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Canadian Investment Awards - Creating awareness through Brand, Advertising, New Media and Public Relations
Challenge:
The Canadian Investment Awards (CIA) is
Canada’s premier awards program recognizing
excellence in the Financial Services
industry. In its twelfth year, the CIA was
looking to update its logo to more
accurately reflect the sophisticated gala.
This refreshed look was to roll out into an
advertising and public relations campaign.
Kaleidoscope was invited to be the CIA’s
strategic marketing partner.
Solution:
Strategy – Kaleidoscope modified the
logo, adding the stylized “A” in the
background. The logo was developed primarily
in black and white to reflect the formal
black tie nature of the gala. The Canadian
maple leaf is in a splash of red to create
interest and national celebration. In
addition to the gala logo, Kaleidoscope
created the winner and finalist logos in
French and English. Messaging was developed
that was directed towards the industry and
to the consumer market encouraging them to
“look for the logo of excellence”. In
addition, Kaleidoscope developed multiple
advertising, press releases and managed the
media relations.
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Tactical – We created multiple ads
that were disseminated in trade (Investment
Executive) and consumer (Canadian Business,
Canadian Investment Guide, MoneySense)
publications in colour and black and white.
Animated banners were created and
disseminated to all sponsors and relevant
media outlets.
Results:
The event quickly sold out and the client experienced record numbers for 2006!
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John Corrigan
John Corrigan is a senior Investment Advisor
with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. John and
his associates specialize in developing
wealth preservation plans for entrepreneurs
operating cross-border businesses and
high-net-worth individuals.
John advocates a coherent, unified strategy
as the surest way to preserve business
assets. As a discretionary management team,
John Corrigan will act on behalf of the
client, within parameters that clients have
defined. This means that clients can focus
on running their business, confident that
their assets are being well managed and
preserved. John and his team will provide a
solution that will diversify personal wealth
and enable the growth of cross-border
business. As each team member is an
accredited financial advisor clients are
assured of getting expertise of the highest
level.
Challenge:
The challenge was to build new business
within a niche market by positioning John
Corrigan and his team as experts in wealth
preservation issues, and develop a means to
communicate a unique value proposition to
other professionals that the client is
currently working with - legal, accounting,
and banking professions within the framework
of a larger brand identity.
Solution
Strategy - Kaleidoscope recommended that
the company focus on creating brand
awareness within the target market and
reinforcing John’s relationship with RBC
Dominion Securities. Kaleidoscope developed
a sub-brand identity which used secondary
colours from RBC Dominion Securities and
reinforced the brand with images which
appealed to a sophisticated audience.
Tactical - Kaleidoscope developed a
glossy, sophisticated brochure and postcard
that communicated John Corrigan’s value
proposition by focusing on business
solutions, case studies, statistics, and
testimonials. The look and feel of the
printed materials is easily transferable to
other media, such as websites, sell sheets,
prospecting letters, etc.
Result:
John Corrigan has received excellent
feedback from its representatives, clients
and other stakeholders. |
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Microsoft
Canada and HP – Smart Solutions
Breakfast Series
Challenge:
Microsoft Canada and HP have partnered
to deliver an educational series of seminars
addressing compliance issues at an
enterprise level in the financial services
industry. These sessions were designed to
drive new relationships and generate revenue
through the financial services vertical. The
target market was senior business
decision-makers from some of the largest
organizations in Canada. Microsoft is often
considered to be a software provider, not an
enterprise solutions provider. Business
lines typically passed the invitations to
their technology team. In the past, it had
been difficult to get their commitment to
attend. An additional challenge was that the
database was very out of date.
Solution:
Strategy - Kaleidoscope developed a
sub-brand that was appealing and reinforced
the strong Microsoft brand. The logo was
linear and reflected Microsoft’s corporate
and secondary colours. All elements in the
program reflected these colours.
Kaleidoscope
developed a robust database, specific to the
defined target market.
The invitations were sent out, promoting all
five events offered, with reminder postcards
and emails sent out in the weeks prior to
the specific events.
Tactical - Kaleidoscope developed and
produced all the collateral material
including invitations, reminder post cards,
an electronic invitation, signage,
presentation outline and project managed the
third party keynote speakers. All
communications and customer experience was
consistent, whether it was delivered via
mail or a Microsoft sales representative.
Results:
The target number and quality of attendees
was met, with 20% attending multiple
sessions. The majority of attendees ranked
the usefulness of information, as an eight
or above out of 10, and indicated an
interest in being contacted by a sales
representative |
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Hanco Enterprises and Technologies – New
Brand Development
Challenge:
Bringing a midsize technology firm to
new heights within a competitive arena was
the business goal and Kaleidoscope was
mandated to deliver an intelligent, savvy
re-brand. The Hanco Enterprises division
offers outsourcing services to companies
with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and
AM (Asset Management) systems, to install,
upgrade or train their employees. Hanco had
an ongoing client list in the area of ERP,
however wanted to expand its image and
service offering once they began offering RF
solutions through the Technologies division.
Through a word-of-mouth reference,
Kaleidoscope was contacted and commissioned
to fulfill the brand and marketing needs of
the firm.
