integrated marketer alan serpa

bio

Alan Serpa is a successful integrated marketer who operates below the line while being able to come above the line depending on the challenge. He has a well rounded background in marketing which includes, experiential marketing, digital media and technology, creative and art direction, event production and design, and mass media. Alan has been in executive and senior level management roles in the past and leads with humility, curiosity and compassion for others. Over the years he has worked in non-for-profit management, agency and client side relationship building and service. Alan has sold, lead and driven the creation and development of projects for Yamaha Canada Music, ALS Ontario, Loblaws, Hyundai, Chanel, Scotiabank, United Way, United Church of Canada, Bombardier, Mango, Pfizer, IEEE Roche, and various above the line type ad agencies such as Bensimon Byrne Inc., TBWA/Chiat/Day, Smith Roberts, BBDO and Leo Burnett just to name a few.

Alan was born and raised in Toronto, has lived in Portugal and New York, worked in over 30 different cities on various integrated marketing programs, and focuses his efforts selling his experience to small to large size brands, non-for-profit agencies, and advertising firms who need below the line results.

creatorbuilderdriverimplementerbelow the line

past and present clients

philosophy

be on brand compelling offeralways measureflawless execution

Marketing should not just be one tool. It is about being authentic, genuine and remembering the basics of when it comes to customer service and your audience. It is about an integrated approach to delivering a message about your brand that will make it come alive and turn those we touch into brand ambassadors.

It is creating an experience that is personally relevant to your target audience and arouses their emotions. It is creating the opportunity for an audience to interact with the brand online or in person, thereby bringing the brand proposition to life.

It is supporting this experience with a strategically correct brand-sell message to ensure that your marketing has residual value and positions the brand for long-term growth. It is developing and a compelling consumer message and visual to ensure that the short-term objective of trial and continuity of purchase.

case studies - integrated

Background

Some days you win and some days you lose. The Striking Truth documentary is based on the juxtaposing careers of charismatic and humble current Welterweight Campion of UFC Georges St-Pierre and the dynamic MMA fighter David "The Crow" Loiseau’s over the past four years. Director and MMA trainer Steven J. Wong explains that the two fighters never asked him to turn off the camera. “If they were having a bad day at training or troubles outside of gym in their personal lives, I was there, cameras on and nothing scripted. This is when I realised this was going to be more than just a film about MMA and fighting.”

The Event

Georges St. Pierre, David Loiseau, Joe “Showdown” Ferraro, from Rogers SportsNet MMA Connected, Steven J. Wong and thousands of UFC fans attended a ram packed Sony Centre for Performing Arts venue on February 25, 2011 for the world premiere of this amazing film and the rest is history.

The Striking Truth Film Premiere and launch

The ChallengeSteven J. Wong enlisted Alan Serpa with the challenge of producing the film premiere event and the marketing, PR and promotion of the film launch on February 25, 2011.

The IdeaWe used an integrated approach to the film launch and leveraged key media sponsorships and integrated a tightly woven digital media marketing plan which included banner campaigns, invites and incentives to bloggers and the online MMA community in order to build the hype and excitement for the upcoming film premiere.

How It WorkedAlan secured key sponsorships with Rogers SportsNet, Inside Fitness, MMACanada.com, Bodybuilding.com.

We enlisted a dedicated social media community manager who reached out to the top MMA bloggers, invited them to the event, gave them incentives and got them talking about the launch. We secured online banner advertising across all media and sponsor partners and shared links and content.

We deployed a street team who attended the UFC Rogers Centre Fan and Press day for the upcoming UFC 129 fight promotion where we passed out post cards and got into the Q&A period.

We partnered with over 50 MMA affiliated gyms and martial art schools and invited them to the premiere event. We also conducted pre-premiere press screenings and had over 20 media agencies at the event for post-premiere interviews.

The Results

Over 2000 people attended the film premiere on Feb 25, 2011.

Over 1000 people attended the after-party at 99 Sudbury on Feb 25, 2011.

We had over 20 media agencies attend the premiere and more than 30 articles written about the film premiere. Coverage ranged from ESPN to CTV, blogTO, The Canadian Press, and more.

On Facebook we went from 0 fans to over 1000 in less than 3 weeks, we grew our twitter following to 400 from zero and had over 10,000 re-tweets during the premiere.

We established relationships with key fitness and MMA gyms and their members which totals over 50,000 students and practitioners.

