The Toronto Blogger: Location, location, location!
By Alice M. Chacon
Alice is a recent MBA graduate with a specialization in Marketing Management, based in Toronto, ON. She has a background in marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility in consumer goods, software and media. She is an avid follower of marketing trends and shares news and analyzes trends on her blog: www.alicechacon.blogspot.com and her Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/@alicemchacon.
Last month I started the story of my search for better job opportunities in Toronto. Leaving Vancouver isn’t easy, especially knowing that I was going to miss the Olympics and finally see what all that construction was for!
Toronto is such a different city from Vancouver in so many ways. One of them is that it is so spread out and so densely populated. Sure, the Lower mainland really stretches out, both North to South and West to East. But in Toronto, commutes over an hour are far more common than they ever seemed to be in Vancouver.
Location is key when you look for work here, especially considering that traffic is a nightmare at almost any hour of the day and any day of the week, and that public transit can be terrible when you are trying to get to or from a place far from the subway. And besides long walks, waits and switching buses, trains, etc several times, you have the nasty wind and snow, or the very high temperatures in the summer.
Ideally, you’d want to live close to the place where you work, especially if that is out and far from the subway lines, like Mississauga, Brampton and Markham. But it’s hard to know exactly where you’ll work until you get a job. In some industries, that can be more predictable. Banks and investment firms tend to be located downtown. A lot of technology companies are located in Markham. But if you’re interested in CPG, like I am, it can be hard to say.
In a tight economy, companies want the sure thing. Having a Toronto address is very important when looking for a job here, I’ve been told. I got very little done when I was in Vancouver last fall, finishing my MBA. Since I’ve been here, I’m impressed at how many more people I’ve been able to meet. That means that, like me, if you’re really decided on working here, you may have to find a place to live first, before you know where you will be working.
The good news is that real estate is cheaper here than it is in Vancouver. Rent can also be much cheaper (I’m paying less here for a 1 bedroom condo near trendy Yonge and Eglinton than I was in a much smaller, two-bedroom basement in Dunbar). The bad news is that you probably will need a car, even if you got along fine without one in Vancouver. Even if your home and work are on the subway line, having a car means it will be easier to get out to cottage country or Niagara on the weekends. In Vancouver, you can get around (even to go hiking or get a ferry out to Bowen Island) without a car.
But is it worth it? As of yet, I’m still searching for a good opportunity. However, this is a fast-moving city and there are so many companies in the Greater Toronto Area. I’ll share more about the job search in my next post.
Key Considerations for Launching a Social Media Strategy
More and more companies are embracing digital and social media as an opportunity to engage and deepen relationships with customers, augmenting or even replacing traditional marketing strategies. A recent example, rather move forward with a traditional Super Bowl TV spot, Pepsi launched the Pepsi Refresh Project. Through the $20 million crowdsourcing initiative, which will no doubt be a marketing case study, people are enticed to submit and vote on ideas that will have a positive impact on society. The best ideas will receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 each.
Pepsi is just one many companies endeavoring to be more innovative in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Such innovation is now a necessity, as brands strive to break through and achieve relevancy in the mindset of modern consumers. However, before going full on in digital and social media, there are some very important questions companies must ask themselves.
1. Is the strategy aligned with the brand and overall marketing plan?
An interactive social media strategy should be created and executed in proper alignment with the overall brand strategy. Keeping in mind that social media is based on two-way dialogue, companies must ensure that the brand identity is upheld and in each and every interaction. Like any medium, desired messaging must be consistent with other components of the marketing plan. Social media should not be a standalone strategy, where possible companies should consider integrating it with other mediums. For example, a print ad could drive people to a Facebook fan page, with a proper incentive that consumers find to be of value.
2. How will the social media efforts be measured?
As with any marketing strategy, metrics are important. While it is always valuable to determine ROI on a given campaign, social media measurement should be considered a bit differently. Effective social media engagement strategies rely on word-of-mouth. As such, companies need to monitor the conversation that is occurring. What is being discussed? What is their share of the conversation, for a particular market segment? How often is their product and/or service being recommended?
The 4Ps have evolved into the 4Cs – content, connections, community and conversations.
