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!

by Ann Curtin

On Monday, adidas and Isobar unveiled a series of exciting new enhancements to adidas miCoach, the interactive training service that delivers audible coaching while you run. Already one of the most advanced and personal applications on the Web today, miCoach.com incorporates new features and functionality that help runners better manage their training programs, and reflects adidas commitment to listening to the needs of consumers and creating a better experience for their miCoach users.

Key enhancements to miCoach.com include:
• A robust Routes management tool that enables users to create and edit routes, add ratings and notes to existing routes, and add, move or delete route points.
• New community tools that provide a forum where runners can share training tips with other runners, get tips and tricks on using miCoach, see upcoming events, access miCoach-related videos and get updates on the latest gear.
• Custom workout capabilities that enable runners to build their own custom workouts from scratch.
• A new Achievements section that recognizes key personal milestones, records and overall workout stats, such as fastest mile run, most calories burned, and more.
• Updated Reminder functionality that enable users to choose when they want to be reminded of workouts and when they’ve been inactive.

The enhanced site also provides adidas with sophisticated content management capabilities that enable each market to showcase featured products, as well as localized content, pricing and store locations to meet the needs of individual markets.

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.