LeapZone | Branding & Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs » Brand Heroes

Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund: Adopt a School

Isabelle Mercier Turcotte — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:00:54 +0000

We encourage you to take action, because a little goes a long way. We can all make a difference!

Want to help brighten the lives of some of Greater Vancouver’s neediest children?

Here’s how you can:

“Like” The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund on Facebook.

Go to vansunkidsfund on Facebook and hit the like button. For every like Telus donates $1 to Adopt-a-School and The Children’s Fund matches that. So every like = a $2 donation.

Check out the Children’s Fund web site at vansunkidsfund.ca for more ways to donate and learn about the needs of children in inner-city schools.

Adopt-a-School Donations of New Items

The Adopt-a-School project is aimed at collecting financial donations as well as providing a conduit so readers can immediately donate goods such as coats and shoes and gloves directly to those schools and students that need them most. For information on how to donate new items, contact Adopt-a-School at adoptaschool @vancouversun .com or call Adopt-a-School coordinator Kathy Anderson at 604-605-2654.

Find the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund:

On Twitter: @vansunkidsfund

On Facebook: facebook .com /vansunkidsfund

On Flickr: flickr .com /vansunkidsfund

On YouTube: youtube .com /vansunkidsfund

Brand Hero_Elizabeth Gilbert

Margarita Romano — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:35:08 +0000

Elizabeth Gilbert is hands-down one of my favorite writers. She is down-to-earth, funny, uses simple language, and has this ability to really capture a moment and bring us in. As a writer myself I find her extremely inspirational and best of all she makes me feel normal. She has no problem sharing her strengths and her weaknesses, her areas of expertise as well as admitting to the things she knows absolutely nothing about. As a personal brand, I believe she is a hero because she lives what she writes about, and that takes an incredible amount of courage, confidence, and strength.

Last May I had the opportunity to listen to her speak at Oprah’s Live Your Best Life weekend in NYC. And boy what a treat! Her ability to tell a story, whether written or verbal, is outstanding. She truly is following her calling! Click here now if you want to experience Elizabeth Gilbert’s world, even if for a few minutes.

You won’t regret it!

Brand Hero_Mini

Margarita Romano — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:40:16 +0000

Take it from me, owning a Mini Cooper turned me from a passenger to a driver. Its compact, stylish, and overall fun design made driving exciting and an activity I truly learned to love. But that’s not the part that makes MINI a bona fide brand hero. It’s the purchase experience that blew our minds. From start to finish of our little baby’s birth we were continuously kept in the loop about what was going on. From where she was on the assembly line to where she was in the world! She was born in London, then traveled on a ship crossing the ocean, we knew when she arrived in Montreal, and when she crossed Canada until she was sitting here in Vancouver….waiting to be picked up.

Being a part of that whole delivery experience not only validated our purchase choice, but also instantly built our trust in Mini’s capabilities and service. Think about what little add-ons you can do to make a big difference to your customers. It’s worth it!

Brand Hero: TokBox

Isabelle Mercier Turcotte — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:15:35 +0000

Everyone that knows me, knows that I am always looking for simple and powerful new solutions to help me save time and better my communication with everyone in my life. Well, I recently stumbled upon TokBox. Hallelujah! The people at TokBox Inc got it! They believe in the power of face-to-face communication. Which is why they came up with the simplest, most engaging way for you to connect face-to-face with up to twenty of your colleagues, customers or friends at once. The kicker? It’s FREE! (and more reliable than Skype Video)

Visit www.tokbox.com to see for yourself. It’s easy! All you need is an internet connection and a webcam. No expensive equipment required. Video chatting with up to 20 people at your fingertips! As I said, the service is FREE and you pay only for the premium features you want to use like: scheduling a chat, inviting audience members to participate…etc…

Start using TokBox today and discover the ease and the power of face-to-face communication.

P.S. No more excuses for missing daily huddles!

Brand Hero_Travellers Deck

Margarita Romano — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:47:25 +0000

The fabulous team at Travellers Deck are a passionate and well-travelled group of Vancouverites committed to bringing you honest and independent reviews on the hidden gems of Vancouver. Their mission is simple; to provide an honest opinion that no one can pay to be a part of! From vintage boutiques to haute couture – from the humble hamburger stand to stunning gastro temples, they give you the best of the best – all in a handy deck of cards!

Complete with exclusive discounts for each and every one of the selected venues, this little deck is a nifty gift idea for a local friend, or visiting family from out of town. Better yet, what are you waiting for? Shuffle, pick a card, and go!

Follow @travellersdeck on Twitter!

