MH3 Blog, Events, Football, Opinion, Sports

Green Cup

The confetti had barely landed on the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Grey Cup Parade when the “dynasty” talk started.

If it wasn’t for a couple of excruciating losses in 2009 & 2010, the Riders would be sporting four Cup titles in the last seven seasons. Even winning two in that span puts them ahead of many of their rivals.

But off the field, the green Riders are a green dynasty. It’s estimated they will sell close to $10 million in merchandise this year; more than all other CFL teams combined…unless the Argos release the highly coveted limited edition Rob Ford XXXXL #12 jersey he has been modelling. It’s even more than most of the Canadian NHL teams, minus obvious exceptions like Toronto and Montreal. The Grey Cup Festival week and game generated $123 million for the local economy, which happens to be a part of what is now Canada’s richest province!

Brent Butt joked at one Grey Cup event that Saskatchewan loves football so much because the province is shaped like a football field. I might suggest the economics might also generate some of that affection!

But there is a key lesson in all this excitement. Like Darian Durant, it wasn’t so long ago that the province was trying to wave its team goodbye. They were lovable, yet losers. They were adored, but unsupported.

Magically, the team turned to community ownership and in a dramatic oversimplification, you could say the rest is history. But it’s true; community ownership has built this green machine. Over the Grey Cup weekend, Commissioner Mark Cohon talked about a 10th team for Atlantic Canada becoming a reality. The community ownership idea being eyed as the key business model.

Nothing makes more sense to me, for the CFL, than to see the Atlantic Schooners become a reality. The very real fan club by the same name would probably agree. A 10th team would do wonders for the league.

But I wonder if more teams shouldn’t look at this model. Sport building community. Community building sport. This past May we themed our sponsorship conference “Building Community.” Guess where we held it?

Saskatchewan. Home of the Green Cup!

MH3 Blog, Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Cause/Fundraising, Events, Opinion, Sponsorship

Unity

I almost blew it.

A friend suggested I watch a video of a young man’s TedEx talk. Told me the presenter should be our feature keynote at the Canadian Sponsorship Forum.

Don’t know why, but I had little interest. Maybe it was because all I heard, saw, interpreted was that the speaker was a break dancer.

Thankfully someone on my team watched the video. I should say someones. It spread quickly among a few key influencers. They pulled me by the ear and I watched. Hmm. Me be wrong. Let’s invite him to speak. I didn’t slot him as our closing keynote. Cause I was still being stupid. But he got a prime speaking slot.

He didn’t speak at CSF. He wove magic. He cast a spell. He left me in a trance.

But don’t be fooled. Doing an awesome speech doesn’t mean you’re talented at anything but speaking. But he did do it while breaking, at times elevated on just one arm, at other times hosting fellow dancers on the stage. But, but, but…was he authentic?

Last weekend the trial was held. I got a chance to see the same speaker in action and attend his organization’s marquee event. The Unity Festival.

Bottom line. This man is what he says he is. His project does what it says it does.

The charity is UNITY. Its mission is fostering success in youth through avenues they entrust: music, dance, art.

The messiah is Michael Prosserman. Aka Bboy Piecez.

He is the founder, leader, and inspiration of Unity. Seeing him in action, seeing the talent he curated, the audience he attracted, the engagement with young and old alike. I now knew. He is what he says.

Don’t make my mistake and ignore him. Because Mike Prosserman is going to change our country.

MH3 Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Events, Marketing, Properties, Sponsors, Sponsorship, TrojanOne

An Open Letter to All 2012 Canadian Sponsorship Forum Delegates

I want to thank you for joining us in Montréal last week.

It was fun.
Thank you for honouring Marc Kielburger with the five-minute standing ovation that he so richly deserved. I know many of you were moved to tears by his presentation about the work that Me to We and Free The Children perform.

Your enthusiasm for all of the speakers was remarkable. Whether it be learning how to reach youth in
Québec through the wisdom of Danick Archambault of Astral TVPlus or how to touch the hearts of consumers through the passion of Nancy Marcus of Kruger Products or understanding how to do more with less via Michelle (sister of Olympian hoopster Kim Smith) and her teammate Louise Della Fortuna of Energizer.

Continue reading “An Open Letter to All 2012 Canadian Sponsorship Forum Delegates” →

MH3 Business Lessons, Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Events, Properties, Sponsors, Sponsorship

Lesson 13: Forecast for 2012 Varying and Ripe for Rainmakers

CSLSLessons Learned in 2011: Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study

For sponsors, sponsees and agencies, the forecast for the upcoming year was that most see a glass half full scenario, with 35.9 per cent of sponsors expecting to spend more, 58.8 per cent of sponsees expecting more revenue and 70.3 per cent of agencies expecting more billing.

