6S Marketing Blog

“The Art Of” Event Dates – Toronto and Vancouver

Kelly Robertson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:46:07 +0000

The Art Of Productions is Canada’s preeminent owner and producer of educational conferences for professionals including The Art of Sales, The Art of Management, The Art of Leadership, and The Art of Marketing. The program attracts over 10,000 senior decision makders annually who learn from leading edge authors and experts sucha s Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Michael Eisner.

The Art of Marketing – Toronto

Taking place March 5th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The lineup of speakers include:

Randi Zuckerberg, Former Head of Marketing at Facebook (big sister to Mark Zuckerberg)
Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s Manager
Martin Lindstrom, Author of Buyology, Brandsense and Brandwashed
Youngme Moon, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard
Eric Ryan, Co-Founder of Method
Bryan Pearson, President of LoyaltyOne
Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image

For more about the speaker roster visit TheArtOfMarketing.ca/Speakers.

6S has a promo code for tickets to this event, to use please visit the Art of Marketing website.

The Art of Leadership – Vancouver

The event’s first time in Vancouver, The Art of Leadership takes place on March 29th at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Created due to overwhelming demand, this one day conference features six internationally renowned bestselling authors and visionaries, who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today’s most critical leadership issues.

Speakers include:

Patrick Lencioni, Founder of The Table Group
Robin Sharma, International Bestselling Author of 11 books
General rick Hillier, Former Chief of Defense Staff at the Canadian Forces
Jeanne Meister, Bestselling Author of The 2020 Workplace
Stephen Shapiro, Innovation Consultant
Leonard Brody, Two Time Emmy Nominee

For more information please visit TheArtOfLeadership/speakers.

We also have a promo code for a discount off tickets for The Art of Leadership event, to use, please visit The Art of Leadership website.

Article on the Adoption of Google+ in Canadian Business Journal

Kelly Robertson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:49:34 +0000

If you’re like many companies in Canada, you’re still trying to figure out how social media can help you with your business objectives. In addition, figuring out which social networks to use within your strategy and who will manage those initiatives is also very time-consuming.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube have been the primary social networks companies have focused their marketing efforts around; however, with the introduction of Google+ there is a new player on the field and so far, it promises to be the strongest and most adopted social network of all.

Read our article on the Canadian Business Journal website.

Nurturing Company Culture Outside the Office wins Agency Top Employer for 3rd Consecutive Year

Kelly Robertson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:02:00 +0000

On the heels of being named “The #1 Best Communications and Professional Services Company To Work For in BC” by BC Business Magazine, 6S Marketing is placed on Eluta’s Top 50 Employers in BC list for the third consecutive year.

Now entering its eighth year, BC’s Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers.The special designation recognizes the British Columbia employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work.

Employers are evaluated by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers using the same eight criteria as the national competition: 1.)Physical Workspace; 2.) Work Atmosphere & Social; 3.) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; 4.) Vacation & Time Off; 5.) Employee Communications; 6.) Performance Management 7.) Training & Skills Development and 8.) Community Involvement. Read the full press release.

Nurturing Company Culture Outside the Office wins Agency Top Employer for 3rd Consecutive Year

Kelly Robertson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:30:13 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Read the Press Release on PRWeb

Vancouver and Toronto – February 3^rd, 2012 – On the heels of being named “The #1 Best Communications and Professional Services Company To Work For in BC” by BC Business Magazine, 6S Marketing is placed on Eluta’s Top 50 Employers in BC list for the third consecutive year.

Now entering its eighth year, BC’s Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. The special designation recognizes the British Columbia employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work.

Employers are evaluated by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers using the same eight criteria as the national competition: 1.) Physical Workspace; 2.) Work Atmosphere & Social; 3.) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; 4.) Vacation & Time Off; 5.) Employee Communications; 6.) Performance Management 7.) Training & Skills Development and 8.) Community Involvement.

In order to remain as one of the leading employers in the digital marketing industry and in the minds of new graduates, 6S Marketing has put a strong focus on these eight criteria to ensure they are providing the best working conditions, benefits and culture to its employees. “This ultimately keeps our employees happy, productive and helps us grow by being top-of-mind to new graduates entering the workforce” explains Managing Director John Blown. But it’s not all about work and office culture. “We all spend a large amount of time with each other outside the office at non-work events; many go to the gym together, run the sea wall and simply enjoy each other’s company outside of the office. This in turn makes coming to work that much better and makes everyone work that much harder.”