Brand Hero_Blo Blow Dry Bar

Margarita Romano — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:20:57 +0000

Blo’s concept is simple. For around 30 dollars and in about 30 minutes, you have a blow out style. No cuts, no color, just WASH. BLOW. GO. And that is precisely what makes this styling blow dry bar a hit with several locations in Vancouver and Toronto. As a brand they deliver on their promise and that is key.

The other area they are extremely crafty in is marketing. If there is a term where the word “Blo” fits, they are using it. And not just the obvious too. For their blog, just the simple addition of a hyphen gives them the best blog name ever: BLO-G. They are consistent with their messaging, know their target market, and aren’t afraid to use the boldness of their main brand identity color – hot pink!

Take a minute and peruse their website, or better yet, take 30 minutes and get yourself a “do” to spice things up…as they like to say, “You’re not cheating on your hairdresser!“

Brand Hero_Headsets.com

Margarita Romano — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:30:40 +0000

Headsets.com is North America’s leading provider of office telephone headsets. Their motto is “Customer Love”, and it shows! Every encounter with a customer service rep is outstanding. As a consumer, you are treated with respect and prompt service; and you are made to feel like you have a partner in finding the best solution for your specific needs. We bought a cordless headset from headsets.com and had terrific service, support, and follow thru. They didn’t drop the ball once from selection, to purchase, to delivery, to installation.

If you have a need for a telephone headset, order online at www.headsets.com or call 1-800-HEADSETS.

You will not be disappointed!

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Brand Hero_You Send It

Margarita Romano — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:30:30 +0000

YouSendIt is the No.1 digital delivery company serving business and individuals on the Web today. Their innovative service enables users to send, receive and track files, on-demand. YouSendIt provides a trusted, convenient and smart solution for transferring large files over the Internet, replacing the need for FTP transfers, overnight couriers and unreliable email attachments. It is so easy-to-use and can be integrated into your own email software. My email is set to prompt me to send via YouSendIt when I have a file over a certain size as an attachment.

You can sign up for a Lite account for Free, with a few limitations, one being files have to be under 100MB. Please see www.yousendit.com for more details. You won’t regret it!

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Brand Hero_MyTradeFinder

Margarita Romano — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:42:05 +0000

MyTradeFinder is a building trade lookup tool for home owners, designers, architects and building contractors wanting to locate trades; all centralized in one website for anyone interested to find and contact. They currently share listings in Vancouver and across British Columbia, and their goal is to grow the community across Canada with your contributions.

If you would like to suggest a trade to the MyTradeFinder community, simply complete a short form, add a review, and register on the site. Registration allows them to validate the information provided. Registration on the site allows you to centralize all the trades you have added so you can locate them easily for future reference. If you would like to add your business, you can do so free of charge with a basic listing.

Take a look and find good, reliable construction trades, quickly and easily.

Brand Hero_Jing

Margarita Romano — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:30:38 +0000

Jing by Tech Smith is a free software that allows you to add visuals to your online conversations. Instead of writing a plain old email, use Jing to do screen captures of what you see, or better yet do a screencast where you can record what you are seeing and doing on screen, as well as narrate the whole process at the same time. Jing then provides you with a link that you can put into your email message…and you’ve just made email a heck of a lot more interesting!

We use it all the time and have found that it really connects us with our clients because Jing’s minimal feature set keeps the focus on instant sharing. Try it once, and you’ll be hooked…guaranteed!

What do we use Jing for?
We use Jing to send Visual eVoicemails, to give client or supplier feedback, to present proposals, we even use it to sing Happy Birthday to clients, friends and family.

Want to see?
Here are a few samples of how we use Jing on a weekly basis:

To provide Instructions for our LeapTools:
Click here for the Brand Wheel Simple Jing Instructions

To share concepts and methodologies with our clients:
Click here for the 3 Personalities of an entrepreneur

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Brand Hero_Animoto

Isabelle Mercier Turcotte — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:30 +0000

OK…this is not only cool…but it’s damn practical. Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out. Animoto is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

Want to see what we’ve been able to do in 5 minutes flat? Click here.

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Brand Hero_Cupcakes

Margarita Romano — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:00:26 +0000

One word. Heaven. Cupcakes is a Vancouver based company that lives to celebrate life, everyday! Fresh, and oh-sooooooo-good, their cupcakes take you right back to when all you had to worry about was when you were gonna get out and play already. The brand identity of this company is as delicious as their product. Playful, colorful and appetizing; from their menu, to website, to their actual stores, the brand is visually consistent and executed magnificently. It definitely delivers on their promise to keep life light, fresh, simple and fun.

Order online at www.cupcakesonline.com or visit one of their three locations. If you have even an eighth of a sweet tooth, you will NOT regret trying these out!

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