Denise Takes the Cake

This past Thursday BSL reached the end of an era. We bid farewell to our beloved Production artist, Denise Irvine, as she prepares for her next chapter in Kingston. Having worked at BSL for 16 years, Denise was more than just an employee, but an undoubted influence on the entire culture of the agency.

Always smiling, and always wearing at least one piece of vibrant attire, Denise was known to brighten up any room upon arrival. She was also known to keep that famous smile gleaming during even the most panicked projects brought her way (as a stand-in Traffic Manager, I know she sure made my job easier).

But beyond the sparkly attitude, and staunchly diligent work ethic, Denise was the Birthday Hero! In a staff of just over thirty, Denise took on the incredible task of baking each and every staff member a cake on their birthday. As nothing more than a colossal gesture out of the kindness of her heart, Denise truly brought the BSL family closer together, by making each of us feel acknowledged and appreciated on our birthdays, and of course - giving everyone else the excuse to eat a generous piece of layered chocolate cake at 10 in the morning.

There is much to miss about Denise, and I speak for everyone when I say she better show her face whenever she's in the area... possibly with a carrot cake for old time's sake?

Here are some highlights from her bittersweet send-off:

How to Manage a Cast of Hundreds

BSL has just launched a campaign for Canadian Geographic to promote their Canadian Atlas Online – now with History added! The first two videos can be found on YouTube, with the following two in the can awaiting post production. In an effort to spark a conversation amongst the audience, we have embodied History and Geography into two characters, who spar across the country to determine who holds more importance.

Telling the epic tale of History vs Geography has literally taken a cast of over 100 characters.

To begin, we needed to bring some real life to Geography and History, by recruiting some real life talent. We searched for the crème de la crème of character faces, voice talent and hand actors. When it was all said and done, a total of eight people were required to bring our two crusaders to life.

As for the stories themselves, over 100 cutouts were constructed to set the scenes. Our monstrous cast was made up of characters that ranged from Queen Victoria to Godzilla-sized beavers (see how these fit into the debate in “Montreal Mixup” – to be posted on October 1, 2009).

The action was filmed in one take (with many rehearsals and much sweat under very hot lights) to capture the spontaneous and irreverent style we were going for. This resulted in some hilarious mishaps. We may even have to release an outtakes video to show just how many fumbles we made. The end result seems so simply put together, but the concentration required to match the voices to the action was surprisingly challenging.

And a huge shout out goes to Bill, our Mock-up Master! You sir, are the man!

Be sure to check out the first two video installments online, and be on the lookout as the story progresses, with new videos to be posted over the next few weeks!

Dashed HOPE

HOPE Beach Volleyball. A booze and bikini fest that draws mobs of people every year to give selflessly to charity – by partying! And to play a little volleyball too, of course. Whether your team is a force to be reckoned with, or a complete calamity, HOPE is a guaranteed good time – rain or shine

Except for this year.

This year BSL rustled up some of its finest athletes and put together a long overdue team for the charity event. We were ready to represent.

Old school BSL team name: Check!

Custom team shirts: Check!

Grueling practice to ensure victory: Partial check!

Game-faces on: Check!

Optimism over intimidating weather forecast: Partial check!

Let's do this.

After playing one disgraceful (albeit fun!) match against Nav Canada, and having our dignity served up to us (overhand!), we were about to find out that Mother Nature was not in the mood for any fun, or fest of any kind.

At first we were only slightly discouraged by the rain, and the heavy blanket of dark clouds overhead. I know I sure had my party hat on (at a shamefully early hour I might add). So we spent our first batch of downtime blowing up branded beach balls and taking in the wide range of scenery.

By the time we headed over to play our next game, the conditions had apparently been upgraded to extremely-dangerous-to-be-on-a-beach. So our game was cancelled.

A brief glimmer of hope arrived, thanks to a break in the rain, and we scarfed down our complimentary team lunch (yes!). But the torrential downpour soon returned, and we were left no choice but to take that party under the table!

So after another bout of time-killing with those blessed beach balls, the dreaded announcement echoed across the crowd and officially killed the buzz – every single game was cancelled. And a whole beach’s worth of people – from those dressed up in costume to those who were barely dressed at all – were ushered off the premises like a herd of crestfallen, half-drunken cattle.

Getting Bums in the Seats

What is the big deal about attending an orchestra performance? What causes such excitement when listening to live music?

When developing this year’s subscription campaign for the NAC Orchestra, these were the questions we needed to answer. Rather than just focusing on the world-class caliber of music performed, we wanted to frame the complete experience of attending an orchestra performance. Each element – from the venue, to the programming, to the performances – is cause for a real visceral, emotional experience. And what’s most important about these feelings is that they are universal, recognizable and resonant within all of us.

