SERVICES
Brand & marketing strategy
Brand identity design
Messaging
Collateral design & production
Website design & development
Social media management
Audience development & growth
Merchandise design & production
Event production
Creativity born from
constraints
In 2020, with theatre and venues unable to accommodate a large crowd, we pivoted the Festival from in-person experiences to fully virtual.
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We researched, tested and implemented a secure digital solution that provided the filmmakers the digital rights management, geoblocking and availability restrictions required by their distributors and provided a seamless digital experience for the audience.
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Interactive experiences were moved online with watch parties, live chats, filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, and awards presentations live-streamed to YouTube and Facebook.
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This enabled the festival to reach new audiences beyond Toronto, extending across Canada and the globe.
Results
The Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival came to a close after it's successful four-day event in September, held at the Revue Cinema in Toronto. New target milestones were reached in the subsequent years that included:
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Coverage in more than thirty mainstream and new media sources including: The Star, CBC Radio, TV5, every major motorcycle magazine in Canada, and various lifestyle magazines and blogs.
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Over 1M social media impressions generated for the Festival and its sponsors with an average 7% engagement rate, well above the industry average.
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A growing newsletter subscriber database with an average open rate of 40%.
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Sold out events that attracted audiences beyond the Festival key target geographic region, with many travelling into Toronto for the weekend event.
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Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival
CASE STUDY
Celebrating the shared stories of a passionate and deeply connected community
The Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival is a four-day event that combines a passion for motorcycles and storytelling and is dedicated to screening the newest and best motorcycle and motorcycle-culture films curated from around the world.
BRAND CHALLENGE
Develop and launch the inaugural Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival; the first and only film festival in Canada that celebrates the motorcycle and its passionate community. Leverage the event to create relationships between the audience and sponsoring brands.
WHAT WE DID
We strategically planned the development and execution of the Festival from branding to event operations. We developed all the physical and digital assets, website and marketing material, engaged in an extensive Social Media campaign, partnered with local motorcycle shops, dealers and manufacturers, and connected with members of the Toronto motorcycle community. We worked with brands to develop unique activations and managed all sponsor, filmmaker, venue, and customer relations to ensure a seamless experience. In the end, the Festival was launched and enthusiastically received by the Toronto audience.
Strategizing and Planning
Building and launching an event from ground zero required some serious strategy and planning. We researched and mapped out the entire journey from inception to venue selection, filmmaker, sponsor and audience engagement, marketing campaigns and ticket sales; all the way through to the logistics of operating the festival. The project plan that was developed was extensive and made execution straightforward.
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To gain insight and raise awareness, we connected with, and strategically engaged members of the Toronto and Canadian motorcycle industry, media and local communities.
Understanding the Audience
Although to an outsider, motorcyclists may seem rebellious, the motorcycle community prides itself on being inclusive, welcoming and highly passionate; excited to share with everyone their love for all things motorcycle-related. To understand how to reach and connect with them, we created unique customer profiles to represent the range of possible attendees. This painted a clear picture of their demographics, psychographics, needs and wants.
Building the Brand
Logo, website, over 300 unique pieces of digital content, a film sizzle reel and festival introduction videos, event posters, film guides, and merchandise were produced and actively marketed through the Festival's social media channels.
The website was built for both desktop and mobile platforms and starts with a landing page that contains a blog for up to date festival news. Users can also browse the Film Guide and click through to get detailed info on each film including stills and trailers, before going to the Ticket page.
For the Festival's social media channels, we developed thematic content for the platform's native feed and included Stories about the filmmakers, the award-winning films, a concise film guide and info about TMFF. Ad campaigns were developed and strategically placed to reach targeted audiences as part of the marketing and sales funnel.
Video content produced included a Festival sizzle reel, intro video, filmmaker and Judging Panel member interviews.
The Festival poster provided inspiration for the merchandise that we produced including t-shirts and pins. The t-shirts sold-out by the second day of the Festival.
Activating Brands
From a unique trade show space that was named one of Canada Moto Guide's "favourite booths", to a charged festival kick-off party, a media press junket, awards ceremony, filmmaker Q&A panel, motorcycles to touch and sit on, even the feel of the paper which the Film Guide was printed on, to the themed umbrellas that we handed to attendees waiting in the ticket queue when it rained, we took every opportunity to create memorable and engaging experiences for the Festival's attendees and the sponsor brands.
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To promote social sharing and amplify the event's reach, we installed hashtag printers that instantly printed social media posts with the event hashtag on 4x6 photos as branded keepsakes. This helped amplify the event far beyond those that were present by a factor of 100x.