The Opticians Council of Canada (OCC) is readying a new public awareness campaign following a creative account review. Vancouver agency My Loud Speaker developed the work as a project. OutsideIn Communications was the incumbent.

The target group for the OCC is 35 to 55 year olds, said Tsang. The OCC, which is comprised of the Canadian Optician Associations along with regulatory bodies and various educational institutions, is based out of Winnipeg.

STORY SUMMARY

It was a long road working towards the XYBOOM Conference; it took almost 2 years of bidding, planning, promotion, and the eventual execution of the event. As an organization comprised only of workers all under the age of 27, the creation of this event was close to intimate to the company’s founder, Tammy. Tammy approached Service Canada with a bid for the Youth Awareness grant, and eventually won the grant with the grand idea of the XYBOOM Conference.

CHALLENGE

Having worked closely with career service centers at educational institutions, the large youth unemployment rate across Canada was brought to our attention. We began to delve deeper into the issue, and we noticed a lack of intergenerational dialogue in Canadian workplaces. It was obvious there was a need for dialogue – a forum in which all generations could share their perspective. With an entirely new idea in which the audience had no frame of reference, our challenges were enormous and began with funding, followed by a tight timeline, a lack of man-power, and finally, the major obstacle of creating an effective campaign that would entice a large number of people.

STRATEGIC PLAN

Our strategic promotions plan was three-pronged and included Video, Installation Art, and Online all under the same umbrella tagline: “Three Generations. One Future.” However, instead of spending large amounts on media buying, we focused on a small amount of strategic media buys, and paired it with email targeting, and numerous sponsorship/partnership activation strategies, in which we specifically targeted youth and industry professionals for this conference.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

We created recruited a small core team, created sponsorship packages and were eventually able to secure a funding and sponsorship from major organizations such as Coast Capital Savings, SFU, UBC, BCIT, BCHRMA, W2 Community Media Arts, and more. We planned, promoted, and executed the event from beginning to end. We also developed the entire advertising campaign and communications plan that included video, installation art, and social media projects.

RESULTS | STATISTICS

Through strategically designed sponsorship packages and an innovative idea, we were able to secure enough funding to hire a small team of individuals to execute the conference as well as cover costs for food, the venue, program guides, and all other logistical needs. In a period of just two months, the XYBOOM website had a staggering 23,000 page views and over 4000 unique visitors. The Conference was continuously covered throughout the months by a total of over 20 news outlets, notably CKNW, CBC Early Edition, and The Bill Good Show. It had consumed the airwaves and through tactical advertising and communications strategies, we earned the media attention rather than purchased it. In addition, because we attained a high quantity of sponsorships and partnerships from large organizations, we were aided in helping further spread the word of the conference. In the end, we had over 250 attendees at the conference and an incredibly high satisfaction rate (96%) from conference participants.

TEAM XYBOOM

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Yumi Numata (Communcations/Outreach) Matthew Tsang (Advertising)
• Execution Lead Yumi Numata (Communications/Outreach), Matthew Tsang, Jonathan Tsang (Advertising)
• Team Players Linton Chokie, Mabel Chow, Devon Wong, Angel Qi, Vicki Lee, Gurjeet Singh, Julie Sun, Truman Wong, Kathryn Lim

STORY SUMMARY

We were introduced to the Founder of VAFF, Barbara Lee, by Joyce Lam, Founder and Artistic Producer of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. After initially meeting with Barb, we were happily introduced to the large VAFF family. We have been blessed to work with such a passionate team that was easy to work with from day one. Working with VAFF was a continuous opportunity for us to explore the various avenues in which to promote to a unique and targeted demographic for a span of two years. Our time at VAFF were extremely memorable and we are now, more than ever, appreciative of the passion that drives this local festival.

CHALLENGE

We’ve worked with the Vancouver Asian Film Festival for consecutive years to develop campaigns that would increase attendance and exposure of their festival. We had the task of promoting the festival to a broad range of groups and never wavered from accurately highlighting their vision. From the two years we worked with VAFF, one of the major obstacles we faced was discovering the campaigns that would be inclusive and appealing to all demographics, rather than pockets of ethnic groups.

