of TBWA, and Darrell Hadden from Graphically Speaking. Our third session coming up in early May is on the Future of Mobile Marketing, with an exciting roster of senior-level experts in the sector that will be announced shortly. Third, I want to design collaborative, interactive sessions with our participants. Finally, I want to present a well-organized, low-maintenance and highly professional program that respects the time of participants.
Finally, how can new participants get involved? We are looking for like-minded senior-level executives who fit the profile of member participants – if you fit this profile, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me at steve.mossop@ipsos.com. We will provide you with a complimentary invite to our next event, and we are confident you will find the program worthwhile. Christine is the BCAMA Director for the Senior Executive Program. She is also the Regional Director Revenue Strategy at Molson Coors. Contact Christine at bcamaexecutive@gmail.com or 604.664.1120.
Breakfast Speaker Series: Westin Bayshore Mike Cordoba on Reinvigorating Retail Brands: The Pantry Restaurants, Mr. Mikes and Mr. Lube In a world of changing consumer tastes and preferences, retail brands must continually innovate to keep up with consumer demands. Join Mike Cordoba, CEO/Partner of Empresario Capital Partners, Chairman of the Board for Mr. Lube and former senior executive with Boston Pizza and Eyemasters, as he presents various brand stories that describe how he and his team have reinvigorated locally based brands to keep up with consumer demands. Mike will describe his experiences in: • Rebuilding retail brand images • Managing critical consumer touch points necessary to succeed in an ever changing retail space • How retail marketing strategies have changed with changes in communication • How retail brands need to be adaptive in tough economic times Mike Cordoba has 20 years of diverse business experience. He has managed a portfolio of public and private companies with $1 billion in total revenue in various industries including restaurants, retail, manufacturing and processing, and real estate. In his executive capacity, he has built companies from the ground up to become industry leaders in their segments. Mike’s expertise in mergers & acquisitions activity is highly regarded in the marketplace.
Mid-September: Breakfast Speaker Series (date TBA) Mid-October: Marketer of the Year (date TBA) To make reservations for a BCAMA event or to obtain information regarding upcoming events, call the BCAMA office at 604.983.6AMA or visit our website at bcama.com.
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VISION 2011 – Building Community in the ‘New Brand World’ by tuija seipell
Developing a community has never been easy. In all of its forms, community building is about trust, authenticity and genuine connection. As intelligent consumers, we can easily detect a fake or discordant campaign or promotion. If a brand’s online and offline activities do not match and form a coherent picture, we start to suspect and we eventually – and sometimes instantly – disengage. As marketers, we are tasked with growing strong roots for our brands online and offline while dealing with an increasingly fragmented and fickle market. Intended and unintended viral successes, blogs and social media activities can all amass huge numbers of followers, friends and fans in a very short time.Yet those fans are only one unfollow, unlike or unsubscribe away from disappearing. Sticking around must provide a payback, over and over again. Or, coming from the negative perspective, the cost of disengaging must be high enough to quench the urge to disengage.
Intended and unintended viral successes, blogs and social media activities can all amass huge numbers of followers, friends and fans in a very short time. To top this off, online and offline activities must speak in the same voice, or we will end up with a super-successful viral campaign, a great flash mob, a successful pop-up store, or fantastic social media buzz that does not really match the brand’s offline presence and does nothing for the bottom line.
FEATURED SPEAKERS Scott Bedbury
Scott Bedbury is the author of A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century, published in 2002. His perspective stems from his work as a marketer and consultant with several megabrands, including Nike, Starbucks, P&G, Coca-Cola, Google, Visa, and Starwood Hotels. In his book, Bedbury outlines eight principles. I feel that three of them continue to pose the biggest obstacles for many brands: • You have to know it before you can grow it – most brands don’t know who they are, where they’ve been or where they’re going • Great brands establish enduring customer relationships that have more to do with emotions and trust than with footwear cushioning or the way a coffee bean is roasted • Everything matters – even the restroom Scott Stratten
Scott Stratten, the ranting and raving president of his own empire, UnMarketing, is a Canadian viral marketer whose book, titled UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging., is either revered or not. With Stratten, you take sides. He is not subtle, and that’s the fun aspect of his presentations. Stratten’s ‘UnBio’ describes him as “…an expert in Viral, Social, and Authentic Marketing, which he calls UnMarketing. It’s all about positioning yourself as a trusted expert in front of your target market, so when they have the need, they choose you.” He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN.com and Fast Company, and has been named one of “America’s 10 Marketing Gurus” by Business Review USA.
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It’s not easy being social. Now, more than ever before, brands must connect with their target groups and their audiences. Brands must create a community – however big or small – that feels authentic and worthwhile, even in its apparent fictitiousness. As marketers, we know this is not easy, and it is definitely not simple to build a strong community. To succeed, we must know our audience well and yet, the fragmented “general public” of today is difficult to know – much more difficult than the cleanly divided age and behaviour groups of decades ago. Authenticity, trust, consistency – these are the words we will likely be hearing a lot at VISION 2011 as the speakers illuminate various aspects of the challenging task of engaging with our customers. I was disappointed to see that Stratten’s blog had not been updated in more than a month when I checked in mid-March. But I did like his October 2010 post, where he points out that Customer Service and Marketing are not separate departments. “I say they go hand in hand,” he writes. “There is no better way to increase or decrease your brand impression than through customer interaction. Every person in your company is a marketer, especially those on the front lines.” He calls this separation syndrome The Trust Gap and The Experience Gap in his book. I want to hear his views of how to avoid those gaps. Retail and creating coherent customer experiences are areas particularly close to my heart. So I am excited to hear how Angela Scardillo, VP Marketing & Communications of Best Buy Canada, and Nikki Hellyer, Marketing Director for Future Shop, avoid Stratten’s “separation syndrome” and ensure that the brands’ online media activities match with the offline experiences. As consumers, we may already know. And we’ve probably told our communities all about it. Tuija Seipell (www.tuijaseipell.com) writes globally, online and off, about business, retail, trends, design, branding, consumer behaviour and tourism. She is senior writer at www.thecoolhunter.net, one of the world’s most popular design and pop culture blogs, where her articles draw two to eight million views. She is also a consultant at customer experience consulting firm Creative Insights Inc. (www.tedtopping.com).
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FEATURED SPEAKERS
continued Tod Maffin
Local radio host and digital marketer Tod Maffin is going to talk about why and how something goes – or doesn’t go – viral. I suspect that for all of the viral successes, there are many more that didn’t make it. Even more likely, the creators of both the successes and the misses are not sure why it happened, and therefore they have no way of repeating the successes or avoiding future misses. With his extensive experience, Maffin will have an insider’s understanding of the process and the dynamics behind a viral success.
