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Portfolio
You can browse our portfolio in the way that suits you best: by keyword in the tag cloud or by scrolling down the page to see all our projects.
communications creative education management marketing non-profit publishing research strategy web writing and editing
Project: Agriteam Style Guide
Client: Agriteam Canada
Brief: Editorial Guide for Company Documents
Background: Agriteam Canada is a major international consulting firm for governance and social development in Asia, Africa, and South America. It commissioned a Turner-Riggs Style Guide to provide protocols for well-written and consistent proposals, marketing materials, and other external communications. We worked with an executive team to customize the guide and make it as relevant as possible to Agriteam’s communication goals.
Project: British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
Client: British Columbia Achievement Foundation
Brief: Launch | Media | Marketing
Background: The British Columbia Achievement Foundation asked us to help launch a new national literary prize in 2005. We developed a positioning strategy and media and promotions programs, as well as an approach to the award presentation that, as the Canada Council for the Arts noted, “imbued the entire day with a dynamism and realness seldom seen at awards ceremonies”. With its cash value of $40,000, the British Columbia Award is now Canada’s largest prize for literary non-fiction. We continue to work with the foundation to build awareness among Canada’s publishers, authors, and readers, and to develop new collaborative partnerships around the award program—including a 2007 media partnership with CBC Radio One.
Project: British Columbia Community Achievement Awards
Client: British Columbia Achievement Foundation
Brief: Advertising | Copywriting
Background: The British Columbia Achievement Foundation administers a variety of provincial and national awards programs focused on the arts and community service. We helped them build promotional materials for their Community Achievement Award program. These included a set of public service advertisements that ran in major papers throughout British Columbia, and copywriting for the award program’s print materials.
Project: Outward Bound? An Exploratory Study of Magazine Exports
Client: British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
Brief: Market Study
Background: How interested are British Columbia’s magazine publishers in developing export markets? How ready are they to do so, and what does it take to succeed? We set out to answer these questions in 2004 with this study, which explored a range of export strategies, including single-copy sales at retail; subscription sales; licensing and joint ventures; and branded content and rights sales.
Outward Bound? stands as some of the only formal work in this area. We presented its findings in BC and at national conferences in Toronto.
Project: Southern Exposure: Newsstand and Subscription Marketing in the United States
Client: British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
Brief: Market Study
Background: If you’re a Canadian magazine publisher in search of new readers, it’s hard not to be enticed by the US market, given that it has ten times Canada’s population, few trade restrictions, a shared language, and a fair bit of common social and historical ground. This 2005 study looks at major circulation sources in the United States, including direct mail, subscription agents, the Internet, and cross-promotional partnerships, along with current issues and strategies for success on US newsstands.
Project: London Calling: The Magazine Market in the United Kingdom
Client: British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
Brief: Market Study
Background: The United Kingdom is Canada’s third largest export market worldwide, and our most important market in Europe, accounting for one-third of all Canada-European Union trade. This 2005 study provides broad recommendations for export development in the UK and a detailed overview of the British magazine market, addressing both major circulation sources and the island’s famously efficient national distribution system for newsstand.
Project: BC Book & Magazine Week
Client: British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers/Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia
Brief: Media | Promotions
Background: BC Book & Magazine Week is an annual festival that offers dozens of ways for the public to rub shoulders with local writers and publishers. It features readings, workshops, parties, and performances in communities around British Columbia. We worked with the two industry associations that organize the festival to develop media strategies and secure expanded print and broadcast coverage. Beginning in 2006, we incorporated an online outreach program and dedicated blog that added a highly effective viral component to BCBMW promotions.
Project: The Made Here, Read Everywhere Campaign
Client: British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
Brief: Strategy | Advertising | Promotions
Background: The BC Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP) represents a diverse group of consumer and trade magazines, so diverse that a main challenge of this project—a public awareness campaign—was to develop a unified message that could speak for all BCAMP members. We built a campaign strategy around the common thread running through all of them regardless of subject or readership: pride of place and connection to BC. The campaign was first introduced in 2006 and extended in 2007. It included magazine placements, outdoor media, animated pre-cinema advertisements, and point-of-purchase collateral—supported by a campaign website and contest promotion.
Project: The Book Retail Sector in Canada
Client: Department of Canadian Heritage
Brief: Market Study
Background: Commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage and conducted in 2007, this study created the first comprehensive overview of the Canadian consumer book market, including the dramatic changes taking place in book retail. The Book Retail Sector in Canada is structured as a collection of linked studies, each of which explores a major aspect of the marketplace: reading and book buying behaviour, the size and composition of the consumer book market in Canada, the traditional book retail channel, the book market in Quebec, non-traditional sales channels, and online book retail.
The Globe and Mail has called the study an “essential reference work” for the industry and policy makers alike.
Project: External Review: Event Magazine
Client: Event Magazine
Brief: Management | Strategy
Background: In a bid to improve its operating effectiveness and long-term viability, Event magazine commissioned this external review of its operations, editorial position, and strategic direction. The review process consisted of an extensive discovery process, two facilitated workshops with the magazine’s staff and advisory board, and one-on-one interviews with staff and members of the advisory board. Findings provided the magazine with a strategic framework for further planning and served as a catalyst for greater engagement with the advisory board and other key stakeholder groups.
Project: Business Plan: Geist Magazine
Client: Geist Magazine
Brief: Management | Strategy
Background: Undertaken over a two-year period of planning and pilot implementation, this project resulted in a comprehensive business plan for Geist, Canada’s most widely circulated literary magazine. It included strategies for expanded fundraising and advertising sales as well as newsstand and subscription sales. We worked closely with the magazine to develop and test many of the ideas in the business plan, and later presented strategies from the plan at a national conference for magazine publishers.
Project: Geist House Advertisements
Client: Geist Magazine
Brief: Advertising
Background: Geist is Canada’s most widely circulated literary magazine. It spearheads many innovative programs and offers for readers, aspiring writers, educators, and others. We developed this series of “house advertisements” (advertisements about the magazine itself) that ran extensively in Geist and also in other Canadian literary magazines.
Project: ICEF Online User Guides
Client: ICEF
Brief: User Support
Background: ICEF Online (a joint Australian-German venture) is a collaborative Internet platform that enables educators and international recruitment agents to connect easily and efficiently to each other and to resources that help drive international student enrolments. We developed two series of user guides, one for agents and one for educators, to orient new users to the system.
Project: The ICEF Bulletin
Client: ICEF
Brief: Electronic Newsletter
Background: German-based ICEF is the market leader in connecting education providers and student recruitment agents to key markets and networks worldwide. ICEF’s global network includes more than 50,000 clients, colleagues, and partners. We worked with ICEF to create the ICEF Bulletin, an electronic newsletter hosted on the client website and delivered via email. We support the bulletin’s ongoing publication by writing, editing, designing, and delivering up to six issues per year.
Project: ICEF Branding
Client: ICEF
Brief: Branding | Positioning
Background: German-based ICEF is a market leader in connecting education providers and student recruitment agents to key markets and networks worldwide. The company has expanded greatly in recent years, culminating in the launch of three new product groups in 2007. We worked with ICEF to develop a comprehensive positioning strategy and branding program to reflect its expansion and leadership position in the international marketplace. We conducted client and staff interviews and a competitive analysis to understand the firm’s current position; developed a set of strategies to move the firm toward new opportunities; and ultimately created a comprehensive branding package—including copy, redesigned company marks, and graphic standards—for use across all print and electronic publications and other key brand touchpoints for the firm.
Project: Content Development for International Market Research Company
Client: Ipsos
Brief: Writing | Editing
Background: Ipsos uses cutting-edge research methodology to guide clients’ marketing and product development questions. This project involved communicating Ipsos capabilities and findings clearly and in plain language through materials such as newsletters, brochures, white papers, and press releases to both internal and external audiences. The white papers were written for senior executives, requiring in-depth interviewing, solid grasp of numerous methodologies and sectoral specializations (e.g., pharmaceutical, technology, environment), and a skill for transforming complicated research language into a more mainstream style.
Project: World Monitor: Global Trends in Consumer Behavior and Public Opinion
Client: Ipsos
Brief: Corporate Magazine
Background: From 2000 to 2005, Kiley served as the editor-in-chief of World Monitor, an online and print digest of global marketplace and civic trends. World Monitor was based on hundreds of thousands of dollars of primary Ipsos research, and subscribers ranged from Coke and Procter & Gamble to the US State Department and Canadian Heritage. Kiley oversaw the editorial direction and content of World Monitor, and also played a key role in questionnaire design and analysis as well as marketing.
Project: Magazine Economics and Management 101
Client: Magazines Canada
Brief: Management Training
Background: Magazines Canada is a national association of magazine publishers. The association produces a series of resources for publishers, including Magazine Economics and Management 101. We contributed a chapter on management that explores the functions of management, key organizational strategies, and the nature of leadership in organizations.
Project: New Title Promotion
Client: McClelland and Stewart/Macfarlane, Walter & Ross
Brief: Marketing Strategy
Background: Working closely with the publishing team, we identified non-traditional sales channels, sponsorship opportunities, and cross-promotional partnerships for selected Macfarlane, Walter & Ross titles.
Project: Web Content Development for New Non-Profit Initiative
Client: Pacific Salmon Foundation
Brief: Information Design | Copywriting | Editing
Background: The Pacific Salmon Foundation created a new campaign, Think Salmon, to provide news and information about Pacific salmon and to encourage the BC public to act in salmon-friendly ways. A principal component of this campaign is its website, www.thinksalmon.com. Turner-Riggs was hired by Work Industries to develop content and write the copy for the launch of this groundbreaking social website, designed by Hop Studios (the same team that got our site up and running!)
Project: Writing Assignments: Toronto Life and Saturday Night
Client: St. Joseph Media
Brief: Feature Editorial
Background: From 2004 to 2006, we took on a number of editorial commissions from the editors of Toronto Life and Saturday Night, with subjects ranging from personal finance to online bookselling to a feature interview with Iron Chef Rob Feenie.
Project: PExOD Business Plan
Client: Simon Fraser University
Brief: Strategy | Marketing
Background: PExOD is a web-based bibliographic database software tool developed as an industry service by the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing (CCSP) at Simon Fraser University. It is designed to allow small and medium-sized publishers to record, access and exchange bibliographic data (i.e., descriptive and trading information about the books they publish) with their business partners according to the international ONIX data standard. We worked with the PExOD team to develop key positioning, operational, and financial strategies for the national launch of this specialized software application.
Project: Theytus Books Business Plan
Client: Theytus Books
Brief: Strategy | Marketing
Background: Founded in 1980, Theytus Books is the leading First Nations-owned and operated publishing house in Canada. Theytus engaged us to conduct an assessment of the house’s operations and practices; identify opportunities for improvement; and recommend ways the firm could increase its effectiveness in the near term—by building revenues and improving practices to optimize staff time and other key resources. The strategic plan that resulted addressed a number of key areas within the firm, including branding, operations, sales strategy and management, and online marketing.
Project: www.truworld.ca
Client: TRU World, Thompson Rivers University
Brief: Website
Background: TRU’s history of international engagement dates back over 30 years. International projects and linkages currently extend to more than 45 countries with students from more than 65 nations enrolled at the main campus in Kamloops, BC. The TRU World website is an important platform for the university’s international activities. We worked with the marketing team at TRU World to establish the concept and architecture for the site, and then with a development team to develop the user interface and complete the site. We manage the site for TRU World, including content updates, troubleshooting, and ongoing development.
Project: Marketing Collateral: TRU World
Client: TRU World, Thompson Rivers University
Brief: Print Collateral
Background: TRU World is the international education, training, and development division at Thompson Rivers University. We manage major marketing collateral projects for the division, including concept development, content development, and art direction for new publications. Recent projects include a 32-page international portfolio/annual report and a 52-page international recruitment booklet.
Project: The UNESCO City of Literature
Client: Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia
Brief: Impact Study | Strategic Plan
Background: A broad-based community group in Vancouver is working to secure a UNESCO City of Literature designation for Vancouver (a formal recognition akin to a World Heritage Site designation). We were engaged to conduct an impact study and to work with the group to develop the goals, scope of activity, and operating structure associated with the designation. After concluding the study, we were retained to prepare the formal application dossier for UNESCO.
Project: Ghostwriting
Client: Classified
Brief: Distill the essence of an author’s book through a news feature article
Background: The client required a 1,500-word article on a tight deadline that conveyed the most compelling points of just-published book in a tone approximating the author’s voice. The article—on how to create effective advertising—was published in major Canadian media and created buzz for the book.