STRATEGIC PLAN

Our first year working with VAFF, we wanted to start reaching an audience beyond the already solid foundation of supporters the festival had. We collaborated with a working board to develop a more unique campaign that was directed at the general public rather than a specific demographic. After managing the marketing and promotions for the entire festival, we felt that an exit survey was a necessity in gauging what the audience, especially newcomers, thought of the festival. In the following year, after analyzing the research from the previous year, VAFF wanted to refocus their campaign angle and asked us to draw up something new that would attract a diverse audience using a simple and accessible message.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

In the two years we worked with VAFF, we targeted both specific and broad demographics in our campaigns. From a strategically aligned video contest targeted at filmmakers to a Performance Installation Ad aimed at the general public, we carefully pushed the envelope to ensure VAFF was not only staying relevant, but on the cutting edge with their advertising campaigns. By aligning their social media communication with a T.V. commercial, a video contest, and media releases, we prepared a very strategic and organized campaign for VAFF around the tagline: “What’s Your Combinasian?”

RESULTS | STATISTICS

Our initial campaign with VAFF was a roaring success as our PIA paired with the right brand ambassadors handed out over 500 postcards to the general public across downtown Vancouver. This campaign effectively brought in a staggering amount of newcomers to the festival – 63 per cent to be exact. Our initial exit survey and report also helped the festival realize their strengths and weaknesses in preparation for next year’s campaign. In the following year, our strategic campaign entitled “What’s Your Combinasian?” garnered a lot of media attention – which was topped off by a front-page feature in the Arts and Culture section of the Vancouver Sun. The entire festival was covered by the media around the theme of “CombinAsian” which was a change from the traditional coverage articles in the past years. The campaign effectively increased attendance for the festival and created a platform for easy transition into future similarly innovative campaigns.

TEAM VAFF

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Tammy Tsang
• Execution Leads Matthew Tsang, Jonathan Tsang
• Team Players Barbara Lee (VAFF), Ana Chung, Mark Lee (Linetest Collective), Hao Chen (Linetest Collective), Lydia Fu, Joe Persuca, Min-Jee Mowatt, Damian T. Lloyd, Andrew Tsang

TESTIMONIAL

“We are extremely happy with the results of the PIAs and the exit survey they conducted for VAFF during the festival. The information and feedback obtained has helped with our upcoming sponsorship drive.” PDF

STORY SUMMARY

We met Trevor Bird during the planning stages of the “Take a Bite” event held at our office. He was a friend of a friend, and some information about branding was being shared in a passing conversation. He mentioned being interested in capitalizing on the fact that he recently participated on a TV show. At the time, he was not allowed to disclose what show it was – it turned out to be Top Chef Canada. He also mentioned that he had always wanted to start his own brand and services, as well as his own restaurant.

CHALLENGE

Trevor had little knowledge and experience working with marketing before, but he needed help to ensure he could capitalize on his recent attention from the media. He needed a whole new brand experience including a logo, website, business cards, and online communication training. We wanted to ensure that everything we created was easily manageable for him after the project’s completion. Trevor is also a very casual and easy-going personality – so we wanted to ensure that we communicated his personality along with the sophistication of his food in his brand.

STRATEGIC PLAN

We concluded that we wanted a brand concept that didn’t only emphasize Trevor’s lifestyle of sustainability and buying local, but also an emphasis on himself as person and how that reflects on his food. The solution directed the idea of using natural assets and design elements that were refined but also casual, essentially fitting to his voice and personality.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

In the creation of the brand, we ensured we executed our strategy of aligning the design and copy around his personality and lifestyle choices, rather than solely focusing on his food. The website and social media platforms were to provide deep insight into what he did and thought without invading his privacy. In consideration of his relative inexperience with self-promotion, we ensured during the development of his brand that we used simple tools that would provide him with an opportunity to easily make alterations long after our project was complete.

RESULTS | STATISTICS

The results have been very positive since the completion of his brand project. The website and business cards are sophisticated without pretense, and highlights the personality and lifestyle choices of Trevor Bird. We have also set up analytics for the website for it to be measured in the long-term future, and we expect the numbers to spike significantly upon the release of Top Chef Canada Season 2. Thus far, the website’s ease of use along with the social media training and business cards we provided, has given Trevor the foundation to begin his self-promotion. You can see the finished product at www.TrevorBird.ca.

