Take Us Out To the Ballgame
After work on Friday, a small group of us crossed the street to take in the Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball game at Shaw Park.
What did we see? Sponsorship activations galore!
On the concourse, Rogers had a tent where you can play with the new HTC smartphone and enter to win various prizes. Each of us walked away with a pair of branded “Wayfarers” and a pack of gum.
It was hard to ignore the backlit concourse sign hanging above our seats promoting a local company. It was also hard to ignore the low-res imagery that was used for the sign.
Orville and Bryan were approached to participate in the Sumo Race, sponsored by Serta Mattress Company. In-between the 3rd and 4th inning, they were dressed up in sumo suits and raced down an on-field obstacle course to win prizes. Bryan and Orv each won a mini Serta sheep that they gave away to some kids who were getting their faces painted.
On your mark… get set… SUMO!
ORVvsBRian from ClarkHuot/Cocoon on Vimeo.
Even after the game, fan services reps were at the exits handing out vouchers for free Subway sandwiches.
After all these years, the Goldeyes are still providing a sponsorship activation option that many local businesses (including some of our clients) take advantage of. Many Winnipeggers–whether they are avid baseball fans, or attending their first game–take notice.
(Oh yeah, the Goldeyes lost 4-3. But that detail probably won’t be included in the stories we tell about that evening.)
Special thanks to the Goldeyes production staff
Wallpaper of the Week #02 – 8-Bit UFO’s
Today, our communications intern, Chuka Ejeckam, received word that a documentary he produced during school — titled “Hello? Hello?: UFOs in Manitoba” — will be run during the University of Winnipeg Student Film Festival. This news was the inspiration for the Wallpaper of the Week, a subtle celebration of the endless unknown all around us. We encourage you to take a step outside tonight and cast your eyes on the sky. You never know what you might see.
Download:
Lunch Hour! 10/04/2012
Last week, Bergmann’s on Lombard offered a special Easter all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for $22 per guest. The PDF promoting the buffet enticed us with promises of chef-carved slow-roasted maple-mustard glazed pork-loin, Atlantic salmon crowned with red onion and gold pineapple salsa, and truffle-herb roasted gourmet mini-potatoes. Mmm… The dessert table included schmoo torte trifle and dried-cherry bread pudding. And as we all know, the more hyphens in a dish, the better it tastes.
A surprisingly large group of us took the elevator down to the sixth floor to check it out. We even got one of our office vegetarians to join us – her plan was to eat $22 worth of potatoes, salad and dessert. And it all worked out.
Needless to say, a few of us tried to overcome a food coma later that afternoon.
Here are some GIF’s and photos from our lunch…
Stop Thinking With Half a Brain
Cocoon was invited to lead a workshop as part of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum, held in Montreal on June 10-12, 2011. During the workship entitled “Stop Thinking with Half a Brain: Rediscover Your Creative Side”, Kyle and Chuck discussed the role of creativity, then led exercises to help delegates tap into their creativity.
“Kyle & Chuck were a big hit at our 2011 Canadian Sponsorship Forum. Their session on CREATIVITY was imaginative, inspiring, and informing. In short it was “creative”. They used simple, yet powerful techniques to engage a senior audience and turn them into eager learning students. Almost childlike. Their approach was a breath of fresh air from typical conference breakouts and gave our conference an energizing jolt!”
– Mark Harrison, President, TrojanOne continue reading…
First Capital Group – Rebrand
CHALLENGE
First Capital has become a highly respected wealth management firm with prestigious clients across Canada. Their brand was never fully developed and needed to be more clearly defined and expressed.
SOLUTION
The new brand for First Capital is based on their focused investing approach, keying into their total customization philosophy by creating completely unique solutions for their customers.
The identity highlights the new brand and represents a focused approach along with a totally unique experience.
Taking inspiration from prisms and organic shell formations, the symbol gives the new brand focus and energy. Like a fingerprint, the symbol has a totally unique look and rhythm that creates a youthful and open feel by keeping the strength of the overall shape. The type was created to be dynamic, open, and confident.
The overall brand has a dynamic power that encapsulates the energy of First Capital.
Firefly – Rebrand
CHALLENGE
The Lake of the Woods Child Development Centre outgrew their name. Their services now reached far beyond the Lake of the Woods and their clients included families and individuals of all ages.
SOLUTION
Their old brand did not truly represent who they were and who they were becoming. The new name and identity – Firefly – represent the openness, warmth, and guiding nature of the organization. Their new brand is natural and warm, but confident and strong in its approach.
The identity is based on a bouquet of light. The three elements represent the three areas that Firefly focuses on: physical, emotional and developmental. These elements overlap to represent one cohesive unit that comes together to help a family.
The typeface was designed to be both strong and stable, but its gentle curves keep a warm and friendly voice.
The brand is unified throughout all of its services, even though there are huge differences in the style of each offering. The use of a unique colour palette for each service allows each to have its own feel underneath the overall brand.
RESULTS
The new Firefly name and brand have been quickly adopted internally, helping to unify employees that had previously been feeling segregated. The new brand will become the first point of contact for families in need of support in western Ontario.
