Banfield-Seguin Blog

Banfield-Seguin and Canada Post send wineries an important message in a bottle

2013-05-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

Before a wine lover cracks open a new bottle of wine, they may pause. There is a moment of reflection, bordering on reverence, filled with anticipation for what is to come next.

A little over the top? Perhaps. Still, the key insight that opening a bottle is always an enjoyable moment inspired Banfield-Seguin and our client Canada Post to create a “message in a bottle” direct mail campaign to promote the company’s revamped wine shipping services. And so far the results have been nothing short of sparkling!

Now more than ever, the Canadian wine industry is experiencing increasing recognition and success around the world. In the summer of 2012, federal legislation preventing inter-provincial wine shipments was lifted, with provinces maintaining the authority to set limits on personal importation. Canada Post saw this as a key opportunity to connect with wineries, specialty wine stores and wine-related associations across the country.

The objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of the benefits of Canada Post’s wine shipping solution and generate sales leads. Canada Post’s unique end-to-end solution features the nation’s largest business to consumer distribution network, a suite of advanced marketing tools and a new Deliver to Post Office service — offering unparalleled reach and convenience to help wineries grow their business.

With these key differentiators identified, Banfield-Seguin went to work developing attention-grabbing creative that would spark our audiences’ curiosity, and, of course, deliver on all objectives. The result was our “message in a bottle” concept.

Each of the targeted businesses received a wooden box debossed with the simple message: “Open up new opportunities”. Inside the box, recipients discovered a Canada Post-branded wine bottle in which we had inserted a one-page fact sheet, in the form of a scroll. The fact sheet highlighted key features of the Winery Solution, a campaign URL for more information and a call to action to contact a Canada Post representative.

As further sales support, we also designed a Canada Post-branded package of water crackers, to be delivered in person by a sales representative. Because crackers are used during wine tastings to cleanse the palate, the idea was to offer potential customers a “shipping palate cleanser” to prime them for a brand new shipping option. The packaging was carefully designed to have them stop and think about this new offer and fully appreciate its business benefits.

And mission accomplished! Results from the first phase of the wine shipping solution campaign have exceeded client expectations, with breakthroughs made even with previously unresponsive wineries and associations. Canada Post is also very pleased with the positive feedback received from key industry players and via social media.

We want to thank Canada Post for the opportunity to fully leverage the potential of direct mail, and for their involvement and enthusiasm throughout the campaign’s development and execution.

Alcatel-Lucent IP Video Innovation: Video Case Study

2013-05-17T07:43:00.000-04:00

In Fall 2012, Alcatel-Lucent asked Banfield-Seguin to assist with the creative strategy, messaging, image selection and video for a new campaign, IP Video Innovation.

The IP Video Innovation solution delivers video content to customers wherever and whenever they want it, and Alcatel-Lucent needed to prove to today’s consumer that their IP video offering is better than the competition’s. To achieve that objective, we developed the creative concept “Seeing is Believing”. The campaign challenges the audience to see for themselves how unique IP Video Innovation truly is.

View the video below to learn more about the project and in particular, the captivating still-motion video we produced for the IP Video Innovation campaign.

Banfield-Seguin Collects 8 Communicator Awards — Including 2 Gold Awards of Excellence!

2013-05-16T13:39:00.000-04:00

Banfield-Seguin is proud to announce a total of 8 wins for our clients’ print, video and web projects at the 2013 Communicator Awards — one of the largest competitions of its kind in the world.

Banfield-Seguin was recognized for work done in a variety of disciplines and across different industries, both on the national and international stage — a testament to our versatility as a full-service marketing communications agency.

We consider it a true privilege to be able to help clients like Aireon, Alcatel-Lucent, Iridium, and the National Arts Centre take their rightful place next to other notable Communicator Award winners like Nike, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, Red Bull, Verizon, Audi, NASA, Boeing, 20th Century Fox, Intel, AOL, Porsche, Lego and others.

From the over 6,000 entries submitted by companies and agencies around the world, the International Academy of Visual Arts has recognized the following work:

GOLD AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

National Arts Centre
NAC Dance Poster 2012-13
Category: Marketing/Promotion-Poster

Banfield-Seguin
Company HolidayCard 2011-12
Category: Marketing/Promotion-Greeting Card

SILVER AWARDS OF DISTINCTION

Iridium
Iridium Pilot Ad
Category: Print Ad-Business/Trade Publication

Alcatel-Lucent
High Leverage Network Website
Category: Web-Corporate Communications

Iridium
Iridium Pilot Ad
Category:
Print Ad-Magazine

Aireon
Aireon Website
Category: Web-Corporate Identity

National Arts Centre
NAC Dance
Brochure 2012-13
Category: Brochure-Business-to-Consumer

Aireon
Aireon Corporate Video
Category: Online Video-Technology

These 8 Communicator Awards now bring the number of international awards we received in the past year to a total of 29 — which includes 14 Davey Awards and 7 AVA Digital Awards.

Banfield-Seguin is very grateful for these accolades, and would like to thank its clients and everyone involved in making these projects a success.

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About the Communicator Awards:

Founded nearly two decades ago, The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program recognizing big ideas in marketing and communications. It honors work that transcends innovation and craft — work that made a lasting impact, providing an equal chance of winning to all entrants regardless of company or agency size and project budget. As it enters its 19th season, the competition is also introducing expanded mobile and new cause marketing categories, making this year's edition bigger and better than ever.

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Tools and Techniques to Unlock Workplace Creativity

2013-05-13T15:36:00.001-04:00

Business success in the 21st century depends on the ability to create and innovate, and companies like Apple are leading the way with a commitment to creativity in all aspects of their operations.

This is the fourth installment in a series that explores how applying creative tools and principles in the workplace can help deliver better results and engender positive change.

