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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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.