Junior hockey club makes king sized move
The Edmonton Oil Kings won’t play their first hockey game until this fall, but the new Western Hockey League franchise is already running a massive integrated marketing and branding campaign.
The campaign, which launches this week, includes the club’s major season ticket campaign plus a multi-level branding campaign designed to alert Edmontonians to the team’s arrival on the city’s sports scene. The Oil Kings are named for a club that played in Edmonton in the 1950s and 60s.
The ticket campaign includes a new website at oilkings.ca, outdoor, radio and web banner ads, and a redesign of the team’s office, which will soon sport a massive “king size” hockey puck on its roof.
Both the ticket and branding campaign are built around the king size theme.
On the branding side, the Oil Kings will soon unveil a mascot, as well as a video and banners at the Rexall Centre, which will be shared next season by the Oil Kings and the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
The campaign is the work of Edmonton’s Red Communications, which is involved in every aspect of the launch, from designing a mascot to traditional advertising to selecting music and movie clips that will play on the scoreboard during Oil Kings’ games. “This is a really great example of a totally integrated marketing campaign,” says Red account director Kristy MacMillan. “We’re not just selling seats, we’re launching a hockey club.”
By Norma Ramage
Filed under: Client News, Feature ArticlesRED readies get-out-the-vote campaign
Elections Alberta wants to give provincial voters a gentle “nudge” toward the polling booth by moving beyond the print advertising required by legislation to a multi-media advertising campaign by RED Communications that will run during the next provincial election.
Lori McKee-Jeske, director, elections operations and communications, says the campaign – the first multi-media effort in the organization’s history – is designed to make Elections Alberta look “less authoritarian and more approachable.” It will include radio and TV spots, a revamped website and a new, less bureaucratic looking logo.
“We have always had lots of information for voters about how and where to vote, but we weren’t always getting that message out in a way that people could use.” The ultimate goal, she says, is to reverse a recent trend of decreasing voter turnout at provincial elections.
Kristy MacMillan of Edmonton-based RED Communications, says the campaign is still being developed, but the message will be that voting isn’t difficult and there’s no excuse not to cast a ballot. Although the campaign will be completed within the next few weeks, it won’t run until the next provincial election, which could be more than two years away.
By Norma Ramage
Filed under: Client News, Feature ArticlesPassion at RED
Female-run shop puts emotion into the men’s world of sports marketing
Originally printed in Marketing Magazine
By Norma Ramage
Agencies founded and run by women still aren’t all that common on the Canadian agency landscape. And when that agency owes much of its success to sports marketing and advertising, it attracts second glances.
That’s the case at Edmonton’s Red agency, owned by partners Monique Fikar and Lori Billey. The agency’s first client when it opened its doors in 2001 was the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, and current sporting clients-which comprise 30% of Red’s business-include the NHL’s Calgary Flames and the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. Red is also on the list in the logo design competition for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and worked on last year’s outdoor Molson Heritage Classic hockey game.
“Sports are still stereotyped as a man’s world,” says Billey, who is Red’s chief creative officer. “Being women, we just had to work a lot harder.”
Fikar, who is Red’s CEO, says the partners took the emotion and passion involved in sports marketing and applied it to more conventional products and services, moving beyond sports to build a varied client list that includes the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, Allied Van Lines Canada, North American Van Lines, Stuart Olson Construction, forestry products company Weldwood of Canada and Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan College.
The strategy has resulted in phenomenal growth for the three-year-old agency, which now has 15 employees and annual revenues of $20 million. It recently snagged 12th spot on Alberta Venture magazine’s list of the province’s fastest growing companies. Fikar and Billey were also nominated for the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Asked the reason for Red’s success, Fikar replies with one word: talent. There are no juniors on Red’s roster, only senior creatives, most of whom-like Fikar and Billey-have 15 or more years in the advertising business. “We differentiate ourselves by emphasizing the seniority of our people,” says Fikar. “Our clients respond very well to our flatter management structure and being provided direct access to senior people.”
Fikar also credits teamwork for the agency’s success, both between herself and Billey and among all the staff members. “In many respects, Lori and I approach our relationship like a marriage. We complement each other. My approach is more analytical and strategic, while Lori balances that out by being more creative.”
The two women, who had both worked for Edmonton agencies, found themselves working together on several projects, liked the relationship, and decided to start their own agency. They shared a common interest in sports-Billey is a skater and certified hockey referee, Fikar is a marathon runner whose first marketing job was with the Eskimos-and it seemed natural to pursue sports clients.
Allan Watts, the Oilers’ vice-president of marketing and communications, says Red was exactly what his team was looking for three years ago, a “nimble” boutique agency “that would provide absolute value for the dollar.” The team has stayed with Red as it has grown says Watt, “because both Monique and Lori have made a study of the sports business. We appreciate them learning about our business, but still being able to bring a fresh voice.”
