Isobar North America’s San Francisco-based team received top honors from Promo magazine’s Interactive Marketing Awards for its “Killed Ideas” campaign on behalf of Blurb, taking both first place in the New Media category and second place in the Integrated Promotion category. Promo’s Interactive Marketing Awards honor the best and brightest in effective interactive marketing. Executives from Isobar and Blurb plan to speak in detail about the campaign at WOMMA’s 2010 School of WOM (Word of Mouth) Conference, held in Chicago on May 24-26th.

Blurb is the creative publishing and marketing platform used by creative professionals and consumers worldwide to create, publish, share and sell professional-quality books. With its service already popular among photographers and designers, the company partnered with Isobar to help expand its reach into a broader set of business users, specifically advertising and marketing agency creative professionals. Isobar’s powerful “Killed Ideas” campaign engaged agency professionals by appealing to their passion for creative ideas, while simultaneously showcasing the power of putting ideas to print. The multifaceted campaign featured participation from leading advertising industry pundits and influencers; an integrated use of web, social media and word-of-mouth techniques; and strong results that mapped to specifically defined campaign goals.

Congrats to our friends at Blurb and our San Francisco-based team!

Global Frozen Food Leader Taps Isobar to Elevate Its Online Brand Presence

Global frozen food leader McCain Foods Limited and Isobar North America, a full-service digital marketing agency and Aegis Media Group company, announced today they will work together to enhance the company’s internal and external Web properties. McCain selected Isobar after conducting a formal review process, which included four competing agencies. The planning and discovery phase of the project is already underway, and the companies expect the projects to be completed by mid-year.

“We believe our digital initiatives will have a profound impact on the way we are perceived and engaged within the marketplace,” said Susan Rogers, Vice President of Global Communications for McCain. “To help us realize our goals, we sought a partner who values our brand and culture, understands the challenges and opportunities of being a global organization and has an advanced knowledge of the digital world. Isobar demonstrated all of this, while also pushing our team to recognize some exciting opportunities available to us.”

The Isobar work will be led out of the agency’s Toronto office, while leveraging the broad range of expertise across the firm’s global footprint.

“We have a fantastic opportunity here to drive deeper connections between the McCain brand and its key internal and external audiences,” said Isobar Vice President of Strategy Robert Simon. “The collective McCain/Isobar team feels a tremendous sense of common purpose in pushing forth a digital strategy that is the right fit for who McCain is today and where it’s going tomorrow, and we’re already off to a great start.”

“McCain is a great brand, grasping the opportunity to develop deeper more powerful relationships with its customers through digital communication,” said Nigel Morris, CEO of Aegis Media. “We are looking forward to partnering with them through Isobar to meet that potential.”

About Isobar North America, Inc.

Isobar North America, Inc. is a full-service digital marketing agency that combines digital strategy, creative, media, technology, and measurement to drive brand success in today’s technology-driven, consumer-controlled world. Formed by the merger of Ammo Marketing, Freestyle Interactive, Mindblossom and Molecular in 2010, Isobar North America’s team of more than 200 digital experts have been transforming the way the world’s biggest brands reach, connect and engage with consumers since the Internet’s inception. Its clients include adidas, Nikon, Northwestern Mutual, Procter & Gamble and Reebok. With locations in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Toronto, Isobar North America is an Aegis Media Group company. For more information about Isobar North America, please visit www.isobar.net.

About McCain Foods Limited:

McCain Foods Limited is an international leader in the frozen food industry, employing 20,000 people and operating 53 production facilities on six continents. A privately owned company headquartered in Florenceville and Toronto, Canada, McCain has annual sales of CDN$6.5 billion. McCain is the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato specialties and also produces other food products, including pizza, appetizers, oven meals, juice and desserts. The company’s products can be found in thousands of restaurants and supermarket freezers in more than 130 countries around the world. McCain also owns Florenceville, Canada-based Day & Ross Transportation Group, one of the largest transportation companies in Canada.

I saw a video the other day on Twitter from Crumple it Up. The original post came from Socialnomics. It finally brought to light all the reasons why brands, who still hesitate to engage in social media, should do it now. This is not a fad or a testing arena. Social media is a place that’s existed for a long time and has gone undetected by the big brands. This is a place that’s held powerful discussions that have affected the very brands that have ignored or dismissed it. This is a place that can impact every part of your organization as a whole. This is a place that will change the way you think and approach your business.

I understand why it’s difficult to enter into this space: some brands aren’t ready to face the consumer head on… one to one…in conversation. This is not a medium that befits a corporate PR guy, willing and ready to pull together approved responses espousing the view of the corporation to the masses. No one in the social arena pays heed to any of the corporate speak. They just want to talk and they want to be heard.

For those brands who hesitate and fear the medium, here’s what I have to say:

• Start-ups have been engaging in social media for years and have benefited greatly. They were not endowed with huge marketing budgets so they’ve had to resort to more efficient roll-up-your-sleeves-type approaches to succeed. The key to building strong and enduring brand: do it one satisfied customer at a time!
• People want to talk to you and they want you to listen to them. Be warned that you will hear the good and the negative. The key is learning from it and understanding its implications.
• Confront your detractors. They are the key to making you greater. One of my clients continues to engage with the complainers, as well as the rally-the-troops-and-boycott-the-company type misfits. And they’re tackling it one issue at a time. The company has a long way to go to earn respect and confidence from its customers but the very act of engaging has mitigated consumer churn. It has also provided a NEW avenue for customers to provide their views and suggestions and feel like they’re being listened to. Once you satisfy a detractor, he will be your most avid supporter. And be ready to open the doors to a flood of new business.
• And engage as a person. You don’t need the veil of an organized, PR-approved response — that goes nowhere in this space. It’s akin to meeting new people at a Christmas party: Introduce yourself. Tell the other person about you. Then ask about the other person. Stop and listen and understand. Remember, the corporate voice needs a human voice to be accessible and to engage in meaningful dialogue.
• It’s not easy. It takes a lot of work. But the effort produces strong relationships that are lasting. And the money….it’ll be there as well…guaranteed!

Good luck!