BANFF – Industry reps from the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Media Production Association presented highlights to attendees at the Banff World Media Festival being held this week on a new national promotion strategy and new branding to promote Canadian content.
CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton, Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant, and CMPA president and CEO Michael Hennessy are part of a working group focussing on increasing awareness and interest in Canadian content and on developing partnerships with various industry leaders. The project, initially dubbed “Watch Canada,” evolved from a symposium held during the International Institute of Communications conference held in Ottawa last October on the topic of promoting Canadian films and TV in Canada and internationally.
One of the group’s initiatives will see the CMF and Telefilm partner with film festivals in Calgary and St. John’s to host red carpet screenings of Canadian-produced films and engage and raise awareness among politicians, corporate businesses and the public.
CMF and Telefilm are also working on the creation of a Canadian content library containing an extensive selection of back catalogue titles. They are working with an online video distribution company called IThentic Canada to identify and digitize content and to determine options to provide public access to this library.
With films and television shows being filmed in various locations across the country throughout the year, initial plans are also being considered to develop coordinated set visits for the public.
Abroad, the working group is hoping to build on the media buzz around Canadian films during last year’s MIPCOM event in Cannes, France (an international show for buying, selling and distributing content) for this year’s event in October. Canada was featured as the country of honour at MIPCOM 2012.
To unite these initiatives, the group unveiled a new logo called Eye on Canada (Vue sur le Canada in French), which also forms part of a new social media strategy to engage online communities about Canadian television, feature film and digital media production. A Twitter hashtag has been created to group related posts on the topic: #eyeoncanada (#vuesurlecanada in French).
A growing number of industry leaders and organizations are involved in supporting the National Promotion Strategy, and are contributing to one or more of ongoing initiatives.
Contributors include: Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; Alberta Media Production Industries Association; Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists; Association des Producteurs de Film et de Télévision du Québec; Association québécoise de la production médiatique; Atlantic Film Festival; Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund; Canada Media Fund; Canadian Film Centre; Canadian Media Production Association; Canadian Media Production Association- BC Branch; Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission; CBC; CineCoup; Cinema Canadiana; Directors Guild of Canada; Entertainment One; First Weekend Club; IATSE International; Independent Production Fund; Interactive Ontario; Jumpwire Media; Manitoba Film and Music; On Screen Manitoba; Ontario Media Development Corporation; Québecor; Rogers Media; Shaw Media; Telefilm Canada; Women in Film & Television; and the Writers Guild of Canada.