Although pleased with Red’s rapid growth, Fikar and Billey aren’t resting on their laurels. They already have a national client (Allied Van Lines) and a North American client (North American Van Lines), and they’re eager to add more. The partners don’t see Red as an Edmonton agency, but a “great agency” that happens to be based in the northern Alberta city.
Filed under: Feature ArticlesBody Building
Originally printed in Alberta Venture Magazine, January 2005
by Gordon Cope
“By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work 12 hours a day,” poet Robert Frost once quipped. And if all those hours produce what most bosses want — an increasingly prosperous company — your workday could stretch even longer. Indeed, calling the shots in the middle of a growth spurt is challenging. You have to deal with the 1,001 problems any company faces - hiring good people, maintaining relationships with key customers, staying focused, raising finances - only you have to do it considerably faster.
“Growth by itself causes constant changes that need to be monitored and directed to ensure the growth is successful,” says Dan McKinley, an FCA at Grant Thornton LLP, one of the founding partners of Alberta Venture’s annual Fastest Growing Companies list. Solid leadership is essential to prevent flourishing companies from spiraling out of control, but what makes a good leader great? While the CEOs we surveyed were often mystified themselves, one message came through: whenever a challenge emerged, they relied on innate principles and abilities to find solutions. We categorized these attributes into four main branches of the body corporate - the head, the heart, the cojones and the boot. Separately, each makes a crucial contribution. But when all four combine in harmony, the sum becomes far greater than its parts.
The Head
Without its head, a body is just a lifeless lump. And without a boss capable of using logic to create goals, and using analytical skills to figure out how to get there, a company is dead in the water. Ravi Sood is the CEO of VoodooPC, a manufacturer of high-end gaming computers. “I’m a bit of a strategist by nature,” he says. Since Sood took over five years ago, the Calgary-based company has shed its mish-mash of Web-based services and evolved into a world-class venture focused on hardware manufacturing. Monique Fikar is the CEO of RED Communications, a full-service advertising agency based in Edmonton. “In our company, you have creative right brain and analytical left brain people,” says Fikar. “I’m an analytical person.”
Both Sood and Fikar not only work hard to create basic goals for their companies to pursue, they also supply the steps to get to there. “All of our work is strategically based with timelines and budgets,” says Fikar. “It has to achieve objectives, otherwise it’s just a pretty piece of art.” Sood sits down with his senior staff every week to map out their journey. “I want to know where we are and where we have to go,” he says. “We have an easel in the boardroom that has that gap and in between are simple goals that, if accomplished, will result in us hitting business values.”
Every head has a pair of eyes, of course, and those eyes supply the company’s vision. Scott Tannas is the CEO of Western Financial Group Inc., an insurance agency and bank based in High River. “Vision is a discipline,” he says. “You have to have a clear view of the steps and the discipline to stick to those steps.” A cohesive vision, moreover, enhances a leader’s ability to bring employees onside. Over the past 10 years, Western Financial has ballooned from eight staff to 535; uniting them would be impossible without a clear, common purpose. “It takes so many people to execute a vision, and sometimes that vision differs from what others think,” says Tannas. “The essence of leadership is taking people somewhere they wouldn’t go themselves. You have to sell your vision daily.”
Clarity of vision also helps companies collaborate with other organizations. VoodooPC wants its gaming computers to be the world’s best; many top computer components manufacturers are so enamoured by this vision that they supply the tiny company with their latest high-tech components for the honour of contributing to the final product. “You have to co-innovate with other vendors,” says Sood. “You have to convince them that there is a win-win situation. We speak to the head people at AMD and Intel. They look to us as the first move in the market because we will take their latest technologies and put them into the market.”
A clear vision can take you even further - to the point where a partner essentially pays you to create products. Edmonton’s Omni Technology Solutions Inc. develops software for Internet-based businesses. The company strives to provide solutions that customers desperately need, rather than what the market might be prepared to buy. “Every one of our projects is a direct result of pain related to us by clients,” says Aldo Zanoni, Omni’s CEO. “They ask us, ‘Can you do this to relieve the pain?’ We bring them along as a partner in the development cycle.” Not only does Omni provide solutions, they throw in financial motivation. “When a customer comes to us and asks for a module, we tell them that it will cost X dollars, but the customer as a first purchaser will be reimbursed 10% of every sale of the module until they are paid back for it,” explains Zanoni. “That engages the customer as a development partner to get the software more enhanced.”
This type of heady collaboration guarantees that the product will be exactly what the first customer wants and have resale value. “Unless we have customers who partner in alpha, beta and ready-to-go, we’ll never be successful,” says Zanoni. “A software company that develops in a void won’t do any good.”