Here is an overview of online buzz generated from this year’s Super Bowl commercials, courtesy of Mashable.
3. Are the necessary resources available to execute?
Companies need to consider whether they have the knowledge and skills necessary to properly execute a social media strategy, either internally or with partner agencies. Social media is much, much more than possessing an understanding of Facebook and Twitter – companies that rely on that as a basis for “expertise” are only setting themselves up for failure. As a side note, in May 2009 a search of Twitter profiles revealed that there are 4,487 self-proclaimed social media experts. As of December 2009, there were 15,740. This represents a three and a half fold increase, within just six months! Yikes! Drawing a parallel, I’ve been skiing most of my life, so I suppose I should be trying out for the World Cup circuit right now, shouldn’t I?
Of course, there are many top social media pros who stand out from the crowd, I am fortunate to know some of them. In building resources to execute social media program, an understanding of both social media and marketing fundamentals is important.
What are your thoughts? What should companies consider when developing a social media strategy?
Eric Buchegger is the BCAMA Director of Social Media. Read his marketing insights blog at www.ericbuchegger.com.
What Every Good Marketer Knows
Written by Andrea Baxter, the Founder & Principal of Bratface Marketing, a boutique marketing firm. She provides innovative marketing solutions including branding, strategy, communications and team building skills to organizations from small, independent companies to larger public corporations.
I was digging around some old files on my computer and stumbled upon this one. I read it over again and again and I still firmly believe in it. This was originally posted by one of my favourite writers and marketers, Seth Godin back in May 2005. It stuck out for me because it really pinpoints all the key areas all marketers should know or should be experiencing on the job. These are lessons that I learned through years of being in marketing and I still do to this day because there is always more to absorb.
I wanted to share them all with you in case you don’t read Seth’s blog. If you don’t, I think you should by clicking here.
- Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
- Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
- Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
- Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
- Marketing begins before the product is created.
- Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
- Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
- Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
- Products that are remarkable get talked about.
- Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
- You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
- If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
- People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
- You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
- What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
- Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
- Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
- People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
- Good marketers tell a story.
- People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
- Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
- Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
- Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
- A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
- Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
- Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
- Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
- Good marketers measure.
- Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
- One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.
- In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
- Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
- There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
- Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
- You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
- You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
- Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.
Obviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.
Vancouver 2010 Olympics – Everybody Wants a Piece
Locals, tourists, media, sponsors and non-sponsors will be descending onto this Village of Vancouver over the next few weeks for one of the world’s biggest sporting events. And while this blog’s title may or may not be a veiled reference to the 100,000 free condoms distributed to the participants, it’s clear that marketers are pulling out all the stops in order to align their brand with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
First up on the docket is Subway, who’s manoeuvring around the whole ‘non-sponsor thing’ is downright comical. In fact, I’m inventing a term for their particular style of ambush marketing – ‘overt covertness’. The commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGJ8Q84L4I) has US Olympian and Speedo-clad Michael Phelps – a summer sport participant no less – swimming his way toward Vancouver. There is no actual mention of Vancouver or the Olympic Games, but it shows a map of the Pacific Northwest with Phelps clearly heading through Washington and toward Vancouver, with the narrator chiming in ‘so he can get to where the action is this winter’. I suppose we can only assume he’s heading to the Puyallup Sewing and Stitchery Festival.
Closer to home, Edgewater Casino have unveiled their ‘Our Games Are 24/7’ campaign at bus shelters across the city. Howe Sound Brewing made news with the release of their latest beer, an imperial red ale that features three beavers adorning gold, silver and bronze medals. Lululemon have gone a step further and unveiled a clothing line cheekily entitled ‘Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011’.
Clearly VANOC’s concerns are well-warranted and they have a lot to watch out for. This isn’t just a random event company controlling their logo usage to protect their brand and sponsor interests. VANOC is charged with the enormous and difficult task of developing and implementing a brand that not only speaks to their organization; but also a brand that will demonstrate to the world what it is to be Canadian. Caley Denton, VP, Ticketing & Consumer Marketing at VANOC, said at a recent luncheon “The impression of the games and what it says about Vancouver and Canada will be our legacy.” A tall order indeed.
