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Call for Nominations for 2014-2015 Board
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CPRS Toronto members interested in serving on the board for the 2014-15 term should contact Lois Marsh at 416-360-1988 or marshl@marsh-executive.com.

Participating on the board enables you to enhance your corporate governance skills, contribute to our profession in a meaningful way, and interact with and learn from your industry peers.

The term starts after the Annual General Meeting in May. All members are invited to apply. Having an APR, more than five years of communications experience or being an active volunteer are assets.

The deadline is February 18.

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ACE Award Submission Tips: Get the inside scoop!
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This article was written by Shamique Bowes, ACE Awards Marketing Volunteer and public relations student at Humber College.

Recognition from your peers and being established as an industry leader: these are only a few of the many advantages to receiving an ACE Award. In order to reap these benefits, you must be ready to put effort into every round of the ACE Awards process and differentiate your campaign submission among the competition.

So how are you going to make your campaign submission stand out?

Dave Scholz, Co-chair of the ACE Awards judging team and Chief Marketing Officer at Leger, offered us a few tips on how to differentiate your campaign submission amongst the competition.

ACE AWARDS RUBRIC

The first thing to do is get a copy of the rubric used to rate each submission. The rubric is split into four sections:

  • Research
  • Action
  • Communication
  • Evaluation

Besides ensuring you have each category covered, make sure guidelines and criteria for each category are met.  All categories are equally important and must be well thought out, but entrants must pay special attention to the Research and Evaluation sections of their submission.

The judges are looking for your campaign to be results driven and need two crucial questions to be answered:

  1. “Did your results achieve your organizational objectives?”
  2. “What behavioural, attitudinal or cognitive change was there?’

Clearly explaining the goal and objectives of your campaign, and giving proof that you achieved them will answer these questions and show the judges why you deserve an ACE Award!

THE SMALL THINGS MATTER

By correcting and re-tailoring the small things in your submission, your submission will be simple and concise. You are not only eliminating extra work for yourself but directing the Judges’ focus to the critical aspects of your project. Here are a few “small things” to consider:

  • State key points and assumptions of the campaign clearly
  • Make your submission well organized and easy to follow
  • Proofread!
  • Cut the jargon and write economically

It is crucial to keep in mind that the judges are looking for quality, so don’t focus on the bells and whistles.

 

BEST IN SHOW PRESENTATIONS

The last round, which consists of a presentation, must be given the same amount of effort as your submissions.  To ensure a successful presentation you need to practice, practice, practice! Make sure your presentation is ready to roll out smoothly and that everyone participating knows their cues.

Also, have someone who wasn’t involved in the project ask questions to shake out any wrinkles and prepare yourself for the judges’ inspection. Nothing is worse than getting caught out by an unexpected question!

Follow these tips and get the inside track on how to complete your ACE Award submission with flying colours. Even though the ACE Awards are just around the corner, it’s not too late to apply! The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2014 by 5 pm.

 

Download the ACE Awards Rubric here
Download the ACE Awards Categories listing here

 

Still have questions? On January 30 Dave Scholz will be taking over @CPRSToronto for an #ACEAwards cram session Q&A. Last-minute questions when you’re putting together your binder? Tweet us! More details to follow.

What: ACE Awards Twitter Q&A
When: January 30, 2014 – Time TBD
Who: Dave Scholz, Chief Marketing Officer, Leger & ACE Judging Co-Chair
Where: Twitter (Send questions to @CPRSToronto)

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR PREPARATION!

 

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Changes to 2014 ACE Award Submission Protocol
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It’s that time again! The annual ACE Awards are on the horizon and that means it’s time for you to start thinking about where you shone the brightest this year. The 2014 ACE Awards will feature a few important rule changes that you need to know about.

 

1) The submission process

This year the ACE Award submissions will not require the preliminary entry of an executive summary. Executive summaries will be submitted together with the full campaign binder. This is for two reasons. First, it will allow judges to spend more time on one set of submissions and offer better feedback to entrants looking to improve their work. Second, the application process will be streamlined for those submitting their work for judging.

2) Return of documents

Binders will not be returned after the ACE Awards Gala. Experience has shown us that many applicants produce an extra copy of the “big binder” submission for their records, and do not need the originals returned to them. Instead of returning the full binder, entrants will receive their completed marking rubrics via email in the week following the ACE Awards Gala.

3) Best in Show/Best Creative Entries
For Best in Show and Best Creative nominations, the judges will nominate 2-3 submissions for both categories. The entrants will be asked to present their work to the judging panel to be considered for the Best in Show and Best Creative awards. Portions of these presentations may be videotaped for future use at the ACE Awards Gala.

 

These changes have been made to help strengthen the ACE Awards program and ensure that the submission experience is as rewarding as possible for our members. Streamlining the submission process creates a simpler experience for applicants, guarantees continued quality feedback on their work and allows CPRS Toronto to stay current with other award programs.