Kerry Munro
A digital leader, visionary and social marketing expert, Munro has been leading and advising brands on how to create meaningful and long-standing connections with consumers for over 20 years. As the head of Yahoo Canada, he took a floundering business and turned it into the best performing business in Yahoo worldwide and created the largest digital franchise in Canadian history. He has advised global companies like Live Nation on how to integrate digital and social media into their marketing mix, developed the Canadian strategy for LinkedIn, and helped guide numerous business executives and their teams through the ever-changing world of social media.
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The Province brand is a highly visible asset valued by the newspaper’s readership and corporate community. Please use the following guideli ensure it always appears consistent and familiar. If you have any questions regarding usage or other environment specific versions, please em creative@png.canwest.com.
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TO ADVERTISE CALL 604-605-2478. THEPROVINCE.COM Source: 2010 NADbank Full Study *Average weekly print/online readership.
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Q&A with Greg Lui, BCAMA Member BCAMA Member Greg Lui, Director of Marketing of Blenz Coffee, sits down with marketline to share a peek into his marketing career and to offer his perspective on the BCAMA. by greg lui
What's your favourite coffee?
What’s your day job?
I am the thirty-something marketer. I love coffee. I believe that exceptional coffee should be dark as night, as strong as tungsten, and as sweet as love. Having said that, my favourite specialty coffee is an Americano with silky smooth thick cream. It tastes like nectar from the heavens.
When I’m not sipping coffee and thinking about how to fight crime in the dark streets of Vancouver wearing superhero outfits, I work at Blenz Coffee as the Director of Marketing. My responsibilities include developing, overseeing and executing the company’s annual integrated marketing communications branding initiatives and providing strategic communications counsel to the President and the partners of the Blenz Coffee group of companies.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about one of our BCAMA members. If you would like to become a member of the BCAMA or would to submit a suggestion for a future member profile for marketline, please contact Bradley Shende at 604.626.1057.
What do I love about it? Doing what I’m passionate about (developing enduring brands) every single day – and getting paid for it – is the best part of my job.
How long have you been a BCAMA member? This is my third year with the organization.
Why did you join the BCAMA? I don’t believe society works in isolation and definitely marketing does not work in isolation. Joining BCAMA gives me a venue to meet other marketing professionals and see how others manage and create marketing.
What do you love most about the community you do business with? Vancouver is the most amazing place to live, work and play. The energy, the talent and the compassion of this community are second to none. The recent Japan 9.0 earthquake exemplifies this – our willingness to give and help during Japan’s darkest hours was unprecedented.
Carole Arnston “Lost to the Wind” Oil on Canvas 40” x 40”
What's next for you? I am in the conceptual stage of writing a book on applied marketing.
A contemporary fine art gallery with world appeal representing 100 Canadian artists in every media. 421 Richmond Street, New Westminster 604.521.7887 1.888.981.9886
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04/04/2011 4:53:
Brands and Communities – Beyond the Hype
by paul cubbon
This is not a new challenge – but it is one that is seemingly increasingly in focus as companies look to understand and take part in online communities. For many companies, the difficulty of the traditional offline community challenge was one of mindset – in a monologue world where marketers advertised “at” audiences, community principles were already compromised. So, although managing offline AND online communities is more complex, social media has provided the catalyst to change the mindset from monologue to dialogue. Marketers must now understand the existing communities of shared interest and behaviour, and seek to be welcomed in, if they can provide value to other members and the community as a whole. Throughout much of the last two decades, marketers have been seduced by the allure of customer relationship management (CRM) tools, which can lead to the misconception that relationship marketing is a logical by-product of data-mining. However, some expertise has emerged from the relationship marketing field that is helpful in exploring the interaction of brands within peer-to-peer communities. Amongst these, I like the Peppers and Rogers Group at www.1to1media.com and Mark Hurst at www.goodexperience.com, who both write from a customer point of view. Both Forrester and the Altimeter Group also provide significant guidance, best practices and resources on understanding and managing communities, especially in an online context. A thought-provoking presentation from summer 2010 is Paul Adams’ The Real Life Social Network at http://slidesha.re/f3J1QM. This work, which was
done while Paul was Social Research Lead at Google – although he’s now moved to Facebook – is a preview of some of the ideas in Social Circles, an upcoming book by Adams. In particular, see slides 58 to 63 to understand consumers’ views on their own communities, both online and offline. In preparing this paper, I thought it would be of interest to readers to hear some detailed views from local marketers, and to explore the philosophies and practices of some others. We have some progressive, community-minded marketers in our backyard! William Azaroff, Director, Digital & Community Engagement, Vancity and Andrea Wilkinson, Director, Partnerships, Vancouver Whitecaps FC were kind enough to answer some questions for me. I’ve chosen to let their words speak for themselves, without any additional commentary.
What does community mean in the context of your role as a marketer? Azaroff: I’m lucky at Vancity. As a community-focused, mission-driven organization, we have reasons for community engagement that go to the very heart of why we exist – to work with people and communities to help them thrive and prosper. That will give a different purpose to our community-building activities. For marketers, the more we can align community to the mission of the organization, the more it will resonate and spark into a life of its own. Wilkinson: Community for us typically denotes one of two things – a geographic location where people live, work and play and where they may or may not share similar values, or an association of like-minded individuals who gather, both online and offline. Geographic communities require much more detailed segmenting than the online or “self-identified” communities – and, like many organizations, we have put a lot of resources into engaging with the online communities who have told us that they are interested in some aspect of our club, or in a product or service of our partners. We are still very much committed to engaging with “geographic” communities as well, and tend to work with community leaders/ambassadors who have a much better finger on the pulse of the unique and defined segments we want to reach.
How do you see the similarities and differences in community, online vs. offline? Azaroff: They have been quite different, which I think is merely a factor of the newness of the online community tools. People are enamoured with them. But, really, they serve the same purpose as offline community tools like sponsorships, events and grants. For me, what is exciting is that my new
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department, Digital & Community Engagement, has brought those offline engagement vehicles together with online and digital vehicles like social media, our websites and even our intranet. Building your internal community is the juice you need to build external communities. Aligning those is an exciting task.
How does the consumer view of community differ from a company view of brand community and what are the implications for community “design and management”? Azaroff: As long as companies engage authentically and people who join the community understand what they are there to do and how their comments and feedback will be used, then the community can thrive. Communities need guidance, not management.
