Delvinia-Designed Website Launched by Canadian Opera Company

The Canadian Opera Company has launched a newly designed website, created by Delvinia. The fresh design, unveiled this week, builds upon the recent launch of the COC’s new brand.

Since 2008, Delvinia has worked closely with the COC as its Digital Marketing Sponsor, developing the opera company’s overall digital strategy and experience design, initially relaunching the COC’s website, coc.ca, in January 2009. The latest refresh, which includes strategic improvements to the website and eOpera newsletter, reflects the COC’s new look and builds upon the organization’s commitment to developing an engaging digital experience for its audience.

“The introduction of the COC’s new brand provided the perfect opportunity to refresh the website,” said Delvinia CEO Adam Froman. “The improvements are rooted in an understanding of the digital behaviours of the COC’s audience and the key performance indicators we integrated into the site in 2009. Through the collection of more than two years of transactional data and behavioural insights from Delvinia’s proprietary AskingCanadians™ online research community, we determined which features of the site were performing well and tweaked or eliminated those that weren’t.”

Froman continues, “By adopting Delvinia’s approach and using data-informed insights as a means to continually improve their digital offering, the COC has gained a thorough understanding of the role of digital in the overall opera experience. This demonstrates that the COC is an organization any company can learn from to maximize the potential of digital technologies.”

The site refresh includes a new homepage with a prominent link to purchase tickets and online subscriptions as well as tabs directing visitors to information about upcoming operas, the blog, and what’s happening behind the scenes. The site also integrates more content-rich imagery, designed to match the confidence of the new brand while illustrating the essence of operatic theatre.

“I am very pleased with the look and functionality of the website, which aligns with the COC’s refreshed brand,” said COC General Director Alexander Neef. “As our Digital Marketing Sponsor, Delvinia has been a great partner in helping the COC to develop a digital strategy that reflects the company’s commitment to quality and delivers an experience that meets the needs of our audience.”

Since forming its partnership with the COC in 2008, Delvinia has also redesigned the COC’s online subscription renewal process, launched a web simulcast of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera broadcasts, hosted a live webcast of the press conference announcing the 2010/2011 season and conducted a social media readiness survey, which laid the foundation for the COC’s social media strategy.

AskingCanadians™ Poll: How do Canadians Feel About the Federal Election?

Political change doesn’t come cheap in Canada. But despite taxpayers’ frequent complaints about the high costs associated with staging a general election—estimated at roughly $300 million—a lesser price tag wouldn’t sway the majority of Canadians when it comes to their views on heading to the ballot box on May 2.

In a recent AskingCanadians™ poll, conducted by Delvinia Data Collection, the majority of Canadians (48.3 per cent) said they are against heading to the polls this spring—even if the costly price tag were eliminated. Meanwhile, 35.2 per cent of Canadians indicated they would support the election call if it weren’t for the costs involved.

However, despite indicating they don’t want an election, the majority of Canadians (51.5 per cent) said they would have voted in opposition to last week’s federal budget, effectively defeating the Harper government. The remaining 48.5 per cent of Canadians would have voted in favour of fiscal plan.

In the last federal election, held in October 2008, a record low 59.1 per cent of Canadians cast votes. However, according to our survey, 76.3 per cent of Canadians said they intend to vote this spring. Of those who don’t plan to cast a ballot, 35.5 per cent indicated it’s because they’re just not interested, 20.9 per cent said it’s because they don’t like the parties or the candidates, and 18.2 per cent said they’ll abstain because there are simply too many elections. (Ontarians, who voted in a municipal election last October and are facing a provincial election this coming fall, will be making three trips to the polls within a one-year span.)

If Canadians had the option of casting their ballots online, 64.8 per cent said that ability would have a favourable impact on their decision to vote, while 23.5 per cent said it would have no impact on their decision and 11.7 per cent said they were unsure if it would influence them one way or another.

In terms of the balance of power in Ottawa, 53.6 per cent of Canadians believe it will remain unchanged as a result of the current campaign, while 23.5 per cent of respondents believe there will be a new governing party come May 2.

The data for this poll, which included 1,064 respondents, was collected between March 25-28.

Established in 2005, AskingCanadians™ is Canada’s most influential online survey community with a panel of more than 160,000 members across Canada. Joining the AskingCanadians™ panel is free to Canadians who are in the age of majority in the provinces they reside, or have the permission of their parents or legal guardian.

Delvinia’s DIY Markham Campaign Wins Internet Advertising Award

Delvinia’s DIY Markham campaign, created to raise awareness of the 2010 municipal election in the Town of Markham and to increase citizen engagement in the municipality, has been recognized with an award for Best Government Online Video in the Web Marketing Association’s 2011 Internet Advertising Competition.

The social media awareness campaign, designed and implemented by Delvinia, was launched by the Town in September 2010 to inform local residents about the upcoming municipal election. The campaign centred on the use of humorous online videos—distributed through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube—to engage voters and increase awareness about the delivery of municipal services and the importance of voting at the local level.

The easy-to-share videos depicted a world in which residents were responsible for their own municipal services—such as garbage removal and water treatment—and illustrated how, in the end, the easiest way to address these issues is to vote. The videos featured tongue-in-cheek scenarios of what do-it-yourself versions of parks and recreation, fire services, garbage collection and water services might look like.

“Since 2003, Delvinia has been involved in a partnership with the Town of Markham to help the municipality strategically use digital technologies to increase public engagement in government,” said Delvinia CEO Adam Froman. “It is rewarding to see our combined efforts having an impact at the local level and an honour to be recognized for our work with Markham.”

With Delvinia’s support and expertise, Markham became the first major Canadian municipality to introduce Internet voting in 2003. Since then, Delvinia has also worked with Markham on the “Click with Markham” and “Greenprint” initiatives as well as 2006 election. Last fall, Delvinia partnered with the municipality to increase citizen engagement in the 2010 election and the DIY Markham campaign was designed as one component of the Town’s larger “Your Vote Counts” campaign. Overall, the Facebook page received more than 3,300 views and of the 17,231 Markham electors who registered to vote electronically, 10,597 used the Internet to cast their ballots.

“By incorporating social media as part of Markham’s voter-awareness strategy in 2010, Delvinia assisted Markham in creating a unique initiative that helped the municipality to connect with voters,” said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti. “The project also laid the groundwork for greater potential outreach in the future. We’re thrilled to be recognized with this award and congratulate our team on their work.”

To view the rest of the DIY Markham videos, visit the DIY Markham page on YouTube.

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