WINTER 2015

relevance

A Real Brand’s Brand: What Makes a Brandly Brand?

TUGBOATGROUP.COM

RESOLOVE TO BE RELEVANT

WITH LACTOSE

FROM

RUSSIATUGBOAT GROUP IN EASTERN EUROPE

TWO STEP VIDEO PRODUCTION

FIND YOURSELF, FIND YOUR LOGO!

DIGITALDESIGN TOP

THINGSTO BE5

relevanceHOW TO CHOOSE AN AGENCY - P.26

Brought to you by JIND Fruit Co. Osoyoos, BC

Anenchantedevening.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JIND This is What Summer Tastes Like™

FRIENDS IN FRESHNESS Our friends with benefits

4 10 16 FROM RUSSIAWITH LACTOSE Tugboat travels to the Western Front

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 1

2 FROM THE WHEELHOUSE A Message from the Captain

8 A REAL BRAND’S BRAND What makes a brandly brand

14 FIND YOURSELF. FIND YOUR LOGO Sorry, do we know you?

18 TWO-STEP VIDEO PRODUCTION Let the details sort themselves out

19 FRESH SHEET What’s happening right now

20 THE FARMERS’ MARKET Popular and Profitable

22 DIGITAL DESIGN Be ready or be irrelevant

24 CALLING OFF THE SEARCH? Don’t let the Google get you down

25 BEYOND THE BOOTH Be present and be personal

26 HOW TO CHOOSE AN AGENCY Trust your gut

27 SURREY WOMENS CENTRE Changing the definition of victim

28 NOT THE BOSS OF YOU! Classic LifeCare tells it like it is

29 IRRELEVANCE The stunted social scene

30 THE MANIFEST A special place for marketers

32 CLASSIFIEDS

Relevance is published by:Tugboat Media Inc. DBA Tugboat GroupIncorporated in 1998

3A-138 West 6th AvenueVancouver, British Columbia Canada V5Y 1K6tugboatgroup.com

Steve Gallagher, Captain / CEOTel: 604.879.9222Toll Free: 1.866.802.5667steve@tugboatgroup.com

Copyright ©2015. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

FEATURES

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

Friends in Freshness - beyond the brand. Recipe development puts product first. – pg. 10

Cover: Old school Russia-the venerable GAZelle.

It is Right Because it is Relevant.

Need a brand? Crowd source a logo for cheap. Need a website? Slap that new logo into a WordPress template. Need some photography? Fill a brochure template with royalty free stock and hit the press—BAM! Now you’re in business!

But are you a relevant enterprise?Nope. Sorry. You are just another collection of regurgitated content, lucky to be landed on by some wayward soul bored enough to wonder where they’d seen that photograph before. (That was the one two minute page visit your site stats showed this month.)

As purveyors of relevance, we sometimes find ourselves debating the merits of scenarios like this, versus our methodical and considered approach to developing relevant brands, graphics and communications products.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CAPTAIN STEVE GALLAGHER

wheelhouse

FROM THE

Not always, because it is easier to work with clients who understand, want and seek relevance. But oc-casionally those attracted to the low hanging easy button just haven’t taken the time to fully consider the ramifications of random. It’s an easy position to defend. With relevance comes compelling rationale. With random comes…nothing.

Such as, how do you know it is right?That crowd sourced logo, that website, that brochure, that ad: how do you know it is right?

You know it’s right because it means something to the audience it was designed to connect with. The colour, the typeface, the paper stock: it’s relevant. Your website matters. The collateral you produce resonates with and engages the prospects and clients it was designed for. The tone and style of your copy has significance. It is right because it is relevant.

Testament to the title and contents of this cre-dentials magazine, creating relevance is what we love doing. We make clients relevant to the audiences that matter to them.

Welcome to the new issue of Relevance. r

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B R O U G H T T O Y O U B Y T U G B O A T G R O U P. T U G B O A T G R O U P. C O M

Above: The JIND ‘Apple Girl’ was one of the most-photographed people at Whistler’s Cornucopia, decorating event-goers with racy fruit stickers.

Above right: Summer Nights, Summer Love and Summer Fling packaging – all summer, all the time.

Right: Make a splash – the pack shed sign can easily be seen from the other side of the Osoyoos Lake.

4 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

IF YOU’RE GOING TO DESCRIBE HOW SOMETHING TASTES ...

GO BIG!

JINDThe World According To

That was the big thinking behind the bold and beautifully simple position of the Okanagan’s newest fruit grower/packer/shipper.

JIND Fruit Co.™ is the classic story of the son who left the small town to seek his fortune in the world, returning with newfound wisdom and experience to take the helm of the family business. Jesse Sandhu is that son, who left for law school in London, England with a grand plan to get into hedge funds. After seeing what the hedge fund lifestyle was actually like, Sandhu found the orchards took on a new appeal, so he came back with a plan: challenge the venerated BC Tree Fruits cooperative, the giant packer and shipper of Okanagan fruit, with a new approach, better fruit and a new brand.

With a new company name (JIND – after Sandhu’s nephew) and a business plan,

he sought out leaders in the BC produce industry to observe the habits of success.

“Windset Farms is a company that’s doing it right and doing it big,” Sandhu

says. He was impressed by the top-to-bottom branding and marketing

support demonstrated for Windset. “That’s how I found Tugboat.”

JIND

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 5

6 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

What Summer Tastes Like. On the web. Polaroids capture it all.

Apple and wine pairing guide kept them coming back to explore flavours at Whistler’s Cornucopia.

The mother of all buyers guides.

big change from what they’re used to,

traditionally having been paid at the end

of the season.”

He also credits having a solid brand,

position and the right collateral for opening

the doors to produce buyers. “We had one

group up here for a meeting who committed

to buying our cherries only as they were

leaving and saw the label proofs taped up on

the back of the door,” Sandhu says. “It was

wild. They went from ‘we’ll let you know’

to ‘here’s the order’ in two seconds. Since

then, we’ve even had one buyer take the

branded fruit prints right out of the frame

to bring back to the office with them. Crazy.

Tugboat has delivered huge for us.”

What Summer Tastes Like™ provides

a never-ending supply of emotive imagery,

sponsorship opportunities, themes and

converts. It has also generated four sub-

brands to move the fruit from commodity to

branded fruit. Summer Nights™ Cherries,

And that was the genesis of What Summer Tastes Like™, not just a tagline,

but a mantra for growers, pickers, buyers

and consumers. In just one year, JIND Fruit

Co. had a brand, a tagline, an identity, four

fruit sub-brands, a website and social media

presence, packaging, labels, collateral and

a pack shed sign that can be seen from the

other end of Osoyoos Lake.