What changes have you witnessed in communities and how brands (or branded organizations) interact with them? Azaroff: I think some have gotten it right, but honestly, I don’t see that many. I think we’ve witnessed a period of experimentation, which is healthy, but it feels like most organizations are jumping in because their marketers have been to a conference, or because they themselves like Twitter and Facebook. It actually can be a bit of an abdication of professional duties – because these tools are fun to use personally, we get our companies to use them too. I hope what we’ll see is a simmering down of the experimentation, and the beginning of companies putting these tools to good use building communities between and among their employees and their customers. Wilkinson: Communities in both the offline and online worlds are quick to engage in issues and causes and with brands that appeal to them, but are incredibly sensitive to overt selling, or to cause marketing that puts a brand’s objectives before the cause. While consumers within communities are willing to engage with brands, they expect and deserve transparency, timeliness and appropriateness of interaction. We strive to provide all three in all of our interactions. Everything we do is true to our brand.
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What are the challenges facing marketers in enhancing community engagement? Wilkinson: Truly understanding the needs of each community – by engaging directly with them in honest dialogue and transactions – is key. Marketers can’t stand on the sidelines and look in. People want to feel ownership, so allowing them to engage and feel like they are truly connected to the brand is also important. That is a radical departure from traditional brand management and usually entails a pretty significant shift internally. Looking to other sectors, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Think! Social Media, focusing on tourism. By active monitoring and micro-targeting of passionate niches, we helped design community activation programs for tourism marketing organizations throughout BC and beyond – linking online exploration and discussion to offline behaviour. One of the challenges facing many marketers is their instinct is to try to build a community around their brand, BUT communities already exist around categories and bundles of benefits: marketers have to give up the illusion of control and learn how to play in these pre-existing communities. I find it helpful to consider the community as an iceberg: most of it is below the waterline. But with careful listening and ethnographic research (akin to “walking in the shoes of the community members”), one can lower the waterline and view a larger part of the whole. As I was finishing this article I received my MEC@40 catalogue. This will be Mountain Equipment Co-op’s last paper catalogue. For a brand that supports members in offline outdoor pursuits, they have nurtured a strong online supporting community. This nostalgic look back on MEC’s history revealed some fascinating stories. One that resonated with me was an early employee’s comment that became a cherished mantra: “Light the fire of the consumer’s desire.” It is not surprising that two of the companies noted in this article are co-operatives – they have community in their DNA. They can live it authentically. Takeaways: • Monitor: observe and listen well • Understand the member view of community – don’t impose yours • Ask for permission to join and participate • Add value; don’t dominate or dictate • Identify advocates and champions • Help the community to help itself • Be authentic and passionate and useful as a brand, as an organization o Then, the community will build organically o You can help to support faster growth and online/offline synergies…but you cannot “do community” if you do not have a relevant, differentiated brand experience and linked benefits. Paul Cubbon teaches Marketing at the Robert H. Lee Graduate School at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. Paul also teaches in undergraduate programs, specializing in branded communication, both offline and online. Paul’s particular interests are in the use of social media and its role in brand reputation management, and he is passionate about helping organizations to identify their authentic differentiators and to become more customer-centric and successful.
how to Build a community now When online, for starters, be human.
by jason baker
So, you want to build a community around your brand. How do you do it? With social media impacting how business is done, the key is to build community and to continue to convert online conversation into potential sales. Increasingly, business and marketing professionals are connecting online with customers and potential customers in a more natural and modern conversational fashion. Social media is about community. Not only is social media about traditional customer relationship management, it’s also about facilitating and providing a platform for that conversation to take place. Gone are the days of controlling and broadcasting your message. Nowadays, through social media, we connect with people over common interests, concerns, brands, events or products. To leverage those online connections, for instance, hosting a public event in the real world works. Host a meet-up, or as they say on Twitter, a “tweet-up”.
One of the main sticking points to building communities is ensuring that the members can belong and feel they are involved. The human element is key to success. Almost anyone can launch a campaign and possibly knock it out of the park, but as Jay points out, “they'll only stick around if bonds are built”. The book tour was a success here because, as Jay said, “the real genius was the relationships built among the attendees”. Jason Baker is a Digital Strategist at Magnify Digital. Magnify’s ALERT system builds digital strategies for clients, providing the best possible online digital strategy through implementation for your business. Digital can also train clients with ALERT™ LICENSING.
In February 2011, Teri Conrad (Redbarn Group), local digital strategist Kemp Edmonds and I used strictly online marketing tactics to bring together a community of like-minded people who were eager to hear renowned social media strategist Jay Baer speak in Vancouver during his The NOW Revolution book tour. Joining Jay was a panel of local social media specialists including Shane Gibson, Mark Smiciklas and Erin Garrity. They explained to the sold-out audience how to effectively listen and respond to customer reviews, tweets (good or bad), and comments in general about your business that could be found on various websites and platforms. The event was a sellout and it became the eighth trending Twitter topic across Canada that night. As Jay himself acknowledged, “The Vancouver stop on The NOW Revolution book tour wasn't a speech, it was a coalesced micro community.” Twitter users worldwide followed the online conversation via the hash tag ‘#NOWYVR’. Using a rich mix of pre-event promotion, socializing during the event, and post-event coverage, the organizers feel they have created a community that will pay dividends long after the memories fade. Thanks to Jay and the panel of local social media specialists, attendees left the event with new tools, ideas and thoughts on how to create a community around their own brand.
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How to Destroy Your Brand’s Online Community in Three Easy Steps
by tod maffin
Most major brands, by now, have established at least an initial channel in social media – a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, or other channels. And with careful content syndication and loving curation, they’ve begun to build a community in those channels. But as easy as it is to set up a Twitter account, it’s just as easy to destroy your growing community if you aren’t watching for these common mistakes.
Stop Watering An online community is like a garden. You don’t just drop a bunch of plants in it at the start of the season and never visit again – and yet, this is the “strategy” employed by far too many companies who believe it’s better to have a garden they ignore than to not have a garden at all. Nothing could be worse. Conversations happen in social channels because you – the brand – initiate them. Each day, you need to be in your channels watering your existing discussions, adding content (“seeding”) and pruning back unproductive threads when necessary.
Sell Out A couple of years ago, I started an unofficial Facebook fan page about the CBC. Today, through only organic growth, the page has nearly 55,000 very engaged fans – far more than any official CBC page. And not a week goes by that I don’t get at least a couple of offers to advertise something on the page. In any community, online or offline, there is an implied contract that the community manager will always act in the best interests of the group, collectively. And “collectively” doesn’t include lining your own pocket. Each item of content – discussion starter, photo, link or whatever – must contribute to the whole group. Start promoting things just for revenue and you’ll spark a slow but guaranteed exodus.
