Weekend POP! Year End Wrap Up
*Credits:
Andrew B:
1. Cannons – Youth Lagoon
2. My Time’s Up – The Raveonettes
3. Chinatown – Destroyer
4. Hey Moon – John Maus
5. Runner Ups – Kurt Vile
*Honorable Mentions: Crystalline – Bjork, Strange – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Lord Knows Best – Dirty Beaches, The Villain – Austra, Suicide Demo for Kara Walker – Destroyer, Top Bunk – Gauntlet Hair, Oh My God – Cults
Sara F:
1. Shuffle – Bombay Bicycle Club
2. Video Games – Lana Del Ray
3. Helena Beat – Foster The People
4. Contact High – Architecture in Helsinki
5. My Body (Two Door Cinema Club Remix) – Young The Giant
Anthony K:
1. Bataille – The Men
2. Shredder – JEFF The Brotherhood
3. Cheap Music – Handsome Furs
4. Midnight City – M83
5. Ex – Little Girls
Bryan N:
1. Polish Girl – Neon Indian
2. Morning Mr. Magpie – Radiohead
3. Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye
4. Far Away – Washed Out
5. Approximate Sunlight – Bright Eyes
*Honorable Mentions: I Can Get Love – Toro Y Moi, Lotus Flower – Radiohead, Soft – Washed Out
Mark R:
1. Darken Her Horse – Austra
2. OK Pal – M83
3. Montezuma – Fleet Foxes
4. Rope & Summit – Junip
5. Sleep Patterns – Memoryhouse
Christopher S:
1. Quantum Leap – John Maus
2. Claudia Lewis – M83
3. Kimmi in a Rice Field – Twin Sister
4. Lose It – Austra
5. All Alone – Toro Y Moi
*Honorable Mentions: Peach Wedding – Braids, In Your Nature – Zola Jesus
Hot Dog — It’s Christmas!
To Our Deer Friends,
Here’s hoping you relish the yuletide season, making time to meat with old friends, and ketchup on your hobbies.
Now we have to beat it. See you in January!
Happy Holidays!
-Velocity Branding.
P.S. VELOCITYWG will return Jan. 6, with an extra-special entry by Lee Froese.
P.P.S. Mustard.
Holly Jolly Holiday POP!
Bry Spy Vol. 15
Moving Brands partnered with HP as their lead agency to set a creative vision for the HP brand. The vision was to transform the world’s biggest technology company into the world’s most powerful brand. HP would become the blueprint of a moving brand, built for a moving world.
See the process on the Moving Brands web site.
Velocity’s Lee Froese at An Event Apart
I was really excited and thankful to be able to attend An Event Apart 2011 in San Francisco last week. I follow A List Apart and own all books in the A Book Apart series — call me a fanboy, but I respect and appreciate the knowledge that the people involved bring to our industry.
On day one, I took a short walk to the gorgeous Palace Hotel where the conference took place. I walked up to registration, looked to my left, and there was none other than Jeffrey Zeldman. He was the first to speak, followed by a long list of web wizards and design gurus. I came in with high expectations and left very satisfied. Every presenter had a different topic and some would build on what others had said.
An Event Apart was very inspiring and extremely informative. I came in with a strong working knowledge and left with a brain completely full of new ideas. Learning about web technologies, when to use web apps vs native apps, developing and designing for mobile, going from an idea to an interface, and better practices, have greatly improved my skill set. Fresh ideas and new approaches are always helpful in my work, and naturally benefit the whole Velocity team.
There were tons of great people that I met throughout the event. There was a very diverse range of attendees — from people working for huge international corporations, to startups, to tiny design studios. I can’t thank Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer enough for putting a conference of this caliber together. I look forward to attending another Event Apart soon.
-Lee Froese
Working Hard Or Hardly Workinggggggg
Looks like my computer has a case of the Mondays…
VELOCITYWG #9 — “Grant Park”
I love reading about history, but once in a while when you go digging into the past, you really learn something as disturbing as it is fascinating. We always start our neighbourhood posts with some basic knowledge of the area backed with some Internet (AKA “lazy”) research. Our Design Intern, Rebecca, from Winnipeg Technical College was reading up on this week’s entry when she came across this article by blogger Reid Dickie.