JIND has built a following by being places

and doing things that would not be expected

from a fruit grower. Whistler’s Cornucopia

food and wine festival was the “coming out”

party for the company. Not just a sponsor,

JIND’s Summer Breeze™ Apples activated

pretty much anywhere organizers would

allow. They even managed to crash

Masquerave, the festival’s hedonistic

after party. Apple chutney-topped chana

masala with pan-fried paneer on freshly

made poppadum started things off on the

Viking Stage. These bites were followed

by pairings developed by sommelier Nessa

van Bergen that matched different Summer

Breeze Apples to the most popular wines,

mating the flavour profiles in ways that got

attendees thinking differently about apples.

Possibly one of the most-photographed

elements of the festival was the JIND “Apple

Girl.” A custom apple peel dress and corset

were commissioned from Cary Lopes of

Paintertainment, a Whistler-based costume

design and model-painting expert.

JIND now has every major grocer in the

province as a client, including Loblaws and

Costco, something Sandhu credits to the

company treating growers and clients like

family. “We pay growers more per pound so

they don’t need to cut corners on growing

quality, and we pay them very soon after

they drop off fruit,” he explains. “That’s a

Summer Love™ Peaches, Summer Breeze™ Apples and Summer Fling™ Fruits –

limited quantities of niche fruits that were

orchard experiments gone great.

Although JIND is based in the Okanagan

and buys all the quality fruit they can find

in the region, they are able to bring in apples

from Washington state if need be and will

pad the sales shoulders of the Okanagan’s

short growing seasons with early

Washington cherries and late California

peaches. Heeding lessons from the missteps

of BC Hot House (Mexican produce with

BC Hot House labeling) and BC Tree Fruits

(importing Washington apples), Sandhu was

not going to see his company or brand have a

regional name or focus.

“Summer is summer, anywhere.”

It was wild. The buyers went from we’ll let you know to here’s the order in two seconds.” – JESSE SANDHU

“

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8 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

Great, we say. What’s this new brand about? Invariably, we endure five minutes of prevaricating nonsense about forward momentum, inclusivity, exclusivity, drama and “engagement breakthrough.” Then they show us a logo.

A logo is merely the graphic embodiment of the emo-tional attributes that make up the brand. The same attributes that help define the brand promise. While this may be old news to some, it’s painfully apparent that this is unheard of in the age of air-kisses, memes, click bait and Grumpy Cat.

Looking back at its once-noble core, a brand should be the emotional relationship between an organization (or product) and its stakeholders. How they feel when they are caused to think about the organization or product by a brand touchpoint. That touchpoint can be as simple as the choice of on-hold music or as grand as a Super Bowl ad.

A brand’s brand is consistency in tone and message. A brandly brand is meaningful and relevant. A brand’s brand is a story. A story that you start and your audience finishes.

Want a brand’s brand? “It’s easy,” says Darren Darcy of Tugboat Group. “Figure out the top five intangible ‘goods’ your organization or product is ‘selling.’ Single words only! Begin with 100 and start cutting. These five words are the head and limbs of your brand.” When asked what the Tugboat brand is selling, he replies: “relevance, resolve, ingenuity, advancement and opportunity. We make clients relevant to their audiences – that’s it. No mumbo, no jumbo.”

“A brand’s brand is not an empty recitation of a mission statement or an over-designed logo or an over-priced tagline. A typical brand is seen, sometimes heard. A brand’s brand is felt,” Darcy goes on to say. “If you can’t tell me in 30 seconds what your organization or product is about so that I (or a target) become interested, don’t tell me you’ve got a brand. Instead, tell me when we can meet about your brand visioning session.”

A REAL BRAND’S BRAND

STEP THIS WAY AND MAKE A BRAND,

We make clients relevant to their audiences – that’s it. No mumbo, no jumbo.” DARREN DARCY – TUGBOAT GROUP‘‘

We see it every day. That most abused of marketing words, further impoverished and robbed of meaning with each misuse. “Take a look at our brand. This is our new brand. We’ve rebranded.”

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RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 9

We see it every day. That most abused of marketing words, further impoverished and robbed of meaning with each misuse. “Take a look at our brand. This is our new brand. We’ve rebranded.”

PERSONALITY and TONE EXERCISE EXERCISE

A F F I N I T Y

OR ARE WE AN ORANGE ... why?

LET’S MAKE A BRANDLET’S MAKE A BRANDA TUGBOAT GROUP HOW-TO

WHAT KIND OF_______________ ARE WE? WHY?

ice cream

watch

liquor

game system

THE WAY YOU WANT YOUR

TO FEEL ITAUDIENCE

?Want to lay some GROUNDWORK on your BRAND?

THESE ARE SOME OF THE MAJOR STEPSTO GET YOU THINKING ABOUT YOUR BRANDIN A MORE REAL & MEANINGFUL WAY!

WHYARE WE IN

BUSINESSI

I

IF WE WERE A PERSON,WHO WOULD WE BE?

WHERE WOULD WE SHOP?

BANK? LIVE?WHAT WOULD WEDRIVE?

WHY? WHY? WHY?

NOW BUILD A COMPLETE PROFILE!TUGBOAT INDUSTRIES POSTER #1 - 2015

C o n t e x t E x e r c i s e

COKE ISN’T IN THE

B U S I N E S S

B U S I N E S S

Refreshment

SODASODAI T ’ S I N T H E

BUSINESSARE WE IN?What

are we an apple ...

Mustard or Ketchup?

Tequila or Vodka?

SINGLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBESINGLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE

THE INTANGIBLES WE’RE SELLING?

WHAT ARE THE TOP F I V EF I V E

5

WHAT ARE T

HE TO

P FIVE

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LE WORD

S THAT DESCRIBE THE INTANGIBLES WE ARE SELLING?

10 RELEVANCE SPRING 2014

Windset Farms is making friends in a commodity world where buyers fill shelves by the pallet and consumers fill baskets by the pound

Not when they’re from BC’s Windset Farms®®, one of North America’s largest growers of premium greenhouse produce, including peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant and lettuces. And not when they’ve collaborated with Tugboat Group on virtually all aspects of their marketing and packaging.

Friends in Freshness

TOMATOES ARE TOMATOES ARE TOMATOES. OR ARE THEY?

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 11

Soup to nuts: Environments, packaging, consumer events, trade shows, technical information, custom preparations, recipe development, web development, mobile development, outreach and education programs.

cont. on P. 12

Windset Farms operates facilities in British Columbia, Nevada and California with accounts that include Walmart, Costco, Loblaws, Albertsons, Trader Joe’s and other major grocery chains in Western North America. From the outset, Windset Farms has maintained that their products are worth more than a nameless ingredient commodity. Giving produce varieties their own unique product names has helped to differentiate the product and the core brand from other competitors and commodities. For example, grape tomatoes became known as Concerto® Tomatoes and cucumbers as Fresco® Cucumbers. The products were set to be the hero at this point, not the grower. Consumers would come to know these products by their brand names.

