Emmanuelle Coutu, our Francophone Copywriter, was awarded her Maîtrise en Communication sociale – avec mémoire (Master’s Degree in Social Communication – with Thesis), a two-year postgraduate program at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. The Graduation ceremony was held on the campus of the university, last Friday (June 14th).

During the ceremony, Emmanuelle received a Mention of Excellence for her thesis about UNESCO and the protection of cultural industries in the era of global free trade. Her thesis also won the prize of ‘Best thesis 2013 in Communications’.

Emmanuelle also holds Master’s Degree in Music (2003) with a specialty in voice and performance. Before starting her career in advertising, she was a professional opera singer.

About her artistic and educational background, Emmanuelle tells me:

“Being a professional musician brought me knowledge and the sensitivity coming from the Arts. Then, getting a Master’s degree in Communications brought me a deeper understanding of how we organize our societies. During this program, I developed a rigorous methodology as a researcher in social sciences — a key element in my professional development. I also had to be very perseverant and resourceful to pass through all the stages of my research, creating, searching information, analyzing, writing, editing… I feel that I’ve strengthened all those skills during my studies and now, I can use them every day — and keep learning! — as a French Copywriter with Acart.”

Claûde Beaupré, an Account Coordinator and up-and-coming communication strategist at Acart, also graduated last week with an MSc in Marketing & Creativity from ESCP Europe Business School. Claûde was awarded her degree at the Westin Paris-Vendôme in Paris, France, also on June 14th.

Claûde also holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Cum Laude) from the University of Ottawa, and she recently cofounded the Marketing For Change organization during her European studies, on sabbatical from Acart.

Claûde says:

“I chose to pursue this Master’s degree to go beyond the standard notions and theories of marketing and learn about innovative practices that are shaping the future of this industry. The program challenged me to think differently, look at situations from multiple perspectives to determine the best strategy and most successful way to market a product, service or issue. On my return, I was happy to learn that new approaches to creative thinking are exactly what the industry is craving.”

Congratulations to the graduates from all of us here at Acart Communications. This dedication to higher learning will undoubtedly enhance Acart’s strategic and creative offering to all of our clients.

Facebook recently added hashtags to status updates. Most people figure this change is inevitable and long overdue. Tech aficionados say it was only a matter of time before the social media mammoth joined the wider conversations popularized on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Gawker, etc, etc. And they’re right. So why does it all just feel so wrong?

The copywriter in me should rejoice. My job is to boil down ideas into memorable messages. Shorter is always better. At least that’s what I’ve always been told.

I got my degree from Carleton University’s School of Journalism. The program lived up to its reputation. One of my favourite profs (John Medicine-Horse Kelly) simply ran our articles through a macro-program to give us a grade. We were only allowed five passive indirect modifiers per 100 words. Go ahead, Google “passive indirect modifiers”. You’ll get zero results. I swear he was making this stuff up.

Still, all that nitpicking taught me how to be concise. I landed a job in advertising, and now try to pass this discipline onto our clients. Sometimes it’s through a tagline, or a headline, or even a catchy hashtag.

But we have to draw the line somewhere.

I don’t want to transfer the emoticon debate to hashtags about debasing the English language. I’m not writing to lament the simplification of personal expression to trends and “likes”.  I just think they’re ugly.

Hashtags are the herpes of my newsfeed. Sure, they connect people, but usually for the wrong reasons. They’re contagious, fun to contract, but still feel like a blemish on a clean sentence. Even when used sparingly to contextualize a point, they’re a disconnect from what makes great language memorable.

And yet, will I end up using them now on Facebook too? Probably.

But it makes me sad.

Sigh. No hashtag needed.

Christopher

Bien qu’il y ait des arguments des deux côtés, le modèle de l’agence offre beaucoup plus de simplicité, de cohérence et de tranquillité d’esprit pour le professionnel du marketing, qui, de nos jours, est surchargé de travail.

C’est ce qui a inspiré notre dernière infographie :

Inspired by the Kübler-Ross model of the emotional stages of grief, we developed this infographic for everyone who can identify.

Want to enjoy a grief-free social media experience? Ping us today.

Credits:
Words – Tom Megginson
Design & Illustration – Kerry Hodgson

Related posts:

• KitchenAid has a Twitter malfunction, apologizes like a boss
• This is how customer service is done in social media
• Can your social brand pass the TEA test?

