Media Relations Campaigns for Deloitte and Cadbury Branded Products Deemed Among Best in Toronto
TORONTO, 18 April 2011―The Toronto Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) today announced that Broad Reach Communications has won two prestigious IABC Toronto OVATION Awards for exceptional media relations campaigns: “Creating Eminence for Deloitte by Leveraging the 2010 Canadian Federal Budget” (Award of Excellence) and “Home for the Holidays with Cadbury® branded Home Entertainment Products” (Award of Merit).
IABC/Toronto’s prestigious OVATION Awards program recognizes communications excellence throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Broad Reach competed against 218 submissions of which 82 were selected to receive awards in 16 categories. Winners will be recognized at an awards gala to be held on May 25, 2011 at the Liberty Grand in Toronto.
“We are thrilled to have both our corporate and consumer media relations campaigns singled out as being among the best in Toronto,” says Andrea Lekushoff, President, Broad Reach Communications. “These awards recognize our agency’s relentless passion to deliver outstanding work and exceptional results. They also celebrate the abilities of our team―seasoned practitioners who are fully committed to maintaining our track record of success on behalf of many of the world’s most powerful brands.”
Creating Eminence for Deloitte by Leveraging the 2010 Canadian Federal Budget
In February and March 2010, Broad Reach Communications developed and implemented an English-language media relations campaign to help Deloitte leverage the 2010 Canadian Federal Budget and to compliment its French-language media relations activities in Quebec. The overarching goal of this campaign was to create more eminence for Deloitte’s Canadian tax practice leaders among target audiences across the country by leveraging national and regional mainstream media coverage to position Deloitte as the leading professional services firm for budget-related tax policy analysis.
The launch of this media relations campaign helped position Deloitte as the “go to” Canadian firm for compelling, insightful and meaningful tax analysis for the Canadian Federal Budget. It also reinforced Deloitte’s eminence in the marketplace and enabled Deloitte to act as a year-round government policy influencer and a visionary for tax issues in Canada. In just three short weeks, and amidst a very competitive media relations landscape, an unprecedented volume and quality of media coverage was generated for this campaign, resulting in 66.6 million audience impressions in 193 on-message stories across the country that featured Deloitte and its spokespeople both prominently and positively.
Home for the Holidays with Cadbury branded Home Entertainment Products
In 2009, Broad Reach Communications was hired by U.K.-based Giles & Posner to build awareness, create buzz and drive sales in Canada via a national media relations campaign for a range of new, Cadbury® branded, home entertainment products, including Cadbury® Chocolate Fountain, Cadbury® Hot Chocolate Drink Maker, and the Cadbury® Caramilk® Fondue set, among others. Campaign objectives included generating mainstream media coverage―highlighting the products as “the solution” for holiday entertaining, as well as ensuring inclusion in new product features, holiday gift guides and holiday entertaining stories with the ultimate goal of driving sales.
Broad Reach sourced a “chocolate ambassador” to act as campaign spokesperson, and leveraging the brand equity of Cadbury in Canada, developed a variety of creative and highly targeted communications materials to capture media attention. Aggressive media relations coupled with a robust variety of story angles helped the team achieve over 26.5 million impressions across 73 stories and most importantly, resulted in increased and sustained sales of the product, far exceeding the client’s expectations.
“The media coverage Broad Reach Communications generated was nothing short of outstanding and literally drove customers into stores,” explained Hitesh Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Giles and Posner. “It also played a key role in helping us secure prime retail space, generate repeat orders with retailers such as Wal-Mart, and secure the interest of new retailers including Metro and Shoppers Drug Mart. This far exceeded our expectations.”
About IABC/Toronto
With more than 1,700 members, IABC/Toronto is the largest IABC chapter in the world. The organization provides these members with multidisciplinary resources and a global network of more than 15,000 communicators, in 80 countries, working in diverse industries and disciplines to identify, share and apply the world’s most effective communications practices. For more information please visit http://toronto.iabc.com/.
