Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners

This just in from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada:

Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners: Sid Lee and Canadian Tourism Commission to provide prize-worthy insight at CEC

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Marketing, Canada’s leading advertising and media magazine, named two organizations with significant connections to Canadian tourism as recipients of its highly-coveted and prestigious National Marketing Awards.

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In its highly-anticipated and influential awards issue released earlier this week, the magazine selected Montréal-based agency Sid Lee as the Marketing Agency of the Year, while the Canadian Tourism Commission was named as the Marketer of the Year.

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And because TIAC aims to showcase the best of the tourism industry at the Canada-e-Connect conference, it stands to reason that both of these award-winners were already scheduled to appear at the 2010 edition of Canada’s premier e-tourism event this January in Montréal.

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“Sid Lee is known for pulling, pushing and simply playing with the industry's traditional definitions of creativity,” wrote Marketing’s Jeremy Lloyd. "Though many agencies are trying to work their way deeper into client operations to do more than straightforward advertising, Sid Lee has never been afraid to shun advertising in favour of retail design, product creation or, as it recommended to Tourisme Montreal, drop all traditional advertising to focus on online and social media outreach."

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Bertrand Cesvet joined Sid Lee in 1997 and led its transformation from a fledgling graphic design shop into one of Canada’s most dynamic creative services agencies. Cesvet will give Canada-e-Connect’s opening keynote presentation on January 27, 2010 at 10:00, and will share some of the ideas and concepts he developed for the book Conversational Capital which he co-authored with his Sid Lee colleagues Tony Babinski and Eric Alper.

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The Canadian Tourism Commission was also acknowledged for its efforts in online and social media. "In the past few years, a lot of marketers have experimented with social media and user-generated content in their marketing. But in our opinion, few have done it so well as the CTC," said Rebecca Harris, co-managing editor of Marketing.

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In particular, the magazine profiled the CTC’s successful Locals Know campaign, which showcased little-known yet enticing destinations across Canada and encouraged travellers to report back to share their memorable experiences. “What impressed us the most was CTC's groundbreaking social media strategy, which included videos showcasing travellers' real experiences,” Harris wrote.

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The CTC’s Lesly Braby will detail her organization’s social media experience in a plenary session, Thursday January 28 at 16:15 during Canada-e-Connect 2010. Lesly will describe how the CTC creates and distributes content on social media channels, what challenges they have encountered, and what they have learned along the way.

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For more information on Marketing's 2009 awards, please click here.

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Join us at Canada-e-Connect 2010 Register at www.canadaeconnect.com

www.tiac.travel

Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada addressed the Mexican Senat

December 8, 2009, Mexico City, United Mexican States

It gives me great pleasure and is an honour for me, as governor general of Canada, to speak in a Chamber that is so essential to democratic life in Mexico, especially this year, as we celebrate 65 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

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I would first like to mention the unshakeable, willing and unparalleled ties of friendship that have developed over the years between our people and our institutions. It is certainly no secret—and I am proud to say—that Mexico holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians.

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Moreover, our commitment to increasing security, improving prosperity and promoting democratic values across the entire hemisphere make Canada and Mexico key partners. It is vital to the well-being of our respective peoples that we work together to fight the threat of sophisticated, organized crime networks that have spread across the entire continent with their illegal activities. I am referring especially to the trafficking of people, narcotics and influence, and to the corruption, money laundering and violence that are ravaging our communities. In order to succeed, we must join efforts and establish joint strategies because, as we all know, the situation is extremely serious.

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This willingness to strengthen hemispheric cooperation is, in fact, one of the cornerstones of Canada’s foreign policy and we salute the efforts you are making along these same, promising, lines. We must be bold and build on the dynamic relationship between Canada and Mexico, and this in a number of important aspects of society.Not only are we major trading partners, thanks to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, but we have also implemented innovative mechanisms, such as the Canada‑Mexico Partnership, launched in 2004, to promote co‑operation and dialogue in such areas as investment, innovation, agribusiness, housing, the environment, human capital development, energy, and labour mobility.

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Moreover, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which has been in operation for the past 35 years and allows us to receive temporary workers from Mexico, is seen around the world as a model with a great deal of promise. This State visit is an opportunity for us to explore new areas for co-operation and partnership in order to diversify our investments and business activities. We can certainly do much better and we must double our efforts and stretch our imaginations.We also share a commitment to multilateralism and maintain a productive dialogue within several international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the G-20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development.