This year 6S Marketing added ski nights to their company events and an organic produce delivery service to provide their staff with healthy snack choices. “Continuously improving our culture and adding benefits such as these are what keeps us ahead of what other companies in our industry offer to their employees” says Blown.

About 6S Marketing – For the last eleven years, 6S Marketing has fearlessly rode the wild ride known as the Internet, taking advantage of every thrilling twist and turn along the way. Our company was founded in 2000, during the infancy of the digital marketing industry and just after the shiny dot-com bubble burst. Since then, we’ve been among the strong who not only have survived – we’ve thrived – and have become the trusted provider of digital marketing strategies to some of Canada’s most recognized brands.

Today, and with more than 500 digital marketing campaigns under our belt, 6S is one of the leading digital marketing agencies in North America, and one of the largest of its kind in Canada with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. For more visit 6Smarketing.com.

For more information:

Kelly Robertson
Marketing Manager
6S Marketing
6Smarketing.com
e. krobertson@6smarketing.com
p. (604) 282-7604

What should marketers and brands do about Google+?

Julien Simon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:35:25 +0000

What brands and marketers should do about Google+

Get involved!

Google+ is not a shiny new tool or an innovative beta social media platform anymore. 6S Marketing has been telling the world for a few months to get involved with Google+. Chris Breikss insisted during his presentation during the social media week way back in September that Google+ was going to play a big role in the social media and search results world and said that brands and marketers should jump on board as soon as possible. We told you that Google+ business pages should not be ignored, and we gave you tips and tricks on how to use Google+.

In this blog post, I am not going to try and convince you to get a Google+ page by giving the top 10 or top 20 reasons why you should get one. I believe the following two should be enough:

1) Google+ is where the conversation is happening.

It took Google+ 24 days to reach 20 million users, 88 days to reach 50 million users. Google just announced today that there are 90 million users on this platform…and it just keeps growing. I forecast a big jump in the numbers since they recently allowed teenagers (13 years old +) to be on Google+.

People talk about brands, about topics, about products, and if you are not on Google+, you are not part of the conversation. Google also launched a new feature to try and bring the conversation on Google+ by asking its users to post a question on Google+ after doing a search on Google.com:

2) Google Search Plus Your World.

Last week, I wrote a blog post about this new Google search feature called Google Search Plus Your World. In a nutshell, Google now adds search results from people or pages in Google+ right on the Google search results page. This is really powerful to drive more traffic to your Google+ page or website. For a while, we saw real time results with tweets ranking in real time when searching a keyword in Google. Twitter did not renew its contract with Google in July 2011 so the real time search feature was taken down by Google. It is now back under a different form with Search + Your World and it’s even more powerful.

What does this mean to brands or marketers?

It means that if you don’t have a Google+ business page, you cannot appear in these Google Search plus your world results.

It also means that if you just created a Google+ page because “someone” told you to and have not updated it in the last month, chances are your Google+ page is not doing your brand any good. Google+ pages rank based on content and popularity so much so that neglecting your Google+ page will give you neither of these two attributes.

The strategies you use on Facebook and Twitter also applies on Google+: you want to provide useful content, grow your audience and engage actively with it. The only difference is that if you fill your Google+ page with content, you will grow your brand and end up ranking in Google. Ranking in Google will then increase the number of people who +1 and follow your page. It is a very positive brand awareness spiral and you should be part of it.

Custom Snippets and Titles in SERP’s

AlexMorrison — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:05:16 +0000

A while back, you may have noticed that meta descriptions shown in the SERP’s changed a bit – compared to what is actually written in the meta tag. Google began to allow advertisers to go beyond the standard character limits and would then customize the meta description result to best match the users query.

Matt Cutts has been talking about these types of adjustments to snippets and titles since 2009 however, this is the first time I’ve witnessed the customization of a title tag specifically. I noticed this change while looking at rankings for one of my clients – they were ranking on the first page for a keyword but the title tag was only 3 words long. I immediately thought to myself “well there’s no way I would have left the homepage title tag at 3 words long”… so I investigated. What I found, was that Google had actually taken the tail end of my title tag (which was over the character limit) to better match the users search.

Here is what I saw in the search results page when I searched for “mobile hair salon Vancouver”:

This is how the title tag – for that exact page – is written:

Snippets and Titles Explanation by Matt Cutts:

So, Google is altering snippets and titles to best match users search queries. While creating custom snippets and titles definitely helps the user find relevant pages, do you find – as an SEO, that this negatively or positively affects your optimization efforts? Do you have any examples of this occurring with your website or with one of your clients?

