MH3 Business, Business Lessons, Events, Marketing, Opinion, Properties, Sponsorship, Sports, Work

Leading from the Front

How do I summarize a week where it seemed every waking moment was filled with inspiration kicking me in the butt?

Some of the motivation was formally delivered. I witnessed a riveting speech delivered by General Rick Hillier at the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance Sport Events Congress. His central message about inspiring others and inspiring yourself revealed that his approach to motivating troops abroad was grounded in ensuring they stayed connected to being Canadian – a sip of Tim Horton’s coffee, a Christmas dinner made by a CO, a visit from the Stanley Cup.

Some of it arrived unexpectedly but in formal settings. In a meeting at Rideau Hall, I was enraptured to hear Bernard Shinder talk about how the event we now call Canada Day was created in the 1970’s by a group of well-connected Ottawa business leaders. Canada Day in Ottawa is a must do event for every Canadian, but in its early days was held away from the shadow of Parliament Hill, as the government feared it may flop!

Some out of the blue. An impromptu offer for a ride from the above Rideau Hall confab, found me being chauffeured by none other than General Walter Natynczyk and hearing about his three children, all proudly serving in our armed forces around the world. How energizing the words of a proud father were, discussing the love his offspring have for serving their country.

Some grew organically. Specifically from Charmaine Crooks, Debbi Wilkes, and Loreen Barnett participating in a Women of Influence panel, moderated by the non-influential male known as MH3, also at the CSTA event. Their voices combined to form a chorus of motivation and insights for women pursuing a career in sports marketing. To quote Debbi Wilkes, “Don’t let anybody else write the script for YOUR life!”

Some were ensnared in the jaws of defeat. Unfortunately at the hands of the US Women’s hockey team who upended Team Canada, in the gold medal world championship game, with their superior skills and sizzling skating. But defeat can be a powerful motivator and all of us should emotionally team up with our women for revenge in Sochi.

I misled you. This wasn’t even an entire week. It was actually only three days. And it wasn’t a butt kicking. No – it was more of a motivational stampede to catch up to those leading from the front!

 

 

MH3 Business, Marketing, Opinion

Oh Canada, We Love Our BeaverTails

Sorry Classified, but the lyrics to your song made the perfect foundation for my title this week.

Our mascot may be a “damn Beaver”, but the BeaverTail delicacy is taking a strong run at overtaking the animal. I know this from two days of highly scientific research conducted earlier this month…at my ski club.

On Saturday of Family Day weekend, in rolled the BeaverTail wagon and you would have thought Santa Claus had arrived. Dozens of cries of “BeaverTails!” echoed throughout the hills. Kids began a delicate, yet complex, negotiation with their parents to a. receive the necessary permission to upgrade the octane level of their midday snack by several thousand kilocalories; and b. to secure the necessary second-mortgage type financing they would need to complete the transaction.

I hadn’t really understood the fascination and fanaticism the BeaverTail brand elicits. I had heard of the Obama Tail served to President Barry during his first visit to Ottawa in his premier term a few years ago. I had seen the huts when we went to Quebec. A friend had shared a far-fetched tale that Bryan Adams once declared that his skill in differentiating a Beaver Tail from a Timbit was supernatural, or All-Canadian, or something. (I am taking liberties here with the actual telling of Adams’ story!)

But how could something so enthralling be created in wee wee wee little Killaloe, Ontario? I have friends who live there and they have never mentioned the furless deep-fried fountain of taste bud ecstasy. Perhaps like me, they hadn’t experienced the love I witnessed this past weekend.

The obsession with the Tail defied all experiential marketing logic. The truck was noisy. The line was long – at one point kids were waiting 40-60 minutes! The price? Good on them for charging mega bucks for fried dough. There was no pre-promotion, no Facebook app, no post event press release.

But if the BeaverTail two day sale where I ski is any indication – they know their consumer, their consumer loves them, and I am one very impressed, and disciplined observer. Disciplined?