Through the years, the Windset Farms brand has grown organically. The drive for freshness and quality combined with a personal way of doing busi-ness was brand enough and has only been enhanced by innovative packaging, recipe development, product naming and a rich graphical landscape.

FRIENDS IN FRESHNESS Windset Farms is a consumer’s Friend in Freshness®, but anyone who interacts with the brand is a Friend in Freshness to the company. Consumers, chefs, retailers, athletes – there is really no shortage of possible friends.

This program develops relationships with all manner of Friends and showcases the fruits of these relationships through recipe development, tips and tricks, promotions and offers, health advice and countless other opportunities that spring forth as these relationships continue to develop with Windset Farms. Friends in Freshness are showcased through multiple mediums, most notably online through the website and social media channels.

CHEF AND RECIPE DEVELOPMENTIt’s not just the Windset Farms brand that’s part of alifestyle, it’s the flavour and performance profiles of the produce. Windset products are more than passiveingredients. There are dishes that cannot be truly replicated with anything other than Windset Farms products. Only Kraft Dinner is Kraft Dinner.

To bring this freshness home, top chefs help develop innovative recipes that leverage the unique flavour and texture profiles of Windset Farms greenhouse produce. These recipes are popular with consumers and help retailers move product.

EVERYTHING COMMUNICATESThe Windset Farms brand is expressed through many touchpoints. A new tagline was developed as part of a new brand architecture and introduced to the market organically. “Friends in Freshness” is not only a tagline but also an operating philosophy. Everything Windset Farms is and does centres on this notion. Making Friends in Freshness has become the singular mission of the company. Suppliers, employees, buyers, consumers, everyone else through the chain is considered a “Friend in Freshness.”

Making friends in freshness has become the singular mission of the company. Suppliers, employees, buyers, consumers, everyone in the chain is thought of as a Friend in Freshness.

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INTERNETBuilt using the Drupal framework, the Windset site allows Admins to post recipes, video content, news, events, vendor materials and communicate with consumers.

Events, news, recipes and other items are regularly added to the the Windset site and can simply be tagged for collection into the newsletter.

Recipes are searchable by category, prep-time, products used and can contain video elements as well. Adding recipe content is simple and straight forward: The user enters the copy, selects a photo for the page, the header, the thumbnail, selects a Youtube video, checks a few other boxes and then clicks save. When a recipe and photo are uploaded to the site, a printable recipe card is automatically created.

ADVERTISING While word of mouth is the best kind of advertising, a little TV helps. In this case, sponsorship of the weekly Saturday Chefs segment on Global Television. As part of the buy, one of the Windset chefs was the Saturday chef several times a year. This five-minute segment formed part of the Saturday morning newscast and was seen throughout British Columbia.

SPONSORSHIPS Windset Farms sponsors events that appeal to targets and that showcase the brand inside and outside the context of food and produce. From food events to wine galas to interior design shows to bicycle races to children’s charities to Run for the Cure, one never knows where they will engage with the brand.

CUSTOM PACKAGING As part of the Friends in Freshness commitment, Windset Farms will pull out the stops for partners, including custom labeling and packaging to resonate with their particular consumers. The collection of product and lifestyle photography is also available to retail partners through a robust online access system, enabling them to stay on brand in their own communications activities.

TRADE SHOWS At these shows, everyone there is selling the same thing. Produce. But the Windset brand isn’t about commodity produce. It’s about the way they do business, the way they grow, the way they’re true Friends in Freshness™. So, they trade mountains of produce for mountains of personality and a booth experience that is all about making Friends.

USAGE AND OCCASION In the commodity world that is the produce business, it’s even more important to break out of the commodity mindset to talk to produce buyers. At every show, Windset Farms has a buzz around a product sample.

While other growers continuously try to out-chef each other to inevitably position their booth as a lunch counter, Windset leverages the flavour profiles of their products into interesting taste deliveries to get buyers thinking about their products differently: from custom-made sorbets to flavoured macarons.

PACKAGING A HERO Growing beautiful, premium produce was not enough. At retail, the product IS the package. While not yet the largest player, Windset Farms invested the resources required to develop custom packaging that showcased the product at the same time as protecting it and extending shelf-life. This award-winning packaging has been winning retailers for ease of merchandising, and consumers for ease of purchase and transport.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING Take away the tagline and identity, the innovative packaging and focus on the consumer experience and what’s left is the Windset Farms brand as it’s always been – a commitment to quality, innovation, fresh-ness and relationships. The next time you’re shopping at Costco looking at peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes or eggplants, chances are you’ll be looking at Windset Farms produce. Hello, Friend.

Everything communicates. 1. Custom, show-specific sampling products made from Windset ingredients. 2. Recipe and video series created specifically for the Japanese market featuring Vancouver’s Hidekazu Tojo. 3. The latest Windset product: greenhouse-grown bok choy. 4. The art of food - food as art. 5. Japanese style tomato salad. Above: Hotel keycard sponsorship taken all the way with custom folios/schedules for trade show longevity.

Developing a visual identity can be every bit as challenging as developing a brand, and requires the same levels of rigour and discipline in creating the framework to pop-out a solid design. Without a clear path, you run the risk of your designer adding more visual detritus to an already polluted landscape. When considering an identity or identi-ty revamp, the responsibility should be shared with a client. The onus should not be on the designer to figure out what a company stands for, to whom and why.

Too many good organizations are outsourcing accountability to produce nice visual identities that mean nothing. The heavy lifting up-front is worth it. Information is everything. Providing

designers with as much knowledge as possible at the start will go a long way to developing an identity that resonates with the audiences it’s supposed to. If you haven’t got a brand outline/blueprint/architecture/whatever, you really ought to consider creating one.

Let’s say your organization/product was a person. Who would they be? What would they do for a living? Where would they bank? What would they drive? What kind of watch would they wear? What kind of beer would they drink? What’s their education? What if they were an actor? Singer? Who would they be? Why? Why? Why? Keep going until a complete ‘identity’ has been created.

In our icon-polluted world, it’s getting harder to find visual identities (logos) that honestly reflect the essence of a business, product or idea. If Pepsi or The Gap can spend a gajillion dollars and still manage to get it wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us? There’s lots of hope. You just need a plan.

FIND yoURSELF.FIND yoUR LoGo

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Le Vieux Pin is a relatively new

Okanagan winery in the French style.

Tugboat was invited to refi ne an

existing mark that had been designed

with retail competition in mind.

The strategy was to introduce the

winery and its wines through top

restaurants – at the table.

The original identity was tight,

single-weight line art with a modern

type treatment. Given the new brand

architecture and personality, the

identity was amended to express the

brand and help deliver on strategy.

