Carman Pirie's Blog

Landlord Lou on ICE

The ICE Awards is Atlantic Canada's annual advertising award show gabfest - a virtuous mix of egos, booze, and above-average looking folk.  The 2008 edition was held on Thursday night.

Everyone at Colour was pretty pleased with the results this year with the agency taking home a total of 14 awards including 7 for Landlord Lou's first campaign.  Lot's of Landlord Lou stuff for background can be found here.

So, in the interest of shameless self promotion, here's the list:

Gold - Best Website B2C - click here.

Gold - Best Online Video - take a look...

Silver - Best Online Video - here...

Merit - Best Online Video - seen here... 

Gold - Best Non-Traditional Guerilla - further info here.

Craft Award - Copywriting - for the aforementioned vids and website.

And, best of all, Killam Properties was awarded the Fearless Client Award, the only ICE Award given to a client. Well deserved, to be certain.

So there you are and there you have it.  A big thank you to the good people at Killam Properties as well as the entire team at Colour who came to together to deliver this campaign.

Now, of course the awards are nice... but, what's better is renting apartments. Good creative isn't worth a damn if we're not renting apartments.  And, the good news is, occupancy rates are fantastic with September and October of this year - on the heels of the latest Landlord Lou / Picnicface campaign - looking especially good.

Shoppers Drug Mart flyer funny

Alright... for the most part, I just wanted to post this because I find it hilarious and thought you might too. 

That said, if Shoppers really wants to foster a relationship between their buyers and their customers, here's an idea:  Have each buyer start blogging and actively engaging with customers online. They can learn about what customers want... what their frustrations are... what new products they'd like to see... how they could be better presented... etc.  Listen a lot, talk less.  Over time, they just might earn the right to deliver an anticipated, personal and relevant (as Seth might say) offer and, with some further thought, figure out how to make the offer spread.

Okay... now on to the funny part:

 

Elections Canada and the Herd

Canadians chose their federal government yesterday.  As the results started rolling in last night, the CBC was quick to point out that the infamous Elections Canada results reporting blackout had, once again, been broken.  For those of you who are not familiar with the blackout law, it works something like this:

1.  Canada is a big country.  BIG.  When it's noon in Newfoundland, it's only 7:30 AM in Vancouver.  Or, perhaps more importantly, when the polls close on the east coast and the results start rolling in, there's still lots of time left before the voting stops in the west.

2.  Apparently someone in Ottawa agrees with Mark Earls.... i.e. Us humans are awfully good at copying each other.  And, when it comes to voting, it seems our government would prefer we keep our own counsel rather than resort to Herd behaviour.

3.  To keep us all in line, Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act bans the transmission of election results from any electoral district where polls have closed to districts where the polls are still open.

What I find interesting in all of this isn't how quickly the law was broken, but just how motivated we clearly are to work together as a Herd.  On twitter last night, there were more than a few Canadians from central and western Canada requesting the early election results.  And they found many fellow Canadians willing to help them out.  Our Herd nature was on full display - despite laws to the contrary.

Giving people stuff to do together isn't just smart marketing - it feeds our shared desire to... well... share.  It's just the way we're built.  And sharing - in all its manifestations - is the precursor to copying.... the very thing Elections Canada is trying to (unsuccessfully) guard against.

The Pomegranate Phone

The past week has seen a lot of the local Halifax social media community actively critiquing the Province of Nova Scotia’s latest ‘Come to Life’ effort – the Pomegranate Phone.

Much has already been written about the campaign and its potential failings - you can take a look here and here. Joel Kelly also chimed in with a very thoughtful post here. While I personally remain unconvinced of the strategy, I’m open to being proven wrong – and actually hope I am. 

In addition to the points made by others, this week’s activities surrounding the Pomegranate Phone are important for two reasons: 

1. The Pomegranate Phone campaign is, at the very least, an 'out-of-their-comfort-zone' effort by a government department / agency. It is great to see them recognizing the power of the web while endeavouring to creatively use it to get their message out. Did they do everything perfectly? Surely not… but key to understanding this space is participation in it. And they’re participating. They’ll get better. They’ll learn as they go – and we should be open to learning something along the way too. 

2. Stacey Jones-Oxner, who heads up the ‘Come to Life’ effort, has been exceptional this week. She’s commented on posts by local bloggers, she’s been open and transparent thus far regarding the campaign’s success to date, she’s offered to show site analytics to those who are interested, etc. Overall, when the local social media fishbowl was turning up their collective noses at the not-so-affectionately termed #pombomb campaign, Stacey entered the conversation with curiosity, interest, and a genuine desire to learn more about other perspectives on the campaign. This can only be helpful in the long run, and she should be commended. 

To be clear, I think it is more than fair for people to question any $300K investment by their government, be it in a marketing program or anything else.  That said, I think that we in the social media community here in Halifax have a unique opportunity to help move the yardsticks forward surrounding our local market's understanding of the space.

Using Ning for Open Space harvest

I spent most of this past week in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland, joining with Ella McQuinn in facilitating the Gros Morne Institute’s International Summit on Sustainable Tourism.  The conference covered four focus areas of sustainable tourism using the same half-day design for each segment: 1.5 hrs of Keynote and Panel followed by 2 hrs of Open Space.  The final half-day session saw the group of just over 100 delegates converging on action items and next steps. 

Several weeks ago I started a private Ning site for the gathering with an invitation to join sent out to all registered delegates.  Forum discussions were started surrounding the four broad focus areas of the conference and a pre-conference profile questionnaire allowed delegates to get to know one another prior to showing up.  Additionally, one of the conference organizers started to blog actively and many delegates chose to upload various travel photos – such is the nature of the sustainable tourism crowd, I’ve learned.  All of this activity – with 70% of conference attendees active on the Ning in forums, discussions, and leaving notes for each other – occurred before the conference ever started. 

One of the challenges as Open Space scales is how to harvest learning from the individual sessions in a way that informs the whole, without resorting to time-consuming verbal harvests by session hosts.  To address this challenge, first we had session hosts complete written harvests that were typed by volunteering students and enlarged to 11x17 output, then placed around the room.  Then each host took the time, during meals, breaks, etc., to record a brief (2-5min) video synopsis of the conversation using my Flip Video camera and a mini tripod.  These videos were uploaded to the Ning during the evenings and conference delegates could review the videos the next morning. 

Now that the conference is over, delegates can use the Ning to further their discussions and initiatives – while automatically informing the community of their efforts and allowing the conversation to grow.  All keynote speeches, panel discussions, and Open Space break out session videos are available for ongoing review and reference on the Ning – along with the PowerPoint slides and other supporting material from the conference. (At least they will be available once I get it all uploaded.) 

All of this to say, I simply find Ning to be exceptionally useful for this sort of thing.  Conferences are supposed to be about connecting, learning from each other, and then – with any luck – collectively moving some initiatives forward.  And if that’s what you’re after with the conference you’re organizing, it seems to me that the little bit of time and energy needed to invest in a Ning site is incredibly well spent.