Cocoon Branding Inc.

Today, the official name of Winnipeg’s new football stadium was announced: Investors Group Field. Kyle was interviewed by a local news station for his insight on sponsorships and naming rights.

For the team and the venue, a naming sponsor provides some additional sustainability and long-term viability. While fans sometimes complain about naming sponsorships being a sign of ’selling out’ the truth is that it’s a part of business in the sports world. Almost every pro sports venue has a naming rights sponsor. These sponsors play a large role in keeping ticket prices down, enhancing the pro sports experience for fans, and sometimes even providing experiences or exclusive access that money can’t buy.

For the sponsor, it’s much more than an opportunity to get your name out and position your brand alongside something fun – it’s an opportunity to build loyalty with existing customers and target new customers. Of course, you will have physical presence in-market – and national exposure through event coverage – but the most valuable component of your sponsorship is the opportunity it gives you to engage with the audience.

As a sponsor – or a potential sponsor – there are four key things to consider when deciding to become a naming sponsor.

1. Choose your sponsorship property wisely.

The property you choose to sponsor should align with your corporate goals and objectives, as should the way you choose to activate your sponsorship.

2. Plan to activate your sponsorship.

An activation strategy, or lack thereof, will either make or break any sponsorship investment. You need a plan to leverage your access to the audience as a result of being a sponsor – the sponsorship fees you pay are your admission to engage far beyond simply adding your name to a building, and that is where the true value of your sponsorship will lie if you choose to access it.

3. Watch your investment grow.

You should have metrics in place to measure your return on investment. This allows you to adjust your activation strategy as you learn more about the property and your new fans.

4. Sponsorship should be a win/win situation.

Both the sponsor and the property should benefit from the deal. Each brand should enhance the other, and work together to enhance the experience for the customers, audience, or fans by making it more engaging and memorable.

If you’d like to know more about branding + sponsorship, contact Kyle at kyle@cocoonbranding.com.

Cocoon is proud of a great showing at this year’s annual Signature Awards, recognizing the best in advertising and design this province has to offer.

We took home six awards including two Judge’s Favourite Awards for our work on the Kildonan Place Holiday Countdown advertising campaign, and the Endangered Potatoes advertising campaign.

KP Holiday Countdown - Winner of Judge's Favourite and Best Specialty Advertising

Being a brand agency, we were very glad to have been awarded Best Rebrand of the Year with Firefly, a project which consisted of renaming and rebranding for Lake of the Woods Child Development Centre located in Ontario.

We also won awards for Best Newspaper Advertising, Best Outdoor Advertising and Best Specialty Advertising, a category that recognizing non-traditional forms of advertising.

Kyle’s reaction: “It’s always nice to celebrate our creative team and our clients, we couldn’t do any of it without them.”

Chuck’s reaction: “Our passion and pride comes through in our work, but we are only as good as our last idea. So, we always look forward to imagining something new on our next project, we can’t rely on past achievements.”

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Tuesday – January 11, 2011

Social media is all the buzz. Although it’s hard to ignore new bright and shiny objects, social media should be treated like any other medium.

Kyle was the guest speaker at an event hosted by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and discussed how social media can both help and hurt your brand. There are definite risks associated with diving in without a strategy, and potential risks in ignoring social media completely.

Every business should approach social media as a part of a bigger overlying marketing strategy. Social media may make sense as a part of the ongoing customer experience or integrated as part of an advertising campaign. The point is, that it cannot be considered in isolation, and should be part of an integrated solution — a strategic tactic implemented to achieve a specific business goal.

Kyle provided a general overview which included some of the popular misconceptions we’ve heard, reviewed the various forms of social media, how to get started and what’s involved. He also highlighted how some popular brands use social media and the results they have achieved.

The most successful social media interaction is relevant, transparent, engaging and increases impact or value to the customer.

Brands are constantly competing for attention and the world around us is changing at an increasing speed. The need for ways to constantly differentiate and stand out has never been more important.

Kyle led a roundtable discussion on February 24, 2011 for CMA Manitoba about setting yourself apart.

More often than not, businesses try to claim differentiation based on having the best service, highest quality, or lowest price. Each of these are very subjective or can be duplicated – even beat – by competitors. So, how can you differentiate yourself from competitors when everyone is saying the same thing?

Many businesses get stuck on their functional benefit, they have trouble seeing past what they do. During the roundtable discussion we shared some ways to see past what you do by connecting with why you do it. The primary shift in thinking was to change from thinking of rational and functional messaging, to discovering an emotional human value to build your brand around an idea that really matters to people.

Change your functional brand into an emotional one.

Another way to differentiate yourself is through continuous and disruptive innovation. If you are constantly launching new and better offerings, you can widen the competition gap and avoid brand erosion. Ideas that are so big they launch you ahead of your competitors or even create new market space can be disruptive to your competitors, you may even find yourself in a new category clear of competitors.

Out-innovate your competitors.

A way to ensure continuous innovation is to create a culture of innovation. With a clear brand purpose leading and inspiring your company, you can communicate how innovation is expected and suited to every role within your organization.

Inspire innovation by creating an environment that feels safe to express and share ideas. Provide assurance and support so people aren’t afraid of learning from failed attempts of seeking a better way. Understand that business as usual is no longer acceptable.

Brands are built from the inside out.