The CFL is back! Buy your season tickets now! …a recommendation…Southside is the place to be.
Also check out the REDBLACKS website for team updates, CFL news, tickets, and merchandise.
The CFL Team Site: http://www.ottawaredblacks.com/main/index
Videos: http://www.ottawaredblacks.com/video/index
Watching TV last night and on CTV’s eTalk they were chatting about Justin Beiber and his stage show in support of his third album ‘Believe’. …and it made me think about how many songs or shows or inspirational messages that are centered around the word ‘Believe’.
Of course it also brought me back to when Blomeley Communications produced all of the behind the scenes and media for Bell’s Olympic Inspired music video ‘Believe’, which was part of the campaign leading up to the highhly successful Vancouver Olympic Games.
We produced for IMAX, for Bell TV, for Sympatico.msn, and the web. Stephen Scott of Fireboy films directed the main ‘Olympic Inspired’ video. He and his team did a great job of capturing the emotion of the song, Suzy’s performance, and the dedication of Canada’s athletes.
Our video and behind-the-scenes show was part of Bell’s Olympic promotion. In my opinion Suzy’s song is the best of all the ‘Believe’ titled songs out there. Better than Cher’s song called Believe. Better than Beiber’s Believe, and certainly better than U-Kiss. But I do like the Brooks & Dunn song titled ‘Believe’ :-).
Here are a bunch of links to the various Susy McNeil ‘Believe Videos’
Behind the Scenes on the shoot – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOegyHTlpyY
Media Coverage – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYuJKe48wJA&feature=relmfu
The Olympic Inspired Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aByA-svpXYw
Thanks to my friend Brian Barrett, Director of Development with the Ottawa Jazz Festival, we got to witness the beginning of the new business growth of one of Ottawa’s hidden gems. The Ottawa Jazz Festival.
For years the Ottawa Jazz Festival has been the ‘poor sister’ (not the ugly sister as Jazz is a refined music so some may say the more beautiful sister…just not as rich) to BluesFest in July. BluesFest no longer caters to ‘blues’ as it has drifted towards a younger ‘pop/rock/indie/rap’ oriented demographic. This said they have been successful at it and are now one of Canada’s largest summer music venues. This is good news for the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
I have never been to the Ottawa Jazz Festival, although my wife and I enjoy listening to jazz pretty much every weekend. This said we are not knowledgeable enough or aware of the current crop of jazz artists. So we tend to stick to the old classics until somebody brings new information to us about a current rising star or a great piece of music. Then we are all over it. This said, I think we represent the average potential Ottawa JazzFest client (the 35+ demographic). We need to be spoonfed when it comes to jazz. Why? considering the fact that we like the music style enough to listen to it every weekend? I think it is simply marketing. The type of marketing. Jazz purests like Ken Gray of the Ottawa Citizen seem to think it is only about ‘quality’. While that is the core of any business or service (and the Jazz Festival is a business that provides the service of music perfromances), if the outside world does not know about you or your great service…or are not draw towards you basically you will be going to be out of business sooner than you think. Businesss development centered around realistic marketing is the key to future success.
Like good food and fine wine, I believe the jazz genre offers a range of styles that are an excellent partner with high quality blues and other notable music styles. There is a magnificent opportunity for the Ottawa Jazz Festival to grow an audience…and an opporutnity to bring semi-knowledgeable people like me into the fold. It is also a significant business and tourism opportunity for downtown restaurants and merchants (I would rather enjoy a nice time downtown, have a decent meal at a good resaurant, walk over to JazzFest, sit or stand close to the staff among tame and respectable music fans, enjoy the venue in general – vs the hot, dusty, loud expereince that BluesFest has become.
To my friend Brian and the Ottawa Jazz Festival organizers, recognize and exploit the moment of opportunity. BTW Blues great John Mayall was the perfect respectful musician. He could have rocked it out with heavy blues, but he pulled back and even offered up some entertaining jazzy tunes. Along with the high quality musicianship of The Robert Cray Band the night was not ‘jazz’ but is was thoroughly enjoyable. I plan to enjoy another night or two at Ottawa JazzFest next year.
Read Ken Gray’s Blog: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/07/03/quality-jazz-will-make-jazz-fest-flourish-ken-gray-column/
Ottawa Jazz Festival website: http://ottawajazzfestival.com/
Today I was back at TSN doing some business and visiting friends and I almost didn’t recognize the place. TSN/TSN Radio/TSN.ca and all their new digital world is very impressive…and I have seen a few world class facilities. For anyone who knows the old CFTO reception area…nothing has changed in decades :-). However of course behind reception is a different story with an ever evolving technology center. What was impressive was how they have cost effectively re-used, re-tooled, and renovated…and then installed a tonne of new gear…again!!. I was caught off guard with the entrenchment and technical advancement of ”TSN Radio”. The new TV based radio studio is going to give all of the TSN business units a fair bit of multi-platform capabiity. And Multi-platfrom content and programming production is the Blomeley Group’s sweet spot. TSN Radio is going to be a juggernaut, and we are very pleased to be an upcoming part of TSN Radio’s programming.
For anyone interested in hockey entertainment or better yet just good family fun, the NHL All-Star Game weekend is a worthwhile event to take in. The host city and local team along with the NHL usually put on a pretty good city wide celebration. Blomeley Communications have worked with the NHL for many years and it is always fun to be invovled in some capacity with the NHL’s special events. This years NHL All-Star game is in my home town Ottawa, which makes it even better. Congrats to Cyril Leeder, Jeff Kyle and the Ottawa Senators organization.