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If you have read our previous articles, then you will no doubt be familiar with the benefits of workplace creativity, and the different ways to maximize your team’s unique talents, as well as develop an organizational culture where creativity can flourish.

The next step is to provide you with some tools and techniques you can use to help set creative problem solving into action. All of the examples listed below have been tried and tested by the Banfield-Seguin team, and many have helped get us out of even the toughest of creative jams. Enjoy!

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is one of the longest standing and most popular creative ideation methods around the world. The goal of these sessions is to use lateral thinking and collaboration to produce as many different solutions as possible.

To achieve that, it is important to create an open and positive environment that makes everyone feel comfortable enough to share what comes to his or her mind. This means that judgment and criticism should be avoided at all cost. We always suggest that the person leading the meeting start by letting participants know “The Rules of Brainstorming”, i.e. no judging of ideas, and be open to even the most counterintuitive or quirky of the proposed solutions. With the combined input of the group, something outlandish could morph into something truly innovative and possible.

Ideas should be evaluated only after the meeting is over. At that point, the most promising ones can be organized into a shortlist and further developed.

One of the drawbacks of brainstorming is that results are often dictated by the individual tendencies of participants. As mentioned in our second article about unique creative talents, some people find it difficult to spontaneously produce ideas. Others may be afraid their ideas will be rejected. There is also the risk of those with a lot of energy for ideation dominating and/or defending their ideas too forcefully, and failing to listen to others.

Brainwriting

Brainwriting, on the other hand, gives everyone an equal opportunity to contribute. Like brainstorming, it is conducted in a group setting where participants are asked to explore different solutions. However, brainwriting is different in that it is a quieter process that allows for participants to write their ideas down, and not worry about breaking through the clamour of out-loud brainstorming.

Brainwriting can be done in various formats. One is to use a sheet of paper where each participant writes down three ideas; participants then exchange papers and add more ideas, and so on, building from the ideas already there.

Alternatively, participants can simply write ideas on cards (or sticky notes). These cards are then placed at the centre of the table (or on a wall) for team members to use as inspiration for more ideas. In turn, news ideas again get captured and shared, and serve as triggers for even more.

At Banfield-Seguin, we find brainwriting is particularly helpful when trying to solve more complex business problems that require a more methodical, “building-blocks” approach.

Mindmapping

Mindmapping is an effective tool when you really need to break out of fixed thought patterns. Our creative teams often use some form of mindmapping to try to come up with truly unexpected, “out there” ideas.

A mind map is usually created around a single core word or phrase, placed in the center of a white board or a large piece of blank paper. From there, key related concepts are added as “branches,” radiating out from the central node. Identifying the first-level branches is critical because it will guide the thinking done at lower levels. These categories therefore have to be broad enough to allow many sub-ideas to flourish, and relevant enough to the problem to help focus the team’s creativity.

The rest of the process consists of building out from the primary branches, and again from the sub-branches and sub-sub-branches, until you feel you’ve exhausted all possible connections and the mind-map feels complete. Ideally the last level of ideas will consist of unexpected but compelling ideas that will point to highly creative potential solutions.

Starbursting

Starbursting is a creative technique that focuses on questions instead of answers, and serves as a great information-gathering tool. It is particularly useful when faced with a situation or problem that is unfamiliar to the team, or with a proposed solution that is still raw and undefined. Starbursting helps bridge the knowledge gap by taking this new element though a series of questions to ensure all relevant aspects have been considered before work begins.

The first step to starbursting is to draw a six-pointed star on a white board or a large sheet of paper, and to write the name of the item being investigated at the centre. Next to each point of the star, you then write the words ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where,’ ‘when,’ ‘why’ and ‘how’, before proceeding to address each of them. For example, next to the word ‘how’, you might ask the questions: “How will this new service benefit our customers/clients?”, “How will they use it?” or “How will we market it?”. Both the questions and answers should be captured in short form on the startbursting board.

To get the most out of starbursting, it is important that the six headings are explored in a systematic and comprehensive way, every time a new item is considered. This process can also be repeated over multiple stages, with a new set of questions being asked about the answers to the first set. Only stop once you feel every important detail has been clarified.

The Charette

When multiple related issues need to be tackled at once, traditional brainstorming can often be unfocused and unproductive. However, creative ideation can still be effective if you take a different approach to it. One such approach is the charette technique.

The charette takes its name after the French word for ‘cart’ or ‘chariot’, and involves dividing participants into small groups and having each of them brainstorm solutions to a single problem at a time. After a given time period, the problem and solutions brainstormed by one group are “wheeled over” (hence the notion of a cart) to another group.

At that point, another round of brainstorming takes place, with the second group refining the work of the first one and expanding upon it. This process goes on until every group has had a chance to work on every problem, so it is a truly collaborative tool. (And some may note that charette happens to be the last name of our Creative Director, John Charette – an amusing coincidence, for us at least!)

In conclusion, there are many tools and techniques to generate ideas. The key is choosing the most effective ones for the situation. To do that, you need to consider the tendencies and talents of those involved, and the nature of the problem that needs to be solved. It usually helps to use more than one technique. For example, you may want to start with individual mindmapping and then transition to out-loud brainstorming.

In the following weeks, we will take a look at how working with a creative agency can help you and your team better use the above tools and arrive at even stronger creative solutions.

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What do you think?

Which of these creative tools could you and your team use right away? Can you share any other techniques that have helped you produce creative solutions at work? What are the keys to executing these other techniques to get the best possible results?

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The Creative Spark Series is a joint initiative by the MARCOM Professional Development Annual Forum and marketing communications agency Banfield-Seguin, a proud official supplier of theme creative for MARCOM 2013. The series promotes the benefits of creativity in the workplace and presents ways to successfully apply creative tools and techniques to inspire, influence and act.

