Branding Presentation at “Bridges to Better Business" Conference

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

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.

Banfield-Seguin at the NAC Gala

Banfield Seguin's "Team NAC" enjoyed a beautiful evening at the National Arts Centre's annual gala. Headlining the performance was spectacular young pianist Lang Lang, the “hottest artist on the classical music planet”, according to the New York Times. The NAC's gala raised $745,000 for the National Youth and Education Trust, a fund aimed at nurturing and developing the creativity of young people across Canada. We had a fabulous time - it's hard to beat an evening of world-class entertainment in aid of fostering youth and creativity. (We just need to bring a real camera next time!)

Fostering Talent, the Banfield-Seguin Way

I wonder if employers ever think about how important it is to keep their workforce busy, engaged and learning new things?

Let’s be perfectly honest for a second: How many of us have ever caught ourselves idling for a few minutes during a workday? Or found it hard to stay focused on and (dare I say it) excited about the tasks at hand?

To be fair, underutilization of workforce happens even in the most successful of businesses.

Image courtesy of iGadgetReport

Ever heard of Jonathan Ive?

For non-Mac fanatics out there, Jonathan Ive is an industrial designer whose ingenuity and creativity was/is instrumental in the revival of Apple over the past decade or so. The reason I mention him here is because, before the return of Steve Jobs in the late 1990s, Ive had already spent multiple years at Apple working in frustrated effort without anyone noticing him.

It was only once Jobs recognized Ive's unrealized talents that the designer was able to flourish and help the company become the industry leader it is today.

Taking a longer-term view

Having this kind of vision requires taking an unusual approach to work however.

In a prior lifetime, I worked in an industrial casting facility where there were a few employees who were classified as “floaters.” This meant that they were assigned to whichever department had the greater need for them at any given time. If you’ve got ca multi-skilled worker, what better way to offset disengagement than by allowing them to “float” between different jobs if they are open to the possibility?

Supporting your people means encouraging them to follow paths that might diverge from the conventional, pushing them to keep experimenting and learning (and allowing them the time to do that) and knowing that the benefits will likely manifest in a) a happier worker, and b) a uniquely-skilled worker who will eventually provide a better return on investment.

In short, investing in your people means taking a long-term, open-ended view with respect to development.

The Banfield-Seguin way

Working at a place like BSL – where people get hired on and stay on for multiple years – really makes one realize the benefits of trusting your people and mining the latent potential within them. For us, it simply makes greater sense to retain and nourish the people you hire, versus constantly looking for “fresh talent.”

Not only does doing this help your company develop a reputation as a great place to work, it fosters loyalty in your workforce and keep them connected to their jobs, which is preferable to having them feel bored enough that they start to feel unappreciated.

Ultimately, the longer teams work together and know one another (and your clients and business partners), the better the work they produce in the long run.

Look around your office

Could there be anyone with a genius seed waiting for the opportunity and encouragement to flower?

What initiatives could be implemented to make that come about, whether targeted to individual needs or company-wide ones?

Could you instigate a regular and open dialogue about ways for them to put their talents to more effective use in the workplace?

Let us know what you think.

Hot off the press: BSL's latest issue of Brainstorm

It's that time again! Another issue of Brainstorm ready for your consumption. This issue takes a look at the hot summer we've had--of course we mean the projects we've worked on, awards we've won, and new staff...
Read all about it in the latest issue of Brainstorm:

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

An “extreme” social media strategy

What I find special about social media is that it’s a form of storytelling in the moment.  We can share our insight as something happens - whether it’s about a newsworthy event, a life milestone or a popular photo/video. And this is what, I believe, has contributed to the massive popularity of this online medium.

When putting together a social media content strategy for a company, the story’s theme often revolves around its products and/or services. What is so unique about working with our client Iridium – a global satellite communications company – is that their products can, at times, become part of the strategy. We get the opportunity to go beyond our terrestrial limits and plan a strategy for the people doing something extreme and adventurous.

The strategy is then framed by the tools we decide to use – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc – and we determine how to best tell the company’s story on these platforms in a way that’s appealing to their audience.

We recently worked with Iridium employee, Walt Everetts (Executive Director, Satellite Operations and SCS development), and his friend, Al Lepore, on how we could best tell their story of hiking Mount Everest – a lifelong goal for the two men. Iridium provided Walt & Al with an Iridium Extreme satellite phone for communications as they were out of terrestrial range.

We wanted these two men to be the primary drivers of this story for authenticity; therefore, we worked with Iridium to determine how we could tell this story on social media with only the phone. And here’s what we discovered:

• They could tweet from their Iridium Extreme via SMS
• They could create live podcasts during their trek

This framed our content strategy as we created a Twitter profile for Walt & Al to share their progress and an account on ipadio for followers to hear the excitement in their voices as they were living this dream.

To supplement these live updates from the mountain, Walt & Al sent us photos and videos from their training and during their expedition. To house all of these assets, we created a webpage on Iridium.com as their hub, so people could learn about Walt & Al and track their progress.

What could have been perceived as a challenge – telling a story on social media from a region without terrestrial coverage – became a strength for this campaign. The combination of an extreme expedition and Iridium technology allowed followers to stay up to date with Walt & Al as they shared their experience of reaching Everest Base Camp while in the moment.