Some press clippings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC7IlyvAlNM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gNMhNb9o96BHiZIPHYmqziFnPPdQ?docId=6084642

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20110222/striking-truth-film-110222/

The project was a resounding success, Steven J. Wong met his objectives and we delivered on all our goals and strategies.

yamaha canada music

BackgroundYamaha is one of the world’s largest most recognizable brands, however its guitar line has had moments of greatness but years of obscurity. Yamaha Guitars Roadshow and their new custom shop line of handcrafted guitars are changing the way people think about their electric guitars and how people think about Yamaha Guitars period. Our goal was to help Yamaha leverage social media marketing to help promote the new guitar line launch in November 2010 in Canada and change the way people think about the product.

How it worked Alan Serpa created the social media marketing strategy and deployed the campaign utilizing Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to create a cross-platform social media engagement with a wide audience and included: 1) A contest driven by Facebook to drive people to the event launch 2) Facebook tab creation promoting the Contest, Twitter, with all content tied back and forth between all social media channels3) Engagement with music and gear bloggers4) Connection to professional artists and their social networks5) Increased views on Youtube by over 500%

The ResultsThe launch event was a resounding success. We over exceeded the clients crowd expectations, Yamaha Canada Music for the first time was truly connected social with all its social media channels and we create a fan base and following Yamaha Canada Music hasn’t seen online to date.

We leveraged creative assets developed by Chris at Yamaha with his internal team and repurposed and created new promotional material for the social media channels and promotions.

Welcome page on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/YamahaGuitarsCanada

A Facebook account was designed and coded by our development team, optimized and drove the contest and hosted the database, featured a twitter feed, and showcased video.

Alan also consulted on creative elements for specific tabs and welcome page. We grew the fan base by over 300% in less than a few weeks.

http://twitter.com/yamaha_guitars

A twitter account was established to promote the event launch but also create engagement about the event, artists, and products.

Branding was kept consistent across all social media channels.

Twitter account started with 0 followers, in less than a week we had over 400 followers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Yamahamusicguitars

A youtube account was established to promote the various videos of the artists who were performing at the event launch and also to promote videos of the event following the launch.

Branding was kept consistent across all social media channels.

The existing youtube videos had low views, when we were done promoting them the viewership grew by over 600% in many of the videos.

Alan created a Facebook driven contest where guests could enter and Yamaha also offered a $100 rebate pass guests could download off our Facebook page.

Contestand $100rebate

wondercafe.ca

wondercafe.ca

Alan Serpa was approached by Smith Roberts Creative Communications to develop and bring to life a concept they created called Paint Your Faith. The initial idea created by Malcolm Roberts of Smith Roberts Creative Communication; was to host a small local event and have an artist potentially paint a mural on a wall donated by the Metropolitan Church, in their large parking lot adjacent to an historical building.

My concept turned the initial idea into an opportunity to use social media, internationally acclaimed street artists, video interviews/blogging and a physical art production into an event to attract a mass audience and get attention for the United Church of Canada both online and offline.

BackgroundWondercafe.ca is an online web portal for all things spiritual and was an initiative created by Smith Roberts Creative Communications and the United Church of Canada. It needed to increase awareness of its site and also celebrate 5 years online, so we took the initial concept and decided it needed to be more than just a mural.

The ResultThe outcomes of this project surpassed the original objectives from the agency and client. We produced to major successful live art events in Toronto and Vancouver which raised the profile of the client on a grass roots and mass awareness level, an online community was created through blogging, video content and two way conversations with a younger audience the client rarely had access to, and the earned media outperformed any past traditional advertising the client had done in the past during the executions of each campaign.

Acclaimed street artists for the Toronto and Vancouver live art events

Paint Your Faith Toronto aerosol artists: Siloette, Chor Boogie, Mediah, Elicser

Paint Your Faith Vancouver aerosol artists: Faith47, Titi Freak, Indigo, and Peeta

www.paintyourfaith.com online community

• 109,252 total page views as of April 23rd (tracking since April 1st, 2010)

• Over 400 unique blog comments within campaign timing

• Since launch, a 693% growth in members following the @paintyourfaith Twitter account

• The Paint Your Faith YouTube video experienced a 462% unique views increase). Less than one month in promotion.

• We have been featured in over 40 different blogs since launch.