Speak Like a Company It’s remarkable how many firms proceed head-first into building a social media community without changing their tone. This is especially true of public companies used to speaking the language of regulation and compliance, rather than the language of – forgive me – normal people.
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It’s not called “social” networking without reason. Keep your forward-looking statements and obligatory CEO quotes (“We are delighted to blah blah blah”) for the news releases – if at all. Tod Maffin (www.todmaffin.com) is senior strategist and COO of tMedia Strategies in Vancouver, an online strategy firm that builds communities for brands. He will be presenting “Deconstructing Viral: How to Build a Killer Viral Marketing Campaign” at VISION 2011.
Adding Value to Communities
by leona hobbs
Community has achieved Holy Grail status for marketers. We concoct strategies based on infiltrating communities of interest to seed product conversation and we hatch tactics to build our Facebook followers based on incentives and giveaways. Community is not a campaign. Community is a long-term commitment and integral to any business. As such, it deserves attention from the C-suite and from functions beyond marketing. Through technology, virtual communities can coalesce within hours around an issue, a brand, a product or a shared experience. Before we all caught social networking fever, our companies had customer, employee, stakeholder and shareholder communities. Internet technology now means that we can’t park our community activities until the annual meeting or company picnic, and we certainly can’t broadcast messages to customers and expect to not hear back. It is essential for companies to add value to their interactions with members of their communities and to participate respectfully in the communities of people who support them. Does your company value and respect the voice of the customer? Is your company interested in what your communities have to say? Are you ready to take action based on what you hear? If the answer is yes, then you’ve got a strong foundation for community building. Starbucks has a remarkable focus on their customer. Through customer experience and innovation, they have created a loyal community of fans. They listen to their customers and they take action on their feedback. For example, the stopper you can stick in the top of your plastic Starbucks coffee cup to prevent spillage was crowd-sourced from their customer community.
We can’t all be Starbucks, but we can all create the conditions for success within our organizations. Moving beyond the ad hoc use of social media technologies to a long-term integrated approach is a considerable shift for most organizations. It all begins with listening. Monitoring the conversation online is essential. Look to answer these questions: What are people saying about your company? Where are they saying it? How frequently are you discussed? What is being discussed in the general conversation about your industry? Who is speaking? What are they saying about your competition? What matters to these people? What do they care about?
Community is not a campaign. Community is a long-term commitment and integral to any business. Next, you must be absolutely clear on your business objectives. If your objective is to increase employee satisfaction and retention, it is essential to define and understand the needs of employees. By overlaying audience needs with business objectives, you will identify the strategic sweet spot for conversation with your communities. Supporting ongoing conversation with your virtual communities takes organizational alignment around operations, training, systems and resources. An organization needs to create the conditions for those having conversations with individuals online to make high-quality decisions quickly. For each company, it is a different balance between empowerment and accountability. It means proactively managing the people, processes, metrics and policies required to have successful conversations with your communities. While there is no magic bullet, there is incredible power and value in engaged virtual communities made up of people willing to recommend your products, make repeat purchases, become invested in your success, and give you the benefit of the doubt when you need to draw on their goodwill and support. Leona Hobbs is Vice President of Social Media Group, where she leads client strategy and innovation and provides social media and digital communications counsel to clients. A specialist in digital communications and social media marketing, Leona frequently speaks about Internet-powered communications and is an advisor to the Public Relations Program at Loyalist College and a volunteer organizer of Toronto Girl Geek Dinners and PodCamp Toronto.
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Social Media – A Revolutionary Community Tool? by rina chong
You may vaguely remember the first recognizable social network launched in 1997 – SixDegrees.com – which, along with a few online dating sites, was far from revolutionary in its application. Timing is everything. In 2002, the real shift began when Friendster and MySpace were introduced, followed by Hi5, Flickr, YouTube, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. At the time of writing, Facebook had 600 million users. Once social graphs grew and we hit critical mass with these tools, it became possible to foster online communities, fill offline events, grow social clubs, and promote successful fundraisers that impacted the world locally and globally. ‘Word of mouth’ has become the hyper-fast ‘word of click’. Social media tools help people do more than advertise or post comments advertise – they provide people with the infrastructure to self-organize circumventing traditional hierarchies and organizations. Heiferman sums it up in a recent tweet: “Community = Infrastructure. Let constituents lend hands, not just voices.” Anyone armed with a tool like Meetup.com for organizing community can create sincere, meaningful change in their neighbourhood that is feasible in this modern-day online global village. The social web pulls in people with like values and interests from different ethnicities and geographic boundaries – one common thread is the willingness and desire to improve and help those in our respective communities sans geographic limitations. It lets citizens self-organize and engage in public issues such as health care, breaking news, education, fundraising, voting, etc. In addition, it allows people to share while educating others to become aware of current affairs, giving everyone the chance to cultivate, take action and broadcast their objective. When a common interest hits home, people love helping others when it’s as simple as reaching out to their online community. Enchanting people with a cause and raising interest with social media makes it that much easier to build on. There is no need for old-fashioned door knocking. Blogs, wikis and forums, along with a myriad of social fundraising tools, make helping and contributing 20 | SPRING 2011
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easier than ever. Lorraine Murphy of www.RainCoastMedia.com reminds us that blogging is extremely valuable and that people have to take the time to create great content and anchor everything that is related to you on there. Lorraine says, “By encouraging and responding to comments, you build a loyal following of people who will return to your blog.” A blog with fresh content and updates is attractive to viewers as well as to Google, giving you great SEO, directing people to your events and interconnecting you with other social networks. In addition, unlike a Facebook page, your blog is owned by you. I reached out to Marc Smith, a Twitter friend and local business owner who seems to always be involved in using social media for social good. Marc, the owner of Amuse Consulting Inc. (@amuse_events), is a very ‘social’ event planner and actively engaged in his community. Growing up in small-town Terrace, Marc has always been community-focused, offering his neighbours a hand or a friendly ‘hello’. Using social media to expand his network, Marc has been part of initiatives that have inspired him to bring people, organizations and often much-needed funds together for Tweet-ups, charities and fundraisers. In return, he mentors young PR and event students who have reached out to him, making sure to give back just as much as he has received. For the second year, Amuse Consulting has been a sponsor of Vancouver Twestival (the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date) as well as sitting on the organizing committee. In 2010, Twestival Vancouver raised just under $10,000 for charity and has already raised $4,800 for the 2011 Twestival, which hasn’t even occurred yet.
