Speaking on the topic of “Look who’s engaged!”, Don will be sharing global trends & best practices from IMI International’s extensive experience in the field.  Specifically, Don will share tips and consumer-based insights on how to engage various consumers across different types of the media mix as well as share case studies and best practices on how to engage consumers at events both large and small.  The core of the presentation will focus on how to effectively engage consumers to drive positive ROI on all types of brand activations.

Don Mayo started with IMI International in 1985 and developed and implemented a ROI optimization system around the world. Don has been involved with the evaluation and optimization of marketing activations in 80 categories in 15 countries and has experience from the largest worldwide marketing campaigns and events to grassroots marketing in towns with fewer than 1,000 people. Don has personally assisted in IMI International compiling a proprietary database of close to 10,000 marketing activations relating to “optimizing the impact and ROI” of marketing programs.

As noted on the Engagement Marketing Conference website:

Build Your Brand Story Through Engagement

Creating an authentic relationship between brands & consumers

These days, simple consumer satisfaction is considered table stakes. Consumers not only want to be satisfied with the products they purchase, they expect more. They want to be heard and have input into the brands they consume. They want to feel good about sharing those products and experiences with their network.

What tools do you need to turn your consumers into advocates and write your brand’s story? Join us for a special day and find out!

Toronto, July 8, 2010 – With the Canadian economy making strides in recovery, it would stand to reason that there would be renewed optimism and activity in the business world. But results from the first-ever Marketing Confidence Index, measured in conjunction with the Gauge Report, an annual survey of marketing professionals, have revealed otherwise.

Overall, Canadian marketers measured 45 per cent, a level of confidence that is consistent with the general mood of Canadian marketers, as reflected in the Index. Only a modest percentage (40 per cent) increased their marketing budgets this year, even though 62 per cent said they felt that 2010 was a good year for companies to invest in marketing activity. Most marketers agree that the time is right to catch the upswing in the marketplace, but many are not following up those instincts with action.

“Knowledge drives confidence, and confidence, in turn, drives success,” says Brett Marchand, president and COO of Cossette. “Confident marketers capitalize on emerging trends, leverage metrics and aren’t afraid to adopt a decisive mindset that propels bold action.”

In this era of unprecedented technological advancement, instability in the marketplace and erratic consumer spending habits, the Gauge Report provides a forum for marketing decision makers to share ideas and benchmark industry activity to help foster innovation and steer informed decision making.

The profile of a highly confident marketer emerging from the Gauge Report confirms that confidence is a critical factor is results-oriented business decisions. Those marketers who were characterized as either very confident (9 per cent) or confident (23 per cent) are also decisive and prepared to take actionable steps that lead to success. One of those steps is increasing their marketing budgets, which 64 per cent of marketers indicated they were planning on doing this year, and 84 per cent indicated they had plans to do so in 2011.

“Confidence matters; and that’s why an index that measures it on an on-going basis is so important,” says Jules Diamond, president of IMI International. “The Gauge Marketing Confidence Index allows marketers to benchmark the confidence of their own organizations to help foster effective decision making.”

Lack of confidence, on the other hand, results in missed opportunities to engage with target consumers. For example, most companies understand that social and mobile media are effective ways to tap into a robust client base, but many aren’t clicking in. More than 59 per cent of confident marketers are more apt to incorporate digital media in their overall marketing plans, compared to 30 per cent of non-confident marketers.

Many marketers might instinctively know that now is a good time to invest but concerns over the economy, fragmentation in the media landscape, rapidly evolving technological trends and changing consumer spending behaviour can leave them confused and indecisive.

“If knowledge is power, Canadian marketers now have the resource they need to help them make definitive decisions in spite of uncertainties in the marketplace,” adds Marchand. “And we all know that confidence matters. Not just to the marketing industry, but the entire marketplace.

An initiative of Cossette and IMI International, the Gauge Report is an annual summary of research into areas of current interest to Canadian marketing and business executives. It provides insight to promote dialogue in the  marketing industry with the end goal of delivering programs with market appeal.