The Most Influential Brands in Canada 2011

Chris Breikss — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:00:59 +0000

Our first Ad Week Toronto event on Tuesday, January 24th was the Ipsos Most Influential Brands in Canada presentation by Ipsos Reid President Market Research Canada East Steve Levy.

** Please excuse the graphic, I took a photo of the list with my iPhone and have not been able to find the complete list online… **

To determine the most influential brands in Canada, Ipsos developed an influence index where brands could obtain points ranging from 14 to a total of 427, the latter being the most influential.
The presentation did not go into detail as to how they polled Canadians, or the type of survey used but did say that it was completed November 23rd – 30th, 2011 by 1013 Canadians.

The 1013 respondents were polled and asked to identify the brands that they identified with in the following ways (known as the 6 dimensions of influence): relevance to the consumer, the brand is leading edge, shows corporate citizenship, has a presence, is engaging and trustworthy. The 100 brands in the survey were based on their advertising spend.

Levy stated that in order to determine the influence the top 100 brands held over each Canadian consumer “needed to make the consumer aware of something new, change their life in someway in their everyday life, make their life more interesting, offer something really important in the world today, or be fundamental to the consumers life, or changed the way the consumer shops”.

The Top 10 Most Influential Brands in Canada Are:

10. Airmiles

Established in 1992 Airmiles was developed out of a desire to promote a new type of loyalty program and was the first of its kind to support a “coalition of retail partners” that worked together under one loyalty program. The influence dimensions that Airmiles had with consumers was it was leading edge and a trustworthy company. Airmiles came in with an Index of 187.

Fun Fact: 10 million Canadian’s have a loyalty card.

9. YouTube

Launched in 2005, YouTube revolutionized the way people consumed content online. Canadian consumers voted the company high in have a leading edge, being highly relevant to today’s consumers and their lifestyle and , engaging. YouTube has an Influence index 189.

Fun Fact: YouTube is highly relevant – 1 in 3 Canadians use YouTube daily. It has 2 billion global users per day. Every 60 seconds 48 hours of content is uploaded. The poll also found YouTube to be highly engaging – 21% of Canadians would be more than happy to “like” YouTube on Facebook.

8. Visa

Founded in 1976 and an influence index of 214, Visa was found to be highly relevant with Canadians and to have a large presence and be highly trustworthy. By year 2000 1 billion cards had been issued. Visa processes 30 million transactions per day. Fun Facts: Visa was found to score as 3x more prominent than all other brands in top 100 surveyed. Currently, 4 in 10 Canadians use Visa. Did you also know that the blue line represents the blue sky of California and the gold strip is to represent the sandy beaches?

7. Facebook

I personally though Facebook would score higher on the influence index, however it came in with a score of 219 and was found to rate high in engagement, relevancy, and be a leading edge brand in the eyes of Canadian consumers.

Fun Facts: Facebook is highly engaging for Canadians: There are 700,000 new users signing on per day, 60million status updates daily, each person has an average of 130 friends. Each of these 130 people send an average of 8 friend requests per month, spend 55 min/day, make 25 comments, “like” 4 fan pages, and belong to 13 groups.

6. CBC

Every Canadian loves the CBC (remember the public rage when they tried to rid the CBC of Ron MacLean?). It’s part of our culture and Canadians still feel strong about it. It was found to be highly relevant, engaging and a trustworthy brand to Canadians.

Fun Fact: Hockey Night in Canada has been on since 1952!

5. Walmart

Walmart has 4000 retail stores worldwide and an approximate ad spend of 53 Million (mostly on TV), making its presence in Canadian households quite prominent. The 5th most influential Canadian brand, Walmart scored 293 on the Ipsos influence index. Canadians also noted they found the brand highly trustworthy. This likely is to do with its slogan of “The Lowest Price. Always.” – something the brand has done a good job at ensuring for their customers.

Fun Fact: Walmart is #1 on the Fortune 500 list.

4. Apple

A brand with a large Canadian presence, trustworthy image, and producing leading edge technology, Apple came in with a Ipsos influence index of 308. There is clearly no shortage in demand for apple, and being the first to introduce products to the market has helped Apple to establish itself as one of the most trustworthy brands in Canada.

Fun Fact: 7 in 10 Canadians surveyed can’t wait to hear what Apple will do next.