“The most exciting thing in the future is not a TV app on your phone; it’s billions of people using their phones to be powerful together.” – Scott Heiferman, CEO and Founder of Meetup.com (@heif) Marc adds, “What makes community successful is that the members are genuine and user-driven. There are no tickets to buy, it’s a show-up-and-participate-any–wayyou-can kind of event. A hug can go a long way to warm a person’s heart.” The side effect of his community efforts have generated significant business and referrals for Marc due to the visibility and trust he has gathered in the community. In speaking with Marc and observing other best practices in social media, there are several lessons that marketers can take away from this: • These days, community building and marketing are not separate but actually connected; therefore, have a purpose greater than branding and make your purpose about helping others • Build a community with the intention of genuinely helping people first – that positive social equity will pay off in goodwill and positive word of mouth/word of click • Those people who build community become gatekeepers or stewards of that group – to influence those gatekeepers, brands will need to build trust, be genuine and be sociable Rina Chong is a gregarious networker who dons two hats. She is responsible for business development with Socialized! (www.socialized.me) and is also the Chief Brand Evangelist for Renegade Gypsy. Contact: @RinaChong or rina@socialized.me.
Community – At the Heart of It All by laura gerrits
The concept of community is at the heart of what we do at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). We connect communities from around the world, and support those we serve locally. We also strive to establish our very own sense of community – in our offices, in our terminals and on Sea Island, where the airport is located. When you add the more than 50,000 people landing at and departing from YVR every day to the 23,600 people who work here, our airport is equivalent in size to a small bustling city. But the feeling of community isn’t generated purely by numbers – it comes from a sense of ownership. And that sense of “my airport” is what we’re trying to achieve at YVR. To a child, an airport is a place of wonderment. It’s where planes take off to exotic locales and bring friends and family to visit. And it’s where a small army of people, trucks, machinery and specialized equipment keep passengers, bags and airplanes on the move. With that sense of excitement in mind, Vancouver Airport Authority set out to inspire childhood curiosity and foster community spirit in all YVR employees and visitors with a new free Public Observation Area. The 500-square-metre space has seating for 150 people to watch our main attraction – planes taking off and landing at a rate of one per minute – as well as fun and interactive exhibits, telescopes offering a close-up view of airside activity, and even a large-scale model of Sea Island with push-button lights pinpointing areas of interest. Following the grand opening of the Public Observation Area in July 2009, we identified a need to market this new attraction to the public in order to promote YVR as a destination in and of itself, and to incite a sense of ownership of British Columbia’s airport. With external support from Grey Vancouver, YVR launched a two-month integrated marketing campaign in November and December of 2009 to drive awareness of, and visitors to, the Public Observation Area. We strategically scheduled the campaign in advance of the busy holiday travel season to provide an additional entertainment option for travellers already at YVR and for parents looking for family activities during the school break. To link back to the childhood appeal of the Public Observation Area, we worked with Grey to land on the campaign theme “Where imaginations soar”, which was used throughout all marketing tactics, from media messaging to print and radio advertising. The image of a single boy standing in the shadow of a plane overhead and looking out to the airfield was developed and utilized as the identifying graphic of the campaign. This image was the cornerstone of our advertising and in-terminal marketing, which included playful mock boarding passes used as part of an in-terminal and online contest campaign and a commuter newspaper campaign that reached 25,000 commuters in the communities we serve.
In-terminal signage, a traditional paid media campaign and an earned-media push that targeted high-profile bloggers helped establish the Public Observation Area as a destination, both within Metro Vancouver and within our own airport community. We’ve learned that, with community-focused initiatives, ongoing marketing is critical to success. One way we continue to keep the spotlight on the Public Observation Area is through an innovative school tour program – The Future Lands Here – that capitalizes on the space as a hands-on classroom. Through this free program, YVR is able to further establish a sense of ownership, and therefore community, with Metro Vancouver families through the eyes and experiences of their children. For more information on the Public Observation Area or The Future Lands school program, visit www.yvr.ca. Lara Gerrits is a Communications Specialist at Vancouver Airport Authority, a community-based, not-for-profit organization that operates Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Canada’s second-busiest airport,YVR is served by 67 airlines connecting people and businesses to 119 destinations worldwide.
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Connecting Communities to Consumers through 30 Million Flames 106 days, 45,000 kilometres, 12,000 torchbearers and 1 flame... by andrea shaw
On the evening of October 29, 2009, in an emotional handover ceremony at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, Greece, Greek officials entrusted the Olympic flame to Canada as the eight-day Greek portion of the Olympic torch relay came to an end and its journey to Canada began. John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) accepted the flame, saying “On behalf of all Canadians, we accept the Olympic Flame with humility and respect....we take with us the knowledge that the flame represents much more than a sporting event. It embodies the values of peace, friendship and respect, and has the power to unite a country, inspire and bring harmony to the world.” Canadian Armed Forces flight 2010 carefully transported the safety lanterns carrying the sacred Olympic flame, arriving in Victoria, BC, on the morning of October 30th. Officials were in place and cameras were ready as millions across the country watched the arrival live on their TV sets. Thousands of eager cheering people lined the streets on Vancouver Island, ready to kick off the flame’s panCanadian journey. As the first Olympic torch was ignited on the lawn of the BC Legislature, excitement, pride and patriotic spirit filled the air. Catriona Le May Doan, Simon Whitfield, Silken Lauman and Alexandre Despatie were the first bearers of the flame. Onlookers draped in Canadian flags stood alongside schoolchildren wearing signature Vancouver 2010 HBC red mittens. There wasn’t a community in our country that didn’t welcome and embrace the arrival of this brilliant flame in their neighbourhood. Over 1,200 community task forces had been planning for years how to best share the flame with their citizens, including pancake breakfasts, full-day barbecues, sunrise/sunset celebrations, and festivals of red and white – and even farm horses with the Olympic rings on their flanks! With inclusivity in mind, the Olympic Torch Relay provided the opportunity for all Canadians to serve as Official Torchbearers. Canadians who committed to live more active, environmentally friendly lives or who were inspired to create a better Canada could win the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Olympic flame through the 2010 Olympic Torchbearers programs run by RBC and Coca-Cola. Within nine months, hundreds of thousands of people from every corner of the country had applied to be part of the relay. The 1,200 individuals selected were often as emotional as the athletes who would be chosen to represent their countries in the Games.
