Tim Tams on Canada AM

This morning Canada AM's Jeff Hutcheson learned how to do the Tim Tam Slam. He is heading to Australia for the Best Job in the World contest announcement and there were some essential travel skills that he needed to know before taking off. Thanks to Tourism Australia for working with us to make this happen.

Slam tip #1: as soon as you taste the coffee through the biscuit your have to flip it around and slam it.

Park Royal Tackles Plastic

Based on the findings of a trash analysis conducted by Metro Vancouver, Park Royal Shopping Centre is announcing a plan to tackle its plastic waste. The program, which officially launches on Earth Day (April 22), includes the elimination of 'bad' plastic bags (marked HDPE and LDPE) and the addition of a soft plastics recycling program throughout the Shopping Centre.

The trash inventory was conducted in autumn of 2008 and identified the three leading categories of waste in Park Royal’s garbage: organics, paper and plastic. Upon examining the plastic waste, Metro Vancouver estimated that 278 tonnes of plastic per year could be recycled rather than being sent to the landfill.

“When we saw the numbers, it reaffirmed for us that it was time to take action,” says Cindy Papa, Director of Marketing & Sustainability for the Centre. “We’re beginning by tackling plastics, and we’re looking forward to significantly reducing what we are sending to the landfill.”

Vancouver Magazine Announces Winners of 20th Annual Restaurant Awards

Vancouver, BC; April 15, 2009 – Stars of the B.C. restaurant industry gathered yesterday at the Sheraton Wall Centre for the 20th Annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards. The audience of more than 800 included the city’s top chefs, sommeliers and food critics. The event was capped by Cioppino’s/Enoteca winning the event’s top honor, Restaurant of the Year.

“There were some surprises this year,” said Vancouver magazine editor-in-chief Gary Stephen Ross, “which shows that the culinary scene is vital and ever-changing. Even in tough economic times, rooms that get it right quickly become popular with the dining public—and draw the attention of our 19 judges.”

To mark the 20th anniversary of this event, special recognition was given to those who have made a lasting impression on the industry. For his role in making Vancouver a leading culinary destination, the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Hidekazu Tojo - owner of the legendary Tojo’s. In addition to being given this honour, Tojo’s also won Best Formal Japanese for the 18th consecutive year. Other honourees included Fuel’s Robert Belcham who was awarded Chef of the Year and Robert Clark of C who was given the Green Award.

Other highlights included La Quercia winning Best New Restaurant and Best Casual Italian after its first year in business. Industry legends, Vikram Vij of Vij’s and Michel Jacob of Le Crocodile also won in their respective categories. Vij’s has won Best Indian since the category was created 13 years ago and Le Crocodile has also been a consistent winner having won Best Formal French eight times.

Several categories saw some surprises. For best dining in Whistler, Bearfoot Bistro won the top honour beating nine time winner Araxi. Cru was given the Gold Award in the Best Small Plates category, while five time winner Bin 941/942 took Silver.

For a full list of winners, go to www.vanmag.com/restaurants/Awards

Park Royal Shopping Centre Donates $500,000 to Development of North Shore Spirit Trail

Park Royal Shopping Centre has announced that it is making a $500,000 donation to the North Shore Spirit Trail, a waterfront network of paths and walkways that will connect communities from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. The donation marks the first major commitment from a private company to the West Vancouver portion of the Spirit Trail.

"With this donation, the Spirit Trail is off on the right foot," says West Vancouver Mayor, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones. "Park Royal's leadership in sustainability is an asset to the community.

The donation will be earmarked for the construction of a three meter-wide pedestrian structure to be added to the lower road bridge that crosses the Capilano River. The existing bridge connects Bridge Road and Taylor Way on the south side of Park Royal. The funds will also provide for the expansion of the sidewalk on the south side of the Shopping Centre, making the path wider and more accessible. When complete, residents and visitors will be able to hike, run or bike along the 35-kilometre Spirit Trail from one end of the North Shore to the other.

Spring Begins With a Boink

Vancouver, BC; March 19, 2009 – Spring Advertising + Design is celebrating the first day of the season with its second annual Boink Day, a pogo-a-thon to raise funds for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. From 7am – 7pm on Friday, March 20 on the Georgia Street Side of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the advertising firm and its clients will donate ten cents to the Food Bank for every pogo bounce performed by a member of the public.