Social media marketing results

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paint+your+faith&search_type=&aq=f

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114986124228&ref=ts

http://twitter.com/PaintYourFaith

Visit paintyourfaith.comor the links below for more

case studies - digital content

skyy vodka canada

BackgroundSKYY Vodka has been an official sponsor of the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010, their advertising agency Smith Roberts Creative Communication came up with an idea called fadetoblue.ca a micro-site to help SKYY engage their TIFF audience online, and not just at the swanky events and film previews. SKYY and Smith Roberts Creative Communication wanted to use social media marketing to help increase audience awareness during TIFF and create a more meaningful online engagement .

How it worked Alan and his team created the social media marketing strategy and deployment for the campaign which included leveraging Facebook, Twitter and the fadetoblue.ca microsite to create a cross-pollination of audience engagement which included: 1) A contest driven by Twitter for daily prize give-aways during the campaign2) Facebook tab creation promoting the Contest, Twitter, Micro-site with all content tied back and forth between all social media channels3) Optimization of the fadetoblue.ca web site for social media engagement4) Leveraging Tribute.ca and NKPR for all relevant content to promote SMM5) Kept SKYY Vodka marketing visuals and promotion material on brand

The ResultsA baseline was created for SKYY Vodka by Smith Roberts and Alan Serpa in order to measure the success of this campaign. As a results of the combined efforts, sales were up 25% during the campaign in 2010, compared to the campaign from 2009.

http://www.fadetoblue.ca/

Micro-site was created by Tribute.ca with their existing WordPress based backend. Smith Roberts Creative came up with the look and feel and Alan consulted on the site flow, social media optimization and specific tools required to successfully run all the social media and online engagement. A great example of a cross-collaborative successful effort.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SKYY-Vodka-Canada/142179252469059?ref=ts

A Facebook account was created and programmed by Alan and his team, optimized and customized to link to the micro-site and twitter.

Alan also consulted on creative elements for specific tabs and welcome page.

http://twitter.com/SKYYVIP

Twitter was used as the main contest driver. Audiences were asked to tweet in a celebrity spotting or best brag of the night to win exclusive access to events, gift bags and other mystery prizes. The twitter feed was featured on Facebook and also on the micro-site. fire in the zoo designed and developed the twitter strategy and engagement.

microsoft canada

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/

BackgroundFor over seven years Microsoft Home Magazine has continually evolved in look and content, and its online content, campaigns, simplified families across Canada and the USA . The goal was to provide an online audience of females aged 24 to 54 who have busy life styles, blogger mom’s, soccer and hockey mom’s and their partners and kids with how to make their computer work the way they wanted it to.

How it workedFor over a year Alan Serpa, who was the managing director at Common Inc, Microsofts certified marketing vendor, was assigned the task of managing and producing online content, user generated content, video webisodes, online contests and give aways. He worked with top Microsoft internal and external vendors to manage the day to day operations of the Microsoft Home Magazine and transformed it into one of Microsoft’s largest and most successful blogs. The content development required professional writers, editors, technical specialists, creative writers, producers and technical directors to produce thousands of articles and hundreds of videos.

The ResultThe web site was the most successful portal for Microsoft worldwide. It had over 70,000 thousand monthly subscribers, followers and throughout Microsoft, its product managers used the content and metrics as a bench mark for engaging customers and building retail relationships with its partners.

Online SweepstakesContests and sweepstakes were created every business quarter or when a new product was being launched or used to generate trial and/or purchase.

The contests would be between one to two months in duration and would also be used as measuring and metric tools to test, get feedback and try various marketing tactics. The contests were quite successful and met their business objectives and goals.

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/sweepstakes/2009/zune/

Video ContentAlan Serpa and the Common Inc. team of creative vagabonds created and produced 15 and 30 sec creative videos over a two year period.

The videos we created would feature creative content and ideas that were interesting, engaging and got the target audience to use Microsoft products in ways they didn’t think possible.

The videos were educational, fun, sometimes serious most times creative and informative. The video’s were used across other Microsoft areas such as Windows Help and product features.

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/communications-and-mobility/videos/

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/

als ontario

- ALS Ontario entered their idea Paralyzing Poverty for the opportunity to have a chance at winning $100-500K

- ALS Ontario was in approximately 18th place and about to face elimination from the next round of the contest

- With less than 10 days left in the contest, we optimized their social media channels and we took ALS Ontario from 750 votes to over 5800 and qualified for the semi-finals

Multi-channel social media optimisation and contest promo

- ALS Ontario had some opportunities to improve its Facebook presence and approach