It’s a Boy!!!

2013-05-12T15:40:00.000-04:00

Introducing Tyler Gravel!

We’re thrilled to report that Banfield-Seguin Account Director Julie Gravel is enjoying her time on maternity leave with her first baby boy.

And we couldn’t be happier for her!

Tyler arrived 6 weeks early and caught us all by surprise — especially Account Executive Kelly MacNaull who is backing up Julie while she is off.

At birth, Tyler weighed in at just under 5 pounds but was very healthy and strong – he was even seen kicking around a soccer ball in his incubator on his second day of life (he’s going to be a forward like his mom).

Tyler is now 3-months old and back on track at over 11 pounds. And he's even starting to smile. Aaawww…

Congratulations Julie from your Banfield-Seguin family!

Bon Appetit Ottawa: Taking a Bite Out of the Blogosphere

2013-04-30T10:13:00.002-04:00

As a proud sponsor of Bon Appetit Ottawa since 2006, Banfield-Seguin provides services and resources to promote the event, which helps generate more proceeds for over 20 local causes. To keep it fresh and interesting for our creative team—and for the event’s benefit—each year, we brainstorm to come up with different and fun ways to reach Ottawa professionals and cocktail party aficionados.

Fortunately for us, one of the fastest growing trends in social media right now is “foodies” flocking to social media to discuss (and drool) over delectable dishes. It turns out people do care what you eat for breakfast, and lunch and dinner for that matter, as a simple scan of Instagram or Twitter could tell you.

So how could we harness the power of this trend to help enhance the show for participants and attendees? By partnering with food bloggers of course!

We started with research to identify credible, trusted food bloggers in our city who might be influential among the target audiences. We also wanted to demonstrate value for the food and beverage partners —who donate their food and time to be part of this incredible event. To that end, we proposed matching the selected bloggers with show vendors to give them some extra exposure leading up to the event and to get readers’ craving show selections in advance.

The results? We selected three local blogs who were available and interested in participating and named them the official Bon Appetit Ottawa bloggers. Working closely with the bloggers, we paired each one up with Food and Beverage partners they were interested in working with to help the show come alive before May 7.

The first week after officially launching the blogger program generated over 100 tweets and since then, the momentum has continued with an outpouring of support from the bloggers and their respective communities, as well as @BonAppOtt and some of our food and beverage participants.

The bloggers have also been posting up a storm, here's a summary of their coverage:

Jodi Samis of Simply Fresh Ottawa hosted a ticket giveaway last week and this week covers one of the food and beverage partners, the Unrefined Olive.

Katy Watts, who blogs at Sheltered Girl Meets World is our Bon Appetit beer blogger. She's done two posts, covering the best of the local brews as well as the best of the visiting brews at Bon Appetit.

Don & Jenn Chow of Foodieprints will have you craving LUNCH with their in-depth review of the downtown favourite lunch spot, coming soon as one of Ottawa's newest food trucks.

Oh, Don and Jenn are also giving away two passes to the event that you can win! Enter before May 6.

Don’t want to try your luck? This event always sells out, so buy your tickets now. For $85 you get all you can eat and drink all night plus a $50 tax receipt--it's a great deal.

We’ll see you on May 7!

Bon Appetit 2012 - Photos by Earl Conway, Beginnings

What Highly Creative Workplaces Can Teach You

2013-04-25T10:30:00.000-04:00

Authoritative Leadership	Creative Leadership
Directive	Inspirational
Competitive	Collaborative
Hierarchies/rules	Networks/alliances
Firm	Open
Sustains order	Takes risks
Explains	Explores
Linear	Adaptive
Wants to be right	Welcomes feedback
Avoid mistakes at all cost	Learn from all mistakes
Independent	Interdependent
Yes/No	Maybe (can live with ambiguity)
By the book	Can improvise

Approach meetings with purpose and energy

In fast-paced work environments, meetings are often seen as the enemy to creative breakthroughs and innovation. However, there are much more effective ways to conduct them in order to allow them to unleash, rather than stifle creativity.

First, you need to set boundaries by identifying a clear agenda and a firm end time. This will make it easier for attendees to stay sharp and on course, and maintain their energy levels. Plus an emphasis on finding a solution within a limited timeframe can boost creative efforts.

Next, it is important to make meeting participants aware of what is expected of them. Letting them know their role in advance, and that they are encouraged and expected to contribute. This makes it more likely that creative collaboration will occur during the meeting. Also, leaving everyone with concrete, post-meeting “action items” will help avoid confusion and ensure these tasks are tackled right away, and creative solutions come to fruition.

Lastly, it is crucial to keep the meeting positive in order to make the most of face-to-face time. Remind everyone to concentrate on solutions and to save the negative energy and problems for private conversations.

Foster collaboration and cohesiveness

It is often said that good ideas can come from anywhere. That is why having more heads working together on a project usually leads to better, more creative solutions (with the operative word being “together”).

For collaboration to pay its full dividends however, the level of trust among colleagues must be fairly high. This is especially true if some team members are in direct competition for assignments and promotions. Team-bonding activities, shared break spaces and cooperative side projects are therefore all strongly encouraged.

That being said, cohesiveness should not be confused for homogeneity. When hiring, diversity in skills and personalities should be seen as a premium to ensure that the sum of the different parts of your team can become a greater whole.

Empower everyone to make an impact

Although team leaders are appointed to make the big decisions, there is no reason for them to be making all the decisions. Sharing some of that power with staff members is sure to increase their sense of pride and responsibility. And it will free up managers to apply their expertise to tasks that only they can perform.

Empowering employees also means showing support when they try new things and venture out of their comfort zone. Pushing oneself to be creative is a bit of a leap of faith, which can be scary if no one is there to “catch” you. Consistently providing feedback should help keep your risk-taking colleagues motivated and give them the confidence needed to aim for more innovative solutions.