Surrey Women’s Centre is Changing

the Defi nition of Victim™.

With the new positioning comes a

new identity that supports this vision.

There is no “head of the table” with a

circular identity. The notion of a circle

is one of sharing, strength and fl uidity.

The breaks in the circle allow move-

ment in all directions. The resulting

notion of a life-preserver fi nishes the

message. The guiding principle of the

Centre is to be always the right door

to walk through. The life-preserver

image captures this sentiment.

Parkgate Community Services is

a not-for-profi t society providing

community based services – social,

health and recreation – in the district

of North Vancouver.

Vitality and community spirit is

what Tugboat set out to capture with

the creation of their new identity.

Simple, engaging, approachable,

with just the right amount of energy

– the logomark refl ects the Society’s

vision: to be fl exible to the needs of

their audience and inspiring them to

enhance and improve their lifestyles.

Then, make absolutely certain you have your target profiles set out. Who is the audience? What are they like? Where are they? What do they need to see? Why?

Finally, everyone in this process needs to clearly understand where and how this identity will be applied. For example, how and on what it will be reproduced, scale of application and reproduction process limits. Reproduction budgets need to be considered at the outset. Remember, simple is always better. Demanding that initial concepts be presented as pencil sketches provides an early indicator that the identity will function in its most rudimentary form – the idea.

Yes, there is an identity crisis going on out there but for those willing to put the plan before the pencil and then the pencil before the pixel, it’s smooth sailing.

IDENTITY CHECKLIST

Do we have a brandoutline to use as a filterto see if our ID is right?

Can we articulate whatwe are and to whom?

Where will this identity most likely appear?

What’s our budget for reproduction?

Does the idea make sense as a sketch?

LEFT PAGE: 1. Singing Sailor: Men want to be him, and women want to be with him. 2. Advanta Valley: Harnessing the power of nature in modern facilities. 3. Viva Fresh: Viva Fresh. A passion for freshness unseen in old Russia.

RIGHT PAGE: 4. Jind Fruit: An identity that’s always been there, but not really. 5. Supreme Pharmaceuticals: More farma than pharma. More healing, less medicine. 6. Login BC: Find yourself in BC’s forests. An instant connection between the name and the purpose. The inference is immediate. 7. Montessori Daycare: The building blocks of development.

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16 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

RussiaFrom

with Lactose

A tale of brand and identity development to challenge the status quo in Russia .

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Greenhouse snapshotIn Soviet Russia, mass production was key. Greenhouses throughout the country were each the same size, operated with the same systems and had roughly the same yields. This company is using old structures but has retrofitted them with new technologies powered by new thinking. Growing tomatoes and cucumbers, they are producing higher yields with better quality and fewer pesti-cides than their typical Russian competitors. Their facilities may be cold-war but their approach is anything but. Employees are mostly under 30 and management is almost exclusively female. There is a vitality of thinking that is quite captivating.

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 17

The scope of the project grew from that first exchange; there was now a green-house brand and identity to develop as well the dairy brand and ID. In a week. Oh, and we had to come up with new brand names as well. In Russian. No problem. Ish.

Landing in Moscow at 0200, our most gracious marketing contact was at the airport waiting. Bags in the car, the 6-hour drive to the town was underway, stopping at a few 24-hour grocery stores for a crash course in Russian retail pack-aging and brand marketing. Saturday morning began with a visit to both the dairy and greenhouse operations.

Dairy snapshot Most impressive. In the last two years, the company CEO has visited over 400 dairy operations around the world and has skilfully imported expertise from around the world to make the dairy company a world-class player in an arena that still tends to have a lingering cloud of old Soviet thinking hanging over it. What’s also impressive is that the company is a closed system – beyond dairy cattle, their feed company grows the cattle feed, the dairy processing plant handles liquid and dried products and there’s a cheese factory that makes use of the richest milk they process.

OPPOSITE: 1. An old-school GAZelle. Eats Westfalias for breakfast 2. The crest of Velikiye Luki, founded in 1166. Let that sink in for a moment. 3. Monument in the town square designating town as a “City of Military Glory.” 4. Crest of Russian cities designated as Cities of Military Glory. 5. Curious calfs greet visitors 6. Wind them up and watch them go! Clients totally own the process now. ABOVE: New dairy products holding company identity.

With just 6 days to createtwo brands, two names and two identi-ties, no time was wasted. Brand visioning sessions, distillations, brand architectures, tagline development, mood-boards, amend-ments, debates, colour treatments, naming exercises, presentations, more debates, identity briefs, sketches, comps, colour refinements, more collaboration. Presenta-tion of both brand positions, new names,

taglines and moodboards to entire corporate staff. While they were sleeping in Russia, the elves in Vancover built the elements called for during the long working days in Velikiye Luki.

These were 14-hour days at for all involved in Russia. “I can’t tell you how impressive this client is,” says Darren. “You just have to witness it. Every single person is dedicated to the cause of building something awesome. No shortcuts. No account-ability outsourcing. They are all-in. Everyone contributes. Everyone adds value. One of the most exciting col-laborations of my career.” Day six was a sad day Working so closely together, and so intensely, helped to forge several new friendships, mutual respect and a desire to not let this be the only project but only the first . On the last day there was a farewell dinner and an overnight drive back to Moscow for a 0700 flight out.

Back in Vancouver, we were down to the smallest refinements to both identities (Cyrillic and English versions) and we are now ready to release these brands into Russia. We have since been contracted to develop the packaging for several lines of premium domestic cheese to fill the void created by Russian dairy import bans

“ It was like attending a branding master-class. A great opportunity.” Masha – marketing manager

while back, we received a somewhat cryptic inquiry through our website. Of course, our immediate thoughts were of a Nigerian lottery operator but, we’re nothing if we’re not adventurous–of course we replied. Before we did, we went full-Shaolin with our Google-fu. This

person existed on LinkedIn. While there was no website, the domain had been registered some time ago. We tracked the domain owner down to see he had been written about in dairy magazines. Legit!

A few LinkedIn messages and Skype sessions back and forth and our Chief Navigator (and brand developer) Darren Darcy was off to Velikiye Luki (once home to Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great) in the Pskov Region of the Russian Federation.

person existed on LinkedIn. While there was no website, the domain had person existed on LinkedIn. While there was no website, the domain had

18 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

hile you scribble out your best seller, may we suggest that you consider skipping hard cover and going straight to video? The benefits of developing a video content strategy for organizations have been widely extolled:

• Video makes up 40% of all search results• Video gets higher search rankings than text• 73% of all US adults are more likely to purchase

after watching an online video that explains the product or service

There is no shortage of statistics on the growth of online video consumption and deep SEO benefits, but what’s more critical is learning how to develop video content that imparts the tone and messaging of your brand while reflecting the values and preferences of your audiences.

