Making Great Brands even Better

Works in Progress

The most exciting work is always the stuff that's underway right now:

• OCAD University. Having worked with the University on their new name I've now been invited to work with the OCAD U team and Bruce Mau Design on the process to create a the new visual identity. This is the best in high-involvement design. Please participate!  http://www.facebook.com/#!/ocaduid.
• Univeristy of Toronto Scarborough. This year-long strategy project is now in the creative development and implementation phase. Scott Thornley is on the case doing tagline and creative development.
• ICCO: The Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario is redefining its role as the position of chambers of commerce evolves globally. Soon we'll move in to creative development with a team from the Institute without Boundaries at George Brown.
• A Global Engineering and Construction Firm: I'm collaborating with Julie Gauvin and Ove to help articulate the strategic vision of the firm, in advance of a global brand strategy initiative to begin in the coming months.
• Pfaff Automotive Partners: Pfaff is one of Canada's leading automotive businesses representing a range of "cool car" brands, most notably Porsche, Audi/VW and McLaren. I'm working with this privately held company on the fundamentals of their vision, in collaboration with Michael Epstein from PwC and Peter Barrow of Petrona.
• Top secret: This one is not in the public domain yet but is a major re-positioning for a truly iconic Canadian institution. Working with my pals at Ove on this and having a great time. Details as soon as we can go public!
• The Toronto Public Library. In collaboration with team Trajectory - a comprehensive positioning strategy for North America's best used public library.

More new work coming soon: a new public voice for a global scientific institute, an experiment in combined brand and business strategy in an academic institution and an architectural firm re-naming.

TIFF

Investing new meaning in the TIFF brand

The Toronto International Film Festival has always stood for 11 fantastic days in September when Torontonians go mad for film and the global industry has the best party of the year. But what happens when you introduce the magnificent TIFF Bell Lightbox to make TIFF a 365 days-a-year proposition? How do you reframe public perception of TIFF to make it every day, for everyone, all the time? A civic resource, a personal haven.

I worked with strategist Maxine Thomas at TAXI to frame a new direction for the TIFF master brand that speaks to openess, accessibility and above all, a sense of the impact that film can have - on individuals, and on society.

The TIFF team are living up to this promise beautifully: the films, the programming, the events, the speakers, the film library, the galleries, the giftshop, the food, the online experience. It's all combining to make TIFF the newest and perhaps most alive of Toronto's big cultural attractions. http://tiff.net/

Loyalty One Brand Strategy

Articulating brand value across the portfolio

Loyalty One, operator of the AirMiles program, is one of the world's preeminent loyalty management operations with a portfolio of businesses that includes advanced analytics, direct marketing, loyalty thought leadership and loyalty consulting. As the enterprise expands globally and into new applications of loyalty the challenge of articulating the enterprise brand proposition became more urgent.

We worked with the senior executive team to articulate the brand value across the enterprise portfolio and translate it into a more-than-AirMiles proposition. Using a combination of internal and external interviews as well as a company-wide online brand jam, we helped frame the brand proposition to the B2B client.

We then applied the core idea to the development of the employee value proposition for use by Human Resources and management in their recruiting and engagement processes.

Our work helped Loyalty One see its portfolio, not as a basket of disparate offerings but a suite of complementary loyalty services for the global business.

McCarthy Tétrault

Building a true legal services brand

McCarthy Tétrault is the top corporate law and litigation firm in Canada. It owns the unique position of being more than a collection of independently minded lawyers and has built a truly integrated firm with a uniquely collaborative culture.

In several years of work with the firm, ranging from brand strategy formulation to deep brand alignment and implementation, I have had the privilege of helping this group of brand sceptics become ardent brand evangelists.

What has made the success of this initiative possible has been the high-involvement process behind the work. We used a national workshopping approach and extensive online engagement to keep lawyers and staff engaged and involved at every step. By the time our brand blueprint was done, we had broad-based support across the partnership.

Sun Life Financial

Developing and implementing a powerful global brand

How does a global, integrated financial services provider stay relevant to a customer base that does not want to think about the future, and differentiated from a competitive field that all seem to occupy the same paternalistic territory? By going back to first principles to ask customers what matters to them and to change the game to adapt to real consumer needs.

Oxford Properties Group

Positioning the Richmond Adelaide Centre

One of OXFORD's premier real estate holdings is the block of buildings between Richmond and Adelaide at York Street in Toronto. But with intensive complex-to-complex competition in the A-space core market, OXFORD had to do more than just upgrade, it had to create an idea of the Centre that would help it compete with power-houses First Canadian Place, Bay Adelaide and others.

We listened hard to what brokers, tenants and ex-tenants had to say about the merits of the block and its potential. We also took the measure of the OXFORD brand and its strong reputation as a great service provider.

University of Waterloo

Canada's Most innovative educational brand

Brand strategy is still a work in progress at the University of Waterloo, but then so is everything at UW. This is a place where change is the norm, risk is rewarded and there is a constant desire to stretch beyond the obvious.This paradoxical culture of valuing hard-driving performance and communitarian spirit has created a university at the top of its game; rated at the top of Canadian universities for innovation, and leading the world with the biggest cooperative education program for students across all faculties.

Birch Hill Equity Partners

Positioning and Brand Strategy

In an industry where everyone pretty much says the same thing about what they do, Birch Hill (previously TD CPEP) has been doing things their own way, and creating Canada's largest mid-market buy-out firm in the process. We worked with Birch Hill on a brand strategy built on the idea that they can take people where others can't.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Brand Strategy

The Stratford Festival was born in the imagination of a small group of fearless and resourceful Stratford residents who wanted to create a place where Shakespeare could be brought to life as it was meant to be. Over the decades, the Festival became a victim of its own success.