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Thousands lined the streets from to watch this brilliant flame travel across Canada by many different forms of transportation, including a tundra buggy, a horse-drawn stagecoach, surfboards, a dog sled and a kayak. Others followed the torch on CTV’s live webcam daily, while many kept up with the torch’s progress through the official torch relay website. Canada’s Aboriginal people played a central role in the Torch Relay – the relay visited 119 Aboriginal communities and involved more than 300 First Nations, Inuit and Metis people as torchbearers, flame attendants, and honorary elder fire keepers. Behind the scenes, the 250 staff on the relay team averaged 16-hour days, managing hundreds of details – everything from scheduling and navigation to crowd control and hosting two daily community celebrations. Director of Operations Vidar Eilertson sums the experience up beautifully: “This is one of the few jobs where you can cry every day for a good reason. You see the best in people, the best of the country, and the best of the human spirit. To be part of this project was a fantastic gift”. On Day 106, the final day of the relay and the official closing of the Games, Rick Hansen entered BC Place stadium as the first of the relay’s final five torchbearers – a collection of Canadian athletic heroes, including Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene Raine and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, who was the final torchbearer. The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay truly embodied the vision of the Games from the very early days, with the vision that the 2010 Winter Games would be truly “Canada’s Games”. The dream was that these Games were about the entire nation, not just for a few, and the plan was to walk the Olympic spirit into every home across the country from coast to coast to coast, bringing Canadians together and igniting something in our hearts and souls that would make us better and bring us together as a nation. Somehow, the Olympic Flame had the power to do this...one torchbearer and one community at a time. Andrea Shaw, former VP Sponsorship Sales & Marketing for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, is the Founder & Managing Partner at the Twentyten Group, an innovative marketing, sports and entertainment company focused on elevating strategic business partnerships.
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Case Study: Facebook Drives the Message Home for Montessori by lionel matecha
Introduction North American Montessori Center (NAMC) has been offering professional Montessori teacher diploma programs to individuals throughout North America and around the globe since 1996. In addition to delivering Montessori distance education programs and curriculum for training teachers for children from birth to 12 years, NAMC has expanded its services to the unique needs of the Montessori homeschool market. NAMC's 3–6 Montessori Homeschool Program provides parents with everything they need to implement a three-year homeschool educational program for their preschool child: curriculum, materials, preparation instructions, and support material.
Challenge Building on the success of its web-based training program for aspiring Montessori teachers, NAMC needed to develop a strong online presence for the parent-focused homeschool teaching market. However, the unique characteristics of communicating to parents of preschool children was not necessarily compatible with communicating to NAMC’s traditional market.
NAMC’s Montessori Homeschool Program home page
Social media was recognized as a key success factor for NAMC, primarily by building a strong and loyal online community via Facebook. It was decided that NAMC’s Facebook experience should be leveraged immediately upon launch of the new website in order to kick-start the community-building process for the homeschool program.
Result The new separate website (www.montessori-home-schooling.com) has allowed NAMC to provide an informative and friendly online destination that is reflective of the NAMC brand while focusing on the homeschooling market. Website visitors are able to view sample curriculum, materials and interactive training tools. For members, there is also an extensive online training video library. The website has quickly become a repeat destination for prospective and confirmed members.
NAMC’s Facebook page for the Homeschool Program
Solution A careful study of NAMC’s multi-year online marketing success was undertaken to see which best practices would be most relevant for the 3-6 Montessori Homeschool Program. It was agreed that development of a separate website devoted solely to the homeschool program would be the best way to focus the message to parents. A separate online presence would also allow NAMC to develop a targeted approach to building relevant traffic for the homeschool program via search engine marketing initiatives.
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As expected, Facebook has been a successful community-building initiative. Content is purposefully crafted to be friendly, useful and non-sales-oriented, with tips and suggested activities. In the first 10 months since its launch, almost 3,000 people have ‘liked’ the Facebook page. NAMC also uses Facebook advertising, which has helped to drive over 35% of the traffic to the homeschooling website. Lionel Matecha is a Certified Internet Marketing Business Strategist and Account Director at Graphically Speaking,Western Canada’s leading web development company. Lionel also serves as VP Communications for the BCAMA. He can be reached by email at Lionel@graphicallyspeaking.ca or by phone at 604.682.5500 Ext. 108.
Case Study: Illuminate Yaletown
Results
by jenna visram
Introduction Illuminate Yaletown returned in February 2011 after taking a hiatus during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Featuring 23 light-art installations created by local artists that were placed throughout the heritage district of Yaletown, the two-night celebration gives locals the opportunity to interact with the installations.
Challenge The weekend of February 11 and 12 marked the first anniversary of the 2010 Winter Games, so to commemorate the excitement experienced during the Games, many events were planned for that weekend. The challenge was to position illuminate Yaletown as the place to be during this commemoration weekend and to bring back the crowds that had filled Yaletown’s streets during the 2010 Winter Games. illuminate Yaletown sought to achieve the same level of celebration and spirit that was experienced daily in Yaletown during the Games.
The second annual illuminate Yaletown was a great success, with over 20,000 visitors attending the event over the two nights to witness and interact with the light installations. All of Vancouver’s daily newspapers such as the Vancouver Sun and The Province featured illuminate Yaletown in their articles on the anniversary of the 2010 Winter Games. Media coverage for the event totaled 26 event listings, 72 blog and online media hits, 3 broadcast interviews and 10 print articles. The 87 total media hits resulted in 5,827,710 measurable media impressions. Jenna Visram has six years of communications, advertising and public relations experience. After four years with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) where she focused on media relations and advertising, she moved to Grey Vancouver, where she is the account manager for Warner Bros., BC Used Oil Management Association, 7-Eleven, Urban Rec and Mr. Mikes.
Solution To raise awareness of the event, media advisories and background information was shared with targeted media. To create media buzz about the return of illuminate Yaletown, CTV, 24 Hours Vancouver and Shore 104.3 FM were secured as media sponsors. These media partners promoted the event through radio station-read announcements, television broadcasts, and online blog and event listings. A launch party was hosted at the Keg Yaletown on February 10, giving members of the media, current partners, potential sponsors and Yaletown businesses the opportunity to see an exclusive preview of the installations while enjoying food and drink.
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Case Study: An Excuse to Say Hello by greg lui
Introduction True coffee culture is not only built on great coffee – it is proliferated by connecting with people. Blenz Coffee is not in the coffee business, serving people. They are in the people business, serving coffee. For 2011, all of Blenz Coffee’s marketing initiatives resonate with the community, starting with the Blenz Red Band.
Challenge In its most basic form, the coffee business is a very simple business – both its challenges and the solutions live in the community, the interplay of connection and engagement. Even in today’s highly technological age, the people factor is the most important part of the coffee business in delivering brand loyalty. Emotion, empathy and cooperation are critical to the success of this campaign.