Many organizations get sidelined by perceived technical or financial barriers to execution rather than focusing on the content itself. Video is significantly more affordable than it was even two years ago. People are creating video pieces for

themselves and their organizations on iPhones and laptops and they look pretty darned good. Viewers generally forgive simple production if there is solid content, a clear message and a compelling idea.

The best stories have a hero. They have a setting. They have believable characters. They have a point. They have an audi-ence. They have a plan.

Understand that this story is not about you. It’s about the viewer. It is about what theyneed to see and hear and the way in which they need to see and hear it. We are reflecting their values and sensibilities back onto them, using our characters, settings and heroes.

Begin at the end. Work back from what you want to have happen when viewers finish watching your short film. Starting from the conclusion should help prevent a predictable and passive perambulation that starts somewhere and goes nowhere. Plotting your plot from the closing scene will bring you to a natural beginning and help hit the right highlights on the way.

That’s it. The rest is just details.

Understand that this story is not about you. It’s about the viewer. It is about what theySTEP 1

Begin at the end. Work back from what you want to have happen when viewers finish STEP 2

To listen to some marketerssporting the latest in Emperor’s New Clothes, there is a storybehind, under and around everymolecule of your organization.

Now you’re panicking to tell your story. Whatever that might be.To be a Farley Mowat of marketing.

VIDEo IN Two EASy STEPS...

With shows and entire channels devoted to cooking these days, why bother trying to teach people how to make something? Looking at these shows, hipster Instagram feeds and magazine covers, it would seem like we are all Cordon Bleu® graduates.

So, to support the recipe program, we con-densed recipes into 15-second videos. Coming soon, scan the QR code on a bag of Windset Farms product and BANG, BOOM SIZZLE, POP

TA-DA! This Instagram format takes the user through the highlights. That’s all these are for - to show the top line of an original Windset Farms recipe featuring a particular product - they’re not deep, instructional, self-indulgent cooking shows. Outside Instagram, these will be embedded on Windset recipe pages, posted on Facebook and tweeted with links to written recipes.

tugboatnews

F R E S H S H E E T

To help inspire BC high-school students to consider professional driving as a career, we produced a two-minute video for School District 73 that showcases opportu-nities within the trucking industry through the experience of one of its enthusiastic young drivers.

It was a great day for a cruise through the streets of Langley and our driver, Scott, was well-prepared

and at-ease in front of the camera. He went out of his way to ensure we captured excellent B-roll foot-age, climbing atop the excavator to help mount the GoPro. The final edit was definitely enhanced with this unique, birds-eye view that demonstrated the technical skill and responsibility required to drive one of these mighty trucks on the busy streets and highways of BC.

We harnessed the power of Reel West’s expansive listings through a refreshed design and user experience and inte-grating their legacy database system into a new, modern website. This brought a novel set of challenges that were overcome with a web solution that delivers relevance to Reel West’s professional audience while maintaining the robust requirements of their CMS.

Tugboat welcomes Walrus Toothbrush to the bridge. We recently completed the brand positioning and identity for this luxury, objet d’art toothbrush. Up next, packaging!

A new graphic identity supports a collection of signage and promotional materials creating a tidy package for the radio sta-tion of the Nuxalk Nation.

The core deliverable was a responsive site, built on open source web-stream-ing and air broadcasting technology. The site launched si7mt (summer solstice) and features OpenBroadcaster API (broadcasting software) integration, scheduling,

Careers on Wheels

The Long and the Short of it

Nuxalt Radio –On Air & Online

Reel West Refresh

WE ARE THEWALRUS

TUGBOAT CREATESA NEW IDENTITYFOR ONLINE RADIO

customized streaming pop-out player with track information from OB. Hosts can update their own program pages. Content managers can set easily the focus on event/program images to guide the different crops used across the site.

Listen live and look through the schedule, which features language lessons. The lessons are a vital link to nation mem-bers not only who live in Bella Coola but elsewhere in the world as Nuxalk is an endangered language with few remaining fluent speakers.

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 19

visit us at:tugboatgroup.com

NEw KITchEN ShoRTS: 15-SEcoND INSTAGRAM REcIPE VIDEoS

Tugboat climbs into the big rigs with new video

whats@the market platform brings efficiency, focus and wallets to the market.

What’s@theMarket is an exciting new TugboatTool for market organizers to manage vendors, merchandise mix and market-goer communications.

20 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

Conceived off the sides of our desks, Tugboat releases its own web product: What’s@theMarket. Built using Drupal (CMS), the site essentially c contains every feature we have ever developed, all in one complete site.

marketmarket

THE POPU L AR & PROFITABLE

farmersmarket

farmersmarket

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RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 21

T

Our platform allows organizers to build custom forms and to request documentation uploads from vendors. Organizers specify start and end times for registration, which automatically controls access to registration. They receive an up-to-date listing of their applicants, can approve or reject each one and export all applicant informa-

tion in one tidy bundle. Instead of starting from scratch each year, they simply clone last year’s set up and adjust to suit.

Vendors need only input their contact information ONCE and then only respond to custom questions and documenta-tion requests. All submitted details are accessible, vendors can see a status overview for each application and are immediately notified about any change in their application status.

he What’s@theMarket site has a completely responsive GUI that works on tethered and mobiledevices. It has full social media integration, blog/news features and robust search functionality.

For vendors, the site is essentially the back office of a store, allowing farmers and artisans to maintain a presence and a connection to their clientele. Vendors with limited marketing resources are able to use their vendor page as a website. All they need to do is forward or grip their domain name to What’s@theMarket.

Vendors manage their product roster so customers know what will be available and at which markets. With a few clicks, checks and a little data entry, a vendor can make additions and deletions to their profile, product list, specials and offers. Market-goers who have signed up for weekly market e-flyers can know what’s happening at the markets they frequent, which vendors will be there and what those vendors will be selling at. These e-flyers go out a few days before every market.

Market organizers can adjust the product mix at their markets so that every booth has something different and relevant to customers. In the same way vendors can add and remove product, market organizers approve the appropriate mix of products to their market page and e-flyers.

Beginning with British Columbia’s lower mainland, the What’s@theMarket product has begun rolling out to market organizers and vendors across North America in 2014.

All markets register vendorsbut many still rely on paper forms and manual entry

Above: The market reminder brings market-day events to subscribers’ attention,

along with a list of all vendors in attendance, and the products they will have for sale.

market-day events to subscribers’ attention,

22 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

BE RESPONSIVE. In 2014 we saw mobile Internet usage exceed desktop for the very first time and all expectations are that it will stay that way. With networked devices ranging from tiny watches to hi-res widescreens, a website fixed at 960px wide may as well be chiseled into a stone tablet. Search engines have taken note of users battling with old mobile subdo-mains devised for the gen1 smartphones and are now punishing those sites in search rankings. Even adaptive targeting of fixed phone, tablet and desktop dimensions won’t cut it anymore: the contents of a website must be fluid, consistently available to all and maximize available space.

