FLUXe – Scotiabank’s 100' x 30’ immersive art experience at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. Concept, technology and installation created by Capital C.

After 6 years of being the title sponsor of Nuit Blanche, Scotiabank is committed to artistically contributing to the event like never before this year. Scotiabank challenged their agency, Capital C, to come up with an innovative and interactive art project that would allow patrons to unleash their own inner artist.

Using on-site Blackberry^® Playbook^™ Tablets or their own 3G touch screen devices patrons can create their own works of art with one of nine digital paintbrushes created by internationally celebrated artists. Their unique artistic vision then lights up the city on one of the most massive digital screens even seen in Canada – 100 ft. wide by 30 ft. tall. Users can also share their masterpieces online in the FLUXe Facebook gallery.

“Scotiabank is such a wonderful sponsor of the arts in Canada and this piece really embodies their ‘You’re Richer Than You Think’ platform,” says Tony Chapman, CEO of Capital C. “Fluxe is the type of work we live and love to do as it’s not only breakthrough, but also engages the consumer.”

For every new “Like” at facebook.com/scotiabanknuitblanchefluxe, Scotiabank will donate $1 (to a maximum of $15,000) to Arts for Children and Youth. This organization offers young people accessible arts educational programs that are meaningful, relevant and collaboratively developed with community and education partners.

Capitalist societies have always chased the Holy Grail of faster, better and more efficient: faster at identifying opportunities; better at the quality and speed of response; and more efficient at reducing costs that add no value.

No country adapted better to the model than the United States. Building upon a brawny work ethic and nationalistic pride, the baby boomers’ desire for wealth and power, spurred by the tech advances that were a by-product of the arms and space races, resulted in unprecedented productivity, propelling per capita wealth and leading to superpower status.
Like a lion’s hungry cub, Canada fed from the seemingly inexhaustible American trough, establishing an economic alliance that was the envy of the world. Our favoured-nation status, coupled with a rich supply of natural resources and a manufacturing advantage facilitated by a steadily depreciating exchange rate, kept our social programs afloat. It was easy to maintain two cars in just about every driveway. We felt rich.

But the harsh reality is that we were satiating our appetite in a dangerously unproductive way. In a January 2010 Globe and Mail article, economic guru Kevin Lynch provided a statistical evaluation of that reality. As Lynch observed, the quarter-century after the Second World War was particularly prosperous for Canada, with an average annual growth rate of 4%. Growth throughout the next quarter-century (1973 to 2000) was a significantly weaker 1.8%. And since the millennium, growth has averaged a tepid 0.8%. Back in the early ’80s, when our growth rate began sputtering, Canada’s productivity rate (measuring hourly output per worker) was about 90% of the U.S. rate. By 2007 it had dropped to 75%, and Canada ranked an embarrassing 17th in productivity among OECD nations.

Now our southern neighbour is at a tipping point, its roar reduced to a desperate whimper. The U.S. still has room on its balance sheet to increase its debt ceiling. But basic math tells the true story. America’s increased obligations to an aging population, multiplied by Americans’ declining propensity to generate and spend wealth, further amplified by the need to raise taxes, will leave our longtime benefactor bloodied and beaten. Factor in our strengthening commodity-driven dollar and it points to significantly decreased demand for our goods and services.
So, how can Canada continue to fund our infrastructure and social programs for an aging population? We could sit atop our non-renewable natural resources and hope for increasing commodity prices to carry us or we could use our intellectual capital to become productive, seize global opportunities and assume our rightful place as a new pack leader.

We must make innovation our lifeblood and unleash an array of invented, ideated, created and commercialized-in-Canada products, services and models that the world covets. We must create a sustainable new economy.

But how do we fund it? Thinking as a capital C Capitalist, here’s my left-wing suggestion. The model already exists, thanks to the federal government and Canada’s cable and satellite distributors creating the Canada Media Fund. This year the CMF funded over $350 million in Canadian programming and leading-edge digital content and software.
What I propose is a similar model, one where we use our old economy to fuel our new economy. We tax every barrel of oil, every pound of potash, every yard of lumber, every non-renewable resource to fund a renewable economy. We invest intelligently, and without bureaucracy, every dollar into meaningful life sciences, mobile apps, gaming, social media and marketing platforms, sustainable farming, energy and fishing opportunities.

Each of these platforms is rich in global opportunity for Canadians to build upon. Each deserves its own collaborative labs built across our country, where the private sector, creative community and academia come together to envision and invent – with the working capital to commercialize, keep and build these businesses in Canada. Think of a series of Silicon Valleys on steroids with a magnetic force capable of attracting and developing the best minds from Canada and around the world, who come here inspired by our entrepreneurial spirit, global ambitions and everything that living in Canada has to offer – culture, values, resources and beauty.

I can only imagine the backlash from the resource sector and the current government. But these are our resources. Let’s turn non-renewable to renewable, unproductive to productive and imported to created and made in Canada.

Let’s grow from a lion cub to the lion king.