TEAM TREVOR BIRD

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Tammy Tsang
• Execution Lead Tammy Tsang
• Team Players Trevor Bird, Matthew Tsang, Jonathan Tsang, Andrew Tsang, Saurav Purkayastha (66sMedia)

STORY SUMMARY

A couple of years ago, Brice Dare, Communications Coordinator at UBC Career Servies, was introduced to us by Howie, his employer. We were able to sit down with Brice and talk about a couple things that we felt could really help UBC Career Services. Since every Career Services’ challenge is to remind students of the importance of preparing for the future, we wanted to create something that was highly engaging without being daunting or fear-inducing to the students. We eventually turned a corner in our brainstorm when we started bringing up ideas that brought people back to their childhood by asking the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Through that breakthrough, we felt we were on our way to developing something effective for Brice and his department.

CHALLENGE

We were asked to develop a campaign that was appealing to UBC students and would heighten the awareness of the Career Services department. The biggest challenge was coming up with an idea that would get students thinking about their futures without inducing fear. By playing with the concept of bringing students back to their childhood ambitions, we felt we could overcome this obstacle with a campaign that allowed students to face the current reality of having to choose a career without feeling overly intimidated.

STRATEGIC PLAN

We wanted to reach students by appealing to their hopes and dreams. We concluded that since students at UBC are constantly under a lot of stress trying to finish assignments, pass exams, and eventually graduate, an ideal campaign would remind them that all their hard work is for the ultimate goal of finding a career that they wanted. We felt that if a campaign by UBC Career Services directly tackled their imaginations of the future, the students would realize that Career Services was, in fact, a step towards their dreams. We eventually decided that a Performance Installation Ad would be the ideal medium to reach our goal.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

We set up 8 large cut-outs in the highly-trafficked area outside the Student Union Building on the UBC Campus. Each cutout represented a different occupation and students were invited to place their heads in designated areas within the cut-outs and take photos of themselves in those positions. A large sign introducing the installation read: “Helping you be who you want to be. – UBC Career Services”. We also offered free professional photos and uploaded all these photos to the UBC Career Services Facebook fan page.

RESULTS | STATISTICS

The response for the campaign was astounding as students all over campus were creating conversations about the installation. There was over 5500 active views * and 250 photos taken of the piece in the two days it ran. The integration of social media also proved effective as students would later turn on their laptops, “like” the UBC Career Services Fan Page, tag themselves in the photos, and use the photos as their profile pictures. This PIA delivered exemplary results in terms of lasting impressions and engagement among the public. It also exemplified to the students that no matter what career path they planned to go down, UBC Career Services could aid them in their journey. Overall, the project was a hit, and even Brice and the staff came by to take a group photo!

* An active view is counted as anyone who makes a concerted effort to view the PIA.

TEAM UBC CAREER SERVICES

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Jonathan Tsang
• Execution Lead Jonathan Tsang
• Team Players Brice Dare (UBC), Matthew Tsang

TESTIMONIAL

“In summary, working with My Loud Speaker was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to any organization.” PDF

STORY SUMMARY

Simon Fraser University Career Services has been a cherished client of ours for several years. They’re open-minded and willing to take risks, they always have their students in mind, and they often invite them to our meetings for feedback. We’ve been working with SFU Career Services to not only gain the attention of their students but to educate them on the importance of preparing for life after university. We took into consideration the mindsets of each university year and the natural mindsets of their students.

CHALLENGE

We were asked to develop a campaign that coincided with the launch of the SFU Career Fair. The largest obstacle we faced was challenging the common belief system of students by emphasizing that preparation for life after university is a priority during the years they’re attending school, and not something to be placed on the back burner to be worried about after graduation. Another challenge was to ensure a university degree was not devalued during the presentation of this campaign.

STRATEGIC PLAN

We wanted to reach students with a light-hearted approach and pair it with a hard-hitting message. Overall, our aim was to urge students to strike a conversation within themselves in order to initiate a change in perspective. We wanted students to re-evaluate the importance of managing their career as soon as their first year at university. Ultimately, we decided that a Performance Installation Ad would be the ideal medium to reach our goal.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

In our PIA, we wanted to be honest with our approach by seeking a relatable experience – the dorm room lifestyle – and address an important issue that everyone relates to – procrastination. We set up an entire dorm room living space in the high-traffic Academic Quadrangle at SFU Burnaby. Individuals, wearing green masks for anonymity, were placed within the living room and interacted with the TV, books, couch and other objects as they normally would in their own dorm room. Velvet ropes surrounded the installation piece and were complemented by a plaque placed in a manner that invoked the idea of information plaques at a museum. The plaque, along with a large sign on the wall of the installation read: “You can’t live here forever – SFU Career Services”.

