VIFF Attendees Get the Sundance Treatment

Meetingmax Systems to provide housing reservation technology for film festival

Vancouver, BC; September 16, 2010 – While organizers of the Vancouver International Film Festival have countless details to worry about, this year they won’t be worrying about hotel reservations. As a festival sponsor, Vancouver-based Meetingmax Systems will be providing its online housing reservation technology to manage room bookings for visiting filmmakers, VIPs and guests. This follows the successful use of the online platform at last year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

“We were looking for a way to make sure that housing arrangements for our guests would run seamlessly and were impressed with the results that Meetingmax produced at Sundance,” said Betty Verkuil, Director of Development, VIFF. “Having the support of local companies for our festival is critical for our success. We’re pleased to have technology developed by a Vancouver business play a key role in the festival’s logistics.”

With eight hotels providing rooms for the festival, VIFF organizers wanted to simplify the process of reserving rooms for VIPs and guests. Instead of having to use each hotel’s system, organizers can manage all hotel bookings through one central portal.

While Meetingmax is based in Vancouver, the organization primarily works with convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), meeting planners, and organizations in the United States. This will mark one of the first times that the system will be used in Vancouver by local hotels and event planners.

“Our partnership with VIFF will allow potential clients to explore the customizable features of our online booking platform,” says Jeff Duncan, COO, Meetingmax Systems. “In turn, our system will streamline the housing reservations process for festival organizers, which can otherwise be an unnecessarily time-consuming element of event management.”

Duncan developed Meetingmax’s online housing reservation platform after years of organizing events and conferences. Given the time required to manage rooms at various hotels for events, he began looking for an existing software solution that could streamline the process. After an unsuccessful search, he spearheaded the development of Meetingmax’s own software in 2007.

Since then, the company has seen steady growth. The software is now used by CVBs in more than 20 destinations across North America. In 2009, Meetingmax was responsible for processing more than $7 million in hotel transactions.

“Our CVB clients have responded with positive feedback on their experiences with the Meetingmax system,” continues Duncan. “We are hearing that conference planners are now asking for the service from CVBs before making a final decision on which city gets their conference business.”

Nimby Burger Opens in Vancouver

In addition to all the buzz about Nimby Burger in town, Canada's foodservice industry has also been paying attention. Check out this morning's feature on Foodserviceworld.com.

Canadian Direct Insurance makes some Noise

June 22, 2010

By Eve Lazarus

Canadian Direct Insurance has appointed Noise as its agency of record. Noise has worked as the Vancouver-based company's digital agency for the past six years, while Publicis Vancouver most recently handled creative.

Trisha Tyrrell, senior manager, business development, said Noise will handle all creative including television, print and radio, as well as develop marketing strategies to increase brand awareness.

"After working with multiple agencies for the past few years, we wanted to find one strategic partner to handle all of our needs," she said. "With the way lines have blurred between traditional and digital advertising, we needed an agency capable of executing any kind of integrated campaign across any platform."

Trevor Carr, president and CEO at Vancouver-based Noise, said he's seeing more digital agencies in the U.S. leading marketing strategy and believes that trend will continue here in Canada. "We've always viewed ourselves as an agency first," he said. "We think everything is digital and it doesn't make a difference if it's television, radio or print. These days everything needs to be through a digital lens."

Canadian Direct names Noise as AOY

Media In Canada

News Briefs
by Katie Bailey

Canadian Direct Insurance has named Vancouver and Toronto-based digital agency Noise as its full-service agency of record.

The move, announced yesterday, brings all of Canadian Direct's marketing initiatives together under one provider. Noise will now handle traditional and digital campaign strategies, as well as media buying and planning.

The companies have been working together for six years on digital strategies, and in the past two years, the lines between traditional and digital media campaigns were blurring, so it made sense to go with a single agency for both, Trisha Tyrrell, senior manager, business development, Canadian Direct, tells MiC.

"They've been involved with our traditional campaigns for the past couple years and since they've been involved, I've found that their creative ideas and way of thinking were taking the lead," she explains. "[Going forward] I wasn't interested in working with two different agencies and I felt that Noise could do the job on both sides."