“With Boink Day we’re trying to give the first day of Spring its due.” says Rob Schlyecher

Partner and Creative Director of Spring Advertising + Design. “We’re going outside and getting on pogo sticks to celebrate the end of a long cold wet winter and raise money for the Food Bank.”

In addition to raising funds through boinking, the public can also make a cash or non-perishable food donation. For every $1 donated, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank can purchase $3 of nutritious fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs.

Last year, out of the $3,000 cash raised, the Food Bank was able to purchase $9,000 worth of food. This year, Spring aims to break that total, while pogo-ers will aim to beat last year’s record of 2,500 consecutive boinks.

Visit Boink Day on Facebook.

Noise Expands to Toronto

Vancouver, BC; March 3, 2009 – Vancouver-based digital advertising agency Noise Digital announced today its expansion to Toronto. The agency is bucking current economic trends by adding resources to service its growing client base.

“Our business is expanding exponentially,” says Trevor Carr, President & CEO, Noise Digital. “We are seeing a fundamental change in the agency model. Our clients are tasking us, not just with digital execution, but with overall campaign strategy. And to meet these growing needs we are delighted to now have a fixed presence in Ontario.”

The company has hired Peter Pinfold as VP Client Services to open Noise Toronto. Pinfold was a former Noise client at Unilever and worked with the agency on the award-winning Degree Fashionista Challenge, which was awarded Best in Show at the 2006 W³ Awards.

In the newly created role of VP Client Services, Pinfold will be responsible for business development and account direction. While Noise’s creative resources will still be housed in Vancouver, Pinfold will work closely with key accounts including adidas and Sony PlayStation.

“Peter was the natural choice to be our anchor in Toronto,” adds Carr. “He brings more than ten years of marketing and sales experience on both the client and agency sides.”

Pinfold has worked on a portfolio of CPG brands and has won numerous national and international awards for media innovation and brand activation, including Best of Show at the 2006 and 2007 Promo Awards. While at Unilever, Peter and the extended Dove team were recognized by Strategy Magazine as marketers of the year in 2004. In 2005, Peter led the much talked about Degree Poker Championship and the lauded Dove documentary, Beauty Quest.

“Digital brand experiences are increasingly becoming an indispensable part of the marketing mix. A shared brand building philosophy and a passion for innovation is what first attracted me to Noise, ” says Pinfold. “This is a great opportunity to take my experience and help build engaging programs for our clients as well as contribute to the depth of marketing know-how at Noise”.

Noise Zombifies Online Dating

Vancouver, BC; February 17, 2009 – For those who haven’t been able to find love the traditional way, Noise Digital has created Zombie Singles. The zombie-themed online dating site was designed to promote Resident Evil: Degeneration, the recently released title for Nokia’s mobile gaming platform, N-Gage.

Through Zombie Singles users can interact by creating a pseudo-dating profile in hopes of finding their zombie match. They can also collect friends, or “fiends”, and rate other pictures based on their “Bore or Gore” factor. The site leverages the The Zombifier, a custom flash application that allows users to “zombify” themselves, transforming an ordinary picture into a zombie-style avatar with wounds, incisions, blood spots, and more.

The site incorporates facets of standard social media and dating sites with specialized interactive elements for zombie fans. For example, Zombie Singles users can ‘bite’ other zombies if they want more attention. Throughout the site, users are exposed to promotions and ads for the latest Resident Evil/N-Gage title and can opt-in to the N-Gage Community.

“Resident Evil is already a highly successful media franchise. Our goal was to harness users’ interest in the franchise, capture their attention, and build an online community,” says Mark Nishiguchi, Managing Partner, Noise Digital. “To make our marketing efforts more engaging, we used Easter eggs to link to N-Gage and Resident Evil contests and promotions around the site. Users either answer trivia questions or hunt around the site for clues in order to win prizes.”

Site users are automatically entered to win a trip for two to Japan, exclusive passes to the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, a meeting with Resident Evil game designers from Capcom Japan, and two Nokia N96 devices. The contest will be judged by N-Gage and Capcom officials and the winner will be chosen based on their “Bore or Gore” rating, the quality of their photo, and the number of fiends that they accumulate.

“We had to overcome a number of challenges with this campaign, including the fact that we had no media support,” continues Nishiguchi. “As a result, we leveraged a compelling contest prize and are drawing traffic from other sources such as Resident Evil, zombie, and horror fan forum communities. We are also tying into existing social media such as Facebook, Digg, and Delicious to allow users to download and share their profile pictures.”