3. President’s Choice

Established in 1984, this brand scored high in relevance to the consumer and is thought to be extremely trustworthy. Obtained an Ipsos influence index of 344. The brand is also extremely relevant – more than half of adult population in Canada buys Presidents Choice products.

Fun Fact: The brand also scored high points in the trust index for having its own financial institution. Where else can you get a chocolate chip cookie and do your banking at the same time?

2. Google

Founded in 1998 and obtained an Ipsos index of 403, Google is 30x more influential in Canada then H&M (who scored an influence index of 14, making it 100 on the list). The brand is highly relevant in the every day life of Canadians, is leading edge and trustworthy.

Fun Facts: Half of Canadian population use Google once per day. The site also receives 1 billion unique users per month. Have you watched the dear Sophie Google commercial? Be warned, it’s a tear jerker, but clearly illustrates why Google and its products are so relevant in our lives.

1. Microsoft

The whole audience at this presentation was shocked when Microsoft was announced as the #1 most influential brand in Canada. Attendees were predicting Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons…but Microsoft? Really?…Ok Ipsos.

For 35 years, Microsoft has been the #1 provider of operating systems and obtained an Ipsos influence index of 427. Interestingly, Microsoft is an extremely strong spender but not the top spender out of all brands on top 100, with an ad spend of just 23 million in 2010 on TV campaigns. This is just 1 10th of what Ford spent that same year; proving that just because your ad spend is large doesn’t mean it will buy you influence or the trust of consumers.

Fun Fact: Microsoft is the most widely operating system in the world. There were 40 million copies of of Windows 95 sold.

Ipsos also revealed that 41% of Canadians polled feel that Microsoft is dependable (again, really?) And 47% of Canadians polled feel that Microsoft have changed the landscape. Have these Canadians not heard of a little company called Apple?

Do you agree with Microsoft being the most influential brand in Canada? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below!

You can also visit the Ipsos website for more about this study.

Google+ Infographic: Google Search Plus Your World

Chris Breikss — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:31:58 +0000

Google Plus “Search Your Your World” is a huge game changer for the social search industry. Growing at an astonishing rate of 625,000 Google+ subscribers per day, the social network is in line to surpass Facebook and Twitter to become the most widely used social network in the world. Google+ already has 90 million users and is on pace to break through the 100 million user mark in February 2012.

Check out how Google is dominating the search market below! (VIEW FULL SIZE VERSION)

Google+ Infographic: Google Search Plus Your World

Advertising Week Toronto Opening Breakfast

Kelly Robertson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:38:17 +0000

200 of Canada’s most creative and talented advertising professionals gathered at the Toronto Reference Library this morning for the Advertising Week Toronto opening breakfast. To kick things off an amazing breakfast was prepared by Top Chef Canada’s Mark McEwan. A pretty wonderful and delicious way to start off the week! His creation was eggs benny, served on toasted brioche and paired with caramelized onion potatoes. It was simply amazing.

After breakfast the keynote speaker, David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman at Dro5a took the stage to discuss with Leslie Roberts from Global TV the status of Canada’s advertising and creative talents, what Canada could be doing better and what the future of the ad agency world holds.

When asked about the Canadian ad industry, Droga gave props to Canadians for not being “paralyzed” by the vast markets available to the US and UK markets and compared them to the Australian’s for the type of talent being produced. He also noted that our geographic ties with the US are a huge benefit as we can learn from our US counterparts as to what not to do and what we can be doing better.

So what will make ad agencies better in the future? It comes down to focusing on the quality of work being produced – a point he stressed throughout the panel and feels as though the majority of agencies have stopped focusing on and now focus on running the business, rather than producing honest, simple work for their clients.

He ended the panel by driving home the message that real conversations with a client will produce higher quality work. Don’t make the creative process complicated; get to the root of what your client is trying to communicate and the natural flow of ideas will come.

North Shore Search & Rescue Honored by the Vancouver Police Department

Kelly Robertson — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:00:45 +0000

When someone needs help finding a missing person, they turn to the Vancouver Police (VPD). When the VPD needs help finding a missing person, they turn to the North Shore Search and Rescue Team (NSR). On Thursday, January 19th, our Managing Director and co-founder of 6S Marketing, John Blown, attended an awards ceremony with his fellow NSR volunteers where NSR was honored by the VPD for its dedication to community service.

John was just one of the many NSR volunteers that attended to receive the Chief Constable’s Unit Citation award on behalf of NSR for the organization’s many years of assistance to the Vancouver Police Department. Congratulations John and the rest of the NSR team!

John Blown and VPD Chief Jim Chu