Caley’s words may seem grandiose but they couldn’t be more on mark. We are far beyond maple syrup and Mounties; we are a compassionate, tolerant, multicultural and spirited bunch who take pride in the natural theatre in which we live. Too often an afterthought on the world scene, Canada will emerge from these games with new meaning and Vanoc’s message of “with glowing hearts” will deliver that. I attended the BCAMA’s Speaker Series event – The Art of Storytelling – and among speaker Bill Baker’s many insights was the following quote: “To be human is to have a story”. Well, to be Canadian is to have a story as well, and now is our chance to tell it.
So in reality, chasing down an ambush marketer or besmirching a local companies’ attempt at good old Canadian wit is the least of Vanoc’s worries. The public are pretty marketing savvy in today’s world anyway, and they will hardly be fooled by imposters.
The challenge, therefore, is not in wrestling their brand rights from rogue ambushers, but rather quite the opposite: taking the brand and infecting everyone so they may embrace and live it. Every interaction a tourist encounters upon arriving in Vancouver will play a role: the customs officer, the cab driver, the hotel clerk, the waitress, the nightclub bouncer, the museum guide. From Zulu to Roots, from Japadog to Roxy, we are all brand ambassadors. Storytellers, you might say.
Let’s just hope Michael Phelps is arriving in more than a Speedo.
Written by Ryan McKee, Manager, Marketing & New Media at Vancouver Whitecaps FC and BCAMA Director of Special Events
The Toronto blogger: Leaving Vancouver in search of new career opportunities
By Alice M. Chacon
I won’t lie to you. Graduating in one of the toughest economic times in recent history is intimidating, to say the least. On top of that I’ve decided to move to a new city, Toronto, to try to look for job opportunities I can’t find in Vancouver. I’ll be sharing my experiences with you on the BCAMA marketline blog.
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Back in 2008, when I decided to go back to school for my MBA, I thought that it would be a good way to hone my business skills and improve my opportunities of advancing my career as a new immigrant in Canada. But only weeks into my program, the news about the economy got infinitely worse. I crossed my fingers and hoped that job prospects would improve by the time I finished my program: December 2009.
I chose to do my MBA program at the Sauder School of Business (UBC), because I wanted to settle permanently in Vancouver. But once in Vancouver, my opinions changed. I was interested in joining an international company that could give me the experience of working with a global brand, and learned that most headquarters were located in Toronto.
I finally decided to move to Toronto last summer, when I was doing my internship in Ontario. While being here in the summer, I realized that there were more opportunities in more industries. It wasn’t an easy choice. Vancouver is an amazing place to live in, and most of my friends and professional network are in that city. Moving to Toronto means starting from scratch. That is even harder considering that I’m an immigrant and looking for my first full-time Canadian job.
I moved here just after finishing my MBA in December. The greatest challenge has been building a network. I’ve been meeting with friends of friends and reaching out to Sauder alumni here. I switched to the AMA Toronto chapter and went to my first meeting last week. It isn’t easy to start a network from scratch, but I’m not alone in doing this: With a shaky economy, it seems that many young professionals are considering the GTA as a good place to look for new opportunities.
Alice is a recent MBA graduate with a specialization in Marketing Management, based in Toronto, ON. She has a background in marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility in consumer goods, software and media. She is an avid follower of marketing trends and shares news and analyzes trends on her blog: www.alicechacon.blogspot.com and her Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/alicemchacon.
Traditional versus Creative Sponsorship
In a thesaurus, the word “sponsorship” has a variety of synonyms, including backing, support, funding, aid, finance and protection. I am yawning as I write this. But in the world of marketing, it truly means a way to reach out to a potential new target market with the aim of making more sales and building your reputation. Not so tiresome, but not far behind. OK, what I really mean to say is sponsorship can be creative, fun, inspiring and most importantly, it can get you new business!
Traditional sponsorship is still out there, but the best innovative minds will want to pull together a unique, jaw dropping marketing adventure that will get the attention of your audience. Didn’t know sponsorship could be so cool, eh? Well let me give you a couple of past sponsorship initiatives I have been involved with.
