smart | life


Te advertising arena: how to make ad dollars count during


I’m in love with a Canadian


and I want you to know it Move over Apple, the Blackberry Passport is my newest companion


major events When it comes to advertising, as with the housing market, it’s all about location, location, location


keyboard that makes typing a dream – no more cramped hands. The numbers are on a touch


M


Investors Group Field will have a lot of new eyes on it during the Grey Cup. Photo by AJ Batac.


A


s 2014 fades into our memories, it’s important to look ahead to what’s coming up in Winnipeg in the coming months, and boy are we going to be busy. 2015 will see the Women’s World Cup and the CFL’s


Grey Cup coming to town, and just a couple short months into 2016, the NHL’s Heritage Classic will come as well. Now, of course, big advertising


opportunities come with these events, but should caution be thrown to the wind for the sake of exposure? Not necessarily. There are two realities that


come to mind when it comes to these large-scale advertise- ments: 1. You are going to get more


Socially Smart Jon Waldman


eyeballs in a concentrated area than you will in most other situ- ations (so long as they’re not dis- tracted by trivial things, like say, the action on the field or ice); and 2. You’re competing for said


eyeballs. Big events require big sponsorship dollars to be considered financial successes (or at least break- evens), so expect a wide variety of ad placements to be available, but not to have much luck when it comes to having exclusivity in an area. So what does this mean for your ad dollars? Essentially,


unless you’re going into one of these events with more of an eye toward the more beautiful cause of wanting to lend support to an event or sport, you’re probably better off spending your ad budget elsewhere. A happy medium


One of the keys to advertising, of course, is location.


Another is location. Te other… yeah, you guessed it: location. But the key to advertising is not to just jump in head-


first into the biggest spot where you’re going to be found. Not every company who advertises during the Super Bowl gets the return on investment (ROI) they seek. Essentially, what you want to look for is a spot that isn’t


too crowded, yet has a significant number of viewers. Call it the Mendoza Line of Promotion (and yes, this is another sports reference). Te Mendoza Line originated in baseball and is named


for Mario Mendoza, a player whose batting average was taken as the dividing line between a good hitter and a bad hitter. In this case, the Mendoza promotional line (or, if you


prefer, the Promodoza Line) is the spot between a good ad opportunity and a bad opportunity. Let’s take a couple examples here: putting ads on a bus


that runs along Portage Avenue may seem like a great idea since you have a great number of eyes potentially seeing you, but look at the number of distractions: bill- boards, storefronts, cops… yeah, you’re not likely going to get the attention you seek. On the opposite end of the spectrum, then, would be


somewhere like East St. Paul. Not as many distractions, yes – but not as many travelers (at least in winter). So where you want to be instead is somewhere that’s


going to get the traffic count without all the distractions. St. James was great for this in the days when sports stadi- ums ruled the area because of the long stretches of land that had little to no ads. Tus, bus ads would have been a great opportunity, since they’d be stationary outside said venues for long periods while fans walked across parking lots and sidewalks to get to the games. Ultimately, the ad game is an arena you need to ap-


proach with caution. Do lots of research first, rather than just jumping in – otherwise, you may experience a letdown even in a promising location. Jon Waldman is a marketing strategist with Cohesive


Marketing. To learn more about the services the company offers, call 204-992-6400 or visit www.cohesive.ca.


16 Smart Biz


screen just above the keyboard and make a reassuring little pop when I touch them. Like any new friend, it takes time


to get to know it but each day brings a new discovery. Yesterday, we added my drop box and now I can take my office with me wherever I go without my computer. I don’t think I want to type a story on it, but I could in a pinch. I love the size – the screen is large


Bold Ideas Dorothy Dobbie


enough to enjoy the photos I take (wonderfully sharp, clear, lots of pixels, and easy to see outside). At 13 megapixels, the quality is there


so I can use them in my magazines at 300 DPI and still get a good-sized image. It has a front camera for selfies if you are of a mind to record your own movements. With 32 gigs of internal storage, it is about twice the size of


the first computer we used to create our Manitoba Gardener magazine. It’s fast and responsive, with 3 GB of RAM, and you can add memory if you like… but it wasn’t my intention to give you a technical review. I don’t want to give you a review at all – I just want to let eve-


ryone know how happy I am with this little device. Te Blackberry Passport easily takes the place of the tablet,


which has so many limitations and is too large to be conveni- ent. I feel safe in predicting that the Blackberry Passport and its imitators will make the tablet obsolete. I can do everything on my Passport that I can do on a tablet – and take it with me in my purse. It fits in all the pockets I’ve tried it in, including those belonging to my husband. It’s a long time since I have been as delighted with a little


toy like this – maybe because this one is perfect for business. I can surf the net, take notes, pictures and videos (and send them all), play games, text, email, and make calls – it has voice recognition and a really good speakerphone. Tere are all kinds of apps for it and more coming, many of them really useful for business purposes.