While there are arguments on both sides, the agency model provides more simplicity, consistency and peace-of-mind for today’s overworked marketing professional.

That’s what inspired our latest infographic:

Want to know more about what a full-service agency like Acart can do for you? Contact us today.

Credits:
Words – Tom Megginson
Design – Rebecca Neilson

Dans l’une des deux publicités télévisées, une femme revient à la maison et découvre un mot d’amour sur le comptoir. Elle marche, intriguée, vers la pièce voisine, où elle découvre une fête surprise. Une autre femme, qu’on présume être sa partenaire, émerge alors de la foule et lui donne un baiser. Un narrateur nous pose enuite la question : « Est-ce que ça change quelque chose à ce que vous pensiez il y a 20 secondes? ».

L’angle ici n’est pas de choquer, on sait que le sujet est délicat. On laisse plutôt cette question faire son chemin dans notre conscience pour nous forcer à nous interroger sur notre réelle ouverture à la diversité sexuelle. Pour s’éloigner des stéréotypes, on a choisi de mettre en scène des gens dans la quarantaine, plutôt discrets, dans une situation de la vie quotidienne des amoureux qui inclut un groupe de gens, pour le caractère public du baiser. Le spectateur peut ainsi se mettre à la place d’un des amis du groupe.

Il est crucial d’aborder la question des droits des homosexuels dans notre (relativement ouverte) société. S’il nous fallait des preuves que l’homophobie existe encore, en voici : une enquête récente du gouvernement du Québec menée auprès de 800 Québécois a révélé que même si 78 % des gens ont déclaré être à l’aise avec les gais et les lesbiennes, 40 % ont dit être encore méfiants s’ils voyaient deux hommes s’embrasser en public. À titre d’exemple, je suis tombée sur un article qui évoquait l’avalanche de commentaires homophobes publiés sur les réseaux sociaux, du genre : « Je trouve cette pub-là dégueulasse, dégoûtante et ridicule ».

Comme un baume sur une plaie, j’ai découvert le site Internet, Adrespect.ca qui fait la promotion d’une représentation équitable des gais et lesbiennes dans la publicité. J’ai pris la liberté de traduire un extrait retrouvé sur leur page d’accueil : « La publicité est un moyen puissant. Bien que les publicités mettant en scène des gais et lesbiennes sont encore relativement rares, elles ont un pouvoir énorme pour promouvoir la visibilité et changer les cœurs et les esprits. »

Même en considérant le fait que la France soit devenu le 14^e pays dans le monde à légaliser le mariage homosexuel — il a été légalisé en 2005 au Canada — ça veut tout de même dire qu’il reste encore 179 pays qui ne reconnaissent pas ce droit aux personnes homosexuelles. Saviez-vous que certains pays emprisonnent les homosexuels et que d’autres vont même jusqu’à leur infliger la peine de mort? Et on est en 2013! Je vous invite à lire aussi l’article de mon collègue Tom Megginson sur le mouvement gai aux États-Unis et, s’il vous reste un peu de temps, à visionner une vidéo très touchante d’une campagne contre l’homophobie en Australie. Il faut que les mentalités changent pour que les lois puissent, elles aussi, être changées. La publicité peut aider à ouvrir les esprits.

For some reason, advertisers and agencies started taking themselves so seriously that jingles fell to the wayside. Even beer ads stopped having a fun, singable, branded song with a built-in ad message in favour of the pop culture borrowed interest of a licensed hit song. (Which may get attention, but does it promote the brand, or the song?)

But jingles work. Music is one of the greatest mnemonics ever invented by the human imagination.

Plop! Plop! Fizz! Fizz! Oh, what a relief it is…

Me and the boys and our 50…

By MENNEN!

If you’re of a certain age, and from a certain part of the world (as in 42 and Canadian) these vintage jingles will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

We don’t often “get” to do jingles, because of the nature of our Social Issues Marketing clients and their brand relationships with audiences. But every once in a while, a more whimsical campaign comes along.

Our new campaign for Metro Transit in Halifax, Do It On The Bus, is one of those opportunities:

Even the process was fun. After writing the branded lyrics, we crowdsourced the music to creative music students in Halifax. The winning entry came from Leanne Hoffman, whose MP3 demo gave the jingle a warm indie feel that fit perfectly with the Halifax vibe.