The Heart
A spectrum of more intuitive abilities complement a leader’s logical, organized side. They embody a true appreciation for work, employees, customers and peers. Optimism, integrity, imagination - each quality helps them communicate their passions to others in a manner that inspires, motivates and engenders commitment.
SVFARA Marine Inc. is a fiberglass manufacturing company based in Calgary. Four years ago, the firm was known primarily for its water slides. Then SVFARA president Scott Roddick had a dream. He wanted to take on the makers of the world’s best competition boats and beat them at their own game. SVFARA didn’t have big financial backing, but it did have a small core of skilled craftsmen in Kelowna, B.C. Inspired by Roddick’s passion, they designed a candy-coloured symphony of power, luxury and performance - a wet dream in fiberglass - that caught the eye of consumers and distributors across North America. “Employees know that we are creating a quality product and they have a lot of pride in their work,” says Roddick. “They catch problems before anyone else.”
Honesty and integrity rank high on the list of qualities that leaders admire in others. “Mean what you say and say what you mean,” says Jed Wood, CEO of High Arctic Energy Services Inc., a well service company based in Red Deer. He notes that employees value a boss who speaks the truth when giving them feedback. “They want your honest opinion,” he says. “If they’re doing something right, they want to know, and if they’re doing something wrong, they want to know.” For Wood, that simple approach has paid dividends in terms of employee retention among his staff of 250: “Our turnover rate was 50% a few years ago. Now it’s down to single digits.”
Integrity also creates bottom-line value by building trust with customers. Some well service operators, according to Wood, are known for promising what they can’t deliver. “They tell the customer what they believe they want to hear,” he says. “When they can’t show up for the job or can’t deliver the service, it creates dishonesty in the relationship.” That customer quickly goes looking for a new service company - and often ends up at Wood’s door. “We listen to our customers but respond in an honest fashion,” he says. “We tell them honestly whether we can or can’t do it.”
One vastly underrated leadership quality is the ability to listen. Wayne Rutherford is the general manager of PowerComm Inc., an Edmonton-based company that supplies electrical, instrumentation and valve services to the oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing and petrochemical industries. The GM learned the importance of listening to employees in a previous job. “I worked for someone who would shoot my ideas down,” recalls Rutherford, “then he’d come up with the same ideas at management meetings.” When he founded his own company, Rutherford implemented a formal employee feedback program. All workers are encouraged to make “action requests,” and they’ve made roughly 2,000 over the past decade. “There’s only about 20 or 30 that we haven’t carried through,” says Rutherford. “The submissions are coming from valve technicians all the way up to senior managers. It makes all the employees feel like they are part of the company. They feel like they’re wanted.”
Listening to customers is also important, but understanding what they mean is critica-l, suggests Aldo Zanoni. Because the business is I nternet-based, Omni’s customers come from all over the world: Russia, Europe, Asia and Africa. “One of our biggest challenges is the ability to understand what’s being asked,” says Zanoni. “What some people might think of as an insult is really a request for help. It’s the skill of comprehension.” By focusing on the needs of diverse cultures, 95% of Omni’s re-venues now come from overseas.
The ability to communicate ideas effectively goes hand in hand with listening. “At Voodoo, people know me as direct and open,” says Ravi Sood. “I deal with things head-on. I can be abrupt, but at the end of the day our core team has learned to respect that.” Communication doesn’t just stop at the boss, however; it must permeate the entire organization. “We have three different professions: electricians, instrument mechanics and valve technicians,” says PowerComm’s Wayne Rutherford. “We ensure that employees are able to communicate with everybody in the company.”
Perhaps the greatest passion that a leader can bring to the job is the desire to be a mentor. Zanoni knows what it’s like to be guided by an older, wiser hand - and, in turn, he wants to pass on that experience. “While I was an educator, Jim Jones at Edmonton Public Schools told me that I will encounter two types of leaders: those who surround themselves with marginally competent people so they will look better by comparison, and those who surround themselves with amazing people. The latter is who I want to be.”
The Cojones
It’s not enough to have the know-how and the dream. If you want to lead a fast-growing company effectively, you’ve got to have determination, commitment, courage and desire. In other words, you’ve got to have the balls to succeed.
One of the most valuable traits among leaders is the ability to think big. When Scott Roddick decided to enter the boat business, he didn’t start out with dinghies. He took direct aim at the juiciest part of the market: high-powered boats used for water-skiing, wake boarding and wake surfing. “This portion of the recreational boat market has been dominated by three major U.S. companies for many years,” says the CEO of SVFARA. “There’s never been anyone to take them on outside the U.S.” So SVFARA researched the market and discovered that that the big U.S. companies weren’t doing anything with fibreglass that the Calgary manufacturer couldn’t do itself.