- ALS Ontario was using their group page which limits the amount of promotion

- We re-established their fan page, customized an AVIVA tab

- We are currently amalgamating the multiple Facebook pages ALS Ontario

- ALS Ontario now has its own vanity url: www.facebook.com/alsontario

- ALS Ontario Facebook fan page is ready to use as its base for future promotion

New Facebook page and custom tabs

- ALS Ontario Twitter had a low following and was following too many people

- Twitter branding was not consistent so we optimized it across all channels

- The AVIVA messaging and branding was added to the twitter background

- We increased ALS Ontario following and improved the multichannel communication with other social media tools like Facebook and youtube

- ALS now has a stronger base on Twitter

Twitter optimization and re-branding

- ALS Ontario youtube channel was optimized and was now on brand

- The video for Brian Dyck was altered and included the AVIVA branding for the contest

- ALS Ontario video views increased dramatically during our promotion

- ALS Ontario youtube page is now ready for future promotions

YouTube optimization and re-branding

case studies - experiential

scotiabank

SCENE.ca Rewards Card Launch

BackgroundScotiabank and Cineplex joined forces to create SCENE, an entertainment reward program. The program, targeted at 14-24 year olds, was designed to up-sell SCENE members to bank at Scotiabank.

How It WorkedBrand ambassadors were deployed at key events that matched the SCENE demographic, where they engaged the crowd and got people interested in signing up for the SCENE program. Events ranged from a Finger Eleven concert in Edmonton and Toronto, to the PNE in Vancouver and Mosport to name just a few.

Results Results for SCENE are well in excess of objective.

The IdeaUsing brand ambassadors to promote the SCENE.ca program and entice new members, kick off the launch of the card and execute a series of over 100 activations at key events across the country.

19

hyundai

BackgroundFrom 2006 to 2007, Hyundai had been experiencing a slump in sales of its Tiburon sports car. Although a truly beautifully designed sport GT coupe and a potential leader in its category, the vehicle didn’t have ‘street credo’ with audiences between the age of 18-30. Hyundai needed to get their message out, create impact, and - most importantly - build sales.

The IdeaUsing an authentic live marketing approach, we created the “Shark Attack”. The program featured three Tiburon sports cars - one kitted out with a powerful sound system and performance upgrades – alongside an ensemble of young and enthusiastic brand ambassadors, a team of break dancers, and the open road.

TiburonShark Attack

How It WorkedOver six weekends in the summer of 2007, the “Shark Attack” team appeared spontaneously at various locations or events in 3 major markets - Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The events ranged from back alley Graffiti/Hip Hop throw-downs to Festivals in major parks to beach destinations to arbitrary high traffic areas in the heart of the city.

Once the team arrived at their location, the Tiburon’s sound system would be booming and out would come the break-dancers to get the party started. As the team talked up the vehicle, hats were given out to those who sat in the vehicle, tattoos were applied to people in the crowd, and post cards were given out about the car and its features.

TiburonShark Attack

The Results

Hyundai’s sales increased in line with program objectives. Additionally, website and show room traffic increased.

Over the course of 6 weeks in 51 locations in 3 different markets, we touched 41,600 people, gave out 5600 hats, 30,000 post cards and applied 6,000 tattoos.

Neve r be fo re had Hyunda i execu t i ves experienced this type of impact using live media, and as a result they are now true believers of the live marketing approach.

TiburonShark Attack

loblaws

Background/ObjectivesLoblaws was in the process of creating a new banner called “great food.” We were asked to assist in this process along with re-launching two major flagship stores in Collingwood and Etobicoke.

The objectives were to establish the relevance of “fresh” in consumers minds and move product behind the “fresh” positioning.

The IdeaWe created an in store experience that elevated sampling to a new level with catered food samples, staff trained specifically about the details of the food they were sampling and visually impacting temporary fixtures.

Additionally, we had live music in store to help elevate and differentiate the shopping experience from competitive grocery stores.

Results

The Loblaws “great food” launch was successful because we:

•Talked to thousands of shoppers

•Exceeded product sale targets by 20%

•Established the relevance and meaningfulness of “fresh” with Loblaws customers

On-site research confirmed this:

•82% of consumers surveyed said there was nothing more that could be done to improve their shopping experience

•Almost 70% of regulars said they are likely to shop at Loblaws more often, citing their positive sampling experience as the reason

•Almost 75% of non-regulars said they were likely to to shop at Loblaws more often, again, citing their positive sampling experience

Thanks :)

I specialize in exciting ideas.

alan@serpa.catwitter.com/alanserpalinkedin.com/in/alanserpaskype: alan.serpa4164514915