“Do It On The Bus” was recorded by Robert Crewe at Halifax’s Stillwater Studios, and Leanne was accompanied on guitar by Scott MacLean. The video was produced by Halifax Regional Municipality, for their social media feeds.

See the rest of the Metro Transit campaign here, and visit the campaign microsite.

Gamification is the application of game elements, thinking and/or design in a non-game context to solve problems and produce controlled results. For the consumer, this means challenges, quests, leaderboards, competitions, badges and/or prizes.

So, essentially: do this task and you will be recognized and rewarded.

It’s a classic method that’s worked for decades. Remember when your parents said, “you can have dessert, but only if you finish your vegetables”? That was a form of gamification (whether we knew it or not). Now, gamification has taken a whole new form and is being introduced in advertising and marketing to engage consumers and involve them with brands.

A great example of effective brand gamification

In January 2012, Nike launched a new application called Nike+, which allows users with smartphones to track their run frequency, miles run and personal running goals on their phones. They then have the option to share their accomplishments on social media websites. This app allows users to compare themselves to others, achieve badges, and view personal growth and progress on their mobile phone.

This gamification model makes an engaging connection between a virtual world and the real world – motivating customers to make goals and continue personal development through rewards like badges, virtual cheering and sharing.

Why does gamification work so well?

Games reel you in with easy introductory levels, and tasks that come with quick rewards. Huge shots of dopamine – a “feel-good” chemical – are released in the brain. After a while, the levels get harder to complete, making it more difficult to get the same dopamine high that was experienced in the introductory levels. This is what keeps users engaged and coming back for more.

Gamification feeds off cravings for:

Social Status

Social status is a big motivator to play games. People love sharing successes with friends and peers. By being able to show achievements and virtual status – users can give themselves a well-deserved pat on the back.

Task-reward-task-reward

Humans are hardwired to crave task-reward-task-reward. It’s an itch that can only be scratched by logging in to Farmville and harvesting more and more crops for virtual cash. Every time someone completes one of these tasks and receives a reward, dopamine is released in the brain.

Inclusion

Everyone’s doing it, so you should too. With shareability, leaderboards and word of mouth – it’s easy for games to go viral. When enough people participate, games can skew social norms. For instance, if an organization wanted their community to cut back on sugar consumption, they could create an app that tracks a person’s sugar intake, and then rewards them for staying below the limit. If this was shared among the whole community, it could lead to a social change where more people choose to live a healthier lifestyle by cutting back on sugar. With gamification, brands can create trends, form habits and lead communities in making positive changes.

The future of gamification

Gamification is a trending, fun way to keep customers engaged, and by the numbers, it’s not going to disappear any time soon. It’s predicted that by 2015, over 50% of companies will use gamification for customer retention. By the end of 2013, an estimated 500 million dollars will be spent in the US on gamification, and by 2015 that number will grow to over two billion dollars. This sets gamification up to be one of the fastest growing advertising trends to be seen in the next five years.

The Gamification Revolution is already well under-way and is a great marketing tool for businesses to interact with customers in a way that not only helps solve problems, but keeps customers engaged.

Want to learn how your brand and website can make the most of gamification? Contact us at results@acart.com

[Images via GreenBook Blog and BlackFin360]

The page has never been a focus of social activity, unlike our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Pinterest presence.

But that could soon change.

Google us at “Acart Communications”.

You have to do it at Google.com (not .ca) to get the effect for now, but here’s what you see:

That’s right! Our G+ page comes up in the righthand column. Like a free search engine marketing ad!

That’s a huge potential draw to Google’s much-ignored social network. And it will generate results.

My friend Ivan Raszl, owner of Ads of The World, has charted an impressive influx of followers since Google integrated G+ with search:

Ivan writes, “Currently Ads of the World has huge following on Twitter with about 100 and Facebook with 200 new followers per day. If Google+ can keep up the pace of 150 new followers for business/community pages it can become as important as Twitter in a year or so. It’s not going to take over Facebook however anytime soon.”

Want to to talk more about your social media strategy? Contact us today.

Our latest assignment came from the Recreational Vehicle Dealers’ Association of Canada. They needed a fun and fact-packed information tool to demonstrate the economic impact of the RV industry in Canada:

It was a great job to work on, because we learned something new about Canada’s recreational economy and shared it with the world in our own creative way.

Do you have some important information that could benefit from infographic treatment?, contact us today.