DIGITALD E S I G N

BE READY OR BE IRRELEVANT!

It’s getting to the point where teenagers are out-sourcing to pre-teens. Change is happening that fast. These are the things we need to be today.

> BE RESPONSIVE The tugboat website, shown across a range of devices. Support for mobile devices can’t be a thoughtless flourish that you tack on the end if you find extra time or budget. Mobile is already the principal way people are using the web.

SONY

EJECT REWIND STOP PLAY FFWD RECORD

POWER

VHF

UHFREMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN WE COULD GET A TEENAGER TO PROGRAM OUR VCR’S?

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 23

r

> BE CLEAR it won’t matter how moving, innovative or funny the content of your image is if a user on a modern device only sees a blurry postage stamp on their screen. #waste

> BE LEAN The Times Square Web Experience: Stuck in a traffic jam while you’re assaulted with media from all sides: video, music and ads crammed into every corner. If you can’t get anywhere while the meter is running, you won’t come back. #TimeIsMoney

> BE MATERIAL This is Google’s design site. The general trend is big, bold yet minimal and Google raised the bar by defining how UI (User Interface) elements should interact with each other and with users.

BE CLEAR. How are tiny, decade-old staff portraits going to look on a 27” iMac with a Retina 5K display? How will that ginormous hero banner fit in a 4.5” smartphone screen? Zoom out on mobile to fit everything in or zoom in on an important detail? How will images look on the triple resolution display of the iPhone 6? One size will not fit all: small, low-res images will be blurry on hi-res screens and huge, hi-res images will overwhelm low-bandwidth, low-memory devices. The bad news? There is no silver bullet. The not-bad news? Browsers are working on it and we can start leapfrogging now with JavaScript. The solutions are just as complicated as the problem. New srcset, sizes and picture attributes and elements combine to form a defender of image-serving power: defining the right files for the right dimensions at the right resolutions. It’s up to admins to create them. All of them.

BE MATERIAL. Google is not generally known for design prowess, yet their Material Design guidelines have provided an expert level of sophistication that was trampled in the rush to trash skeuomorphism and stripping interfaces all the way back to DOS. The core principle of Material Design is that interaction with and between elements should be rational and tactile. Cards, sheets and layers overlap and flex naturally. Transitions and animations are ubiquitous but subtly reinforce interactiv-ity, not sparkle-plenty. It is a compelling approach for user experience, rising above shallow looks and we will see its influence everywhere.

BE MOVING. Show it, don’t tell it. This notion applies as much to your website as your Next Great Novel. No longer shackled to heavy proprietary plugins, the resurgence of embedded video, layered animations and even trusty old looping GIFs presents opportunities to really connect with visitors and flatten intimidating walls of text. Of course this is not permis-sion to overcompensate for a dearth of content with a superficial, flashing fairground. The web is a visual and interactive medium, not a static book or poster; take advantage of its strengths and ignore its weaknesses.

BE LEAN. As we add more features, more media, more animations and more everything, it’s easy to forget about the load burden across the user’s device range. Full-screen images and auto-playing video are engaging but how long will someone on a sketchy cell connection wait before they close a site? If a homepage is crammed with 10 MB or more of data, there are no friends to be made with those on 500 MB data plans. If pages routinely take even 5 seconds more to load because of a battalion of automatically loading and rarely-clicked social widgets, or a collection of giant JavaScript libraries used for a single function, or servers just haven’t been optimized, congratu-lations! You are irrelevant. Without even realizing it, these details directly impact how people perceive the quality of a site as much as the content or any visual design. Luxury upholstery on a public bus doesn’t matter if the bus is 20 minutes late.

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SEO Earning traffic through unpaid or free listings, targeted keyword integration, proper site structure and fresh rich media content. This is the organic, free-range, non-GMO approach.

SEM Buying traffic through paid search listings and PPC (pay-per-click for readers born before 1990). This is a more artificial approach. Forced and without soul.

coNSIDER APPLyING A LITTLE ANALoGUE thinking to the digital world. You know, like how we did it in olden times. By being on our game. Digital marketing is not all that differ-ent than how things were done 20 years ago. Successful organizations issued news releases regularly, ensured they knew writers and edi-tors, they may have advertised, they answered hate mail, they did smart direct mail, they cross-promoted, they paid attention. And their efforts somehow made them known. We chat more online now than we do at the salon, the bar or on the bus. Can we not have the same real things to talk about as we once did?

We call this analogue fairy dust Search Relevance. Search Relevance is the one constant you can count on. Because you control it.

Yes. It’s just as much work as before. Many decision-makers seem to believe that “digital marketing” somehow absolves them of having to think about positioning, messaging, media relations, a decent collection of videos, targeting or planning. Search Relevance is all these things and more. It’s not about reposting random fluff on Facebook that the same 20 people (of 20,000 “followers”) will jump on to “really drive engagement.”

Start now. What am I doing here? It’s OK, ask yourself out loud. What is it that we are doing here? What is the outcome we’re after?

Search Relevance begins with a strong core. A core that is confident in its brand, is newswor-thy, trustworthy, praiseworthy and shareworthy. These are the elements that matter #anywhere. Not just on-line. Want to be found? Be worth looking for.

Don’t let the Google get you down

Compared to a decade ago, keeping up with the latest trends, opinions, data and algorithms can be hard. Especially opinions, ugh. Worse than keeping up (see also; running down a hill) is getting sucked down irrelevant rabbit holes, blowing resources and credibility.

Most of us are familiar with Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. These are the processes and tactics employed to seed the digital universe with markers and enticements to bring users to a website.

Some organizations boast dedicated search teams that rapidly respond to the stream of rule and algorithm changes from major search engines (Google makes 500-600 such revisions each year). For others, the Temple of Doom that is SEO and SEM is often a lollapalooza of torment and frustration.

SEARCH RELEVANCE BEGINS WITH A STRONG CORE. A CORE THAT IS CONFIDENT IN ITS BRAND, IS NEWSWORTHY, TRUSTWORTHY, PRAISEWORTHY AND SHAREWORTHY.

cALLING oFF ThE SEARch?

Try to integrate your users into your product versus being a simple bystander. Make them active rather than passive participants.

Explore destination opportuni-ties to commemorate the show with a branded promo item that celebrates the host city. Mardi Gras beads in New Orleans for instance.

Give-aways and incentives are not just selling the company. They’re not selling a brand. Or a product. Or a service. Great reminder pieces are those that are used regularly or tacked up as a souvenir.

You Will Be Assimilated

Show Us Your Hits!