I was working on an event with zero budget and was in desperate need of creative design. At the time, designers were in very high demand and unavailable. Finding a designer to sponsor and donate their talent in kind was a big challenge. I was connected to this brilliant designer who had a banking day job and did design part time after hours. We approached her employer, a large credit union. The company ended up sponsoring the event by donating her days at work to creative days of work on the event. A win win for everyone!
Another innovative story is on sponsorship recognition. Gone should be the days of the rolling PowerPoint with logos (I am back yawning again). Instead of recognizing sponsors this way in front of a large audience, we did messaging throughout the day for each sponsor on what philanthropic achievements they achieved in their business. The crowd loved it, it was engaging, it was educational and it really highlighted their business! So, over to you savvy marketing minded readers … traditional or creative?
Treena Innes
BCAMA Director of Sponsorship
PS. Get in contact with me anytime to talk creative sponsorship, would love to hear from you: tkm1313@shaw.ca
Eye Candy – January
We are excited to introduce a new monthly feature for our blog. The following quick hits of inspiration are provided by Trina Mousseau, Creative Account Specialist at Inventa, and Director of Membership for the BCAMA.
1) SAFETY SONG ON MELODY ROAD
To promote safety awareness DUNLOP created a road that plays a melody when you drive the speed limit.
By making grooves in the road, a melody is played by the friction of tires. If the car is going too fast, it won’t work.
The road was featured in Japanese media and became a popular tourist attraction.
Agency: Dentsu Razorfish, Tokyo, Japan.
2) GUERRILLA THEATER AT CROSSWALKS
All the world’s a stage! Cell phone company and Internet provider Movistar showed just how speedy and mobile they are through flash performances on city crosswalks. The light turns red and the show begins; the light turns green and cars continue on their way. It’s a clever production that you must see for yourself. Click http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/speedy_mobile_mail to view the video.
Agency: Young & Rubicam Perú.
3) TOYOTA PRUIS SOLAR POWER FLOWERS
As part of the launch of the 2010 Toyota Prius, Toyota placed five 18-foot high “Solar Flowers” in Boston. The flower sculptures have solar power petals which offer consumers free electricity and free Wi-Fi. The installation toured major US cities including Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
4) LAUNDRY SOFTENER’S IDEA SMELLS SWEET
To create awareness for Lenor flower-scented laundry softener, they replaced the flower buckets of Romanian florists with Lenor bottle-shaped buckets. This creative media space, that highlights the product benefit so perfectly, was secured free of charge.
Agency: Grey Bucharest, Romania.
5) MAGNETIC BILLBOARD PROMOTES TV CHANNEL
To position HOT cable TV as the network with the best shows and the hottest stars to offer its customers they created a campaign entitled “At Home with the Stars.” A 140 meter long magnetic billboard was created and affixed with over 6,000 magnetic cut-outs of entertainment celebrities. The public was invited to peel off a celebrity and take it home with them. The entire display was stripped bare within two hours of launch, and was consequently restocked several times. The event became an instant hit and was picked up by leading media channels, including live coverage on Breakfast TV.
Agency: BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv, Israel.
If you like these, sign up for Trina’s bi-monthly Eye Candy reports at www.inventaworld.com/news.
Be part of our story, and win two tickets to the upcoming BCAMA breakfast!
Are you a storyteller? Join in, be a part of the story, and you could win two tickets to the upcoming BCAMA breakfast (January 20th) and a $50 Chapters gift card. The event will feature guest speakers Bill Baker from Envisioning & Storytelling along with Saleem Ahamed from Johnson & Johnson (Lifescan).
We have got the ball rolling. Just follow the guidelines below for you chance to win:
- Add one sentence only.
- The sentence must be maximum of 110 characters (so it can be posted on Twitter)
- Keep it ‘clean’
All participants will be entered into a random draw, limited to one entry per contributor. The contest closes on January 19th, at which time a winner will be notified via email.
Contribute to our story on Facebook at http://bit.ly/5vJYaw
Crowdsourcing: An Overview
Crowdsourcing is a term that many people have heard of over the last couple of years, yet there still seems to be some unfamiliarity with what it is. I thought I would provide an overview, with some contextual examples as they apply to marketing.
