Posts made in June, 2014

A Voice Makes A Difference Comments Off on A Voice Makes A Difference

A Voice Makes A Difference

It’s a small world – even smaller in Muskoka. I have the pleasure of working with the Dunn family at Walkers Point Marina (WPM) and looking after their Radio. We’ve had some nice success and like many clients I work with, they trust me to be organized, detailed and creative. To be persuasive and as ‘they’ say in Radio jargon, you must ‘cut through’ be ‘intrusive’ ‘memorable’ ‘effective’ – yada yada. Over my career, Ive had the good fortune to work with some of Canada’s finest and talented announcers. For WPM, possibly my finest work surfaced a few years back with a ‘boating memory’ campaign ( check it on my web site – MP3 Highlight reels) voiced by the fabulous Carl Banis. Carl once recorded the entire “A Christmas Carol” and did ALL the voices! I still have the album. Ah, but I digress….. This year, heading into the July 1st weekend WPM had a complex scenario arise whereby they had TWO events taking place at virtually the same time – how the heck do you differentiate and promote that?! Bring in a great and well know voice to broadcast the Radio – that’s how! WPM had their traditional July 1st wakeboarding and wakesurf demos at the marina, plus...

Learn More
Solstice Comments Off on Solstice

Solstice

Summer Solstice. Why do I remember? Because one of my dear friends will not let me forget it. It’s his birthday! Every year! Much more importantly though, this year was the one of the events of the summer which saw his very lovely daughter married at the Beaumaris Club on Lake Muskoka.  Seems to be the year of weddings and key (read 60th) Birthday parties. The weather was perfect, the food & drinks plentiful, and for my bride & I, we got another chance to enjoy so many of our good friends in a perfect Muskoka setting. I had the pleasure of hiring this young newlywed many years ago to ‘Captain’ the Moose “On The Water” power boat which ‘sampled’ a myriad of products over the years. She was promoted to manage the entire water AND land programs for Haliburton Broadcasting (logistical hell) for a few years and has since parlayed her intelligent and thoughtful mindset into a budding career in the ad agency business. Good life and living to you both...

Learn More
A Bakery ‘Run’ Comments Off on A Bakery ‘Run’

A Bakery ‘Run’

Is there anyone in Muskoka who does not LOVE their local bakery? Ive grown up in Bala and now that I have THREE wonderful grandchildren, (yes, and two wonderful adult girls) there are few journeys I enjoy more than travelling to Don’s Bakery in the boat with this trio of scallywags and cup of coffee. I thank my lucky stars each time we cross Bala Bay for a ‘bakery run’ to pick up scones, apple fritter(s) , a bran muffin perhaps a pie and donuts often ‘secretly’ eaten on the return voyage. So it was that after a couple of years of getting acquainted, a month of planning, and the marketing savvy of Jana Foster, we launched the radio career of Bryan Foster of Dons Bakery in Bala. With the help of good friend ‘Nimmer’ at Moose FM – it came together. We sat on the deck outside the bakery and recorded customer “sound bites”, which in my long career of doing this was as easy as pie since everyone is so passionate and eager to help promote their local bakery and their butter tarts!! Happy to say this campaign will be a success… it’s nice to work with great people and mmm mmm, great products...

Learn More
Father’s Day Promo Comments Off on Father’s Day Promo

Father’s Day Promo

for reasons unknown was my old man’s lucky day, so I adopted that positive position at an early age and have sailed through the years unscathed from bad luck. (Will keep my future fingers crossed for writing this). So it was, that this year we promoted another very successful Father’s Day RADIO event at Rob Clark’s Home Hardware store in Bracebridge. This year was the 4th rendition with Moose 99.5 FM and it was called the Father’s Day Face Off ( Cdn’s love hockey! ) even though it had nothing to do with hockey ☺. We qualified 3 Dads out of 20 on air, and had them show up outside the store by the co-sponsors’ Napoleon tent where they NO IDEA what the contest details were to be – a Radio surprise. So we lined them up on brand new fired up Napoleon charcoal grills and gave them each a beautiful steak, a piece of salmon and asparagus (courtesy of Morley’s in Port Carling) to cook on the spot, with a myriad of spice and accoutrement options. To add the final polish to the promo we had Dave Friesen of Riverwalk Restaurant fame and Esa Paltanen, GM of Sherwood Inn, on location to be the celebrity judges of their...

Learn More