The Canadian Marketing Association’s latest leadership paper tackles a timely issue many marketers are grappling with -- building brand equity with new Canadians.

Just released, the paper taps into new CMA research and the perception new Canadians have of brands and how brand relationships are shaped.



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If last week's post This tweet is brought to you by... about sponsored tweets piqued your interest you'll surely be eager to hear what else Twitter has to offer digital marketers in Canada. Each passing month finds new opportunities cropping up for us as the service makes more of an effort to cater to its northern contingent.


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No doubt about it, the idea of sponsored tweets is appealing. Whereas traditional digital sponsorships involve prominently promoting a brand in a site section or special feature, the Twitter version highlights that sponsorship in a tweet sent on behalf of the site publisher. The result is exposure inclusive of (but not limited to) the publication's entire Twitter audience of followers.


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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.

eMarketer, September 27, 2011
The mobile payments market may be in its early stages but it is forecasted to experience dramatic growth. Gartner’s July 2011 forecast predicts total worldwide mobile payments to increase to $86 billion dollars in 2011 including Short Message Service (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Near Field Communication (NFC) payments and WAP/mobile internet purchases. There are also a wide range of other truly mobile payments where customers can store value on their phones and use phone swipe for payment at point of sale. As we move closer to a world without wallets, marketers are lining up behind specific initiatives. But are consumers coming aboard? Read the eMarketer article


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Ad Women of Toronto, The Globe and Mail and the Institute of Communication Agencies are delighted to announce that Hayley Wickenheiser, four-time Olympic medalist and one of the best female hockey players in the world, as the next speaker in the Extraordinary Stories Speakers Series.


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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.

eMarketer, September 20, 2011
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have to deal with light budgets and fewer staff when exploring marketing and customer engagement options. Zoomerang and GrowBizMedia’s October 2010 findings report that social media is becoming increasingly popular among SMBs as a marketing option. However, most of the SMBs don’tt have a significant budget for social media and more than 59 per cent of those using social media spend less than $100. With such budget restraints, Facebook is turning out to be the social networking site of choice: 86 per cent of SMBs turn to Facebook while only 33 per cent turn to Twitter and 41 per cent to LinkedIn. Read the eMarketer article


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As digital marketing continues to appear in every client's campaign deck, there are three key measures of success that are also sure to gain in popularity.

"Marketers are embracing digital advertising even as they admit they don't completely understand what makes consumers engage. The key according to one expert is to consistently innovate digital campaigns, giving consumers are reason to click, read, view or otherwise engage with branded platforms. But, moving into 2012 there are three trends brands need to embrace - and which could help them perform even better in the coming year."


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Many brands give in to the siren call of sponsorships. Online, the sites that don't offer such partnerships in some form or another are few and far between. As prolific as digital media sponsorships are, however, they require a specialized strategy for success. At the top of the to-do list is ensuring that your sponsorship serves a purpose and showcases the defining characteristics of your products.

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On September 14, the Newspaper Canada announced the recipients of their 2011 Extra Awards. These Awards celebrate outstanding advertising in newspapers and on news delivery websites.


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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.


eMarketer, Sep 8, 2011
Remember the time when you received an interesting email and forwarded it to a dozen of your friends? Well, times have changed according to the latest Resposys study which reported that forward-to-a-friend has declined 15 per cent since 2009. Then, how are retailers directing subscribers to promotional sites? The adoption of direct links to a retailer’s own social networks has been the biggest change in attracting consumers. Survey results from the Internet Retailer Survey and StrongMail survey of business executives across industries found changing views on integrating social media and email marketing. Read the eMarketer article

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Continuing from last week's post - Social networks - too much of a good thing - I want to talk more about social networking in relation to marketing.

Surrounded by hundreds of social networks, a digital strategist can be kind of like a kid in a candy store. There are so many brand profiles to be had, so many colourful, interactive sites on which to create them. Before you overindulge and make your brand ill - stop. Think. And consider the situation from the consumer's point of view.


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Written by Lucy Handley, of MarketingWeek this article looks at the Brand Happiness Boosters report, completed by The Communications Agency, and how today's young adults are less happy than their 80s counterparts. To get positive results from this discontented group, Marketing needs to look at incorporating deeper levels of sociability and engagement into their campaigns.



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