Roddick knew that while the competition was big, they were also complacent. “As part of the competition with U.S. manufacturers, we knew we had to do something different, both esthetically and ergonomically,” he says. SVFARA was determined, but the company had to invest a lot of time and money before generating any measure of success. “We have had times through the growth cycle where many people would have pulled the plug, but we have always believed in the product and that we could excel,” says Roddick. “Some peopl-e thought it was too tough a market, but we buckled down and worked a little harder.” In just three years, interest in their boats has grown so much that SVFARA expects to sell 200 units in 2005 - not bad for a product that retails at $75,000.
Strength of conviction is also a vital trait of a leader. “I want Albertans to know that the most powerful PCs are manufactured in Alberta,” says Sood. “Head to head, we always beat the big boys - we’re the ultimate gaming machine and the ultimate PC. It’s so amazing that Fortune 500 companies will fly up here to see what we’re doing. It blows them away to discover a tiny company can do that.”
In addition to the more bravado-oriented aspects of cojones, it takes courage to be humble. Even in the cusp of success, savvy leaders should never forget to thank others for their contributions. “When we get a positive review, we let everyone know, right down to the shop floor,” says Roddick. “Leadership is all about assembling the best team you can and letting them know everyone is important and has key roles. That makes my job easier. Never be afraid to have great people around you.”
“A leader sets aside personal egos and channels their energy into the company and sets up success,” says Monique Fikar of RED Communications. “The ability to empower others demonstrates a sense of trust, encourages individual growth and allows employees to explore their own personal leadership abilities.”
“The biggest problem a company can have is a prima donna leader,” says Omni’s Zanoni. “If the leader’s picture is on the front page all the time, they have a big problem. It’s a ‘you’re not good enough for me’ mentality.”
The Boot
Unfortunately, no matter how intelligent, compassionate or generous a leader is, there comes the time when hard decisions have to be made. The boot has to come down. It’s a decision every leader has to make at some point: firing an employee. “Our branding strategy had been going on for about three and a half years,” recalls VoodooPC’s Ravi Sood. “We were going very well until about 18 months ago, when sales became stagnant. A choice had to be made and three sales people had to be fired. Some questioned it, but after that the culture changed dramatically and sales came right up.”
“We hire senior people and give them a level of respect and we expect that in return,” says Fikar. “For them to prosper and the company to prosper, they have to fit together. It only makes sense.” When the match doesn’t work out, the CEO of RED Communications doesn’t procrastinate. “We’ve had to let people go,” she says. “It’s rare, but I have no problem making that decision.”
“Someone said, ‘I’ve never regretted firing someone, but I’ve regretted not firing someone quickly enough,’” adds Zanoni. “I’ve always said to staff that the day that they think they’re not in a position to move forward, then that’s the day they should come to me and say it’s time to move on.”
“Many leaders come with an insecurity,” says Western Financial’s Scott Tannas. “They want to be liked by everybody - the roar of the crowd. But that makes it enormously difficult when it comes to holding people accountable. It’s out of my comfort zone; I’m no Donald Trump. But it’s critical for moving an organization forward effectively.”
One advantage of leaders who can make hard decisions is that conscientious, hardworking employees know precisely where they stand. “A disciplined environment is conducive to harvesting creative ideas,” says Fikar, “and provides an environment where employees can accomplish some of their best work. It also generates mutual respect. “People have to respect the boss and the boss has to respect his employees,” says PowerComm’s Wayne Rutherford. “If you don’t like it here, go work somewhere else.”
Beyond letting go of individuals, sometimes the most difficult decisions involve killing pet projects that just didn’t fly. “You never start a project thinking it will fail, but our very first project was an ultimate disaster,” says Zanoni. After months of time and effort, the CEO of Omni had to admit that a software package in development was unworkable. “But we were able to split off products,” he says. “The children of that monster were successes.”
Sood had a similar experience. “When I first started at VoodooPC five years ago, they had Web design, software hosting, PC manufacturing, all kinds of things,” he recalls. “I decided what we had to do, which was to shut down the other parts of the business. Two-thirds (of senior management) were on board, but one-third was unsure. I could have spent months and months convincing, but I knew change had to happen. I made the decision to go with that component with the highest margin and potential.”
Fortunately, fast growing companies don’t have to fire staff or cancel projects all that often. So one of the toughest leadership tasks becomes knowing when to take the foot off the gas pedal and have some plain old fun. “We do paint ball laser tag on Saturday nights,” says Sood. “I challenge everybody - they all want to kill the boss.” SVFARA has a natural stress-relief strategy. “In the summertime,” says Roddick, “we have family picnics on the lake in Kelowna and get everyone out to try out the boats.”
Showing staff that you don’t mind being splattered by paint balls and letting them pilot powerful boats might not add to the bottom line, but it helps create something just as valuable: a company where everyone loves their job and does the best they can. “You can set people up for success or set them up for failure,” says Fikar. “When you do it right, there’s a level of confidence, as opposed to doubt.”
Filed under: Feature Articles