While 48.4 per cent of sponsors plan on similar spending to last year, 32.5 per cent of sponsees expect similar revenue and 8.1 per cent of agencies expect similar billing.

Agencies had the most reserved expectations, with 21.6 per cent predicting less billings, whereas 15.6 per cent of sponsors plan to spend less and only 8.8 per cent of sponsees projected less revenue.

Continue reading “Lesson 13: Forecast for 2012 Varying and Ripe for Rainmakers” →

MH3 Business, Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Marketing, Opinion, Sponsorship, TrojanOne, Work

Passion Juice

I love you.

It’s true.

I may not even know you, but I love you. Oh not all of you. Especially those I don’t know.

And not in a physical or otherwise unallowable manner. But certainly in a passionate manner, I do love you, I truly do. Because you read my blog. It’s the highest honour that you can bestow upon me. You take the time to share in what’s on my mind or happening in my life.

I’m pretty passionate about writing. I’m in a constant struggle with myself to move beyond these weekly unedited, unrehearsed, unscripted, underground submissions. Okay not so underground, but it did sound pretty romantic. Underground blogs. The struggle is to get my act together and write something longer, meatier, more worthy of your attention and effort. Continue reading “Passion Juice” →

MH3 Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Events, Sponsorship, TrojanOne, Work

Ha Ha Ha: Being Funny in a Speech is No Laughing Matter

One of the time-honoured secrets of speech making is to start with a joke.
Easier said than done.

Not that there is a shortage of material in this world. You can borrow a joke from a speaker you’ve heard in the past. Tread dangerously with an inappropriate line you picked up from the drunken MC at your cousin’s wedding. Search the “www” and commit larceny by using someone else’s material. If you’ve been drinking you may think it wise for some reason to try to write your own. Or if you’re a bonehead, you can always pick someone to make fun of.

I’ve tried all of the above and more. Unfortunately, I think I’ve used the “pick on the innocent” option much too frequently. It’s the chicken’s way out, but it’s far too easy.

But being truly funny. Wow. That’s an art. A craft. A science. Is it a gift? I would say to a point. But it’s a gift that needs the preparation, practice and refinement of an Olympic ski jumper.

I have been thinking about “being funny” in preparation for chairing the 2012 Canadian Sponsorship Forum. I’ve told my team that we need to be funny. Not silly. But funny. Forum is loaded with great information, research and inspiration. Serious stuff. Continue reading “Ha Ha Ha: Being Funny in a Speech is No Laughing Matter” →

MH3 Business, Business Lessons, Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Events, Marketing, TrojanOne, Work

Tour de Montréal

It’s a bit of an oxymoron, but lunching with Andy Nulman is a gas. If you don’t know Andy Nulman, he is the über-charismatic president of the Just for Laughs Festival. It’s his second stint with JFL, the first starting after he was fired as a journalist at 23 and then in 15 meteoric years rose to CEO of JFL. Then left to start Airborne Entertainment, sold it for $110 million, then bought it back for way less, and then returned to JFL in 2010. Wow… And what have YOU done in the last 20 years?
Last week, I jammed a whirlwind dose of Montréal into a 27-hour window. It’s amazing to me that despite the fact I go to the village formerly known as Hochelaga quite often, it never feels often enough. That’s good news for Porter, as I need to go back again soon. What I have realized is that it’s more than the charm of the city and the lure of its events that keeps me coming, but rather it’s the people that provide its spark. Continue reading “Tour de Montréal” →

MH3 TrojanOne, Work

Ha ha ha

Being funny isn’t easy. In fact, trying to be funny can often backfire. Witness my opening at this year’s Canadian Sponsorship Forum?

When I promised some insights on how to rev up your ROI, and my opening slide was entitled “Kick the Bucket” featuring a picture of Michael Jackson, the cricket choir wasn’t what I expected. Or hoped for. Yes, it’s true, MJ is worth more dead than alive. That’s the same for many a celebrity. But I was trying to make a joke.

That’s one advantage comedians have over the rest of us. When you go to a festival, or a show, or an improv night, ostensibly you come in a frame of mind to laugh. If you didn’t, well then you have issues this blog can’t solve.

Secretly, I would have loved to be a comedian. Continue reading “Ha ha ha” →

MH3 Blog

Rallying a Community: How Dundas Won Kraft Hockeyville

At one of the final sessions of the 2011 Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Barry Forth shared the story of how he helped Dundas, Ontario, win the title of Kraft Hockeyville in 2010. The incredible creativity and collaboration demonstrated by Barry and the rest of the committee provided inspirational and highly useful tips for anyone planning a campaign to mobilize a community.

