January 4, 2013

NEWSFLASH! WIND MOBILE MOVES MULTICULTURAL AOR TO MONSOON COMMUNICATIONS

Toronto, Canada. December 14, 2012. In a move to emphasize the growing importance of ethnic Canadians in the telecom category, WIND Mobile today announced the appointment of Monsoon Communications as the Agency of Record for their multicultural marketing segments.

"Our goal was to find a full service cross-cultural agency that would be on par in their thinking with our mainstream AOR. Our selection process was very intense, competitive and fair. Monsoon met all the criteria", said Radek Krasny, Head of Brand and Communication.

Sachi Mukerji, President & Executive Creative Director of Monsoon Communications said: "WIND Mobile has been the catalyst for change in the Canadian telecom industry. Not only has WIND given Canadian customers a true choice, they have also driven the big three incumbent providers to re-evaluate the way they have been treating their customers. We are delighted to be able to help WIND further challenge the status quo in the wireless category. At Monsoon, we also see ourselves as agents of change in the ethnic marketing category, so there is a DNA match with WIND. Almost seven million people in Canada speak a language other than English or French at home, in the GTA alone 1.8 million people speak an immigrant language at home, and forward thinking marketers like WIND will have more than their fair share of this growing ethnic segment."

He added that the agency team was looking forward to working with WIND Mobile and MacLaren McCann, the mainstream AOR.
Monsoon Communications won the business on the basis of a strategically-driven integrated communications plan that dove-tailed multiple media channels, both above and below-the-line. The account is effective January 1, 2013, but planning has commenced.

For more information, please contact:

Alexandra Maxwell
Public Relations and Social Media Specialist
Amaxwell@WINDMobile.ca
416-557-5709

Sachi Mukerji
President and Executive Creative Director
sachi@monsooncommunications.ca
416-918-0352

About WIND Mobile: WIND Mobile is dedicated to improving the Canadian wireless experience by offering customers simple and transparent plans, including real unlimited voice/data/text with no-term contracts and no hidden fees.

Committed to becoming the country's fourth national carrier, WIND has more than 500,000 happy customers in Canada and is a part of Amsterdam-based VIMPELCOM Ltd., a global company with over 200 million customers. Learn more about WIND Mobile at www.windmobile.ca.

July 4, 2012

NEWSFLASH! RUBICON AWARDS MONSOON WITH MULTICULTURAL MEDIA BUSINESS!

Monsoon Communications has recently won the multicultural media business for Rubicon Exotic Juice Drinks to run this summer in the U.S. and Canada. The campaign will use the existing TV commercial while the agency and client work towards a long term creative strategy in the crowded juice drinks category. "We are delighted with this addition to our portfolio. It's an excellent product and a great brand that shows huge promise. The media buy is the beginning of a long term relationship", said Sachi Mukerji, President of the agency.

June 15, 2012

Monsoon Launches Ethnic Market Research Agency

Toronto, June 15, 2012: Monsoon Communications took another step as thought leaders in the multicultural marketing community with the launch of Third Eye Market Research Inc., a market research company dedicated to delivering insights into the growing segment referred to as "Zero2Five" New Canadians.

Third Eye will be headed by Gautam Nath as Managing Director. "Gautam's leadership role in our new venture will leverage his in-depth knowledge of this important and growing segment as well as his strong market research and marketing background. Gautam will continue to work with the Monsoon team so that the growth of the ethnic ad agency and the new market research company are in complete sync with each other", says Sachi Mukerji, President and Founder of Monsoon Communications.

As more and more companies are beginning to look at this segment, the need for professional and reliable data and understanding of New Canadians is becoming critical. Third Eye's unique position to deliver best practices in market research combined with the knowledge and understanding of clearly defined cultural nuances, including languages, ethnic sensitivities and heritage, makes it very different from other all purpose research companies.