Solution No one has a monopoly on ideas. The Blenz Red Band came to life from listening to a customer who said, "It gets lonely around Valentine's Day if you are single”. So we decided we needed some sort of a token that everyone could recognize – something to set you apart as being single. On February 1, 2011, Blenz Coffee launched the Red Band campaign through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Vancity Buzz. The Blenz Red Band sleeve indicated that the holder was single and open to meeting potential dates. Customers were also encouraged to share their love stories through social media. In a city famous for unsuccessfully uniting kindred spirits, the Blenz Red Band is another tool, an excuse to say hello.
Result The Blenz Red Band promotion was Blenz Coffee’s most successful non-product marketing campaign. It was the perfect medium to connect with customers on a one-on-one basis. Human beings are highly social creatures, and they have an innate desire to communicate and interact with other people. The Blenz Red Band campaign, which resonated with customers on a personal level, led to direct dialogue in multi-dimensional ways. Engaging consumers, and inviting and encouraging them to participate in your brand may sound like common sense, but it is still uncommon practice in today’s society. People call Greg Lui “The Thirsty Marketer”. This name comes from his love affair with drinking (coffee, tea and wine). Greg has 12 years of professional experience in the marketing of natural food.
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Top 10 Random Recent Poll Findings Marketers know that numbers are good for business – adding up the opportunities, multiplying the rewards, and getting your share of the dividends. Ipsos knows how to match numbers with insight, so once again we’re sharing a few recent findings and random statistics for you to ponder. No doubt you’ll find them interesting, informative and, yes, even fun.
35% of global citizens pick a relaxing vacation and seeing some of the sights as their top holiday choice.
52% of marketers in North America use social networking in their overall marketing, up from 35% a year ago.
32% of online Canadians would cancel their cable or satellite television service before their Internet access.
43% of Canadians believe the Canadian economy will improve over the next year, which is down from 56% a year ago.
62% of Canadian workers over the age of 30 say they’ll be working at age 66 because they need to, not because they want to (39%).
85% of Canadians are worried that the natural areas enjoyed today will not be here for their children or grandchildren.
44% of Canadians are willing to pay more for products that make health claims. 79% of Canadians believe pharmacists are the most trusted professionals, followed by doctors (75%), airline pilots (75%) and Canadian soldiers (72%).
54% of Canadians believe the NHL should ban fighting. 66% of Metro Vancouver residents are not adequately prepared for a significant earthquake.
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Case Study: Stacking Cans Builds Strong Businesses and Communities by scott gray
Introduction Since when does playing with your food make a good business case? Well, it’s a bit of a stretch, but we find that it works. In 2001, George Kallas (Chairman of MET Fine Printers) discovered Canstruction, a global anti-hunger project while touring a designer furniture fair in New York City. Immediately struck by the creative sculptures and the simple message “it starts with one can”, he contacted Cheri Melilo through the Architectural Institute of New York and became fast friends. Winning the licence and bringing Canstruction to Vancouver in 2002 was quite a task. George called on friends, co-workers and clients to jump into Canstruction Vancouver, creating a runaway success. The first event was tied in with the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corp, so the city’s leading graphic designers, architects, engineering firms and builders got together to create “Cantopia”, a scale model of our proposed Olympic venues.
Challenge So, how does this translate into good business? Intangibles are hard to measure, but feedback from our clients and partners in the community is all positive. Goodwill, team building, and simply doing the right thing speaks volumes for our business and how we operate on a daily basis.
Solution We know that our community engagement platform has given us more opportunities to bid or partner with like-minded businesses. No doubt this impacted VANOC’s decision to award MET Official Friend of the Games status for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and Fortis BC’s decision to support our event as a like-minded citizen and business partner. Today, Canstruction Vancouver has expanded to include elementary schools, high schools and colleges. In addition, it is becoming a launch pad for young innovators to learn about corporate philanthropy.
Results Canstruction Vancouver is in its ninth year and, to date, over 1,056,648 cans of food have been donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank with the help of over 75 companies. The 2011 PNE will showcase the Canstruction awardwinning sculptures for the fourth year. For more information, please visit www.canstructionvancouver.com. Scott Gray is MET Fine Printers’ Director of Brand and Senior Account Executive, working with some of North America's most recognized brands. He has been an active board member of Canstruction Vancouver 2010 for nine years and has captained teams in the last six competitions.
28 | SPRING 2011
marketline
Sponsorships – Tips to Wow your Target Audience by regina leung and jason so The BCAMA is able to bring some of the best marketing programs thanks to the generous support of its annual and event sponsors. Whether you are buying or selling sponsorships, here are some tips that’ll help wow your target audience.
Buying How do you increase the chances of your sponsorship proposal standing out? Image is everything. Nothing beats a strong first impression. High-quality captivating imagery from your previous events will communicate the vibe of your event. You can be creative with all the photo retouching software and art filters available today – think glossy magazine spreads. Facts need to be accurate, but in today’s world of social media smartphone multi-tasking, an image is worth more a thousand words. Guessing guests. Many sponsorship buyers are stats junkies, and want to know if the event appeals to Tweeners, Gen Y, Zoomers or the general public. Or they want demographics such as gender ratio, household income, consumption habits and other relevant psychographic info. Marketers buy media like this – shouldn’t they do the same when buying sponsorships? Make an impression. What about target attendance for the event? Open invite or an exclusive members-only invitation? Cost per ticket? Which media reps attended in the past? Pre- and post-event exposure? What about social media? In a postrecession economy, even an estimate of impressions delivered helps with ROI. Activating activation. Share ideas on how other companies have activated at previous events. Perhaps one of the best examples executed locally was when Air Canada had guests create and fold paper airplanes, and if you managed to hit a target, you won a trip. Genius. Keep it personal. Whenever possible, buyers generally prefer a personal contact before a proposal is sent but it’s understandable that schedules are occasionally too tight to allow this. However, be sure that buyers don’t see a previous company’s contact details left in the proposal by mistake! Community spirit. Finally, most sponsor buyers are more inclined to consider a sponsorship proposal if there’s a non-profit element included. Whether it’s a live/ silent auction or a prize draw, this is another brand activation opportunity. And an opportunity to give back to your community.
Selling Sell the sponsorship opportunity as an investment. Understand your prospects! No matter what you are selling, it is critical to research your prospects and understand their financial capacity, existing marketing activities, and target market. Always be thinking “What can we do for you?” Understand the needs of your prospects and what can be accomplished within the constraints of their marketing budget.
