Steve Mast

Steve Mast currently holds the position of Vice President, Managing Director at Delvinia Interactive, a Toronto, Canada based digital agency. Steve’s commitment to superior service and strategic thinking has been pivotal in creating Delvinia’s list of distinguished clientele, and he continues to be the key contact for Delvinia’s major accounts. His keen eye for creative, user experience design, interactive marketing and innovative thinking stem from a uniquely diverse background. Steve was educated as an architect and started his career as a Producer, developing video games and three-dimensional animation. He went on to direct and produce TV spots, music videos, corporate videos, cd/dvd’s and special effects for full length feature films.

Immediately prior to joining Delvinia in 2000, Steve spent 7 years at Microforum Inc. in various roles, including Director of Operations for the Creative & Interactive Services group. He became a leader in converging technologies, marketing and media as he managed the production and client service groups in Interactive, Broadcast Video, and Print Production. During this time he worked on clients in Canada, the US and internationally, including Ford, Canon, Sharp and DKNY. At Delvinia, Steve uses his experience and entrepreneur approach to lead initiatives with many of North Americas largest organizations, including RBC Royal Bank, Manulife Financial, TD Canadian Trust, Dynamic Mutual Funds, Capital G Financial Services, Pfizer Canada, Canadian Blood Services, Foster Parents Plan, to name a few.

Steve continues to give back to the marketing and non-profit communities by actively participating on councils, committees and speaking at various industry and non-industry events. Currently he is a member of the Association of Internet Marketing and Sales (AIMS), the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) and the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), where he sits on the Integrated Marketing and Customer Experience Council. Steve is also a judge for the CMA Awards and the Canadian New Media Awards.

The House that Toronto FC Fans Built

If you live in the Toronto area you may have heard the roar coming from BMO field. That would be the roar from 15,000+ brand advocates and influencers. Recently I attended the ‘Live Case Study: How Marketing Made the Toronto Football Club the Talk of the Town’ hosted by the CMA’s Integrated Marketing & Customer Experience Council. Full disclosure-- I am the vice-chair of the council and I was NOT a big soccer fan, sorry I mean football… until now!! The event was held at BMO field (hence the concept of a ‘Live Case Study’) and the presenter was Paul Beirne, Director of Business Operations for the Toronto FC. His presentation focused on how the club engages their fans to sell out season tickets. After this event, I am looking for seasons tickets … anyone have a pair?

Paul, in his relaxed ‘story telling’ approach, outlined their brand attributes, positioning, strategy, objectives, communication planning and yes … their marketing tactics. This was very informative. However, one of the most interesting points Paul made during his presentation was around the importance of timing and the role it played in their success so far. Paul even stated that he does not think they would have had the same level of success 10 or 15 years ago. Why? Paul touched briefly on the research they conducted before the launch and pointed out that market demand was high. People yearned for a professional soccer team in Toronto and Canada. Toss in Toronto’s cultural diversity, an increase in youth participating in local soccer programs and finally my personal favourite, online and digital communications coming of age. From my perspective it was like the perfect storm for any marketer.

Paul pointed out in his presentation that aside from timing, there were a number of other ‘keys to successes’ at work here:
- Transparency (our club and our fans are one and the same)
- Happy mistakes (things you could not plan for)
- Connect with die-hard fans (grassroots tactics like pub crawls)
- Listen (engage the fans in the process)

Mixed into these ‘keys to successes’ was a growing movement of fans online. Even before BMO field was finished construction fans were becoming self organized via online communities like Flickr, Facebook and personal blogs. Meeting with each other online and spreading the brand long before the team ever hit the field. The club embraced and supported these brand advocates by making them part of the process and by linking to their community sites. Which by doing this, connected these communities together. Paul said the club also made a strategic decision early on to only communicate to ticket holders via electronic communications (e.g.: email, website, etc…). Not just for the cost savings … but, for the speed in which the club could ask for feedback and quickly adapt or turn around changes to their program.

And the results from the 2007 season? 15 sold out games, 95% season seat renewal, 16,000 season seat holders, and a waiting list of 7,000+. Not to mention other Major League Soccer clubs are meeting with the Toronto FC to possibly adapt some of their strategies. Also, 2008 appears to be off to a great start. Their season opening game in Columbus saw 2,400+ Toronto FC fans make their way to Columbus via bus. And most recently they defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 and Real Salt Lake 1-0.

Although Toronto FC had timing and market demand on their side, the club is a shining example of embracing their customers (fans) from day one in a dialogue. They followed up by building brand loyalty through listening, quickly reacting and supporting them. Yankee stadium’s nick name is ‘The House that Ruth Built’ … would argue that BMO field is ‘The House that FC Fans Built’.