Solution:
Strategy - Beginning with the
marketing plan that included economic
forecasts, competitive review, SWOT
analysis, internal process and procedures,
and strategic initiatives, Kaleidoscope
developed a two to three year rollout plan.
We created a corporate brand that integrated
the two divisions and positioned them as
complimentary solutions to Hanco's current
and potential Clients.
Introducing a concept of personalized
barcode systems to meet the needs of ERP and
AM software platforms has become an
increasingly growing and competitive area of
business. Kaleidoscope created the tagline
for Hanco Enterprises - Knowledge beyond
Technology™ - positioning the Company
competitively in the marketplace. Supporting
the service offering, these three words
conveyed an edge, not only in technology,
but also in Client services. The Hanco
Technologies tagline – Maximizing Business
Solutions™ - was product-focused.
Tactical - Once the strategy and
brand development were complete,
Kaleidoscope continued to build the brand
personality through a variety of initiatives
such as brochures, tradeshow material,
magazine ads, posters, software packaging,
training manuals, and website development.
As well, Kaleidoscope developed an internal
Client service system that enabled Hanco to
ensure Client satisfaction. It was
easy for staff to adopt and streamlined the
invoicing process efficiently.
Results:
Hanco was able to expand business in the
North American markets, against competitors
who were larger. Their team of experts
provided the solid affirmation of their
support to the brand promise. Hanco
distributed a Client satisfaction survey
which reflected an increase in Client
satisfaction level in the area of service.
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GT Global – Building a Brand Presence
Challenge:
GT Global was a small mutual fund company
that entered the Canadian market in 1995, as
the consumers’ appetite for investing was
just starting to heat up. The organization
needed to make a splash quickly in order to
capture market share from the large players.
At this time, the market was very
conservative and tended to follow the banks’
lead in terms of look and feel. The existing
GT Global logo was established but was not
supported by brand image or point of
differentiation strategy.
Solution:
Strategy – We approached the challenge
by treating mutual funds as a consumer
product with a specific brand look developed
for each fund. The look was confident and
highly visual, using photography collage, to
separate us from the competition. The
components had an educational focus that
related to the fund but not necessarily
investing so that the consumer could
personally relate to the opportunities and
would come to the conclusion that the fund
made sense in their portfolio.
Tactical – We developed brochures,
posters, premiums and advisor kits based on
the graphic brand. An educational component
was incorporated into all of these vehicles.
For example, the GT Global Health Care Fund
had a 3 panel schematic of the history of
health care. Not only was this engaging for
the consumer, it left them with the message
that health care has been around for many
centuries and will be for centuries to come.
The factoids (fast facts) were used by
advisors in teaser campaigns and, we heard
anecdotally, often quoted at cocktail
parties.
Results:
GT Global was the fastest growing fund
company in Canadian history with captured
assets of $1 billion in just two years. GT
Global materials won many awards for
innovation and were considered the standard
to meet. These awards were industry-based
and voted for by the financial advisors.
Note: Kate Taylor created this program
while in the employ of GT Global/AIM Funds
Management.
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Basis100 - Branding Through Acquisition
Challenge:
Basis100 is a publicly traded company that automates the mortgage process for Canadian banks. Over a
two year period, from 2000 – 2002, the company acquired
two firms in the U.S. (Solimar.Net and MortgageRisk) and one based in Calgary
(EFA) with offices in Dubai, London, Hong Kong and Cyprus. The primary
challenge was to position Basis100 as a global company so the brand needed to be transitioned in all of these countries. Both U.S. companies had a strong brand identity in the market that we wanted to maximize and transition to the Basis100 house brand. The EFA brand was not as well recognized and had some negative connotations associated with it.
Solution:
Strategy – We developed a brand architecture that utilized the Basis100 brand to represent major client solutions: BasisXpress for fast mortgage processing, BasisXchange for fixed income trading and BasisValues for automated property valuation. In order to maximize the brand equity of Solimar and MortgageRisk, we developed icons to represent the technology driving the solutions; for example, Solimar Technology driving the BasisValues suite of solutions. In the case of EFA, the brand equity was not as strong, so we integrated the Basis100 logo and colours (orange) in trade show booths and other industry events as quickly as possible, highlighting the strength of a publicly traded company with a strong track record. This move was supported with a substantial media relations push in securities trade publications as we positioned key executives from Basis100 and the former EFA as experts in their field.
Tactical – We developed colour-coded brochures to represent the different areas of business and created specific icons to represent the technology. Internally, we presented the brand plan and did presentations covering the importance of branding to the house. A brand guidelines document was developed and circulated internally that had call-out boxes highlighting “why is this important to me?”
Results:
Basis100 grew from being a small player to capturing 50% of the U.S. property valuation market within a short period of time. We were able to successfully transition the Solimar and MortgageRisk good will and brand equity to the Basis100 brand. In the securities industry, Basis100 became a known brand in months. The logo and orange corporate colour helped to facilitate this transition.
Note: Kate Taylor created this program while in the employ of Basis100 Inc.
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Other Branding Examples:
f/A Connect:
Kaleidoscope:
P. Lawson Travel:
GT Global:
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