True patriot love But what delights me most of all is the fact that this device is The Blackberry 10 Passport. Photo courtesy of Blackberry.


Canadian. Am I a chauvinist? Yes, I guess so, but isn’t it about time we took some pride when Canadians do something won- derful? Blackberry has been a leader from the start, demonstrat- ing just what kind of talent we produce here in the frozen north. I think we should all be using the product, even if it wasn’t such a clear pleasure and a leader in so many ways. Te sad thing is that I had to go to an American store to get


my Blackberry Passport. MTS had a 20-name waiting list and doesn’t stock the phone in their stores. Rogers will only bring it in upon request, making you wait a week or so. I wanted one right away so I went to Future Shop who was glad to oblige, and gave us a $50 rebate on an old phone plus a phenomenal price on the new one. I had to abandon my decade-long Rogers account to get the


phone, though, and give up my idea of maybe bundling my services at MTS. Now we are with Telus, which doesn’t have the best range in Manitoba, but meets my citywide needs just fine. And the monthly price is right. I’m happy. I love my new phone and I love that it is a home-


grown product. Go see, feel, and try it out for yourself – and support a Canadian company.


R-R-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me Is it an RRSP or TFSA I should be investing in?


uting to an RRSP. So when it comes down to it – what should we be doing? It is a common miscon-


F


ception that an RRSP is an investment. Firstly, the term RRSP is an acronym for Registered Retirement Savings Plan. Tis is a fed- erally sponsored program that the Canadian gov- ernment implemented to encourage us to save more for our retirement. Secondly, it is a choice


rom now until the end of Febru- ary, we will be overstimulated with messages about contrib-


returned to you without interest but the upside is you are saving for your retirement (as long as you save the refund).


In essence your money


goes in tax-free. It then grows within the invest- ment tax deferred, meaning you have no tax charges while the investment stays within the realm of the registered plan. Te tax implication from


to register an investment under the terms guided by the plan. Simply put, think of an RRSP as the vehicle and the in- vestments as passengers. Te vehicles can be anything you choose whether it be an RRSP, TFSA, Open Investment, etc. and the passengers can be your choice of a long list of investments that can participate. Why is it a deal?


Financial Literacy


Janice Desautels


using this method comes during the withdrawal phase of the funds from your investment to use as retirement income. Where in our financial lifetime does an RRSP strategy fit?


Contributing to an RRSP strategy as


the first step to saving for your retire- ment may not be the best to maximize your saving potential. For example, if you are starting out in your career, you may be at the first level tax bracket. If you are confident that you will


The deal is in the tax treatment.


Te income to be invested has been taxed according to the tax bracket it falls into. When you contribute to an investment that has been registered as an RRSP, the rules governing the plan stipulate that contributions can be tax-free. Hence the reason why you would get a tax refund after declaring the contribution on your tax return. Some may misinterpret this as


“free” money but it actually is a tax payment returned back to you. Te downside to this method is that it is


remain in this tax bracket through- out your career and then have saved enough to remain at this tax bracket in retirement, then what gain have you achieved? Te gain will be very little purely calculating the comparison in tax. However, as you move through your


working life, it can be conceivable that you move up into higher tax brack- ets, save more, and can retire with a higher income pushing you into a higher tax bracket. If you received the tax relief at a lower percentage than the tax bracket


www.smartbizwpg.com


in retirement, then you really didn’t maximize the strategy as you would be paying a higher percentage of tax in the future. The use of other strategies when


your earning opportunities are grow- ing could be of better use for maximiz- ing your saving potential. I’m sure you would agree that our pot of money is not infinite and to get the best bang for our buck comes with some planning. Te TFSA


We now have another means to


bridge the gap to when the RRSP strat- egy would be the most optimal, and that is another federally sponsored plan referred to as the TFSA – or Tax Free Savings Account. Contributions into an investment registered by this type of plan are after tax dollars. We do not receive any tax refund


on our contribution, but as the funds grow in the investment, like in the RRSP vehicle, it does grow tax de- ferred. What makes this strategy ad- vantageous is when we choose to use these savings as an income stream, it will be tax-free. We can contribute $5,500 a year, and if you’ve not con- tributed to date, the ceiling is $31,000. Both vehicles are worthy savings


strategies. Talk to a qualified finan- cial professional to help guide you to make the best decision to maximize your savings potential now and in the future. Janice Desautels has been working


with families and individuals for the last seven years helping educate in the field of financial literacy. She is a Certified Financial Educator with over 15 years experience in teaching and training adults.


January 2015


y Blackberry 10 Passport is my new best friend. Slim but substantial; it feels like coming home. It’s smooth and elegant to the touch, but it has that tactile little


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