Montreal, Quebec, Wednesday, May 29, 2009 – Integrated communications agency Capital-Image received many honours at the Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques (SQPRP) awards of excellence gala that took place yesterday evening at the TELUS Theatre, spotlighting the top achievements in public relations in the Quebec market.
Four of the agency’s mandates distinguished themselves with members of the jury for the award of excellence, both for their quality of strategy and execution and for their impact.
“We are very pleased to see our expertise recognized by our peers,” Yvon Desautels, President of Capital-Image, said. “Our team is very concerned about listening to our customers and paying attention to their issues to advise them and develop innovative and creative strategies to achieve results that are well beyond their expectations. The Awards of Excellence is recognition of Capital-Image’s efforts.”
Capital-Image would like to thank its clients and mention the pleasure that its team members had in working with them. “They place their trust in us by delegating different aspects of their communications activities to us,” Mr. Desautels said. “We have developed a solid business relationship with them, in some instances even a friendship, which allows us to work together to push back the limits of what’s possible in communications. We are spoiled to have customers who are just as passionate about communications as we are.”
And the winners are…
Here is an overview of the winning projects by category of prize:
GOLD
STRATEGIC EXCELLENCE, external public relations program category
The Têtes à Claques auctions on eBay.ca: adapting a brand to Quebec
Launched in October 2006, the French-language version of eBay.ca grew quickly in its first months on the Quebec market. In an effort to make a real mark in Quebec’s competitive e-commerce sites market, eBay Canada made the strategic decision to strengthen its ties with Quebec culture, and called on Capital-Image.
The Capital-Image team concluded that Quebecers would visit and use eBay more than other sites in Quebec if the auctions – which are the unique selling proposition of the website – were interesting. It proposed an original Quebec partner with the popularity to attract media attention: the Têtes à Claques. Capital-Image suggested auctioning Têtes à Claques items―the Body Toner, the Willi Waller 2006 and the LCD Shovel 2007―to benefit the Sainte-Justine UHC Foundation. Holding a launch for the auction at the Têtes à Claques studio, for the first time accessible to the media, was the kick-off for the media relations campaign.
The three auctions generated incredible media coverage, which gave eBay enviable media exposure in Quebec for two solid months. Plus, this activity exceeded fundraising objectives: the $15,000 from the sale of the three objects was donated to the Sainte-Justine UHC Foundation. There was also an increase in traffic to the website and a high rate of traffic on the eBay.ca site (60%) among Quebec users of websites throughout the duration of the campaign.

TACTICAL EXCELLENCE, writing category
Report on democracy and governance in school boards
Commission scolaire de Laval (CSDL)
Toward the end of December 2007, the Quebec Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports, Michelle Courchesne, invited school boards, including the CSDL, to take part in a deliberations process on democracy and governance in schools boards; the CSDL appointed the Capital-Image team to tackle the challenge.
There were a number of challenges with and objectives for the project: to produce and submit a report in record time, rally the many stakeholders around a report, take a clear, strong and consensual position regarding democracy and governance in school boards, promote the specific features and achievements of the CSDL to the department and citizens of Laval and help promote the role of school boards and their commissioners in Quebec.
To make the most of our time, it was agreed to work in parallel and to bring together the talent of a number of members of the Capital-Image team to complete the writing and various stages of editing and approval, while reserving final decisions for CSDL management. It was also important to reflect content shared by stakeholders and use the words of commissioners and partners who attended the preparatory meeting, so that they would feel part of the report and appropriate its positions.
Mission accomplished, because the CSDL report was submitted on time. Writing such a crucial, sensitive document in such a short time and obtaining consensus was a success in and of itself. Some of the ideas proposed by the CSDL were selected for Bill 88 tabled by Minister Courchesne in May 2008. The local newspaper covered the CSDL’s position twice, once when the report was submitted and again when the president took part in the forum.


SILVER
STRATEGIC EXCELLENCE, print project category
Media relations campaign for the WishBuds line of products in spring 2008
Created in 2006, WishBuds is a young Quebec company whose distinguishing quality is its concern for the environment. It designs, markets and distributes original products made from paper, such as greeting cards, invitations, bookmarks and announcements, which contain flower seeds. The unique feature of products made of paper and seeds is that they bloom into flowers once planted. WishBuds is a new way of marking a celebration and offering greetings that literally flower.
The objectives of Capital-Image’s efforts were to introduce the public to the originality of the products, increase sales, increase the visibility of the website and increase the number of points of sale in Quebec.
The team’s efforts and the many communications with the media paid off! Generating impressive media coverage, the Capital-Image media relations campaign generated interest in WishBuds products so much that a number of client boutiques increased their sales of WishBuds products thanks to growing public demand. Traffic and online sales also grew.
TACTICAL EXCELLENCE, print project category
A brochure to create a whole new image for TransBIOTech
TransBIOTech is a research and technology transfer centre that offers leading biotechnology expertise to companies in the life sciences. It knows how to adapt to the increasing number of industry requirements and offer invaluable help to the advance of research by a number of companies. The organization went through a major transition in the past year with the expansion of its offices, a new service offering and new major clients. Capital-Image’s mandate was to support them in developing their new positioning.
Following a series of meetings between management and the team of representatives and an analysis of the existing communication tools, Capital-Image proposed a complete redesign of the brochure, including developing new content, creating a targeted list of potential customers for TransBIOTech representatives to approach and starting a workshop to support business development by better equipping representatives. It was the first step for the centre’s repositioning.
With these new tools in hand, the representatives were able to close new contracts and the new business continues! Capital-Image’s work on the overall repositioning is ongoing.
About Capital-image
Founded in 1989, Capital-Image counts 14 professionals who, with passion and creativity, build and implement integrated communication strategies and programs to support clients’ growth and promote their image capital and reputation. The agency is active in  financial services, technology, health care, consumer products and professional and government services.
Capital-Image is a member of the Environics Group which brings together some 90 communications professionals in offices in Montreal, Toronto, metropolitan New York and Washington DC. The Group also has partners around the world.
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For more information, please contact us at:

Stéphanie Gaucher
Capital-Image
514 739-1188, extension 236
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