Guiding principles for user-generated content

Some of the biggest names in the Internet and media business have been busy creating principles around user-generated content (UGC).

In a recent press release, “Several of the world’s leading Internet and media companies today announced their joint support for a set of collaborative principles that enable the continued growth and development of user-generated content online and respect the intellectual property of content owners. The principles serve as a comprehensive set of guidelines to help user-generated content (UGC) services and content creators work together towards their collective goal of bringing more content to more consumers through legitimate channels. The principles acknowledge a collective respect for protecting copyrights and recognize that filtering technologies must be effective and are only a part of what is necessary to achieve this goal.”

This initiative includes some of the largest organizations in media for example, Disney, MySpace, CBS, Microsoft and Fox to name a few. However, there are some very big names missing, like Google’s YouTube and Facebook. Not to mention the hundreds of blogs and small USG communities popping up every day. Also, what about the end user? Did they forget to invite the end user to the table to discuss a topic that is well, about them!?

Principles and guidelines are great and we do need to protect our content creators and IP owners. But to be honest, I just don’t see how this is really going to stop copyrighted content from being mashed-up and uploaded somewhere on the web.

Look out Facebook here comes the next Ning

Recently my colleagues have been all a buzz around creating their own social networking sites. Why? Because they want more flexibility and the ability to brand their very own network. Or so they tell me. An example that allows you to brand your own network is Ning. Which is an online platform that allows you to quickly create your own community in just a few minutes. Ning provides a full list of social networking features. The experience is very similar to setting up a Blog on Blogger.

The site was co-created by Marc Andreeson (Netscape browser fame) who helped kick start the venture. Currently Ning features over 5,000 social networks ranging from a handful of people to thousands. There are communities built around everything from Dancing with the Stars to car lovers to active communities around reviewing of products and services. Ning is not the only ‘do it yourself’ social networking platform. CrowdVine is another online service. A quick Google search and you will find a number of options.

If you have been considering building or testing online communities with your customers these platforms (most of which are free) might be a great way to get started. Lately I have seen a number of not-for-profits using these platforms as an extension to their existing website. A word of caution and this goes without saying, when selecting a platform make sure the company behind venture has a track record and is financially stable. Nothing worse than building a great community and the platform it’s hosted on disappears!

Get inspired

You know what I love about today’s new marketing environment? It’s that I have a chance to meet and work side-by-side with incredibly inspiring people. How can you not be inspired by it all? Its dynamic, fresh and is changing the way we do business forever. However, I will admit, that at times its all a little overwhelming. Its hard not to just get caught up in the ‘everyday’. This new marketing world of global collaboration fused with digital and traditional media forces us to think more creatively then ever before. Sometimes we need a little inspiration to get us back in the grove.

So ... I thought I would share a few things that I do to “get inspired”. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas as well!

1. Read biographies. Crazy as it sounds, some of my best ideas are inspired by something someone did back in the 16th century!

2. Spend time with kids. My two little ones always amaze me. Not just because I am their Dad, but they are so innovative and imaginative.

3. Podcasts. My life is so busy that I have very little time to read my favourite blogs or industry rags/newsletters. Podcasts allow me to listen to inspiring interviews, creative thinking and new ideas. The great thing is I can listen to them while I'm working out, driving the car ... in fact, as I am writing this post I am listening to David Pogue latest review of new technology for The New York Times.

4. Get away. Travel when you can. You may have heard this before, “The world is full of inspiration”.

5. Attend the TED conference. If you ever get a chance to attend, please do! Conferences in general are great ways of sparking and sharing new ideas. But TED is a whole other experience onto itself.

JetBlue ... feeling the blues

By now many of you have already heard or read all about the service problems JetBlue’s customers experienced during a snow and ice storm. I won’t go into the ugly details. But I would like to point out how JetBlue’s Founder and CEO publicly addressed his customers. First, he publicly (via a letter on JetBlue’s website) said we are sorry. Imagine that, a CEO actually saying sorry. Then, he created a video apology and posted it on YouTube. As pointed out on the Church of the Customer blog, he did not actually say sorry in the video...too bad...but at least he did in the letter. Not to mention his video message was a bit all over the place.

Companies could learn a lesson from JetBlue...first, it’s ok to say sorry and second, use social networking sites to quickly get your side of the story out. In this case the execution may not have been great, but the idea was right. One last observation. It’s interesting to see video posts from customers caught in the middle of the service disruption right beside JetBlue’s video apology. It's nice to see both sides of the story.