2. Be Your Clients And ProspectsThey’re not here to trick-or-treat. They’re here to find beneficial prod-ucts, services and partners for their businesses. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were a prospect, what would you need to see to pull you in? Hint: It’s not your catalogue.

3. Be InterestingSomething for everybody is an ideal way to have nothing for anybody. Select clients or customers that fit key criteria –fun, profitable, volume –and set up to speak to them first and foremost with an environment they’ll feel comfortable engaging in - colours, promo items, the experience, staff, attire, samples, novelty, the style of address you use.

4. Be MemorableSell without selling. You’re there to engage, not to convert. Visitors may not remember your words but they’ll remember how they felt. Promo items? Get samples first to make sure they’re not regifted from the Island of Misfit Toys. It’s better to hand out nothing than to hand out garbage.

5. Be AwakeThat means no zombie-like pallor from the light of a mobile device. Nothing says “I don’t give a crap about you” quite like having a mobile phone up to your face. Or in your lap–please, you’re not fooling anyone.

You are there to matter. You are there to make new friends. You are there to be relevant. You are not there to do anything else. If you are, pack up right now and go home. This will be a bust.

TRADE SHOWS: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PERSONALITY AND PRESENCE

READ MORE ATTUGBOATGROUP.COMt

Trade shows. Love them. Hate them.

Touring many shows today, one could think that many companies despise them. Because that’s what it looks like. Considering a show this year? Booth design is the easy part.

These are the top five things to remember as you prepare:

1. No One Cares About YouThe average show-goer attends out of sheerself-interest. They don’t know you and they fear predatory networkers. Most prospects that con-sider stopping by a booth are interested in their own business way more than they are yours. Re-member this. It’s not about you. It’s about them.

Promotion or Demotion

Beyondthe Booth

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 25

26 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

Client: Agency Oxygen RatioAt the first meeting (or any meeting) how much time does the agency spend talking about themselves relative to talking about the client’s world? Ideally this ratio should be 3:1 for the client. Three parts client, one part agency.

Fries-With-That FactorThe agency should be asking insightful questions about your goals. If they ask you to make a selection from their pre-made marketing menu, run.

Pond: Fish RatioAgency size influences the love a client feels. A small-to-medium client can be a large account for a mid-size agency. If you enjoy having phone calls returned, this is something to consider.

Facial RecognitionIf, after selecting an agency, none of the people you met in the selection process are actually working on your business, beware. You are a baton and have been handed off.

Personal Suitability IndexTrust your gut when interviewing an agency. Meet the people who will impact your success. If it doesn’t feel right now, it probably won’t later.

Business GPSAgencies don’t expect clientss to be marketing experts. But, they do expect a client to have a pretty good idea of where they are and how they got there. A business plan is always nice to have on hand.

how To chooSE AN AGENcy

For some, choosing an agency to care for their brand and marketing can be a challenge.

What to look for, what to believe, what to say to a prospective marketing partner as you search for the one who will get you and deliver on the opportunities available. Here are some considerations when reviewing an agency:

Is your Client:Agency Oxygen Ratio three parts client to one part agency?

3 PARTSCLIENT

1 PARTAGENCY

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300100

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RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 27

casestudy

Changing theDefinition of Victim

It sticks to self-worth, it sticks

to identity. No thank you.

With this new positioning came

a new identity that aligns with

the vision of the Centre. There

is no “head of the table” with a

circular identity. The notion of a

circle is one of sharing, strength

and fluidity. The breaks in the

circle allow movement in and out,

in all directions. The resulting

notion of a life-preserver finishes

the message as the guiding prin-

ciple of the Centre is to be always

the right door to walk through.

Surrey Women’s Centre is a resource for women and children who

have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and

other forms of family violence. “Victim” is not a word often used by

staff. The new positioning line is a reflection of a long-held mission.

There’s a big difference between being victimized and being a victim.

The word victim is like a tattoo that won’t wash away. The label sticks.

Courage, Equality, Leverage, Impact and Voice. That’s what Surrey Women’s Centre has always been about. These attributes have been pulled into sharper focus to rally around.

New logo to make new friends SMART program sub-brand Annual report SMART website

SMART report: 24 - hour crisis responseteam provides services over the phone and in-person to anyone who has experienced a physical or sexual assault by a stranger or someone they know.

First order of business: lose the cap-in-hand approach and move beyond the gloom. People want to back a winner.

S

SMART program sub-brand Annual report SMART website

2 Colour (Standard)

Surrey Women’s Centre Identity and Colour Palette

Font: Candara

1 Colour (Standard) PMS 410 1 Colour (Sub-brand palette)

Extended Colour Palette (range of colours may also be desaturated or screened) SMART Logo

2 Colour Sub-brand

PMS 234C PMS 364C PMS 7662C PMS 167C

PMS 1595U

PMS 410C

PMS 227U PMS 363U PMS 2603UPMS 411U

The new name and tagline, Live in the Moments that Matter™ distinguish the company’s values and renew focus on what they do best – help clients live life on their own terms. “Tugboat has enabled our brand to show on the outside how we are on the inside,” explains John Sherwood, owner and chief executive of Classic LifeCare™.

The Art of Branding Without BrandingBusy health care professionals are a significant source of referrals for the company. This audience is continually bombarded with (often garish) promotional materials and items soliciting their favour. The problem with all of these materials is that they are logoed to the extent that they must be relegated to the desktop. Classic promotional items on the other hand, have no mention of the company, no logo, no URL.

You could say they’ve got balls. Round Post-it pads, message pads and other items bear only the ele-ments of the logo, the moment orbs depicted in the tree. This makes it easy for health care professionals to use the items without appearing to show favour for the company. Combined with deliveries of

28 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

NOT THE

BOSS OF YOU!CARE AGENCY TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

Left: The premier issue of Moments Magazine. Above: All about the orb. Stickies, notepads. See polka-dots, think Classic.

colourful M&M candies (moments, get it?) and other materials, there is no mistaking whose notepads, stickies and other promotional items these are. The ultimate goal is to have this target think about Classic moments whenever they see polka-dots.

Classic’s website and promotionalmaterials highlight the company’s 38 years of experience and their We’re Not The Boss of You philosophy. The site emphasizes the quality and qualifications of Classic’s staff and clearly sets out their services and areas of expertise.

“We’re really thrilled with our new website and the func-tionality it provides,” said Sherwood. “On-the-fly editing, templating and an integrated back office functionality means we can customize it to suit our needs easily and efficiently.”

To give visitors a closer look into everyday life with Classic LifeCare, the website’s Moments blog tells some of the personal stories behind the company and its clients, and the Our People page profiles the company’s caregivers.