RESULTS | STATISTICS

We were highly successful at creating commotion and reaction among the students. There were over 400 active views * and 100 pictures taken within one hour of the Performance Installation Ad. In total, there was an average of 2302 active viewers per day and of those active viewers, 28 per cent stopped and watched the performance. This PIA delivered excellent results and triggered to students to look at their own life, and figure out whether or not the person in the imitation dorm room lived a similar life to the one they were currently living. It reinforced the importance of direction, and urged students to take action towards building their careers. After the execution of the PIA, the client noted that the project was placed as front page news on www.SFU.ca. The PIA was such a major success that it was revived and reproduced for the SFU Surrey Campus.

* An active view is counted as anyone who makes a concerted effort to view the PIA.

TEAM SFU CAREER SERVICES

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Jonathan Tsang
• Execution Lead Jonathan Tsang
• Team Players Tony Botelho (SFU Burnaby), Adam Brayford (SFU Burnaby), Jocelyn Loi (SFU Surrey), Stephen Phan (SFU Surrey IATSU Liasion), IATSU Volunteers (SFU Surrey), Matthew Tsang, Ana Chung, and various other SFU Staff

TESTIMONIAL

“It is with unabashed enthusiasm that I write this letter in support of the team at My Loud Speaker. There have been very few times in my professional life that I have worked with a group that so consistently exceeded my expectations, both in terms of their project ideas and in the execution of those projects.” PDF

STORY SUMMARY

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation was our very first client. At the time when we were first introduced to Alden Habacon, he was still the Diversity Manager for CBC based out of Vancouver. Since then, he’s moved on but has continued to support our company and our work by recommending us to various departments within CBC, including CBC Radio Canada International. Our work with CBC has mainly revolved around Brand Ambassadors and Youth Promotional Advertising.

CHALLENGE

We were asked to promote several projects for CBC including Accent on Toronto 6, CBC Citizenship Essay Competition, Adrienne Clarkson YouTube Promotion and CBC Diversity Programming at the Reel World Film Festival. Working with a large and conservative corporate client to reach the youth demographic proved to be a challenge, but we were able to seek out suitable youth that could both appeal to the targeted demographic and represent the CBC brand effectively.

STRATEGIC PLAN

We strategically targeted key individuals within the youth demographic that pertained to each project at hand. Our promotional tactics included target analysis of their behaviours and actions as well as seeking out peak times and locations for campaigning and outreach. We made sure to hire professional, young, and diverse individuals to work as brand ambassadors in order to ensure we represented the CBC brand correctly. For each project, we established clear rules and talking points for all individuals involved to ensure that each ambassador was confident in their role. We also trained and prepared the ambassadors for all situations that could have happened during their shifts. Each project had clear and tangible goals and team members were equipped with the material needed to execute all necessary tasks. Lastly, we ensured that the goals set forth at the beginning of each project were measurable and tangible in order to make certain our review process was clear and objective.

TACTICAL EXECUTION

To ensure improvement from project to project, we outlined a detailed report on feedback and pursued contacts for their responses. We ensured that all staff were well prepared in advanced and made certain back-ups were present. Staff was well versed in the CBC Brand and their responsibilities in each role and were well-prepared for any surprises that arose. We also tracked success across team members to ensure motivation and participation was consistently positive.

RESULTS | STATISTICS

We accomplished a major outreach to over 100 targeted campus groups and organizations which included thousands of students across Canada from institutions like the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and the University of British Columbia. The CBC Staff was highly impressed with the outreach and results and continues to recommend us to other potential clients.

TEAM CBC

• Creative Director Tammy Tsang
• Strategy Lead Tammy Tsang
• Execution Lead Tammy Tsang
• Team Players Mauricio Rodriguez, Angela Leung, Cynthia Qian, Mallory Lee-Gilson, Pauline Ngomba, Alexandra Nikitchina, Elliot Pobjoy, Kristine Johnston, Hina Shamsi, Jason Youn, Theresa Poon, Alain Maisonneuve

TESTIMONIAL

“My Loud Speaker is creative and original in their approach and very dependable. We believe their reliability is the biggest reason why the campaign was a success. They were able to execute a promotional campaign right across the country.”

We do have some exciting news though, we’ll be working on a national campaign with our friends at the Opticians Council of Canada. It’s going to be a fun summer touring across Canada with the team! And for those of you asking about the future of XYBOOM, stay tuned!

For now, check out some of our recent case studies.

Until next time.