Canadian Direct's digital strategies have been almost too successful in recent years, Tyrrell says. When the insurer started driving people to its website to book their auto insurance online, it quickly consumed 60% of their business, she explains, which was too much for the company to handle. They've since dialed back their marketing creative drive-to-web and that part of the business now sits at a more-manageable 30%, she says.

Online tactics will continue to be a priority for Canadian Direct's media planning, a release on the announcement stated, but TV, print and radio will remain in the mix. The company declined to comment on its average media spend.

Canadian Direct Insurance Appoints Digital Agency as Lead

Noise hired as advertising AOR for insurance company

Vancouver, BC; June 14, 2010 – Canadian Direct Insurance announced today that it has named Noise as its advertising agency of record. Noise has been working as Canadian Direct’s digital agency for the past six years and has now been tasked with providing full service to Canadian Direct.

The bold move comes as agencies and clients around the world are trying to determine whether marketing efforts should be led by traditional or digital agencies. In this era that Forrester has dubbed the Adaptive Marketing Era, significant confusion has arisen for marketers as to the roles of different agencies.

“After working with multiple agencies for the past few years, we wanted to find one strategic partner to handle all of our needs,” says Trisha Tyrrell, Senior Manager, Business Development, Canadian Direct. “Ultimately with the way that lines have blurred between traditional and digital advertising, we needed an agency capable of executing any kind of integrated campaign across any platform.”

Canadian Direct’s goals for Noise are to develop strategic marketing initiatives and increase brand awareness. While online tactics are a priority, the agency will be responsible for all creative execution including TV, print and radio.

The announcement is notable as it is rare to see digital agencies offered the opportunity to lead. According to Sean Corcoran, a Senior Analyst with Forrester “most interactive marketers don't trust their traditional agencies with digital work and yet most don't believe their interactive agencies are ready to lead yet either.”

One of Noise’s strengths is its mix of in-house talent. The agency’s creative team is lead by co-creative directors Brock Ellis and Michael Milardo. Ellis’ background lies in digital, while Milardo’s experience was gained at tier one advertising agencies such as Rethink, TBWA, BBDO Berlin, and Ogilvy Copenhagen.

“I have a great deal of comfort with Noise’s ability to deliver offline work,” continues Tyrrell. “Given their team and their track record with us, I am confident that they will deliver. In six years of working with them, they have never failed me.”

“This opportunity proves what we have been preaching for years: ultimately all work is digital,” says Trevor Carr, President and CEO, Noise. “Our clients are now giving us more opportunities to lead their entire account. It is a vote of confidence in the model that we have created and the teams that we have built in Vancouver and Toronto.”

Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards - Okanagan Chapter

The Okanagan's new GoGo magazine also covered the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards.

Click here for the full article.

The Socialist: Vancouver Parties & People

by: Sheryl Kristie Yen

BC Business Magazine has posted their shots from the Official Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards Afterparty at the Joey Bentall One Wine Room.

Here are a few, but you can check out the rest here.

Noise puts fun into Tic Tac Revolution

Hollie Shaw, Financial Post

Noise Digital has launched the Tic Tac Small Fun Revolution for Ferrero Canada, a new digital brand campaign aimed at engaging 18-to-29-year-olds through sharing videos and creating and uploading creations that feature Tic Tacs or Tic Tac boxes. "A 'small fun revolution' is a way of seeing the world," says Trevor Carr, president and chief executive of Noise Digital. "Fun is everywhere -- you just need to look for it. The campaign provides the platform to share some fun with each other." It involves the site www.tictacsmallfun.ca,a branded YouTube channel, a Facebook fan page, Twitter, display advertising, two iPhone applications and social media. Noise also conducted a cross-country search to find artists to become Tic Tac Ambassadors, resulting in a video of a musician performing with Tic Tacs and their cases and a stop-motion film of two Tic Tac cases playing tennis.

Van mag honours best of best

24hrs Vancouver picked up the results of Tuesday's Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards.