As some of you know, I sit on the board of the Childrens Wish charity for my region in Canada (Manitoba & Nunavut). Today, I attended a grand opening of a local business that understands integration marketing is indeed an art (pun intended)! I think we can all learn from their success and endeavor to apply integration marketing  tactics in our own businesses.

ArtLandStudio.ca is a new business that provides art classes & workshops for kids aged 2+! Their target market is a very specific niche and they obviously put some serious thought to how they would launch their new business location to the Winnipeg community. For their Grand Opening they chose to approach the Childrens Wish charity to be a part of their first day & obviously plan to support CW as their Charity of choice.

The marriage of the two organizations is integration marketing at it’s finest! ArtLandStudio with one phone call was able to tap into having Childrens Wish help promote their business, while at same time help promote the charity all day for every parent & child who attended the Grand Opening! A true win-win for both businesses. The place was packed with kids and their parents, many of which I recognized as folks connected to our charity.

Could this work for you?

Take some time to think about other organizations that would jointly benefit from your promotion, launch, event, and if you can involve a like minded charity all the better.

Often integration marketing can bring to the table something your business needs while at the same time providing value to the other organization. What an awesome way to grow!!!

Take some time to consider the art of integration marketing & you may just surprise yourself on what you can come up with…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Took this surreal photo late last year & at the time with the ice cold wind chilling me to the bone it reminded me of being Canadian. If frozen toes, a Tim Hortons coffee and an outdoor ice hockey rink being cleaned by a Zamboni aren’t ‘The Canadian Way’ then I don’t know what is!

Just a few days ago our Junior Canadian Hockey team lost 5-3 to the Russians at the World Championships in Buffalo. Losing at hockey isn’t what this pictures is about, but I did want to pass on the message to all our players that we are still very proud & we all look forward to Team Canada kicking butt next year!

On Wednesday, September 1st Round two of  voting opened up for David Suzuki’s & CBC Radio 3′s Playlist for the Planet. Please keep reading as I need YOUR help over the next week until September 8th (I’ll explain more at the end)…

With over 750 songs entered in the contest & after all your voting in round one, ‘One & The Same’ has made the top 5 songs in Manitoba & with your help this week it could be chosen as the number one environmental anthem in Manitoba, and be put on the Universal Music album being released this October! All proceeds from the sale of this album will go to help saving our planet through the David Suzuki foundation. Our children deserve to inherit a healthy planet!

Until September 8th please  vote once per day to help ‘One & The Same’ go down in history as an environmental anthem next to such great artists as Joel Plaskett, Bruce Cockburn, Broken Social Scene, k-os, Gordon Lightfoot, Randy Bachman (with Sarah McLachlan and Nikki Yanofsky), DOA, Tom Jackson, Johnny Reid, Raffi, LIGHTS, Jessie Farrell, Rush, the Trews, Great Big Sea, and Tanya Tagaq.

Here is how you vote:

1. Please go here & vote once per day for  ‘One & The Same’ until  Wednesday,  September 8th: http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/polls/?pollId=73 (Login if you have already registered as a free member or take 2 seconds to signup for free)

2. If you want me to keep you up to date & hear how this all turns out please select the ‘Become a Fan’ button on this page: http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/Raito/One-and-The-Same

3. Please share this with anyone & everyone you can..

Lastly, I can’t thank you enough as I couldn’t have come this far with out you & all my other friends!!!Now, lets go & win this thing!

For a great cause, I officially released my first (independent) single ‘One & The Same‘ (scratch another off the bucket list):

I wrote and recorded in studio this song specifically for the David Suzuki ‘Playlist for the Planet’ in hopes of making a small difference in this world that we can all choose to save. Two artists/songs will be selected from  100′s to be on a Major Label album this November, with all proceeds going to the David Suzuki Foundation which will directly help our planet for future generations.

You can check the song out here: http://www.my1.ca

If you connect with the lyrics & music please take the time to sign up on the CBC website as a fan and FAVORITE the song! Voting will start August 15th, so I will be hitting you up again then to help cast a few votes my way.

Hope you enjoy the song and that it affects even a few small changes in the world!!!

Again, anything you can do to help is appreciated.

Good Karma,

Lee

When a city has an operating budget close to 800 Million dollars per year there is just no excuse to have broken signs at our most famous corner.

Hopefully, the right people will see this and take action.

It has been widely quoted, that an agreement signed in 1976 between the City of Winnipeg and the Portage & Main Building Owners has been the primary reason why a pedestrian crossing at Portage & Main has not be implemented. Our mayor has been quoted in the media as saying with out all the property owners consent, he would not proceed in good faith because of this agreement.

Here it is folks:

You can download the entire agreement here: http://leeraito.com/download/Dec20-1976.pdf

Here is the Trizec Building  Agreement: http://leeraito.com/download/Trizec_Building_Agreement.pdf

Suffice to say, I stand behind the idea of the Portage & Main Pedestrian Overpass Proposal now more than ever. If all the city needs to do is provide access from the new structure to Winnipeg Square, then in good faith of the 1976 agreement that is what we should do!

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As a proud resident of Winnipeg and believer in the revitalization of our downtown, I have come up with a solution to the long standing debate on whether to open up pedestrian traffic at our infamous  intersection of Portage & Main. It has been 4 years since the City last held a design contest and nothing has happened, maybe it’s time for another one!

To read the hard to see text on the image:  http://www.LeeRaito.com/download/portageandmain.pdf  

Yes, Winnipeg should open up Portage & Main to pedestrian traffic and can do so WITHOUT affecting automobile traffic whatsoever. The establishment of a world class Pedestrian Overpass & Tourist Destination is the only solution that makes sense to both parties; pedestrians & automobiles. In addition to the blatantly obvious benefits to pedestrians being able to easily get to their desired downtown destination directly, there are many side benefits to building a pedestrian overpass directly above Portage & Main.

Potential Benefits:

Obvious Benefit: Automobile traffic unaffected and pedestrians can easily navigate to any corner of Portage & Main with out having to go below ground.

Revenue: There are many potential revenue streams.

1. Advertising revenue from state of the art TV Billboards.
2. Business & Property taxes if shops are developed.
3. Revenue and exposure from the movie industry.
4. Ancillary revenue to downtown businesses from increased tourist traffic.

Environmental: This can and should be a green initiative attempting to leave no lasting environmental footprint.

1. We could include in the design some form of automobile exhaust capture and filtering to improve air quality downtown, and lessen the impact of Winnipeg’s overall environmental footprint on our planet.
2. Harness Portage & Main’s famous wind and convert to electricity to power part of the facility.
3. Solar power could as well be considered, any excess electricity produced could be pushed back to the grid.

Downtown Revitalization: If we successfully design and build a world class structure that tourists & Winnipeg residents want to visit, this will bring us one step closer to fully revitalizing our downtown. 

Of course, the idea in itself raises questions. 

Questions Raised:

• Should the overpass remain open to the elements or should it become a closed in heated over pass with stores and other facilities?
• Can designers successfully work into the plans wheel chair accessibility?
• How can we ensure this remains a green project, and minimize its environmental footprint?
• During construction how would businesses and current pedestrian traffic be affected?

Download the 1 Page PDF Visual Concept Here: http://www.LeeRaito.com/download/portageandmain.pdf  

Statement: I am not an artist and the structure depicted should and will drastically change for the better as this proposal moves forward. As recommended in the PDF, the City Of Winnipeg should establish an International Design contest to find the best workable concept. This idea has been forwarded to Winnipeg City Council for consideration.

Please contribute your thoughts, questions, agreement &  or concerns below… just hit the comment button!