Tony Chapman is the founder and CEO of Toronto-based agency Capital C.

Tony Chapman is founder and chief executive of Toronto ad agency Capital C, in which ad entrepreneur Miles Nadal bought a majority stake in December. Founded in 1992, Capital C has a client list that includes PepsiCo, Nissan, Unilever, McCain Foods and Toshiba, and recently struck a deal with MDC and film production company Temple Street Productions Inc. to develop branded entertainment programming. Mr. Chapman got to know Temple Street executives when he was a judge on Recipes to Riches, a reality cooking show on which contestants compete for a chance at $250,000 and to have their recipe turned into a dish for sale under the Loblaw Cos.’ President’s Choice brand. It premieres on the Food Network in October. Mr. Chapman spoke recently with the Financial Post’s Hollie Shaw.

Q How do you define good advertising?

A Head, heart and hand: It is easy to understand, it is exciting and engaging, and, from a hands point of view, it is easy to act upon. That means it is not making me work too hard as a consumer or a viewer – I understand what the call to action is. I understand it, I feel it and it is easy for me to buy it. There [is advertising] that I see that is creative and clever, but I do not know what it is asking me to do or it is not leading me anywhere…. That’s not great creative to me.

Q Do you have a favourite ad campaign?

A I like what Apple was doing as contrarian point to IBM. In Canada, I loved the Mark Messier “Bet you just can’t eat just one” Frito Lay campaign from a few years ago. He had such a great personality and it really brought out the aspects of the potato chip – that it was a superior chip and it was so delicious you could not east just one. And you can’t help but be a fan of Dove when they did “Evolution,” which was a great viral piece.

Q Capital C was widely recognized initially for being a “digital agency.” How has it evolved over time, and why?

A We were originally an engagement agency trying to interrupt the shopper at the point of sale. Our initial roots were very much in the promotional space. What we realized as an agency was that for us to really deliver value to our client we had to demonstrate that we understood the consumer’s path to purchase. The more we could connect the dots in a very seamless fashion, the more value-added we could bring to the client and more working dollars would make it into the marketplace. That’s part of why we did this TV deal: It’s another example of how you can dot all of the i’s and ensure the closest path between the viewer or consumer and your brand.

Q Do you see a lot of agencies changing in that way?

A We are seeing in general a real margin compression in the marketplace. Clients are finding it difficult to pass on price increases to the consumer, yet there is a lot of inflation in the supply chain: inflation in commodities, inflation in the fuel to ship the products, and in the retailers that are demanding more money to access their shelves. Clients say “if I can manage fewer agencies that can work in a highly collaborative fashion, I can reward them for growing my market share.” It makes it a much more efficient model for delivering return on investment.

Q How did the deal with Temple Street come about?

A When I did the show I was fascinated by the number of people who were on set, how the show made money and how Loblaw got involved. The partners asked if I would ever think of doing a joint venture – they really know how to produce great TV – and I said, “Why aren’t we doing more to drive viewers to that TV show by using social media and PR?” But more importantly, after the show has aired, why aren’t we doing more to drive the viewers into stores, so that the overall value of the asset [increases]? This venture is [unlike] the Coca-Cola cup in front of Simon on American Idol. Most families have a recipe, and this really positions Loblaw as a hero.

Q Beyond the rise in branded entertainment, what other advertising trends do you see on the horizon?

A Intelligence – I think we are going to move to a model of researching to employ the same intelligencegathering techniques for winning a marketplace as the military uses for winning a territory. [It gives clients] the ability to have real-time intelligence on how the consumer thinks, feels and behaves. We just did a study for Bissell comparing them to their five competitors. It looked at social media currency, sentiment, how many people talk about them, where people research vacuum cleaning, and it was a eureka moment for them. Intelligence helps [clients] invest money because their ideas and tactics are validated along the way. A shopper in Walmart, for example, needs a very different message for my client than a shopper in Loblaws. We have the intelligence now that demonstrates that [for gauging strategy] – it tells you whether social media makes sense, whether mobile makes sense, whether retail makes sense or a combination of it. Without intelligence, you go back to that old adage “I know half of my advertising is working, I just don’t know what half.”

hshaw@nationalpost.com

Tony Chapman, founder and CEO of Capital C, tells MiC the idea for the partnership came from his involvement as a judge on Temple Street’s production of Recipe to Riches, a show premiering this fall with sponsorship and product integration from Loblaw’s President’s Choice line of products.

“The model will always be powered by the reach of television, but instead of having it as an isolated island that you pay to have advertising on, marketers will be able to weave their brands within the content and the retail environment so it is a fully integrated 360 marketing model,” he says.

The majority of production work will be US-based, because it needs to happen where the head offices of brands are, says Chapman.

No word yet on potential campaigns that will work with the partners – Chapman says more will be known after some important meetings in the next few weeks.

Temple Street Productions also produces shows including CBC’s Being Erica and the upcoming Cover Me Canada.

With files from Realscreen editor Barry Walsh.

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