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There are so many opportunities for us to build on our existing solidarity at this pivotal moment in our collective history, as we face a major crisis of values, one that we cannot reduce solely to its financial component and that demands that we redefine an ethic of sharing and hemispheric responsibility in this era of globalization. In addition to these many ties are nearly 400 agreements between universities and several studies centres and programs that promote academic exchange and an improved sharing of knowledge between our two countries.

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I would say that the same excitement and exuberance can be found in the cultural ties forged between the creative minds of our two countries and of which our peoples are so fond. As proof, we need look no further than the programming at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, one of the largest artistic gatherings in Latin America and one of the largest multidisciplinary festivals in the world, whose 37th edition, which ended last month, featured several Québécois artists. Our artists share that desire to increase the opportunities for collaboration and to enrich the cultural diversity that distinguishes our histories and lands with their unique contributions.

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We are delighted because, like Octavio Paz, we believe that “[a]ll cultures are born out of mingling, meetings and clashes,” and, as he warns us, “[c]onversely, civilizations die from isolation.”

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And it is precisely from a desire to highlight the close ties that bind us that my husband, Jean‑Daniel Lafond, our delegation and I will be going out to meet with the people and organizations that form the backbone of Mexican society—from entrepreneurs to students, from non-governmental organizations to decision-making bodies, from artists to women’s associations—here in the centre of the country and in Chiapas, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas.

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I like diplomacy on a human scale and our dearest wish, in a reinterpretation of Carlos Fuentes’ beautiful phrase, is to work together to ensure the continuity of a few ideas over time.

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It is therefore in this spirit of solidarity and fellowship that we begin this State visit in Mexico, with an unwavering willingness to remind our respective populations that we are brothers and sisters, in spirit and in heart, and with the hope of creating new opportunities for co-operation.

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Thank you very much for offering me this special invitation to address you and I wish long life to the strong, cherished friendship between Canada and Mexico!

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And I would like to extend our best wishes for your happiness and prosperity as we approach the bicentenary of the Mexican War of Independence and the centenary of the Mexican Revolution!

(source: Office of the Governor General of Canada, www.gg.ca)

The Free Times Cafe Toronto

A tradition in Toronto, many songwriters come to the Free Times in Kensington Market to sings new songs and practice old ones.

-- Post From My iPhone

Psycographic segmentation in Canadian Tourism

Canadian DMOs as I suppose DMOs everywhere are spending a lot of money researching consumer and travel behaviour, their demographics and psycographics, their online habits and many other attributes. The Canadian Tourism Commission, for example, devised a segmentation tool called the Explorer Quotient that classifies people as traveller types. The EQ is basically a psycographics and lifestyle segmentation tool. There are other tools and ways of segmenting consumers, all of which may be valid and helpful. However, psycographic segmentation has its limitation and cannot be considered the be all and end all of marketing. One of the issues with this kind of segmentation is that people are constantly changing, their circumstances change, their different life stages force them to change. You can surmise this by examining your own life and that of people close to you. For example, my EQ is Free Spirit, one of the highest yielding tourist types. But I am also a Cultural History Buff and a Rejuvenator. I don't have the resources to prove this, but my sense is that most travellers may be one or another type depending on the circumstances, the mood and their financial resources. While I prefer to travel as a Free Spirit (luxury accomodations, the best of the best), I can't always afford it. I might sacrifice luxury for a cultural experience, which I've done on many occasions, and I every year my family and I try to take a Rejuvenating vacation. When I took the EQ questionnaire a few years ago, it turned out I was a Free Spirit. I often get marketed to as a Free Spirit even though I may feel like a Cultural History Buff or a No Hassle Traveler (which I definitely am as well).

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In conclusion, while segmentation tools are very important, one must keep in mind that people are not as easy to classify as plants. In the era of instant direct communication one-to-one, one-to-many it is critical to listen to travelers and be ready to respond with the right message at the right time so whenever a traveler expresses Free Spirit desires or No Hassle Traveler needs, you'll be ready to address their wishes with the right offer.

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Happy travels,

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Jaime