Break your own rules

When it comes to creativity, rules and process are important. But nothing is more valuable than freedom. So think about rules, formal or habitual, that you may have imposed on yourself over time. Strive to bend or break those rules when faced with a challenge that needs a creative solution.

In future articles, we’ll provide you with some specific tricks and tool to help you and your team do just that, and have a little fun at the same time!

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What do you think?

Which of these recommendations could you apply right away to make your own work culture more creative? Can you share any strategies of your own to help workplace creativity flourish? How did you go about making these changes?

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The Creative Spark Series is a joint initiative by the MARCOM Professional Development Annual Forum and marketing communications agency Banfield-Seguin, a proud supplier of theme creative for MARCOM 2013. The series promotes the benefits of creativity in the workplace and presents ways to successfully apply creative tools and techniques to inspire, influence and act.

Making the Most of Your Team’s Unique Creative Abilities

2013-04-03T10:56:00.000-04:00

The Benefits of Creative Work Cultures

2013-03-07T17:54:00.000-05:00

Banfield-Seguin takes home 7 International AVA Digital Awards — including 4 platinum awards!

2013-02-20T08:30:00.000-05:00

Banfield-Seguin is very pleased to announce a total of 7 wins for its clients’ websites and videos at the 2013 International AVA Digital Awards.

Banfield-Seguin once again demonstrated its versatility by winning awards with clients operating regionally, nationally and internationally, in both the private and the public sectors, and across various industries.

Above all, Banfield-Seguin is proud to help clients like Aireon, Alcatel-Lucent, Canada Post and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative take their rightful place in a winner’s circle with some marketing heavyweights — other notable AVA Digital Award winners included Coca Cola, Microsoft, NASA, Nintendo, Intel, Dell, HP, Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.

From the approximately 2,000 entries from across the US, Canada and around the world, the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals has recognized the following work:

PLATINUM AWARDS	GOLD AWARDS
Aireon – Corporate Vision video Category: Web Video/Motion Graphics	Alcatel-Lucent – High Leverage Network website Category: Website/B2C
Alcatel-Lucent – Wireless All Around video Category: Motion Graphics Design	Banfield-Seguin – Company Profile video Category: Web Video/Company Overview
Canada Post – Parcel Web Services video Category: Motion Graphics Design	Bon Appetit Ottawa – Flambé of Hope video Category: Pro Bono
Global e-Sustainability Initiative – GeSI website Category: Website/Association

These AVA Digital awards are the latest accolades received by Banfield-Seguin for work produced in 2012. Both the Aireon Corporate Vision video and the Bon Appetit Ottawa Flambé of Hope video were also recognized as part of our 14 wins at the 8th annual Davey Awards.

Banfield-Seguin is very grateful for these distinctions, and would like to thank its clients and everyone involved in making these digital projects a success.

About the AVA Awards:
Administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, the AVA Awards is an international competition that recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design and production of media that is part of the evolution of digital communication. Work ranges from audio and video production – to developing websites that present interactive components such as video, animation, blogs, and podcasts – to interactive social media sites- to other forms of user-generated communication.

Sunshine and social media: Banfield-Seguin at the IABC Leadership Institute in Scottsdale, AZ

2013-02-19T09:45:00.005-05:00

When I was asked to present on a topic I love (social media) in Arizona in February, I definitely jumped at the opportunity. The event was the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Leadership Institute—an annual gathering of IABC board members from chapters around the world to share ideas and knowledge while developing leadership skills.

More specifically, the topic of my session was Optimizing Social Media: Tips for Integrating with your Chapter’s Communications Strategy and I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Preston Lewis, President of IABC/San Francisco. While the content was tailored to IABC Chapters, the advice and insight generated is transferable to many organizations using social media.

The format was interactive—we started by asking attendees what they hoped to gain from the session, which Preston recorded on flip charts. Next we presented examples of well-executed social media tactics from various chapters around the world.

We finished with an in-depth case study about IABC/Ottawa and IABC/San Francisco to dive deep into the strategy and planning behind two chapters successfully using social media. Participants chimed in with questions, suggestions and comments throughout the presentation making for an interesting and engaging discussion.

To summarize the outcome of the session (including information we presented and some great tips that came from the audience), here are five social media takeaways for organizations:

Five organizational social media takeaways

Have a plan – and if you don’t have a plan yet, it’s certainly not too late to start one. For various reasons, many organizations leap into social media before fully fleshing out a strategy. Fortunately it is fairly easy to take a step back and assess where you are and where you want to be and develop a plan to get you on track. The added bonus of this approach is if you’ve already established channels and have been using them you can easily create customized benchmarks to measure future success.

Tie success back to organizational objectives – The objectives of your social media plan should tie directly back to your organizational objectives. In the excitement of social media we get caught up on points like “let’s get more followers” or “we need more engagement.” Obviously these are important components of social media use but they are not what you are ultimately working towards. If your organizational objective is to increase membership than your social media objective might be to have X new members who learned about our organization through social media channels. (You can measure this by placing a “how did you hear about us” in your membership application form.) With this objective, getting more followers is still very important but it shifts the focus to quality and not quantity , It guides your efforts towards followers who are more likely to be potential members.

Be provocative – Social media love controversy. You likely don’t want to be controversial as an organization, but if it aligns with your brand you can introduce a bit of provocation. Take a stance on an industry issue, (respectfully) disagree with someone... Conversation is not always warm and fuzzy and you likely may benefit from being an authentic social media presence. Disclaimer: I think this is a GREAT tip to present to a room full of communicators who understand the distinction between being provocative and controversial, but if you want to recommend this within your organization make sure that distinction is clear and you’ve thought through the consequences of provocation gone wrong.