About Cossette
Cossette Inc. offers a full range of leading-edge communication services to clients of all sizes, including some of the most prestigious brands in the world. A customer-driven organization built around highly specialized business units, Cossette also offers Convergent Communications(TM), a unique working method that brings added value to the client by integrating various services offered by the Group, including strategic planning and research, advertising, media buying and channel planning, sales promotion, direct response, database and direct marketing, customer relationship management, interactive marketing and technology solutions, public relations, organizational communication and change management, sponsorship and alliance marketing, branding and design, ethnic marketing, business-to-business communications (B2B practices) and print and video production. Cossette has approximately 1,485 employees and offices in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, New York, Irvine, Los Angeles, London and Shanghai.

About IMI International
IMI International is a full-service marketing consultancy, leveraging consumer marketing research, to optimize all types of brand activations.  For 40 years, IMI International has served as a strategic partner to our Fortune 500 clients, developing best practice principles based on over 10,000 marketing evaluations.  IMI International is globally recognized for its work in the pre- and post-evaluation of consumer marketing efforts and has developed proprietary consumer research methodologies and success thresholds that serve to improve our clients’ return on marketing investment.  Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, IMI International also hosts offices in Phoenix, United States; Melbourne, Australia and London, United Kingdom.

Please contact Tim Bishop with any questions or comments and to receive a complimentary copy of the 2010 Gauge Report.   Phone 416-440-0310 ext 341 or 1-800-784-5757 ext 341 or email at tbishop@consultIMI.com.

Tim Bishop, Business Development, North America, will be speaking about social media measurement plus providing the latest insights and experience on how to measure ROI (and as a hint, it’s not about friends, fans or retweets…).

In recent years, social media has grown from a provocative set of online community chat rooms to a legitimate marketing communication vehicle that attracts millions of diverse users from around the world.  

What is a marketer to do:  Avoid social media until it becomes more proven since this all seems too “new” and “risky”?  Or jump into it without a good understanding of how it compares to other marketing tools? 

The safe bet is to understand its measurable impact.  IMI International has been studying social media from its inception using ROI measurement models to evaluate it compared to all other marketing tactics.

Tim will highlight how to measure impact and ROI, plus share consumer insights, best practices and global case studies so that social media can be considered as an effective tool within your sponsorship activation toolkit.

For a summary of Tim’s presentation, please click to visit IMI International’s Downloads page and look under “Conferences”.

For more information on social media ROI and measurement, please contact Tim Bishop at 416-440-0310 ext. 341 or email at tbishop@consultIMI.com.

The panel topic, “What Will Appeal to Tomorrow’s Shopper: Learn from Representatives Across All Sectors of the Shopper Marketing Industry” is sure to create an active discussion regarding the future of shopper marketing.  

It will be interesting to hear what the panelists have to say, given their varied experience and backgrounds in the experiential, consulting, snack food and research spaces. 

IMI International has extensive experience with shopper marketing and views shopper marketing as the management of the full path-to-purchase cycle.  When done correctly, shopper marketing is a compelling, integrated approach to meeting consumer wants and needs and instilling a sense of confidence from the moment a brand first starts interacting with consumers. 

To learn more about Shopper Marketing and how IMI International can help your brand or agency meet its goals, please contact Dan Hunter at 416-440-0310 ext. 233 or email at dhunter@consultIMI.com.

This two-day seminar was a must-attend course for managers involved in sponsorship marketing as part of their integrated marketing communications programs. Attendees were exposed to an expert team of leading Canadian sponsorship marketing practitioners.

Jo-Ann McArthur, President of fisheye, spearheaded the two-day session and Dan Hunter, Partner of IMI International, lead a measurement fundamentals seminar entitled “Defining Success:  Measuring Returns of Sponsorship Programs”.  