Confessions of a Pro(fessional)crastinator

I can’t believe I finally completed this article! I'm excited! I’ve been looking forward to writing down my thoughts on this topic for a very long time. As long I can remember in fact. 

But for some reason, I just kept putting it off… and putting it off… and putting it off… 

I think you get the point. What I’m talking about here is 'procrastination.'

You see, I’m what you call a pro(fessional)crastinator. And believe me when I tell you that I left the ranks of amateur “crastinators” a long time ago. I'm a lean, mean, easily-distracted machine! 

But don't get me wrong. For me, “waiting until the next day” to do something – whether it is a house chore or a blog post – is not really a bad habit. Or an obstacle to greater achievements.

Procrastination is a skill, a gift even! And I’m only half joking…

The Pros of Procrastination

When it comes to procrastination, the key in my opinion is not to pay too much attention to what’s not getting done. Rather, you should focus on what is getting done instead. 

If what you’re doing while procrastinating is of greater value to you than what you’re temporarily putting off, then you’re definitely not wasting time. In my case, as a creative strategist and writer, I see occasional daydreaming as way more valuable than, say… doing the dishes or filling my taxes, for example. It’s an exercise in imagination and problem solving, both of which are assets in my job. 

Procrastination can even have benefits for the task you’re postponing (that's right). Since it leaves you with a shorter amount of time to complete it, your survival instincts are forced to kick in and you start only paying attention to what’s crucially important. 

When everything goes well, the last-resort burst of energy produced can help you be more focused and efficient, and even come up with better, more creative ideas and solutions. It also helps that you’ve had more time to collect information and think the situation over before getting started. 

The Cons of Procrastination

Of course, there are also limits to the virtues of procrastination – eventually everyone has to pay their bills and clean up their apartments. We can’t just put this stuff off forever (or can we?). 

As you’ll no doubt have noticed, when you procrastinate, you’re more likely to feel stressed out and anxious, to cut corners and overlook details, and to do a poorer job on the task at hand than you would have if you spent more time on it. 

It’s easy to understand why most people try to avoid it.

But ultimately, I truly believe that there’s a productive way to procrastinate, if you’re willing to put up with a bit of uncertainty every once in a while. 

My advice is to take notice of what you do during “off” time and to try to become really good at it. And to only tap into your source of last-minute magic when you absolutely need to – otherwise, it’s bound to eventually run out. 

You’ll see, when used in moderation, procrastination can do wonders for all aspects of your life! 

How do you feel about procrastination? 

Do you have a success (or horror) story about procrastination? Or any tricks for making the most of your tendency to put things off? 

Please share them in the comments section (like, right now… not tomorrow… or later this week… NOW!).

Get ready to socialize: Social media expert Kelly Rusk joins Banfield-Seguin

Kelly Rusk recently came into the Banfield-Seguin fold, and that’s great news for our clients.

With her strong background in public relations, social media research and analysis and community engagement, Kelly really knows how to make social media work for businesses.

At agencies and on the client side, she’s created social media strategies and communications plans for local and national clients in both public and private sector. In fact, Kelly is a sought-out social media speaker and has presented at events in Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto and Miami. She’s also President of the Ottawa chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, in which she leads the board of directors in fulfilling the association’s mission to be the voice of communications in Ottawa.

And now she’s ready to put all those awesome social skills to work for Banfield-Seguin clients. Want to find out more about Kelly? Check out her blog, her tweets, her Facebook page, her Linked In profile... you get the idea.

Banfield-Seguin: our company profile video

As a full service marketing communications agency, we sometimes feel like the cobbler's children--we are so busy creating great work for our clients that we don't have time to do it for ourselves.

Fortunately that was not the case with our company profile video. Our video team worked hard between client commitments to tell the story of our agency--from our beautiful stone heritage building in hip Ottawa neighbourhood Hintonburg; to our dynamic leadership team and working style; to the personality of our nearly 40 full-time employees.

This is Banfield-Seguin:

Family-friendly and responsive web design: a perfect fit for Ottawa Museum Network

For an organization devoted to history, the Ottawa Museum Network is remarkably with the times.

With the goal of driving both foot and online traffic to the 10 local museums that comprise the Network, the OMN wanted to update their brand as well as their website to better reflect their primary target audiences — families with children under 16 years, and the grandparents of these children. And they chose Banfield-Seguin to help.

To be more approachable, we developed a web strategy using an open source CMS that would allow for ongoing updates to be made to the site in-house – with limited design and technical support required. We also designed the new website with more images, more personality and more fun. To cater to busy Ottawa families, we made the information clear, super easy to find, and organized to fit the way families plan their social and cultural calendars. And, since families are increasingly on the move, we also designed it with a responsive layout to better fit their lives.

What’s responsive about it?

Basically, when we built the site, it was coded so that it automatically reformats for the device you are browsing with. In effect, it is optimized for viewing on your desktop, laptop or smartphone — all at the same time. The site was also built to allow the client to control the content the user views from each type of device.

The results have been pretty impressive. From April to June, 2012, year-over-year web visits have nearly tripled. And, assisted by a marketing campaign embedded with QR codes, the increase in mobile user activity is even more dramatic, with a 726% increase over the same period last year.

So if you’re looking for family-friendly fun this summer, look no further. And look on any device you want.