Social media to support a specific need or audience – Your social media plan need not support every single business objective you have. There may be a small area or focus within an audience that could be greatly enhanced by the use of social media. Sometimes starting small or looking at a pilot project is a great way to dip your toes in social media without committing a lot of resources. For example, Aa representative from IABC/Toronto had a great tip for using social media specifically to engage its student population since it finds that many of the Facebook fans are students and students are keen to interact on Facebook. Review your communications strategy and see if there’s an underserved audience or need that social media may be ideal to support and use that as a starting point.

Introduce local flavour – If your organization is regionally based, consider incorporating a local flavour into your social media branding. The visual cue will help local audiences immediately identify with you, while also demonstrating outwardly a sense of pride in your location. It’s easy to forget that social media is accessible on a global scale but often you are trying to reach people closer to home. Take pride in your locale and use social media to show it off.

A sample of the tactics ideas recorded by Preston.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend this event and bring back valuable insight. Thank you to my colleagues at Banfield-Seguin for always supporting and encouraging of my involvement with IABC.

Thanks to the IABC, I actually enjoyed networking

2013-01-25T15:50:00.001-05:00

Generally, when I hear the term “networking”, I feel like running in the opposite direction. Even though I am an extrovert, I still find the concept uncomfortable. But this past Wednesday evening, I experienced IABC Ottawa's 4th Annual Networking in the New Year event and was happily surprised by the experience.

IABC Ottawa had invited me to participate as one of the event’s “experts”. I discovered that the format of the evening allowed for making many new connections very easily and comfortably. Seven or eight participants sat at each table and the experts visited each table for about 10 minutes. Moving from table to table, discussing the topic of “Creative Marketing Strategy” with all the participants, I had numerous interesting and insightful conversations with a variety of seasoned communicators, from political communications advisors to social media consultants to entrepreneurs. The event also included several students from Carleton and Algonquin College, and as always, I really enjoyed the enthusiasm and energy bright young people can bring to a discussion.

So I wanted to extend my thanks to the IABC Ottawa team for the invitation and congratulate them on a well-run, productive and fun networking event.

Photographer: John Finnigan Lin

Banfield-Seguin on the road at CES 2013

2013-01-10T18:24:00.001-05:00

Banfield-Seguin is with high-profile clients Alcatel-Lucent and QNX Software Systems at one of the world’s largest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada at this very moment. With over 150,000 visitors champing at the bit to find out about the latest and greatest technological innovations – it is the place to be this week.

ALU and the ng Connect program are at CES 2013 to help show how network connectivity can turn gadgets into something that can change people’s lives. Visit ALU at booth #31412 to find out what the future is going to look like. Banfield-Seguin is on hand to produce ALU’s “Live at CES” videos that take viewers behind the scenes to provide a dynamic insider’s view of the show.

We also shot this video that offers a “behind-the-scenes” look at the QNX technology concept team in action as they take their most recent demo from white board to red carpet. Their reveal of the QNX Technology Bentley Continental GT convertible at CES 2013 is creating quite a buzz. The software company put one of its powerful, feature-rich real-time operating systems to work in an innovative partnership with Bentley and Texas Instruments.

This is what great marketing is all about, capturing the action while it is happening and helping our clients tell their stories in a dynamic way. Check back next week – when we post the finished “Live at CES" videos here.

Ryan Grevatt filming the Bentley demo and editing on the go.

Latest Issue of Brainstorm in the "Mail"

2012-12-13T05:40:00.000-05:00

It's our final enewsletter for 2012! This issue celebrates some truly successful collaborations with our clients, awards won, new staff and offers some insights on measuring ROI. Read all about it in the latest issue of Brainstorm.

Not receiving Brainstorm (our quarterly company newsletter)? Sign up here.

Grandmothers Advocacy Network and Banfield-Seguin Celebrate GRAN's New Brand

2012-12-07T08:58:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, in the marketing communications world, we get the chance to work with an organization that is truly making a difference. Working with the Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN) was one of these times.

Over the past six months, Banfield-Seguin had the opportunity to work on a re-branding effort with GRAN. GRAN is a network of grandmothers and grand-“others” who advocate in Canada and around the world on behalf of children in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS, and the grandmothers who raise them.

On November 20th, our clients dropped in on Banfield-Seguin, giving us the chance to celebrate the success of the rebranding together. GRAN representatives from across Canada were present, and it was an occasion for tremendous gratitude, and even a few tears — on both sides.

GRANS front row, left to right: Marilyn Coolen, Andrea Beal, Gillian Sandeman, Pat Evans, Peggy Edwards, Hilary Elliott, Val Swinton, Linda Watson, Bonnie Johnson. GRANS back row, left to right: Kathleen Wallace-Deering, Marjorie Kort, Janet Wilkinson. BSL TEAM left to right: Christina Flavell, Peter Mulder, James Laing, Christine Hume, Bianca Manga, Nancy Webb.

We want to thank Banfield-Seguin, your president Nancy Webb and the team that worked on this project,” said Peggy Edwards, proudly wearing her GRAN t-shirt adorned with the new logo. “The new brand is working so well for us — it has unified the Grandmothers Advocacy Network and made us an even stronger force to be reckoned with.”

Peggy Edwards & Nancy Webb sharing the new GRAN umbrella!

“I was hesitant about working with an outside company to do our branding,” said Hilary Elliott, GRAN representative from Calgary. “I wasn’t sure of the process and if they would ‘get it’. How could they possibly come up with the right look & feel to represent all that we do and represent? When the logo options were presented, we were amazed by the designs and the fact that you understood us so well.”

