Women Success

In today’s tough and highly competitive world of marketing, the Idea Connector Network (ICN) provides you with a unique corporate partnership opportunity to associate your brand with influencing the success of women through the ICN Women’s Sharing Circle (WSC).

The WSC is a collaborative online hub. It’s a place where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women may come together to de-bunk stereotypes, gain support from each other, and seek ideas and inspiration from other women and girls in the Circle.

Marketers’ Marketplace Battles – – Creating great content is hard, however thanks to our years of experience at Idea Connector (ICN) we know how to deliver quality editorial content that resonates with women. We have plenty of testimonials to enable us to modestly brag. We also have a good understanding of the challenges that marketers face in today’s fast-moving competitive market place. Topping the list is the need to create growth through new customer acquisition,followed by the added need to sustain growth by finding ways to increase customers’ loyalty.

Banner ads are rapidly losing their impact because of the trillion display ads being served each year to potential customers. Some reports indicate that in 2013 the average click-through rate for banner ads was a mere 0.1%. To add to the challenges,consumers increasinglyuse ad blocking applications and technology devices to check prices,find product/service recommendations from people they know, or to seek out consumer opinions posted online. Surveys indicate that women have become increasingly skeptical about products’ environmentally-friendly claims and have become more distrustful of marketers’ claims in general. We also note that Canadian consumers are rapidly becomingmore socially and environmentally conscious.

(ICN)The key to winning her purchase transaction is to ignite an intense connection between her emotional need and your brand.

Until recently the marketing process was simple – you needed to generate awareness through the provision of an ad, then a percentage of consumers would go through the various phases of the marketing funnel (awareness, consideration, preference, closing, loyalty). Today, although consumers still go through these same phases, they don’t go through them in a linear fashion. They bounce around.

The world is changing fast. Technology brings new challenges. The new economy is forcing people to adapt and for marketers to respond. However, women’s role as chief purchasing officer of the home hasn’t changed, nor have the fundamentals of female culture.

One of the toughest challenges marketers face in navigating today’s marketplace is to find new prospects they are not yet aware of andpeople who are actively looking to buy their product.

Introducing the Women’s Sharing Circle – –The WSC is a collaborative online hub which provides Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women with networking opportunities. Our aim is to enable all women to share experiences and ideas, to enhance their entrepreneurial skills, to learn about each other’s heritage and to exchange views on best practices that they’ve learned as employees, managers or business owners. It’s through interaction and peer support that many find opportunities and are inspired, gain insight to advance their careers, enhance their leadership skills, grow their business, and draw strength from each other.

Despite the many women’s successes that need to be celebrated, much remains to be done if all women are to have an opportunity to attain their rightful place as equal and productive members of society. Although many women in Canadian society are in need of peer support in order to self-actualize, perhaps there arenone moresothan Aboriginal women who require such support. At ICN, our primary focus remains the empowerment of Aboriginal womenas entrepreneurs. However, in the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation final report, our Women’s Circle is reaching out to women from all cultures.

Each woman in the Circle has a story. For some, it’s having survived lateral violence, later to become successful entrepreneurs. Others,with the support of their family, friends, and community have achieved success as First Nation chiefs, lawyers, caregivers, medical practitioners, designers, engineers, public servants, military officers, teachers, business owners, mothers and grandmothers.

Partnership Opportunity and Benefits – – We invite you to work with us as a Partner. We need your financial support to produce content. However, money alone is not sufficient.Success depends on Partners joining the discussion.

With you we will continue to focus on helping women self-actualize and bring them to discover and engage with your Brand through organized, experiential marketing activities in which they play a role.

By teaming your Brand with ICN to help encourage women’s entrepreneurial growth, we will:

Provide a Unique Partnership Platform – –Producing content in the form of events, video interviews, virtual workshops, e-magazines,and more to enable the sharing of peer experiences and knowledge, and promote these experiences through the use of social media and other means.

Lift your Brand above your Competition – –Providing the power to create brand enthusiasm and lifting your Brand above the shifting sands of product and functional comparison.

Create Brand Enthusiasm – –Engage in a personal way with Women’s Sharing Circle participants so that they may discover your Brand as one that contributes positively to their lives.

Empower your Employees to be Inspirational Brand Representatives- –Enable your female employeesto play an active role in virtual workshops on topics such as those aimed at women’s leadership, breaking barriers, etc. (A maximumof 120 minutes of your delegated team member’s time will be required per agreed-upon event).

Integrate your Brand into our Content- –Help participants experience your Brand and/or product. Provide a memorable and emotional connection between participants and your brandto help generate customer loyalty and influence purchasing decisions. We will customize an experiential event to suit your needs and include your downloadables (coupons, how-to’s, etc.).

Force Multiplier- –Connect your Brand though multiple points of entry.Engage your Brand with women participants multiple times each month and nurture your brand’s relationship with the audience over multiple months. Building trust over time creates brand enthusiasm that motivates women consumers to give your Brand permission to play a broader, more meaningful role in their lives.

Integrate your Brand in the Stories – –As an ICN partner you’ll benefit from having your ‘Brand’ integrated into our WSC programming. Womenin the audience will:

Gain insight toyour brand, your corporation, your people and your vision.

Learn how your brand helps improve women’s livesby contributing to their self-actualization;

Learn what your brand brings to the community that surroundsthese womenand what it doesfor the people who are important to your selected audience of women.