Cocoon Wins at Signatures
Cocoon is proud of a great showing at this year’s annual Signature Awards, recognizing the best in advertising and design this province has to offer.
We took home six awards including two Judge’s Favourite Awards for our work on the Kildonan Place Holiday Countdown advertising campaign, and the Endangered Potatoes advertising campaign.
KP Holiday Countdown - Winner of Judge's Favourite and Best Specialty Advertising
Being a brand agency, we were very glad to have been awarded Best Rebrand of the Year with Firefly, a project which consisted of renaming and rebranding for Lake of the Woods Child Development Centre located in Ontario.
We also won awards for Best Newspaper Advertising, Best Outdoor Advertising and Best Specialty Advertising, a category that recognizing non-traditional forms of advertising.
Kyle’s reaction: “It’s always nice to celebrate our creative team and our clients, we couldn’t do any of it without them.”
Chuck’s reaction: “Our passion and pride comes through in our work, but we are only as good as our last idea. So, we always look forward to imagining something new on our next project, we can’t rely on past achievements.”
IAAP Social Media Presentation
Tuesday – January 11, 2011
Social media is all the buzz. Although it’s hard to ignore new bright and shiny objects, social media should be treated like any other medium.
Kyle was the guest speaker at an event hosted by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and discussed how social media can both help and hurt your brand. There are definite risks associated with diving in without a strategy, and potential risks in ignoring social media completely.
Every business should approach social media as a part of a bigger overlying marketing strategy. Social media may make sense as a part of the ongoing customer experience or integrated as part of an advertising campaign. The point is, that it cannot be considered in isolation, and should be part of an integrated solution — a strategic tactic implemented to achieve a specific business goal.
Kyle provided a general overview which included some of the popular misconceptions we’ve heard, reviewed the various forms of social media, how to get started and what’s involved. He also highlighted how some popular brands use social media and the results they have achieved.
The most successful social media interaction is relevant, transparent, engaging and increases impact or value to the customer.
CURVE – Vote on GOOD Stuff Campaign
CHALLENGE
With the rebrand of CURVE 94.3, we helped create a truly unique format in Winnipeg radio. Unfortunately, the music mix did not fit into a familiar genre. We needed to communicate this unconventional mix to our target audience — a combination of females and males, aged 28-32.
Vote on the GOOD Stuff Campaign
SOLUTION
To communicate what was being played on the station, we boiled it down to the “GOOD” Stuff. This new description was used in advertising and integrated on-air.
An online/text voting campaign encouraged people to vote on everything that is good. Not limited to just music, listeners could vote on anything form cupcakes to Jay-Z. Outdoor media during the campaign encouraged listeners to vote via text messaging or through a micro site. Real-time results showed which items were voted “GOOD” that particular week. Voting was also integrated with the station’s Facebook page. Prizes (called “A Bag of The Good Stuff”) were awarded every week to the voting public and would often include tickets to bands that were voted “GOOD”.
Listeners could nominate their own “GOOD” stuff to be voted on. An archived list of what was voted “GOOD” and what was voted “NOT GOOD” was kept to ensure “NOT GOOD” choices were not allowed on the station. Nickleback was voted “NOT GOOD” a record three times.
RESULTS
Comparing data from September 2007 and September 2009, the station grew in all key demographics. Listenership among Adults 18-34 was up 59.2% — a increase of 24.9% in female listeners and an impressive 152.5% in male listeners.
Listeners could nominate their own "GOOD" stuff to be voted on.
Voting was also integrated with the station's Facebook page.
Oi on Dragons’ Den
Oi Furniture was featured on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den (Season 5, Episode 18, original air date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011). More than two million viewers from across Canada watched to discover what happened in the Den when Jason Abbott from Cocoon pitched Oi Furniture. The segment was filmed back in April 2010. View the show
Jason behind the scenes at Dragons' Den
A brief history of Oi:
Oi Furniture was founded in 2006 as the result of an internal initiative at Cocoon. The result – a new brand of environmentally low-impact cellular furniture – captured international interest and attention when the first prototype was unveiled at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).
Since that time, Oi cells have gone into limited production and have landed in commercial and residential spaces in cities including New York, Miami, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Minneapolis, and Chicago. In December 2010, Oi was chosen as part of WIRED magazine’s holiday ‘wish list’ and was featured at the WIRED pop-up store in New York. Oi’s packaging was also recognized by TheDieline.com – the world’s largest package design website – as one of the top 100 package designs around the world for 2010.
“The idea for Oi may have been born at Cocoon, but it needed to be its own brand in order to grow,” said Kyle Romaniuk, Principal at Cocoon Branding and also co-founder and VP, Brand Development at Oi Furniture. “The success of Oi speaks to the strength of Cocoon’s ability to continuously innovate engaging brands. People are surprised to hear that a branding agency created and launched a furniture company, but I believe the possibilities of what you can create are endless if you are truly open to innovation.”
“It was so exciting to have the opportunity to participate in the Dragons’ Den process,” said Cocoon’s Jason Abbott.