When asked to say a few words about the experience working with GRAN, Director of Strategy Christina Flavell reminisced about that initial creative presentation. “We finished taking you through all the logo and tagline options and there was a brief pause, and then you all burst into applause. It was the most amazing and gratifying experience I think I’ve ever had in this business.” Associate Creative Director Peter Mulder agreed, saying, “We can’t thank you enough for your enthusiasm and passion throughout the project. It was such a pleasure for all of us to work with your organization.”

Marilyn Coolen tells us about GRAN going to Washington, DC!

Another GRAN representative, Marilyn Coolen from Halifax, shared her experience with the new brand. “We boldly applied to present at the World AIDS conference in Washington this year — never thinking that we would be accepted, being first-time applicants. Imagine our surprise when we heard we got accepted! We were so proud to have a banner with the new logo and tagline at our booth. And it worked! The new brand got people’s attention and they were drawn to our booth to find out more. As a result GRAN has established a new network of contacts farther afield.”

Overall, it was an evening that left us all glowing. It was an encouraging reminder that regardless of what we do day-to-day, there are always opportunities to give back and try to make the world a better place. It may sound sentimental, but it’s true. GRAN is out there doing it every day. Take a moment to learn more about GRAN and their amazing accomplishments as a “a voice for grandmothers and children orphaned by AIDS in Africa” at www.grandmothersadvocacy.org.

It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s our Campaign for the NAV CENTRE

2012-12-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

It’s one of those places you really have to see to believe. A hidden gem along the banks of the St. Lawrence, the NAV CENTRE is Eastern Ontario’s largest conference and meeting facility. It’s fully equipped for productive business meetings and events, including excellent services to help you focus on business success. NAV CENTRE also has resort-like features (including a full-service spa and gym facilities) that will impress bosses and colleagues alike.

This comprehensive offering formed the basis of our campaign: “Be a Meeting Hero”. With budget cuts and an unstable economy, the role of event planner in many companies now falls to whoever is willing to do it. And it’s not easy!

NAV CENTRE has accepted the challenge of making “accidental planners” look like the Meeting Hero of their organizations. The secret is in its competitive pricing and excellent service offering.

The campaign hinged on a website landing page (navcentre.ca/hero) and included print and online display ads, electronic direct mail pieces as well as Google Adwords and LinkedIn ads.

Perhaps you’re responsible for planning a company meeting or retreat? What are you waiting for? You could become the next meeting hero…

NAV CENTRE Campaign landing page

NAV CENTRE Campaign lead gen form

Vlogging In: Place d'Orléans Contest Connects with Ottawa Fashion Elite

2012-12-03T15:24:00.000-05:00

Nothing gets the attention of fashionistas quite like a shop-off.

To continue evolving the Place d’Orléans brand into a premier fashion destination, Banfield-Seguin proposed the Vlogger Search Contest, designed to reach fashionistas in a real and relevant way.

The contest began with a call for video entries, which were then narrowed down to 10 finalists. It all culminated in a spectacular event in which finalists were given a gift card and 90 minutes to shop, before filming a vlog describing their shopping spree strategy and its outcome. An experienced judging panel selected the winner, Amanda L. Conquer, who received $300 per month for six months in Place d’Orléans gift cards to keep shopping, shooting, and sharing her exciting finds online.

This dynamic, multi-faceted back-to-school promotion was designed to engage key audiences, tap into the “haul video” phenomenon (a recent Ottawa Citizen article on the subject can be found here), and potentially discover an online personality who could act as brand ambassador for the shopping centre.

To promote the event, we blended social media and local fashion community outreach with traditional marketing, including in-mall signage, radio and online advertising.

Fashion vlogger Search Facebook Contest Page

Banner ad on Loulou

A key objective of the campaign was to engage with top fashion bloggers and build their relationship with Place d’Orleans. So, at the outset, we invited the top 10 Ottawa fashion bloggers to be ambassadors for the Vlogger Search in order to connect with these women of influence and to attract high quality contest participants. We invited them to an exclusive VIP event, complete with swag bags and gourmet treats, during which they created their own vlog.

© Remi Theriault with LJ / Twenty York Street, Emily / Tinfoil Tiaras, Zara and Michelle / Ottawa Vélo Vogue, Emmett / Hippie Lace, Julie Lan / Pop Champagne, Grace / 613 Style, Marcia B Creative, Justyna Baraniecki / Chameleonic and Nini / The Fine Balance.

The strategy worked beautifully.

We received incredibly positive feedback from the ambassadors who described the contest as “the best event ever” and generated 21 blog posts as well as numerous mentions of @placedorleans and the #vloggersearch contest. Ultimately, the initiative reached 485,000 people on Twitter and 30,000 people on Facebook.

Winner of the Vlogger Search Contest - Amanda L. Conquer (Photo: Brent Gervais)

Contest winner Amanda has since submitted four videos that can be seen on Place d'Orleans YouTube channel.

To make it all happen, Banfield-Seguin partnered with Made in Blog to reach out to the blogger community, and with Parade! to bring together the branded multimedia experience. The secret to success, though, was the tremendous support and enthusiasm of our clients at Place d’Orleans.

Banfield-Seguin’s Newest Team Member? Just Ask for Kelly

2012-11-27T12:48:00.001-05:00

You could say our most recent hire was a Sens-ational one. After all, Kelly MacNaull comes to us from Capital Sports & Entertainment where, for the last seven years, she was marketing manager for both the Ottawa Senators and Scotiabank Place.

Our newest Kelly — Banfield-Seguin now boasts three! — has a great deal of experience in project management and media planning for marketing campaigns across all media. She previously held positions at Acart and kbs+p (formerly Allard Johnson Communications).

Originally from Montreal, Kelly is now very involved in the Ottawa charitable community. She is the current Marketing Director for the CHEO BBQ and a past organizer of the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life. All of which fits perfectly with her passions for good food, travel, and healthy living.