Who knew that a pleasant suburban neighbourhood in Winnipeg was once a shantytown populated by poor Métis families and rail-riding transients.
VELOCITYWG #9 is “Grant Park” by Design Intern, Rebecca Waczko
Rooster Town was the colourful name for the grim Depression-era village which formed on the outskirts of South Winnipeg. No road connection or running water, no city services, just a rail-line which provided transport in and out of the surrounding bush, and the occasional box-car sold to the poor as makeshift homes.
It’s hard to believe that just eight years after Mayor Stephen Juba had the last residents evicted and the last traces of Rooster Town were bulldozed away, Winnipeg introduced the Western Hemisphere to the state-of-the-art Pan Am Pool built for the 1967 Pan-American Games.
Rebecca’s comments:
When given the task of designing this week’s logo for Grant Park, I thought it was going to be very challenging. But once I started to dig into the history of the area it proved to be quite interesting. I chose to use the Grant’s Scottish tartan since Grant Avenue was named to commemorate Cuthbert James Grant. When I found out the remarkable history about Rooster Town, I felt it only right to pay tribute to this lost suburb. Now every time I visit the mall I’ll find it hard not to remember what it once was.
My fondest memories of Grant Park almost always involve lining up for a hotly-anticipated film (such as 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) For a fine afternoon/evening out, I suggest a nice espresso or a late at LaGrotta Market on Taylor and Waverly, take in the 60s and 70s architecture of the apartments and churches on Grant Avenue, peruse the endless selection of engaging titles at McNally Robinson, and finish off with a holiday blockbuster at the Empire 8.
If it’s a clear night and not too cold, enjoy a little star gazing behind Grant Park High. Listen for the train-whistle and think of Rooster Town.
VELOCITYWG is a weekly design project: simple exercises in unfettered creativity with a common theme that’s near and dear to our hearts: celebrating the streets, suburbs, and cityscape of Manitoba’s capital.
VELOCITYWG, Rebranding One Great City, continues next week.
Comments? jay@velocitybranding.com
Becoming a Naming Sponsor
Today, the official name of Winnipeg’s new football stadium was announced: Investors Group Field. Kyle was interviewed by a local news station for his insight on sponsorships and naming rights.
For the team and the venue, a naming sponsor provides some additional sustainability and long-term viability. While fans sometimes complain about naming sponsorships being a sign of ‘selling out’ the truth is that it’s a part of business in the sports world. Almost every pro sports venue has a naming rights sponsor. These sponsors play a large role in keeping ticket prices down, enhancing the pro sports experience for fans, and sometimes even providing experiences or exclusive access that money can’t buy.
For the sponsor, it’s much more than an opportunity to get your name out and position your brand alongside something fun – it’s an opportunity to build loyalty with existing customers and target new customers. Of course, you will have physical presence in-market – and national exposure through event coverage – but the most valuable component of your sponsorship is the opportunity it gives you to engage with the audience.
As a sponsor – or a potential sponsor – there are four key things to consider when deciding to become a naming sponsor.
1. Choose your sponsorship property wisely.
The property you choose to sponsor should align with your corporate goals and objectives, as should the way you choose to activate your sponsorship.
2. Plan to activate your sponsorship.
An activation strategy, or lack thereof, will either make or break any sponsorship investment. You need a plan to leverage your access to the audience as a result of being a sponsor – the sponsorship fees you pay are your admission to engage far beyond simply adding your name to a building, and that is where the true value of your sponsorship will lie if you choose to access it.
3. Watch your investment grow.
You should have metrics in place to measure your return on investment. This allows you to adjust your activation strategy as you learn more about the property and your new fans.
4. Sponsorship should be a win/win situation.
Both the sponsor and the property should benefit from the deal. Each brand should enhance the other, and work together to enhance the experience for the customers, audience, or fans by making it more engaging and memorable.
If you’d like to know more about branding + sponsorship, contact Kyle at kyle@cocoonbranding.com.