In short, ICN will strive to demonstrate to our audience of women how your brand simplifies and adds value to their lives.

Proposed Programming Content

Note: In late September, the ICN will re-launch its website with a new look and feel. The three existing knowledge areas will remain: Business Talk, Women’s Sharing Circle, and Building Futures. A fourth area will be added in late fall – Career Circle. Business Talk content (with some 300 videos) will be re-indexed into subcategories, such as Starting a Business, Human Resources, Marketing, Financing, etc.

The overall theme for the Women’s Sharing Circle is “Celebrating Women’s Success”. The revised WSC will be restructured as follows:

We will draw from the sample of topics above (subject to change) and from others to produce the needed content. Formats of delivery include:

• On-demand video interviews, where ICN hosts will explore challenges, opportunities and how-to with the help of subject experts. The raw footage will be post-produced and made available through ICN’s various channels.

• In other circumstances, the hosted production will be live, online videos where participants are invited to register in advance to join an event. These productions may take the form of panel discussions, workshops or brown bag luncheons. Online participants are invited to ask questions and share their thoughts using Chat.

• Some of the content will be delivered as articles or e-books using a mix of text and video/audio:

• o In some cases the audio will be extracted from a video clip and post-produced as an MP 3 for distribution as a podcast.
• o We encourage our Partners to select some of their team members to join the dialogue as subject experts.

Typical Editorial calendar

Typically we will work with a Partner for six months or more to reach set goals. For each partnership we will assemble an editorial calendar containing a mix of content, publishing media, and an appropriate promotional plan to reach the set objectives.

For startup–ICN will produce a landing page uniquely dedicated to a Partner’s brand and with a link to your website. We will also produce three short video interviews to introduce your company, your people and your vision. A fourth video interview will be produced to introduce your brand and its personality: i.e. socially responsible, reduced environmental footprint, community contribution; characteristics like: sincere (domestic, honest, genuine, cheerful), exciting (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date), competent (reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient), sophisticated (glamorous, pretentious, charming, romantic), rugged (tough, strong, outdoorsy, rugged). A total of four (4) short videos demonstrating your corporation’s story will be produced.

Monthly Publishing- –We will produce a monthly calendar in cycles of four tofive weeks. In addition, ICN will produce two video interviews,ten online event videos (workshop/brown bag lunches), and one article. In a five-week month an extra video interview will be produced. The intent is to publish fresh objectseveryweek.

Quarterly –We’ll produce a quarterly product-specific video discussion. The aim is to demonstrate how your Brand’s solution can be adapted toadd value to or simplifyaudience members’ lives.

In summary, a typical package distributed over six months will include:

• Four short videos telling aspects of your corporation’s story
• Two product-specific videos
• Fourteen topical video interviews
• Six event videos
• Six event videos

Distribution of Content

Content will be published on the Idea Connector Network (www.IdeaConnector.net), and its affiliated channels on social media, and on organization sites in partnership with ICN.
Whenwe produce and deliver live events we will also distribute on our Twitter account using Periscope live streaming.
Three months after publishing on ICN, the video content will be repurposed and published on You Tube, expanding the life cycle and reach of every piece of content produced.

Promotion and Media

• We’ll provide maximum exposure to your Brand by making use ofa combination of natural embeds and other means in video interviews, panel discussions, online workshops, radio segments, texts, newsletters, social media promotions (Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Google + Twitter), Periscope, press releases, etc., as detailed in a mutually-agreed upon partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

• We’ll publish and promote new content each week, giving your brand consistent exposure for the duration of the relationship-building partnership.

• ICN also publishes an e-magazine entitled Aboriginal Women Economic Quarterly.

Steps to Partnership

• The first step is for the proposed partner to provide ICN with a letter of intent, in which an overview of needs, goals and objectives should be defined.

• ICN then works with the client to fine-tune the definition of the project, production outline, calendar of deliverables, revised engagement and nurturing processes time-table, budget, etc.

• A Memorandum of Understanding is then prepared by ICN and signed by both parties.

Valuation

Before each project ICN will define (together with its new partner) which metrics are deemed to have the most impact for monitoring the project and adjusting our tactics “on-the-fly” as needed. Metrics should be used to influence business growth and revenue generation.

Sharing Risks

ICN principals have been delivering multi-media solutions since 2002. Our experience provides us the confidence to provide very cost-efficient solutions and offer a business model built on production and performance. Thirty percent of a project budget is tied to performance. For production you will receive linksto all programming produced and rights to all content specific to your Brand(i.e., your corporate story).

Background on ICN

Launched in 2011, the Idea Connector Network (ICN) is a social enterprise dedicated to enhancing Aboriginal people’s entrepreneurial capacity. We have produced hundreds of video interviews and online panel discussions in addition to numerous texts. We have also produced a number of forward looking exercises to help shift the thinking from “what if” to “how might we develop it while protecting what we value”.,Thanks to the use of Foresight methods, participants explore divergent futures of what might be; that is, new and different realities and opportunities in the next twenty years. As an example, we have explored the role of Aboriginal women in developing and managing natural resources. In March 2015 welaunched an e-magazine, Aboriginal Women’s Economic Quarterly, which is focused on celebrating women’s successes.

Contact
Thank you for your consideration

Contact:Guy Dancause

Idea Connector Network
Tel.: 613.686.1190 ext. 101.
guy.dancause@ideaconnector.net