Second year Canadore Advertising and Marketing Communications students join the Stepping Stones Services Board of Directors to present a fully integrated marketing communications plan to the local not-for-profit organization.
The 2nd year Advertising and Marketing Communications students at Canadore College, working as a student ad agency led by professor Jennifer Rouse Barbeau, presented a fully integrated marketing communications plan to the Board of Directors of Stepping Stones Services (formerly known as ADI) in February 2013.
Stepping Stones Services is a local not-for-profit organization offering residential and commercial services in painting, cleaning, yard maintenance and custom framing, while employing mental health consumers from the area. Under the ADI umbrella, the organization was best known as The Wood Shoppe.
“Building the communication plan as a single-purpose ad agency was a hands-on component of one of the Advertising students’ second-year courses in Integrated Marketing Communications,” said Barbeau.
The student IMC plan included a range of branding tools and recommendations, such as logo design for Stepping Stones Services and Prestige Picture Framing & Matting, social media sites and content, print ads and radio scripts, interior decorating and layout recommendations, and a sales manual including sales scripts for telephone, door-to-door and business sales.
As part of a media sales techniques course, students also made contact with 150 past clients, distributed 750 brochures in target residential areas, and reported on telephone surveys. Class efforts included attending public relations events, shooting photography and short videos for use in social media, and offering ideas for a launch in May (Mental Health Month), when Stepping Stones Services will welcome the public to their offices and gift shop at 1428 O’Brien Street in North Bay, a location currently occupied by The Opera Bakery and Café. An adjoining space is already set up with equipment for the organization’s custom framing arm.
“I thought the students did a fantastic job and presented themselves brilliantly. I was really proud of them,” said Stepping Stones Services business manager Leonie Roberts, who worked closely with the students over the seven-week course. “The directors were pleased and impressed – which makes my job much easier. Stepping Stones Services is at a very exciting cross-roads, with a new name, new premises, and new business plan. We were very excited to initiate a valuable partnership with Canadore College, and were delighted with the IMC plan created by Jennifer Rouse Barbeau and her 2nd year Advertising students.
“Stepping Stones Services will launch a new website and new gift store and picture framing studio, at 1428 O’Brien Street, in June. We look forward to building new partnerships within North Bay, and to providing employment opportunities to more survivors of mental health challenges,” says Roberts.
Students Hailey Walker, Candace Pritchard, Pat Head, and Chrisa Sedore received monetary gifts from the Board in recognition of their outstanding effort. “The class of fourteen students clocked three-hundred and seventy-three and a half hours of work on this project, outside of class time,” says Barbeau.
Advertising and Marketing Communications is a two-year full-time program at Canadore College, in the School of Media, Design and Dramatic Arts. The College offers more than 60 full-time programs, with approximately 1,000 graduates joining a network of 39,000 alumni working around the globe each year.
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