Labatt Breweries of Canada took Best of Show at the 9th annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards (SMAs), winning for a fan-based sponsorship program involving Budweiser and the Winnipeg Jets that exceeded business objectives. The SMAs, presented April 25th at the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto, recognize companies that maximize their investments in sponsorship marketing by developing innovative strategies that drive results. Other big winners were BMO and Scotiabank, which each won two awards. Click here for the media release.

By Mitch Joel, Twist Image

Posted January 28th, 2009

The news cycle has changed tremendously over the past five years, which has had a direct effect on advertising and how to make your messages stick. It’s about to change again and – as usual – advertisers are not prepared. From the looks of it, the general population might not be ready either. (more…)

By Mark Farmer, ACA

Posted January 28th, 2009

An interesting phenomenon sometimes occurs when you let a campaign do its own thing: spectacular success.

In Boston for the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) symposium in November, I got a peek at a study produced by the society in cooperation with Deloitte and Beeline Labs, the 2008 Tribalization of Business Study. It looks at how organizations are using online communities, and how some of those communities are translating into big profits. (more…)