Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

a. Information Technology, Communications and Entertainment
b. Cleantech
c. Life Sciences and Healthcare
d. Social Innovation
e. Educational Services
f. Sponsorship and Fundraising
The editorial calendar was developed to facilitate input and contribution from all advisory
sectors, ensuring the equal distribution of blog opportunities. The monthly editorial meeting is a
forum for discussing potential topics and determining the content that would appeal to the
widest social media audience, as well as those topics that would be more suitable for
specialized, targeted papers and publications.
3. Along with internal blog contributors, MaRS Communications actively searched for external
writers who were well versed in the topics of interest to our audience base and highly regarded
in their respective industries. These contributors provided fresh perspectives and brought to
MaRS their own circle of followers, thus increasing our overall online community.
4. The implementation of a categorized website search feature provides clear and precise search
results. It directs visitors to related MaRS content, while increasing viewership and decreasing
bounce rates.
Implementation and Challenges:
Budget:
Budget restructuring and new emphasis on digital communications freed up ample resources to hire a
dedicated digital communications manager, as well as fund website optimization.
Challenges:
The hiring of a dedicated social media strategist was met with skepticism among upper management
who felt that team members from various advisory practices could simply take turns sharing information
on social media platforms. However, this would have been detrimental to all our objectives since the
unified MaRS online persona would have been distorted by multiple personalities and competing key
messages. Ensuring equal opportunity among various advisory teams would have also proven difficult,
as each team has different resources and time dedicated to social media updates. The fine balancing act
would have been tipped in favour of the advisory team with the most dedicated time.
The implementation of an editorial calendar was also initially opposed by MaRS internal stakeholders,
who were accustomed to a first come, first served system. They felt that rigid scheduled dates would
prevent them from posting news of breaking topics and timely industry events. However, upon
demonstrating the chaotic nature of the blog, the Communications team was able to highlight the
merits of an organized, planned editorial calendar.
6. Measurement/Evaluation of Outcomes:
Objective 1‐4: The increase in MaRS followers was diverse, spanning a variety of industries. User opinion
surveys revealed that recent followers were intrigued by our “Tweets” and Facebook/LinkedIN posts and
followed our platforms for more information on their respective specialties. Many were hearing about
MaRS for the first time and many realized the full services offered at MaRS. Website bounce rates
decreased indicating that visitors were spending more time browsing our pages. This can be directly
attributed to our optimized search result features.