SUSPENSE. PASSION. INTRIGUE. SURPRISE.

In short, we want to demonstrate the emotional scope that NACO performances evoke.

Working with Ottawa photographer Tony Fouhse, we wanted to highlight certain elements that would vividly illustrate these emotional experiences. We didn't want to overburden with words. Instead, we wanted to make bold, impacting statements that are associated with these core emotions.

We also took into account that a successful campaign depends on frequency of the message. So we devised a strategy that would give the campaign a strong presence, along with a strong message. Over the next few months, we will be rolling out a wide range of campaign elements including bus shelters, wild postings, brochure distribution, web marketing, and more.

We want people to feel something when they see this campaign. We want them to imagine themselves experiencing these moments. And it is through this vital connection that we can cut through the clutter, build a sense of anticipation, and inspire a real willingness to subscribe... to get those bums in the seats!

Chalkbot: Creative Win

Nike and Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation Livestrong create a robot called The Chalkbot that paints user's messages along the streets of the Tour De France.

You can send in your message via the campaign's website, text messages, or Twitter.

Watch the Chalkbot in action or submit your own message here.

QR Codes a Great Marketing Tool

Since 2007, QR Codes have been a mainstay on billboards and print advertisements in Japan. Here in North America, it appears that only highly tech-savvy people have shown interest in this potentially groundbreaking marketing tool.

QR or Quick Response Codes look like this:

Application developers have created mobile phone apps such as BeeTagg, that allow you to snap a picture of a QR Code that in turn will send you to a URL or display some text. The code above will take you to Wikipedia's main mobile page.

Campaigns that include billboards with QR Codes are being used in North America, but not with nearly as much frequency as in Japan.

The National Post has recently printed small QR Codes in their publications to encourage those who have abandoned reading a traditional paper to read their news articles via a mobile phone. See the National Post using QR Codes here, or watch this video for further explanation.

Takin' it to the Tweets

Microsoft has upset a certain group of people, and this time it's not Mac fanboys. The Email Standards Project has integrated Twitter into a campaign, to let the software giant know just how unhappy they are. Their problem is that the Word rendering engine will be used to display HTML emails in Outlook 2010.

"This means for the next 5 years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no support for CSS like float and position, no background images and lots more."

The campaign has been successful in getting a response from Microsoft, but who knows if they'll get what they're after. Microsoft is pretty good at "not getting it" and assuming they know what's best for everyone.

Social Media = Good News

The very touchy subject that is the latest Iran election and the subsequent protests has become an eye-opener to many about the speed of obtaining news through Social Media.

From the beginning of the election, results were being tracked through Social Media. The controversial Iranian Presidential results spread like wildfire through numerous websites, including Twitter. Where things got interesting is when Twitter's host NTT America delayed a scheduled maintenance downtime due to the abundance of Twitter activity around the election. It appears Twitter was not keen on blanketing the news flowing from Iran to the rest of the World.

Multiple Social Media outlets have continued to cover the situation since the beginning. Mashable Blogger Ben Parr has documented how Social Media has covered the chain of events in a timeline seen here.

Personalized Domain Extensions Pose New Opportunity

Early next year, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) who govern over domain names, will begin taking applications for top-level domain names.

For example, if you have '.bsl', you can create websites like 'blog.bsl' , 'casestudies.bsl' or 'portfolio.bsl'.

A personalized domain extension could enhance your location in search engine results, open up branding options, and allow you to organize your own domains specific to marketing.

Another example could be '.adidas' where you can create specific branded websites like 'running.adidas' or 'raceottawa.adidas'.

However, with an initial application cost for a of $185,000, it may limit applications to larger corporations and organizations.

source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE5576DM20090609

Controversial Topics and Social Media

Often there is reticence to engaging in social media at an organizational level, out of concern for controversy, or losing control of "the message". I came across this site which engages a very controversial topic - the tar sands - using open (but moderated) discussion forums. I got to thinking: if they have found a way to make social media work for them, couldn't almost any organization?

The tar sands are a controversial subject if there was one: some see it as an important source of jobs and economic development, others see it as a key element in North American energy security, while still others see it as a massive environmental problem. Even the name, "tar sands" is up for debate (on the site they are referred to as "oil sands"). (I refer to them as tar sands because it's the more common term, and it's what I grew up with).

And yet ... the discussion forum engages in a wide variety of subjects - from water pollution, to shutting down the tar sands, to housing shortages. The organization learns from these conversations, and benefits from listening to a wide variety of perspectives. They claim to be developing new approaches and policies about environmental stewardship to reflect the insights they receive through audience engagement.

I urge you to have a look - there is something to learn here about listening, open dialogue, and about managing outcomes.

Canada's Oil Sands