“In a very crowded market, our rebranding has highlighted our critical advantages and we’re already seeing benefits. The rollout has created opportunities to refresh and strengthen our relationships, as well as create new ones,” Sherwood says.

“ We’ve always been a great company and provided a great service, we just didn’t know how to explain it. Tugboat gave us our voice.”

– John Sherwood, CEO, Classic LifeCare

Formerly Classic Caregivers, Classic LifeCare™ has a refreshed brand that equips them totake on the new realities of a changedhomecare marketplace full of lower-endfranchise operators and well-meaning people with business licenses.

3

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 29

The BC Construction Industry Training Organization (BCCITO) is here to help

our industry train for the future: the right workers, with the right knowledge and

skills, the right standards, at the right time for the right needs. Visit our website:skills, the right standards, at the right time for the right needs.

(BCCITO) is here to help

1. From one Captain to another.Meeting Captain Highliner was a career highlight.

2/3. OK, so maybe they’re Miss Chiquita Banana fan boys. Steve and Darren never miss a chance to grab a photo with her.

4. More than half-in-th-bag...The take-away from the Windset photo booth at PMA in New Orleans.

5. Paintball Platoon. After the day was over, the team needed three cycles through the laundry.

6. Paul prepares the Chocolate Mondo cake for the Wednesday ritual sacrifice.

irrelevance

1

STRANGE BUT MoSTLy TRUE TALES oF...

65

4

2

If TUGBoAT was ...

A VEHICLE : Ford F-350

A WATCH: Tissot

AN ACTOR: Tom Hanks

A GAME SYSTEM: Atari 2600

A BEER: Alexander Keith’s. In the can.

A LIQUOR: Tennessee Bourbon

In the creative business, there are essentially three kinds of briefs making the rounds: a job brief, which is pretty much a work order where everything is spelled out; a drive-through brief, where a minor problem needs to be solved by adapting or leveraging existing creative; and the creative brief, the one that sets up the creative team to figure out the solution to a creative challenge.

Creative briefs are used for websites, copy, ads, brochures, social media platforms, displays – anything that will reach out to a target in a (hopefully) meaningful and relevant way.

A brief isn’t a fire-and-forget document. It’s not an assignment of transfer of your problem to someone else. It’s a collection of goals, facts and insights that create an environment of success for a creative endeavour.

A BRIEFING oN BRIEFS

30 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

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A brief, yet thorough, description of the task at hand.

A snapshot of what the subject is - company, productor service. Think of it as their résumé with SWOT

Target details - profile who they are, not just what they are.

What’s the desired outcome – why are we doing this? Sales increases, adoption, awareness. It’s important to indicate how much the needle has moved. If increased sales is desired, how much? Where? When?

The single biggest message takeaway for the target. What do you want your targets to know and do?

Why should they believe you or do what you’re asking? What and where is the proof?

Is there anything else in-market we should know about? Descibe what this is.

Timeline? Beyond an in-market date, the team will need to know when concepts, first proof, sign-offs and insertions are expected.

THE MANIFEST

If the idea of being an agency’s favourite client occupies your thoughts, there’s a surefire way to help seal the deal. Learn what it means to write a brief and then actually write one.

So what’s in a

good brief?✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

You Are Where You Live.TM

Elements of Style (1918), Strunk & White A stirring tribute to brevity and clarity.

Guide to Food Labeling & Advetising – Canadian Food Inspection AgencyA good agency will read this so clients don’t have to.

Packaging Digest / packagingdigest.comGet your nerd on with the latest techniques and materials.

Relevance: Making Stuff That MattersThere is always an opportunity to be relevant.

ThINK LIKE A REPoRTER

Many of your company’s most interesting stories will be buried in the inner workings beyond your marketing department, so your marketers need you to look at your operations from the point of view of a reporter.

Whenever you make a business decision, think about how your resulting actions would look in headline form. This should become instinctual.

And not just any headline will do. Consider news that could garner positive coverage and position you as an expert in your field, ideally with your product or service making a prominent appearance in the background.

Keep your marketing team in the loop and they’ll help transform your actions and perspectives into news. r

RELEVANT READING

Getting into the news isn’t as simple as commanding, “PR team, make me newsworthy!”

Are you giving back to the community?

What are some of the trends in your

industry and their implications?

Do you do anything that might

surprise someone outside your

business or industry?

Are you giving back

Has your company undergone a change?

RELEVANT READING

The ElementsofStyle

William William StrunkStrunk Strunk William William Strunk

William William

Jr. Jr.StrunkStrunk Jr.StrunkStrunk andandE.BE.B..WhiteWhite

William Strunk Jr. andE.B. White

THIRD EDITION

WITH IN

DEX

RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015 31

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Purchase your vacation at CWT with your RBC® Visa* card or RBC Rewards gift certificates and earn 1 or 2 MORE RBC REWARDS points per dollar.

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CWT Gift Certificates.

32 RELEVANCE • WINTER 2015

I SAW YOUGINGER I saw you gazing from a window. We made eye contact. You quickly looked away. WHY? I know I could make you happy. Can’t wait to hear from you! ihave12cats@hotmail.com

BURNING FOR YOU Chicken burrito @ Best Burrito on Broadway. I was having tacos – two chicken, one beef – you looked sooooo hot in your tight, checkered wrapper. Don’t let me be your regret!

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN Keep the faith. Tuesday am. Battery Park, Gangway One. Love Jim.

PERSONALSA TENDER EMBRACEYouthful 74-year-old woman with tattoos, piercings and full set of dentures seeks man under 20 for upcoming Vegas trip. Nothing kinky. #4612

MAYAN DATE DIDN’T PAN OUT?There’s still a perfect end-of-times partner out there. Comets, tsunamis, tornadoes are waiting to help you find love. The love of (the end of) your life is looking for you right now! doomsdaydating.com

HELP WANTEDSCRAPPY AGENCY SEEKS... Designers, programmers and marketers: Upload your most vital details at tugboatgroup.com.

WORK WANTEDGraphic designer seeks freelance work. Ten years experience. Websites, logos, packaging. Employer can’t find out so discretion is a must. nelson@tugboatgroup.com.

COACHING AND IMPROVEMENTWay to GO! You’re the BEST!Motivated speaker and certifiable life coach. Make your money work for me! Learn the secret of the secret! And the secret of that secret! Richness is just an email away! Sure.HughBetcha@gmail.com

EVENTSAlmost SOLD OUT! ADHD Distracted Disco Gala Evening, March, squirrel!

CLASSIFIEDS

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The Canadian Produce Marketing Association invites

you to Live Healthy, Eat Fresh at the 2014 Convention and

Trade Show in Vancouver.APRIL 2-4, 2014

relevance

You say tomato. We say try this.

Tomatoes on the Vine. Make them Tomatoes on your Counter.windsetfarms.com

WITH LACTOSE