HIGH ROAD TEAMS UP WITH AMEX TO LAUNCH MENTORSHIP PROGRAM WITH NOTABLE CANADIANS: CRAIG AND MARC KIELBURGER, EMIILY HAINES AND LES STROUD

What do you get when you combine one crazy cool space, three amazing ideas dreamed up by average Canadians and some awesome, inspirational mentors? An incredibly successful Room For Thought program by American Express Canada that brings BIG ideas to life!

Kicking off in August, Room For Thought asked Canadians the question: “If you had the opportunity and support to bring a big idea to life, what would you do?” High Road then worked hand-in-hand with Amex to see Room For Thought through four phases: launch, voting, mentorship and experiential.

First, Canadians were invited to submit their big ideas in the arenas of community, music, and travel and adventure. After receiving an outstanding 840 submissions via the American Express Canada Facebook Page, nine finalists were chosen by some pretty impressive, big-name Canadians who would serve as the program’s mentors: Craig and Marc Kielburger, Les Stroud and Emily Haines.

When online voting closed in September, the three winners left standing – one in each category – went above and beyond to wow Amex, High Road, the mentors and the broader Canadian public with these great ideas:

• Music: Ghost – Toronto’s Andrew Huang created an installation that allows the public to interact with music through technology and a variety of instruments.
• Community: Survivor Garden – Thornhill’s Lisa Shanker grew the idea of a Survivor Garden to be used as a form of therapy for people recovering from serious illness.
• Travel and Adventure: Second Chance Travel – Vaughan’s Evan Malach worked to give youth who’ve overcome hardships the chance to travel the world with Second Chance Travel.

Next came the hard work, as the winning Canadians teamed up with their mentors to get their ideas off the ground. By drawing on their own experiences in their respective fields, the mentors supported each finalist every step of the way by offering guidance and advice in areas such as finance, marketing and networking.

The result was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that the Room For Thought winners will not soon forget:

Meet the Mentors:

• Craig and Marc Kielburger: The brothers behind Free the Children, the world’s largest network of children helping children through education, were the incredible mentors in the community category of the program. Craig and Marc provided their mentee, Lisa Shanker, with a great deal of experience, as well as some engaging, first-hand opportunities, such as the chance to experience We Day Vancouver.
• Les Stroud: Best known as Survivorman, Les is the only producer in the history of television to internationally broadcast a series entirely written, videotaped and hosted alone. His strong creative experience paired with his survival knowledge made him the ideal mentor in the travel and adventure category. He was able to offer his mentee, Evan, strong guidance and tips on how to make his idea really flourish.
• Emily Haines: As the lead singer of Canadian indie-rock band Metric, one of Canada’s most successful bands, taking home several Juno Awards last year, Emily’s passion for music is clear in all she touches. That passion, coupled with her desire to explore and educate new sounds and styles, really made her mentorship in the music category with mentee Andrew an ideal fit.

Then, during the final phase taking place over a two-week period in early November, the winning entries were showcased in a stunning visual display in downtown Toronto at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Thousands of people passed through the Room For Thought doors between Nov. 8 and 22 to experience the ideas for themselves, where an interactive “room” was on display to represent each bright idea.

High Road is proud of the success shared with Amex during the Room For Thought program. And the best part? You can still check out the video highlights of the campaign, along with snapshots from the winners and their celebrity mentors, on the American Express Canada Facebook Page.

This week was an exciting one for High Road Communications and our client American Express Canada as our Front Of The Line Fridays Facebook application was accepted as a contender to the Facebook Studio Awards!

The Facebook Studio Awards look to recognize campaigns that combine all aspects of Facebook from application build, through to the use of Facebook premium ads. Campaigns will be judged on their ability to integrate the social, marketing, media integration and scale capabilities of Facebook across their program.

So how does High Road fit in? Amex wanted to introduce and highlight the Front Of The Line program to their Facebook community so High Road created a Surprise and Delight program for their existing Cardmembers and incentive program for non-Cardmembers called Front Of The Line Fridays. Each week, Facebook users had the chance to win complimentary tickets to some of the hottest concerts and theatre productions across cities in Canada including Sting, War Horse and Jay-Z & Kanye West.

Check out and “like” High Road and Amex’s Front Of The Line Fridays submission to the Facebook Studio awards!

Salacious titles aside, I’ve been wondering lately what people’s predilections are for digesting digital content. Apart from the easy assumptions that people prefer content like video, photos and infographics – how does size (or content length, more specifically) affect people’s perceptions?

If I come across a link to a blog post in my Twitter stream, am I more predisposed to shorter, easily digestible content because I accessed it from Twitter (a short and succinct communications medium)? Am I more inclined to photo and video content on Facebook vs. longer form notes?

Well according to an informal study done by AT&T on their Facebook page, it seems like character count has a direct correlation to fan engagement.

Their study showed that posts exceeding 218 characters were largely ignored, with significant engagement beginning at around 152 characters. A little more obvious was the fact that less engagement with a post meant fewer impressions through the Newsfeed, and generally less spread.

Basically – people don’t like to read and they’re far less inclined to Like or Share longer content on Facebook.

Are people knowingly making these distinctions on Facebook? Are these traits common across all social channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)?

Either way it shows that being part of the discussion is only one step in a larger strategy, and as marketers we need to understand that what we’re posting is just as important.