TORONTO – Building on an idea that was dubbed “Watch Canada” back in October, the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the CRTC on Wednesday announced the creation of a working group of leading industry executives whose goal will be to “promote the increasing success of Canadian film, television and digital media with a principal focus on the Canadian market,” says a press release.
The creation of the group grew from industry leaders’ feedback at the Symposium on the Promotion of Canadian Films and Television Programs in Canada and Internationally which was held in Ottawa in conjunction with the International Institute of Communications in October. Cartt.ca wrote about the idea, where the primary part of the pitch was a portal where all content funded by tax dollars or the Canada Media Fund would be made available to Canadians for free. As you’ll read from our story, there were competing viewpoints.
The intent of the working group, co-chaired by the CMPA’s Michael Hennessy and Shaw Media’s Barbara Williams, “is to show how much Canadian innovative screen-based content is now watched and enjoyed by Canadian audiences and to propose solutions on how to build on past, current and future successes to increase awareness of our media products,” adds the press release.
The other members of the group are Trish Dolman (Screen Siren Pictures), Claude Galipeau (Galipeau Group), Gavin McGarry (Jumpwire Media), Robin Mirsky-Daniels (Rogers Media), Brad Pelman (Pelman Consultants), Mary Powers (MPowers Communications), Serge Sasseville (Québecor Média), Helga Stevenson (Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television).
It’s a big job , but the group is to develop a strategy to increase audiences in the Canadian marketplace by creating promotional opportunities that complement efforts of broadcasters, distributors and producers and will be geared directly toward engaging consumers as audience and collaborating with industry stakeholders, such as broadcasters, producers, distributors, directors, writers, and actors, as well as federal and provincial funding agencies in a joint promotional effort, says the press release.
The strategy will leverage social media campaign and other platforms to promote Canadian success stories and a draft of the overall promotional and branding strategies will be presented at the Canadian Media Production Association’s (CMPA) Prime Time in Ottawa conference in March.