Made possible by Web 2.0 technologies and social media, the term was coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired magazine article. In essence, crowdsourcing is a problem-solving model in which particular issues are communicated to an audience of unknown participants, as an open call for solutions. The audience submits proposed solutions to the problem, and often times is tasked with sorting through the solutions, selecting the best one. For a full overview of crowdsourcing, Wikipedia has an excellent article.
From a marketing standpoint, executed properly, crowdsourcing can be an excellent method of engaging audiences with a brand. By providing a mechanism for feedback and interaction, brands can foster greater loyalty and sense of ownership. The caveat, however, is that for crowdsourcing to work, companies must show that they are willing to embrace and enact on the solutions that audiences propose. Companies can also go further by rewarding those who submit solutions that are implemented.
Several companies have successfully leveraged crowdsourcing as part of their marketing efforts.
Dell, some time after having suffered an online PR disaster, created a forum for participants to contribute and vote on ideas – www.ideastorm.com. The website currently attracts 15,000 users a month. So far, they have implemented over 350 of 13,000 ideas submitted. Here is a promotional video for the website.
Venerable consumer giant Procter and Gamble has also made a foray into crowdsourcing. They host contests on online research and development communities, inviting the public to submit solutions related to product design or new ideas on it’s connect + develop website. So far, more than 30% of problems posted on InnoCentive, one of the community sites P&G uses, have been solved. The Swiffer, a major revenue generating product, came from P&G’s crowdsourcing initiatives.
Have you implemented or contemplated implementing a crowdsourcing strategy for your brand? Do you have any crowdsourcing examples that you’d like to share?
We would love to hear from you.
Special thanks to chaordix for providing crowdsourcing case studies. They have more available on their website.
Looking forward to 2010 and beyond
Ten years ago at this time, on New Year’s Eve 1999, there was a significant amount of uncertainty worldwide regarding potential computer failures. Ah yes, the infamous Y2K bug. It was also a time for reflection and anticipation, particularly given that it was not just the dawn of a new year, but also a new century.
It is amazing to look back and observe the innovation and changes that have occurred over the past ten years.
From a marketing standpoint, we have witnessed a number of things, including:
- The rise of Google and the importance of search engine optimization. “You are what Google says you are”. Try typing in the name of your own brand, or heck even your own name, and see what you get. As many as 59% of online consumers now use search engines as a source of researching product information. How did I find that stat? Well, using Google, of course!
- Media fragmentation. Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of available methods for communicating brand messages to target audiences. A recent global study revealed that, for the first time, the Internet is more popular medium than TV. Now, more than ever, companies need to figure out who their target market is, and determine the best methods for engaging them.
- Social media. Some companies, such as Starbucks and Ford, have done a great job at leveraging social media to truly engage consumers, deepening relationships and enhancing loyalty. However, it seems that many companies and their respective agencies are still trying to grasp the power and potential strategic applications. See Motrin and Toyota. With countless blogs, and tens of millions of people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, social media is here to stay. Your customers are talking about you. Have you joined the conversation?
- The long tail. Made possible by the Internet, and popularized by Chris Anderson in a 2004 Wired magazine article and his book “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More”, companies such as Amazon have achieved success through a niche selling strategy of selling a large number of unique items in small quantities. This has resulted in some new marketing techniques, including the strategic use of word-of-mouth and viral marketing.
- Mobile access and smartphones. Smartphone usage and WiFi access is increasing worldwide, and so is mobile commerce. Consequently, companies must consider optimizing their websites for mobile access. Opportunities also exist to develop marketing strategies involving mobile applications and augmented reality.
These are just a few highlights that came to mind, as you know there are scores of others.
As I write this, on New Year’s Eve 2009, there is a great deal of uncertainty about what the future holds for marketing and advertising. However, there is also significant opportunity for companies to thrive – leveraging new mediums and technology to grow awareness for their brands, as well as engage and deepen relationships with consumers.
The computers did not stop working on January 1, 2000, and the sky is not falling right now. Far from it.
It will be interesting to see what the next ten years have in store. What are your predictions? Please feel free to share your thoughts here. It would also be great to hear your insights on the decade that just passed.
Wishing you all of the best for a successful and prosperous 2010.
Eric Buchegger
BCAMA Director of Social Media