Highlight the value of the sponsorship opportunity. The tangible benefits of each sponsorship opportunity must be clear to prospects so they can determine whether a given expenditure is justified. The prospects will need to understand the target audience (age group, professional background, level of decision maker) and know whether their competitors are participating. Quality content. Sponsorship is not just about logo placement – it is also about creating innovative and enjoyable experiences that integrate the sponsor’s brand and message. For example, when a green company sponsors an event, there should be a demonstrated link between the company’s technology and the efficiencies it can provide to its potential business clients. Or an experience should be created for the audience to interact with the company’s product so the company receives immediate exposure that maximizes the benefits of the sponsorship. The creative sponsorship opportunities are unlimited. Long-term investment. Build lasting relationships with clients. Contact the client every few months to find out how their business is doing and whether they realized their expected benefits from their last sponsorship investment. Delve deep to see what you can do better next time to provide the client with the maximum benefit. Social responsibility. Create a “win win” situation. Present a strategic sponsorship opportunity that benefits the specific business of the prospect and achieves a greater good. When a prospect receives both a direct financial benefit and increases its goodwill by contributing to a social cause, the synergies can be very powerful. If you would like to discuss the creative sponsorship opportunities available through the BCAMA, please contact our Sponsorship Directors, Regina Leung or Jason So, at sponsorship@bcama.com.
Regina Leung is an independent consultant at Hybrid Communications that focuses on implementing comprehensive business development solutions for emerging software companies. Regina believes that the keys to her success as a Director of Sponsorship will be innovative strategic planning and building meaningful partnerships. Jason So originally started his marketing career during the bustling dot-com boom with Pivotal Corporation (now CDC), has worked with international brands such as Porsche, and is currently a Senior Marketing Manager with the BMW organization. Jason has extensive experience in event planning and sponsorships, which he brings to his role as a Director of Sponsorship on the BCAMA board.
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Build our community – follow, ďŹ nd, like and tweet about BcAMA!
by mina van
Our theme this year is Community and we fully embraced this with a full social media team of eight members, who are all working toward building an authentic, engaged and active online community. Since January 2011, we have had many successes with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. Engagement has gone up by 24% on Twitter and the number of our followers has gone up by 15%. Our Twitter reach is 933,413 people, which is signifi cant for increasing awareness and slowly putting us on the path of building a community of engaged marketing professionals. Facebook has also seen an increase in engagement of 27%, which means comments per posted link have gone up. However, there is still a lot of work to do and in order to achieve our goal, we need your help. So please follow us, tell your friends, participate in the conversation and contribute your own content! follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/bcama find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/bcama Join us on linkedin at www.linkedin.com/company/bcama
A serial entrepreneur since the age of 17, Minna Van brings over 10 years of experience in digital marketing communications. As the co-founder and Chief Motivating Officer for The Network Hub,Vancouver's leading coworking location for start-up businesses, Minna has crafted her social media networking and marketing strategies. She is also the owner of Atomic Media, a development house that handles internal portals, hiring portals, and customized applications for iPhone, Facebook and LinkedIn.
DATACORE Mail Management Ltd.
30 | spring 2011
marketline
Please think of our sponsors when you are choosing an industry supplier. BCAMA values and relies on their generous support. BcAMA Job Bank sponsor smart, savvy + Associates Marketing recruitment specialists Contact: Peter Reek 604.639.5446 www.smartsavvy.ca
radio news 1130 Contact: Phil Evans 604.873.2599 www.news1130.com print & online Media Business in Vancouver Contact: Paige Millar 604.608.5160 www.biv.com
creative design grey Vancouver Contact: Tim Johnson 604.484.3250 www.greyvancouver.com
print & online Media Make it Business Contact: Josh Chicher 604.612.2822 www.makeitbusiness.com
design and website Maintenance graphically speaking services inc. Contact: Darrell Hadden 604.682.5500 www.graphicallyspeaking.ca
Brochure creative design Blu peacock Contact: Sarah Clayton 604.341.4559 www.blupeacock.ca
printing wayside printers Contact: Don Hanson 1.800.663.6432 www.waysideprinters.com
proofreading proofingQueen editing Contact: Sharon McInnis 604.488.0282 www.proofingqueen.com
online and email distribution technology Antarctica digital Contact: Blake Kadatz 604.685.6577 www.antarcticadigital.com
corporate & Volunteer gifts Vandop gallery Contact: Trudy VanDop 604.521.7887 www.vandopgallery.com
display graphics the portables Contact: Jeff Dalgarno 604.232.3351 www.theportables.com
speaker series & Vision conference Venue sheraton Vancouver wall centre hotel Contact: Ainslie Lam 604.893.7140 www.sheratonvancouver.com
Audo-Visual clark’s Audio-Visual services Contact: James Downey 604.877.8558 www.clarksav.com
special interest group series Venue earls V restaurants - yaletown Contact: Amanda Haines 604.716.5196 www.earls.ca
email design Bionic Amigo Contact: Alvin Lee 604.603.1346 www.bionicamigo.com Videography Basetwo Media Contact: Jeff Pelletier 604.681.4995 x20 www.basetwomedia.com photography phillip chin photography Contact: Phillip Chin 604.874.2444 www.chinphoto.com Board recognition & gifting pacific national exhibition Contact: Shelley Frost 604.252.3628 www.pne.ca restaurant & catering two chefs and a table Contact: Karl Gregg 778.233.1303 www.twochefsandatable.com
Video Production. Simplified.
Mail Management datacore resource group inc. Contact: Karly Black 604.875.8520 www.datacore-resource.ca Marketing research ipsos reid Contact: Mary DeBonis 778.373.5000 www.ipsos.ca Media Vancouver sun Contact: Jamie Pitblado 604.605.2455 www.sunprovince.com scholarships telus Provides the TELUS Collegiate Scholarship awards Contact: Sue Comeau www.telus.com
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expect Wayside Printers - Expect WOW! It’s a simple, yet dynamic phrase that has infiltrated every aspect of operations at Wayside Printers for close to 90 years. From the outstanding print products to the growing workforce and the commitment to British Columbia, Wayside continues to provide exceptional products and services that “WOW” customers … every time.
Expect Technology and Innovation Wayside Printers has recently invested more than $4 million dollars on the latest digital, offset press, large format and finishing technology. Wayside has also invested extensively in technology to drive Cross Media Publishing, the ultimate approach to personalized communication that provides the ability to reach and interact with consumers across print and digital media channels.
Expect Environmental Stewardship As a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) Certified operation, Wayside has received the endorsement of the print industry’s most stringent judge. We are investing in technology to make every aspect of the process as environmentally-friendly as possible and to make sure that clients have cost-effective green options for their print projects.
www.waysideprinters.com 1.800.663.6432 32 | spring 2011 marketline • VERNON VANCOUVER
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