Kelly brings her expertise to our client services team as an Account Executive.

A Designer in Motion: New Team Member Joins Banfield-Seguin

2012-11-27T12:36:00.000-05:00

You could say Annette Kozlowski has had a colourful career so far.

Our new Motion Graphics Designer joins Banfield-Seguin fresh from a 32-episode stint with TheSideProject as a graphic artist and animator, helping to bring a new TVO kids show called Beats in Bites to life.

Before that, Annette was freelancing in motion graphics for a wide variety of clients, including McMillan Agency, 27Forty Studios, Affinity Productions and Muse Fuse.

Her experiences included designing 2D and 3D motion graphics, compositing and creating VFX in videos in web and broadcast media for both government and the private sector.

Prior to her motion design career, Annette was an accomplished professional photographer. She put her technical and artistic skills to work at commercial shoots and events of all description — from weddings to corporate events to rally car races.

We look forward to putting her skills to work at Banfield-Seguin, as well!

A New Brand Takes Flight!

2012-11-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

Even for a seasoned marketing communications agency, it is always a rare treat when you can build a new international brand from the ground up.

While we love the opportunity to evolve or refresh a brand, to be there from the very start is an exhilarating experience. Especially when that brand is a real forward-looking, future-changing concept like Aireon^SM.

So what exactly is Aireon, all about?

Aireon will leverage the power of the world’s furthest reaching Iridium network to enable — for the first time ever — a truly global, pole-to-pole aircraft tracking and surveillance capability.

Aireon is an innovative new company bringing together global commercial aviation companies and air navigation service providers, and plans to transform the business of air traffic management on a global scale by providing a surveillance infrastructure that will enable optimization of air operations around the world—while offering exciting new applications and business opportunities.

Using private capital, Aireon will provide the first opportunity for global air traffic monitoring starting as early as 2017. Aireon is truly a world’s first. Imagine being tasked with branding a potentially world changing concept that doesn’t quite exist yet. It is aspirational yet within reality’s reach. It was an exceptionally exciting assignment.

The team at Banfield-Seguin was in a unique position to handle the challenge of branding this new company—with our extensive and intimate experience in the telecommunications industry, particularly in satellite communications—we started out with a strong understanding of the client’s needs.

From name development to messaging, to web design, social media strategy, video and print production, our team worked closely with Aireon’s leadership team and the key stakeholders at Iridium to ensure consistency in messaging and a unified look and feel throughout all materials right down to the live web broadcast of the launch press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC on June 18.

Under Creative Director John Charette’s lead, the team was challenged with creating a brand that was not only unique but also accessible—with a diverse audience set that includes both industry experts and outsiders—the brand had to be credible but also easy to understand while existing in a tightly controlled and regulated industry.

The brand would have to be strong enough to entice the industry, relevant legislators, potential investors and partners while building excitement for a service that will only be fully available in 2017.

“Aireon was able to reap the benefits of working with a full-service marketing communications team that directed every facet of communications for a truly integrated approach,” said Charette. “Our team was able to facilitate a cohesive conversation about the corporate offering with the core proposition at the centre of each element.”

While Banfield-Seguin was able to provide a full-service offering, this was by no means a singular effort. Banfield-Seguin worked closely with Moveable Online who developed the website, and FTI Consulting who led the public relations support for the launch press conference on June 18. Brand development and execution was made possible by collaborative efforts with the Aireon marketing team.

“A project of this magnitude required a team that was able to understand all facets of the communications strategy, and integrate them into a full executed brand. We had very high expectations for this program which Banfield far exceeded. We could not have asked for a better result.”

- Julia Wilton, Executive Director, Corporate and Marketing Communications

Editor’s note: The Aireon launch recently took home five Davey Awards for various components of the integrated campaign. Read more...

Global Sustainability Initiative Partners with Banfield-Seguin to Amplify Online Presence

2012-11-19T11:02:00.000-05:00

Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and Ottawa marketing communications agency Banfield-Seguin are celebrating the launch of GeSI’s newly revamped online presence – an important step towards future growth and success for the international e-sustainability organization.

Formed in 2001 and based in Belgium, GeSI brings together many of the world's major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies with international organizations to work on finding solutions for a more sustainable future through responsible, ICT-enabled transformation.

GeSI contracted Banfield-Seguin in early 2012 to redesign its website and overall digital presence. The objectives of the multifaceted project were to encourage growth in GeSI membership, to support members' collaboration, ideation and project development, and to better communicate the critical role of the organization.

“Working closely with GeSI, Banfield-Seguin used its content management framework to plan, design and build the new GeSI website and blog. We also developed a new private collaboration environment for partners and members, guided the use of social media properties, targeted e-newsletters and e-DMs, and set up measurement tools to track engagement,” said Scott Duncan, Senior Digital Strategist at Banfield-Seguin.

“GeSI is extremely pleased with the end result delivered by Banfield-Seguin – our new website is simply amazing as evident from the positive feedback of GeSI members. The BSL team has been extremely professional and provided an excellent quality of service,” said Luis Neves, Chairman of GeSI.

To learn more about GeSI and the work of its growing network of members and partners worldwide, visit the brand new website: www.gesi.org

Social Media and Return on Investment

2012-11-13T08:53:00.000-05:00

Great! Social media tools are free to use! I can put a video (for free) on YouTube, and have it watched by thousands of people. I can set up a Facebook page (for free) and really connect with my customers. I can post beautiful pictures of my products to Pinterest to be coveted everywhere. Sweet!

But wait! Social media isn’t entirely free. There are management and content development costs to consider.

So what gives? How can I convince my colleagues (or gulp, my boss or my investors) to pay to use something that’s free? By focusing on impact.

What follows are some approaches I use when considering ROI. They aren’t all financial.