 

If you have any questions about the changes to the submission process, or about anything else related to judging and entries at the 2014 ACE Awards, please contact Leigh LePage or Charzie Abendanio, Judging & Entries co-chairs, at cprs.ace.awards@gmail.com.

www.cprstoronto.com

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Archived tour of @RyersonDMZ: Viafoura (12:32)
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Part five of our March 12 Ryerson DMZ tour (and our final!) features Jalil Asaria, senior account executive at Viafoura – a tool used by CNN, CBC and the Discovery Channel.

Viafoura is an audience engagement platform for media properties.

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Archived tour of @RyersonDMZ: Phosphorus (6:32)
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Part four of our March 12 Ryerson DMZ tour features Jonathan Ingham, president at Phosphorus Media.

Phosphorus creates interactive media panel experiences.Clients have included L’Oreal, Adidas and Harley Davidson, among others.

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Archived tour of @RyersonDMZ: Authintic (5:54)
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Part three of our March 12 Ryerson DMZ tour features Christopher Berry, co-founder and chief science officer at Authintic.

Authintic’s platform is an analytics technology for permission marketing.

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CASE STUDY: High Road Communications’ Brighter Life for Sun Life Financial
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By: Miranda Germani

Today’s the big day: the ACE Awards gala takes place this evening! The ACE committee is busy at Arcadian Court rolling out the (metaphorical) red carpet at this very moment. Just like the Oscars’ broadcast rehashes past years’ movies and fashion before the big show, this is the perfect moment for us to take a look into our past with an ACE Awards standout.

The Sun Life Financial and High Road Communications teams took home an award last year with the BrighterLife.ca initiative, awarded in the Digital Communications Campaign category.

I was pleased to talk to Adrienne Connell, Vice President, High Road Communications before the 2013 ACE Awards officially arrive, about the success of this digital campaign.

Can you tell me about your winning campaign? 

BrighterLife.ca is Sun Life Financial’s innovative digital content marketing platform. It is aimed at helping Canadians answer their money, health, family and career questions in an informal, engaging and no-pressure way. The goal is to add real value to Canadians through the power of relevant, credible, useful content. It’s a revolutionary approach that puts the needs of consumers at the forefront and it’s helped Sun Life to connect with a whole new target audience.

What was the objective and why was it so successful?

Sun Life Financial wanted to engage consumers earlier in the sales cycle, before they had considered Sun Life or were even aware that they had a need that might be met by a financial product. They already had digital marketing platforms to engage both prospective and current customers but needed a way to reach consumers who were just at the beginning of their buying journey. Typically, customers have a trigger event, such as starting a family, changing careers or thinking about retirement.  Enter BrighterLife.ca to engage a wide span of Canadians from young professionals, to young families through to mature families and pre-retirees. It’s been a success because there is an incredible team of individuals behind it that ensure we’re creating magnetic content that is portable, and by that I mean letting audiences consume the content in the channels of their choice, be that on the website, e-newsletters, Facebook, Twitter or RSS. They also make a phenomenal commitment to activating that content across channels leveraging a combination of paid, earned, owned and shared channels.

How did winning an award contribute to the agency’s brand? 

At both High Road and Sun Life we’re very proud to work on this award-winning initiative. It’s an amazing honour to be recognized by our peers in the industry for creating innovative ideas that hopefully inspire other brands and it has helped to solidify our voice as thought leaders in the Canadian content marketing space.

What inspired you to submit?

We are always committed to celebrating our client’s successes, and awards such as this play a key role in recognizing their great work and our continued partnership together.

What were the challenges associated with submitting an award?

While we are always looking at metrics to evaluate a program’s success, distilling those down to the highlights and capturing the essence of what makes a particular effort such as BrighterLife.ca unique isn’t always quick to pull together. It took support from Sun Life’s team and High Road’s to ensure our submission told the story of BrighterLife.ca.

What was a “must-include”in your binder submission?

Creative samples of the writing on BrighterLife.ca and the user experience design of the site. We also made sure we included materials that spoke to the overall strategy and goals. Finally we included materials that illustrated the impact we’ve had with BrighterLife.ca and the vibrant community we have built around the brand.

How did it feel to receive your award at the gala?

Really good! We enjoyed a chance to bring our two teams together for a night of celebration and fun.

What advice would you give to other entrants?

Submit! Be creative in your submission while giving a clear indication of what you set out to do, how you did it and what you ultimately achieved.

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Archived tour of @RyersonDMZ: Soapbox (4:48)
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Last week, Justin Trudeau was described as cultivating a digital-era image in a Maclean’s piece that also talked abut his use of an online platform for sharing ideas called Soapbox.

Part two of CPRS Toronto’s March 12 tour of Ryerson’s DMZ features Warren Tanner, co-founder and CMO at Hitsend Inc., creators of Soapbox.

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Archived tour of @RyersonDMZ: Intro (8:21)
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Did you miss our March 12 tour of Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone? Over the next few weeks we’ll be profiling the companies that we toured. You’ll be able to hear about

But this week we begin with an intro from Valerie Fox, Executive Director of the DMZ.

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