Yes, I was practically a Biggest Loser Hall of Fame level participant in my resisting the urge to succumb to the Eve-like temptation of a Skor flavoured BT. You are probably underestimating the level of self control this took. Summon your inner Willy Wonka and visualize a fantasia of chocolate covered faces surrounding you. Soon to be decaying teeth blazing in choreographed smiles. Majestically chocolate ‘stached upper lips on pre-pubescent faces. Chins dripping in sprinkles, sugar, and M&M bits not quite captured by their alligator jaws.

Admit it. I’ve done it. I’ve overwhelmed your senses. You want some damn BeaverTail!

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

Stop Thinking With Half a Brain: Rediscover Your Creative Side

Delegates arriving at the presentation from Chuck Phillips and Kyle Romaniuk of Cocoon Branding were greeted with a single yellow slide reading: “Before we begin, write down as many uses for a paper clip as you can.” What followed was an interactive workshop with delegates getting hands-on tips on how to be creative and generate new ideas, which inspired creativity, allowed delegates to go home to foster a more creative working environment, and contributed to the development of a more creative world.

In addition to the paper clip brainstorm, delegates participated in a number of exercises to get the creativity flowing and their brains working. They formed into pairs and created one-minute portraits of their partner, which demonstrated how we’ve all been taught to be embarrassed about our creativity. At the end of the presentation, delegates got into groups to revisit the idea of the different uses of the paper clip, demonstrating that openness to new ideas and collaboration can lead to incredible creativity. These interactive exercises created a fun environment with lots of interaction between delegates.

Each of the delegates were given laser pointers, which Chuck and Kyle used to engage the audience and get  feedback throughout the presentation. For example, most of the delegates rated themselves on the higher end of a creative scale from 0-10, but many believe that their organizations are not performing at their creative peak, while ratings of creativity in the work environment were all across the scale.

The presentation was divided into four sections to guide delegates through discovering their creativity.

Why does creativity matter? Creativity pushes innovation and pushes companies to the next level. It can widen the competition gap much better than other techniques, like price drops, which can be easily matched. Creativity taps into emotions, and leads the decision-making process – 95% of decisions are actually made by the emotional brain. Ultimately, creativity can help protect or overtake the leadership position, create a higher impact, and improve your ROI.

Why is creativity such a challenge? People think of creativity as only belonging to artists or musicians, as something that we feel pressured to be as opposed to something that we should enjoy and all be natural at. They believe that everyone is born creative, but over time, we develop filters and barriers that limit our creativity. Why did this happen? We’ve become too entrenched in the way things are and have always been. “The new status quo should be challenging the status quo,” said Kyle Romaniuk.

How do we kill creativity? The devil’s advocate rule is one of the biggest killers of creativity, as it stifles the positive energy of creativity. Fear is the greatest barrier to creativity, especially the fear of appearing dumb or having your idea get rejected. “A lot of great stupid ideas… can lead to great ideas,” encouraged Chuck. Finally, placing too much weight on pre-conceived notions and the way things have always been done stifles creativity.

How do we inspire creativity? Divergent thinking allows you to see different routes to ideas and other ways to interpret the questions. Forget about your pre-conceived notions – free your mind and change the way you look at things. Design thinking takes everything from the current state and redesigns it to a better state – from manufacturing to accounting, every department can benefit from continuous improvement. Awareness of the outside world can help you go beyond your usual thinking, while collaborating and allowing team members to put on different “thinking hats” can inspire new ideas. Chuck and Kyle also recommend always limiting brainstorming sessions to under an hour, as the best ideas come out of short creative bursts.

Overall, this excellent workshop could be summed up with one quote from the presentation: “If you want to play in the game, then do what everyone else is doing. If you want to win, then you will have to change the game.”


Follow Chuck Phillips (@chuckcocoon), Kyle Romaniuk (@KyleRomaniuk) and Cocoon Branding (@CocoonBranding) on Twitter.