"We know, we understand, we deliver insights that delve deeper into the mind set of Zero2Five New Canadians. I came to this country less than 3 years ago so I know and share the same challenges and beliefs as the market that is most attractive to companies",according to Gautam Nath. "Third Eye is not a research company that also does ethnic research amongst many other things. For us, this is what we do and our focus is very sharply defined. It makes a huge difference to the end result...the authority and authenticity of the feedback we will provide".

About Third Eye Market Research Inc.

Third Eye is a professional market research company specializing on offering services to help address the growing and important segment of “Zero2Five” New Canadians. Our services include primary and secondary research and cover all qualitative and quantitative designs. Key segments addressed include South Asian, Chinese and Filipino New Canadians but our reach also touches smaller communities e.g. the Hispanic, Black, Korean as well as special segments such as International students and temporary foreign workers. If you want to hear the voice of the New Canadian, we will bring it to you.

June 6, 2012

The Immigrant Answer

For those of us who spend time in the multicultural marketing arena the ongoing evolution Canadian immigration policy has enormous implications.

There is the impact on the demographics of an aging nation - on the makeup of our labour force, current and future economy and the ongoing viability of our safety net of government social programs. All Canadians should be aware and supportive of a proactive, aggressive immigration policy that takes these into account.

For marketers, there are also important implications when looking to the future of immigration.   If, as one scenario suggests, we double the current number of current “economic immigrants’ (those with high value assets, employable skill sets, etc.), we could soon see fully 400,000 new arrivals each year.  400,000 new, high value consumers, with accompanying demand for products and services – growth that far outstrips any other source of new business.

Marketers who have the foresight to start building their brands now, who are ahead of the curve, will reap the benefits.  Follow this link to “The Immigrant Answer”, the Globe and Mail’s compelling editorial series on immigration policy, and the challenges and opportunities of the future.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/

April 3, 2012

Loblaws celebrates Vaisakhi in Punjabi

Monsoon released two new TV commercials for No Frills and Real Canadian Superstore to run for a month in Ontario and Western Canada to coincide with the Vaisakhi festival in April. This was the agency's first production in the Punjabi language. The TV campaign was supported with radio spots, print advertising and in-store collateral.

Vaisakhi is an annual milestone event for Sikh and Punjabi communities in Canada and these two ad campaigns from Monsoon are a celebration of this important Spring harvest festival.

January 12, 2012

Monsoon fills A.M.A. event at the Rosewater in Toronto

The queue reached the bottom of the stairs at the sell-out multicultural marketing event held at the Rosewater Supper Club yesterday. Sponsored by Monsoon Communications, the American Marketing Association event was attended by over a hundred participants from Corporate Canada.

Michael Adams, Chairman of the Environics Group opened with a brilliant overview on the evolution of multiculturalism in Canada and presented a historical panorama of its development over time. This was followed by a lively panel discussion on the challenges and successes of multicultural marketing by five key panelists - Bobby Sahni (Rogers), Camon Mak (RBC), Gautam Nath (Monsoon Communications), Kamal Baig (Rubicon Foods) and Robin Brown (Environics Research Group). The discussion was moderated by Roxanne Tsui (Sensu Communications).

Interactive in nature, the event next saw five breakaway groups each discuss a pertinent topic and return to the full audience with their consensus.

In his concluding remarks Craig Lund, the President of the AMA Toronto Chapter announced that multicultural marketing had now been formally recognized as a Special Interest group within the AMA and we would soon see the subject feature regularly under this umbrella.

Monsoon Communications is proud to have been associated with this inaugural event and looks forward to bringing you news and the latest developments in multicultural marketing in the future.

November 21, 2011

Tribute to Steve Jobs

"It was October 5 and we were driving through Monument Valley in Utah when the radio news announced the passing of Steve Jobs," writes Sachi Mukerji,  "I stopped the truck and took this shot with my iPhone.  Right after a thundering rainstorm, the sun broke through the clouds across the desert and over the mountains.  It was a sight to behold.  And here's the image that's become my personal tribute to the man who has changed the way we think, work, create, communicate and listen."