Photo Courtesy: Achilles Media

As we mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago, I was accepted to be part of the Telefilm Canada TV 360 Program held last week during the Banff World Television Festival and the next/MEDIA conference.

The TV 360 Program is a training program, designed by Achilles Media and Lisa Osborne of AFI Digital Content Lab, to train Canadian producers (like me) how-to develop and pitch multi-platform projects for existing TV shows.

This year, three teams of 10 worked on a creative brief to create a digital content & marketing strategy for Westwind Pictures' hit CBC TV show Little Mosque on the Prairie. (If you haven't seen it, you can watch all of season 3 here.)

We developed our strategy over 3 days and then pitched to our ideas to a panel of industry heavyweights, including Claude Galipeau of Rogers Media, Rob Sockett of Westwind, and Brett Wilson, Venture Capitalist/Dragon on CBC's Dragon's Den.

In a nutshell, it was like 'The Apprentice' for TV producers - with all the group work, intensity and deadlines - except there's no job at the end and no there was no filming. Although, I'm sure it could have made a great mini-reality series!

Lindsay Hamel and team in TV360 brainstorming session.My team included all these super talented people (be sure to check out their sites!)...

Lindsay Hamel, Producer/Host, Buffalo Gal Pictures, buffalogalpictures.mb.ca
Jana Lynn Writer, Producer/Host/Talent Coach, janalynnewhite.com
Julio Munroz, Documentary Director/Producer, Chronopia Communications, chronopia.ca
Kyoko Yokoma, Documentary Filmmaker, Gorica Productions, goricaproductions.com
Felice Gorica, TV Producer, Gorica Productions, goricaproductions.com
Mona Grenier, Reality/Lifestyle Field Producer & Writer, Exclamation Films, exclamationfilms.com
Paul Christie, Producer/Actor, Seven24 Films, seven24films.com
Andre Le Masurier, Creative Director, MacLaren MRM, maclaren.com

In addition to the participants, each team had a professional lead. We were guided by a real pro, Anthea Foyer the Training Programs Manager at CFC Media Lab. She was an excellent leader in the brainstorming process. Anthea knew exactly how to guide the group and honour everybody's ideas. You could definitely tell that she's had lots of experience working with groups of creative people.

While working on our pitch, we had mentoring sessions from a number of multi-platform professionals. We learnt about the the nuts and bolts of creating interactive projects from Kaz Brecher of Schematic. Mike Kasprow of Trapeze gave us digital marketing tips and expelled the virtues of SEO. We also had a great session with two gaming experts - Dante Anderson of Kuma Games who talked to us about the use of machinima as a interactive tool and Tony Walsh of Phantom Compass, who told us about integrating games and playful interactions.

Our team pitch was heavily influenced by 2 mentors in specific - cross-media specialist Mark Hand (maker of one the first social networks) and Invoke strategist Dario Meli (maker of the Twitter application HootSuite). When we met with Mark, we had an ambitious plan of building a whole new social media network for the show. He reigned us in and helped us keep our goals (and budget) in perspective. With Dario, we refined our plan. He helped see the value of all the social media networks/tools already out there.

Our group settled on a "Super Fan" strategy for Little Mosque on the Prairie. Here's a synopsis;

Instead of creating a new social network for Little Mosque & competing with the existing Little Mosque communities out there, we suggested making the Little Mosque community page a place to collect the conversations that are already happening. To ensure this page would be monitored and stimulated, we proposed holding an interactive contest to find a Little Mosque "Super Fan". This person would already be big fan of the show and active in social media. Once elected by fan votes, the Super Fan would become a paid community manager and brand ambassador. They would listen to existing fan communities, provide connections between these communities and create blog/video content that would provoke more conversation about Little Mosque.

Overall, I believe "Super Fan" was a very cost-effective strategy that built both community and publicity for the show. It's a strategy that could be used for any TV property or any brand with an existing following.

We received lots of positive feedback for our proposal and presentation. (Most notably, Venture Capitalist/Dragon Brett Wilson said our proposal was "a lighting rod approach and I like that.")

Lisanne Pajot, Dragon Brett Wilson and Lindsay Hamel

In the end, another team won. The winning team was led by Stitch Media's Evan Jones. They had an awesome, very focused presentation about some actionable ways for Westwind to build on the site they already had. Congratulations again, Team 1!

I learnt so much in the TV360 program! I learnt something from each of my teammates, from the mentors and from the whole experience. Driving away from the Rockies, I left feeling energized, inspired & ready to go! So inspired, we're already making plans here.

Look for a new cross-platform project from BlinkWorks in Jan 2010!

-Lisanne

A world famous person appears in a BlinkWorks series!

A few months ago, we were really lucky to shoot with Andrew Davidson, the award-winning author of The Gargoyle. He graciously appeared in the "E-Reader" episode of our family/technology series Digital Dad hosted by Kevin Hnatiuk.

The day of our shoot, Andrew had just got home from an another shoot overseas. He was filming with a UK production for Richard & Judy's Best Read. Even though he was very jet-lagged, Andrew came to our set and passionately read a passage from The Gargoyle for our segment.

It was so awesome that he was able to make it! His scene really made the whole episode. As the Digital Dad said, "the only thing better than experiencing the book on an e-reader, is having the author read it to you himself."

You can buy Andrew's book, The Gargoyle, almost everywhere.

You can watch the Digital Dad series, now in re-runs, on CBC TV Mondays at 3pmCT. It airs within the CBC Living programs across Canada.

-Lisanne