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.

What a classic case of the power of social media. HP, like Dell, has truly embraced the influencers in social media program to help them spread the word about the HP Dragon Notebook: 31 influencers to give away 31 notebooks in 31 days. What a unique and insightful way to not only maximize reach, but introduce Hewlett Packard to the social arena in a very positive way.  Here’s one of the chosen influencers, Chris Pirillo and his campaign to give away the HP Dragon.

If you type in “hp dragon” in search, you’ll notice that only the social media sites are the top ranked search results. The reason that this is important is now HP has built a positive influence within the social sphere and has garnered incremental influencer attention, who want to partner with them on future initiatives.

At Ammomarketing, we understand the importance of developing influencer relationships are very much with the intention of creating long-term partnerships with strong value exchange between the company and the influencers. Overtime, this value exchange turns into a trusting exchange that’s mutually reciprocated and can yield optimum benefits for both parties. Canadian clients are beginning to see the value of social media as a cost-effective way to strengthen brand perception, drive reach and create enduring and positive brand conversations. Good for you HP!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

I had the distinct opportunity to attend the Rotman Lecture series to watch an insightful presentation by Rahaf Harfoush, a key member of Barack Obama’s Campaign that helped reshape the way political campaigns are run. Ideally, the voice of the people should be represented, and to garner their support means listening to their concerns and persuading them that you will answer those concerns. The Obama Campaign took it one step further: It harnessed this support by arming people with tools to help spread the message and making them feel integral to the campaign. This popular armament provided incredible individual empowerment that caused an explosion of smaller campaigns that fueled the Obama fire.

The Campaign unleashed its brand to the masses and the public embraced it and made it stronger. A great example of this is the Yes We Can Video by Little Will.i.am, an initiative developed by supporters who took Obama’s message, made it their own, and spread the word. It became synonymous with the Campaign and eventually amassed over 14.5 MM views.

(more…)