The course covered the latest sponsorship measurement best practices within an interactive group session including detailed coverage of what needs to be done before, during and after the program to measure ROSMO (Return on Sponsorship Marketing Objectives) and ROI.  Specifically, the main topics covered were:

• IMI International’s Sponsorship Valuation Process
• Delivering Engaged Target Consumers
• Optimizing Sponsorship Impact Via Activation
• Sponsorship Evaluation Methodologies
• IMI International Case Studies:  Event Metrics & Continuity
• Sample Scorecards:  Impact, ROSMO & ROI
• Summary – What To Do Tomorrow 

SMCC is a leader in providing education program for the Canadian sponsorship marketing industry. IMI International is a leading consulting and measurement expert on brand activation, with over 25 years of experience in sponsorship marketing.

Entitled, Maximize Your Sponsorship ROI in These Tough Economic Conditions, Dan’s presentation highlighted that in a tough economy, consumers don’t stop spending. They just spend differently.

Leveraging the latest 2009 research, Dan outlined how the economic slowdown has impacted consumers’ habits and their approach to the marketplace. Most importantly, he discussed how sponsors and properties can use that insight to leverage maximum value from their partnerships.

Now more than ever, it is imperative to give consumers a compelling reason to engage with brands and properties and the best way to do this, based on IMI International’s latest Consumer Economic Impact Study – Turbulent Times II, is to leverage sponsorships to Activate, Demonstrate and Engage consumers to focus on your brand’s inherent value proposition.

Speaking to one of the largest groups to recently assemble for the bi-monthly meetings, Dan led the session to showcase how Canadian consumers have changed in these turbulent times. 

Of note, Dan highlighted the changes in consumers’ receptiveness of brand activation tactics and of sponsorship & events in particular to show how marketers can still influence shoppers to open their hearts and wallets.  Consumers are not going out and spending as much as in the past, and this trend may impact sponsorship events into the near term future. 

Now more than ever, it is imperative to give consumers a compelling reason to engage with brands and properties and the best way to do this, based on IMI International’s latest Consumer Economic Impact Study – Turbulent Times II, is to leverage sponsorships to Activate, Demonstrate and Engage consumers to focus on your brand’s inherent value proposition.

To learn more insights from the presentation, please visit IMI International’s Downloads page.

Key topics of the September 14, 2009 session included understanding the impact of the global economy and the effects of these turbulent times on mobile consumer habits, the latest in mobile marketing trends including mobile apps and best practices for marketers using or considering mobile. 

Highlights from the presentation showed interesting insights for mobile marketers: 

• While a majority of Canadian (and global) consumers were delaying spending on non-essential items, mobile phone usage continues to grow with more and more consumers saying they would give up coffee, beer, chocolate, Facebook, television, fast food, and other frequent luxuries versus not having their cell phone for a week.
• When participating in mobile marketing campaigns, the key driver for consumers that brand marketers must keep in mind is the “what’s in it for me” factor.  Brand information (received via campaign opt-ins) including discount codes and coupons plus offers with prizing all deliver towards meeting consumer’s personal interests and are therefore more motivating than unsolicited brand messaging.
• Ensure that when developing mobile marketing campaigns, ensure that they are properly supported as part of your overall marketing mix.  Mobile marketing for the vast majority of brands will not be effective if it is the only method of consumer communication, rather it should be complementary and continue a branded experience.  However, brands can and should experiment with this new and exciting medium to find how it can best meet their business objectives. 
• Finally, it’s critical to remember that in our fast-paced, attention-depraved world, you’ve got to be better than Twitter… 140 characters is still way too many.  Get your message out there – succinctly. 

Tim Bishop, Business Development at IMI International, was featured in an online video blog by OneDegree.ca, which provides the “inside scoop on digital marketing and social media” in Canada and outlines the latest with mobile apps and mobile marketing in a larger media context.

IMI International has consumer-validated insights and case studies from around the mobile marketing world to help you optimize your marketing plans. 

Contact IMI International now to learn more.