Non financial impacts include brand recognition, visibility for products, key people or concepts, and customer insights. These impacts can be measured many ways: looking at your search engine results, using perception metrics (provided by services like Radian6), doing your own analysis of the feedback you receive on Facebook or Twitter, using Facebook Insights or Tweetdeck. Depending on your business model, you many also be able to leverage your social media efforts to encourage stronger partnerships.

Financial impacts include cost reduction and revenue generation.

Of these two, cost reduction is the easiest to achieve and to measure. In the marketing communications business, we sometimes break down our communications into two categories – paid media (traditional advertising in print, radio, TV or online) and earned media (social media, blogger outreach and public relations fall into this category).

Here’s how cost reduction impacts work: If you have paid $1 to reach one customer through paid media, and it costs 25 cents to reach that customer through social media (by dividing the cost of managing social media by each time you reach a customer), you have reduced your costs by 75%. Bam!

The other financial impact looks at revenue generated by your social media efforts. Set a line in the sand (your sales and revenue growth at a moment prior to starting on social media), and then measure at monthly or quarterly increments after your accounts are up and running. If the rate of revenue generation or sales has increased more than the cost of running your social media, then you’ve taken an important step toward generating a positive return on social media investment. You must of course also consider outside factors – other marketing efforts and changes in the macro-economic context, for example. The more closely you can attribute sales or revenue growth to your social media efforts, the stronger your case.

Return on Investment =	Revenue Generated – Cost
	Cost

In most circumstances, a combination of both approaches should be considered. For example, generating positive perceptions will assist in growing your community, and in turn lowering your cost per acquisition or boosting revenue.

In another post, I’ll talk about a methodology that brings them all together.

But first things first: what kind of impact is most important to you?

Banfield-Seguin Wins 14 Davey Awards!

2012-11-06T23:19:00.001-05:00

Banfield-Seguin is thrilled to announce that, together with our clients, we have been selected to receive a total of 14 trophies from the 8th Annual Davey Awards.

Banfield-Seguin demonstrated its versatility by winning awards with clients from both the private and public sectors, and for businesses located regionally, nationally and internationally. Our award-winning work also spanned various industries from telecommunications to culture to retail. We are also very proud to have been recognized for projects in many of our different areas of expertise as a full-service agency, including print, web and video.

Many of the 2012 Daveys we received were for components of integrated campaigns, including five for the website and video we developed for the launch of an entirely new brand and company, Aireon, a future provider of global air traffic surveillance.

Another two awards came for the website and video produced as part of our campaign to help global telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent enter the core routing market with its new 7950 XRS.

It is also important to us that we won for projects with long-standing clients such as global satellite communications company Iridium (2), Canada’s National Arts Centre (3), shopping centre Place d’Orleans (1) and non-profit Bon Appetit Ottawa (1). For a detailed list of our 2012 Davey Awards wins, check out the document at the end of this post.

Banfield-Seguin is very grateful for these distinctions from the Davey Awards, and would like to thank our clients and everyone involved who worked tirelessly on making these projects a success.

About the Davey Awards:
With nearly 4,000 entries from across Canada, the US and around the world, the Davey Awards honours the finest creative work from the best small firms, agencies and companies worldwide.

The Davey Awards is judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 200+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media.

List of 2012 Davey Awards Wins

Branding Presentation at “Bridges to Better Business" Conference

2012-10-25T14:03:00.000-04:00

On October 17, our Director of Strategy, Christina Flavell, was the keynote speaker at “Bridges to Better Business”, a half-day conference offered by the Cornwall Business Enterprise Centre. Christina’s presentation focused on Quality Branding, and provided specific recommendations to help small businesses develop quality brands that will help them succeed. The presentation fostered some great discussion about specific examples in the current marketplace, and what business owners can learn from them.

The “Bridges to Better Business” conference provides an opportunity for businesses in southeastern Ontario to improve their skills, learn best business practices and network with other business owners and economic development professionals from the region. A big thank you to Candy Pollard and the Cornwall Business Enterprise Centre for inviting us to participate.

We have shared below excerpts from Christina’s presentation. If you are interested in more information on this subject, or other branding, marketing and communications sessions we can offer, please contact Christina at cflavell@bsl.com

Quality Branding - Helping Small Business Develop Quality Brands from Banfield-Seguin

Banfield-Seguin Bocce Tournament ends in epic pasta battle

2012-10-12T12:03:00.001-04:00

On September 27th , the championship game of the 2012 Banfield-Seguin Bocce Classic was played in front of a crowd of enthusiastic employees and neighbourhood onlookers.

Banfield-Seguin’s front lawn evolved into a venue for some heated competition. What had originally started with a small group casually playing the centuries-old Italian lawn bowling game during our Thursday BBQ lunches, became a 3-month long, 10-team round robin tournament.

To raise the stakes, we even pulled out Banfield-Seguin’s storied bocce trophy from the attic. It had been stored there since current company owners John and Nancy won it as a duo back in 2001. This piece of company nostalgia gave the tournament a “past-meets-present” narrative that made it difficult for anyone to resist participating (especially since our two leaders would be defending their title).

The epic final game opposed the first place finishers from each group:

Team Gnocchi
(5-0 record in the Cream-Based Pasta division)

vs.

Team Ziti
(5-0 record in the Tomato-Based Pasta division)

Forced to play this decisive game one-on-one because their partners were both away from the office, Venise from Team Gnocchi and Pete A. from Team Ziti battled it out over a “best 2 out of 3 sets” game.

After losing the first game 7-0, Pete rallied to take the next two nail-biters 7-4 and 7-4 to secure the win.

Needless to say, everyone who took part and watched this colourful ball-throwing competition had a great time – proof that in life, like in creative marketing communications, the simplest ideas often lead to the best results.