Prior to its November 2008 launch, Sun Life’s corporate online presence was dated, did not tell a compelling story and did not reflect its market position as a strong, international financial services company. It also lacked the social media tools crucial to the way the next generation of customers do business.

High Road communications was mandated to dramatically improve the Sun Life web experience and strengthen its online presence. High Road developed a multi-part strategy for the site’s overhaul, including an extensive competitive review and audit to identify best practices in the financial services industry and broad stakeholder consultations with the Customer Solutions Department, External Communications, Human Resources and the company’s senior marketing executives in North America, Asia and Europe.

The resulting strategic plan was built around five objectives: 1) Establish Sun Life Financial as a strong international company, 2) Make it easy to do business with Sun Life online, 3) Market Sun Life Financial, 4) Build its brand and reputation and 5) Enable a seamless, one-company experience.

In November 2008, Sun Life launched a new www.sunlife.com global website, a pivotal first step in revolutionizing Sun Life’s online presence. Its modern design, innovative functionality and robust content has put Sun Life at the forefront as an industry leader in online communications.

LG’s products had been long‐considered the epitome of sophistication and style, so it was only fitting to have the brand extend its association even deeper into the fashion industry with the announcement of LG’s title sponsorship of Toronto Fashion Week in 2009. With the goals of highlighting LG upcoming sponsorship role, the company’s unique fusion of technology and style, and demonstrating the company’s commitment to the fashion community in the year to come, LG hosted the Fashion Fusion Gala at the end of Toronto’s Fashion Week in September 2008.

Located in a reconfigured Fashion Week tent in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, over 1,000 industry icons, designers and consumers alike mixed and matched while experiencing a fête of fashion. High Road worked with agency partners to stage a full fashion show with designers Agent Provocateur, Greta Constantine, Wayne Clark, Shan and a handful of International design students treating the audience to the full runway experience. Additionally, High Road managed the launch of a new fashion phone series, which was integrated into a Carlie Wong fashion show.

Entertainment was provided by Grammy Award‐winning and International musical talent, Maroon 5, who rocked the runway with their soulful sounds. High Road worked with a variety of agencies and different vendors to coordinate all the logistics of the tent, entertainment, fashion show and catering.

To open up access to the public, LG projected the party on a huge screen outside the tent in Nathan Phillips Square. And when LG conducted an open casting call for aspiring models to strut their stuff on the runway and win access into a variety of fashionable events, High Road did public relations as well as online editorial outreach and social media relations to spread the word..

The Fashion Fusion Gala secured coverage from top‐tier publications, news broadcasts and online sites. The program, which continued with LG Fashion week in March 2009, October 2009 and October 2010, continues to drive home the message that LG is a brand focused on high‐tech and fashionable design.

Learn more at: www.lgfashionweek.ca

For the three years, High Road supported the Canadian Securities Administrators’ effort to teach youth about the importance of saving and investing through the Financial Fitness Challenge.

The bilingual www.financialfitnesschallenge.ca serves as the contest hub, delivering personalized content to youth, teachers and parents, through interactive Flash-based games, a quiz, and downloadable school and at-home financial resources. The 2009 campaign saw  High Road reaching audiences in new ways – from Facebook networking and advertising to media relations to email marketing campaigns and online editorial outreach to parents and homeschool teachers.

The strategy in 2009 was driven in large part by the success of the 2008 Facebook group, and the desire to further tailor the program’s outreach to appeal to the youth audience, and more importantly, their channels of influence. To accomplish this, the teacher’s resource centre was given more prominence and was altered to engage parents and homeschoolers. We  then launched an extensive outreach campaign, which enabled the CSA and High Road to develop personal relationships with the Canadian mommy and homeschooling blogger community.

The use of Facebook proved to be a very successful tactic again in 2009. Four targeted, paid Facebook Ads, generated click-throughs to the site and the newly developed English and French Facebook fan pages. By adding fan pages, High Road could customize the content to reflect the design and interaction already existing on the website. Each week, the CSA would post new questions for fans relating to money and financing. When the contest closed, the two Facebook pages generated several discussion posts offering advice to others and personalized stories about budgeting, saving and investing.

Beyond Facebook, email campaigns have proven very successful over the past three years. In 2009, High Road reached out to over 50,000 youth via email, resulting in over 9,000 click-throughs to the English and French sites. Once on the site, over 13,700 Canadian youth took the quiz and completed a survey which revealed some of their thoughts on the program and finances.