Laying the groundwork began by connecting with key contacts, including local businesses, arena users, the City of Hamilton, Tourism Hamilton, local politicians and, most importantly, the chair of the winning Kraft Hockeyville 2009 bid from Terrace, B.C. Barry noted that this connection was one of the most valuable, as the lessons he learned from the organizer – who had led Hockeyville campaigns for three years and had finished first, second or fourth each year – helped guide the campaign in Dundas.

Barry laid out what he has dubbed the Four E’s of community-mobilizing campaigns:

  • Engage: Begin with the end in mind
  • Excite: Create events with wow factor
  • Educate: Once they’re listening, tell them what they need to do
  • Endure: Keep something in your back pocket to make it last

Building the campaign around a focus on making it about the kids and having fun, Barry and the rest of the committee utilized a number of creative tactics. To spread the word, they used both social and traditional media channels, including a whopping 75 radio interviews with Barry from November to April. They ordered brightly-coloured, eye-catching jerseys and hats, and held fun, sponsor-driven events, like having the Hamilton Bulldogs come to play in Dundas. As the list of top cities grew narrower, he capitalized on the fact that Dundas was the only city in Southern Ontario, and then Ontario, still in consideration, leveraging the province’s large population and voting power.

For Barry, the “Eureka” moment that turned the whole campaign around was when he realized that a local hockey team, the Dundas Blues, had the same colours as Kraft’s flagship product, Kraft Dinner. This led to the creation of the “Gotta Be Dundas” logo, which leveraged KD’s equity and made Dundas’ connection to Kraft very clear. Kraft Dinner then played an important, and often fun, role in Dundas’ campaign, using KD boxes as everything from noisemakers to hockey pucks. A local musician even created an official “Gotta Be Dundas” song, keeping with Barry’s goal of a fun and engaging campaign.

On April 3, 2010, the hard work of Barry and the rest of the committee paid off when Dundas was named Kraft Hockeyville, winning 1.1 million votes. But the story didn’t end there. The five-month campaign then turned into an 11-month journey sorting out logistics and creating a Gotta Be Dundas legacy project to raise an additional $400,000.

For more insights from Barry, follow him on Twitter – @BarryForth.

MH3 Blog

Building a Brand: Identifying Your Brand’s DNA

In the last several years, the ground has shifted beneath the feet of marketers like never before. Andrew Shibata, Head of Brand Marketing at RBC, has experienced this shift and was inspired to charge the change of sponsorship models and social branding for initiatives like RBC’s Blue Water Project. This afternoon, Andy led delegates through an interactive discussion around the need for marketers to drive a social stake into all brand mixes or face the resulting consequences.

Sparking an engaging and provocative session, Andy started the discussion with some staggering stats on social branding that were grounded in one key fact: Doing good is good for business. High trust firms outperform low trust firms 3:1. The “28 firms of endearment” outperformed the s&p500 9:1 over 10 years. The list goes on.

Balancing business marketing + social brand marketing is key to driving business. “Think business in the front, party in the back,” said Andy, with a perfect “brand mullet” analogy. To formulate your own “brand mullet,” Andy had some best practices to keep in mind:

  • Putting hearts into it
  • Building the good
  • Consumerism with conscience
  • Authentic action (or consumers sniff you out — “A no bullshit factor,”  Andy)
  • Be more social
  • Authenticity + Credibility + Storytelling = Growth (Tim Horton’s, Newman’s Own and Bell Let’s Talk were favourite examples)

The discussion wouldn’t have been complete without his own lessons behind RBC’s own Blue Water Project, which went deep into water and had a big impact on the environment and RBC’s CSR:

  1. Do the good.
  2. Integrate the good.
  3. Market the good.
  4. Measure the good

Following with other really interesting best practices and case studies, a favourite lesson of Andy’s for me was to create platforms, not promos… and to get social or get out of the way. There’s a cost to getting it wrong. If you’re not authentic, consumers move onto the next. If you get it right, the halo effect is huge. So, Andy had delegates ask themselves:

  • What is my company’s sense of social?
  • Does it align with my own principles?
  • Who owns budget and spend and how do we secure money to make an impactful play?
  • Are your varying initiatives funded efficiently?
  • Has it become inherent to the brand?

The root of these questions could be wrapped up into four mantras: Be authentic. Be natural. Be truthful. Be patient. Leaving the delegates with these lasting words, the questions flurried and Andy closed with good news stories that solidified understanding of brand DNA for the 2011 Canadian Sponsorship Forum.