Gavin Lobo

For all of you who were wondering where Aviva Canada stands in the Insurance company ranking:

Source: CANADIAN P&C INSURANCE INDUSTRY: 2007 total direct written business.

My first seven days at work were focused on learning everything about the Aviva Canada Change Insurance sites (EN/FR). The English site can be found here - www.changeinsurance.ca. Feel free to leave me comments, feedback, and usability regarding the site as I would love to hear from you. If you are more interested in interacting with the site you can get involved through the Blog. A cool tool on the site is the premium impact calculator that calculates changes to your premium based on certain driving criteria.

School Cafe

If you are looking for a cool week-end brunch spot in Toronto I would recommend School Bakery & Cafe! The place is located in the Liberty Village area and has a great vibe to it. The menu is excellent and the food tastes great.  The menu was surprisingly affordable and has some very cool food combinations. I totally recommend the spot for brunch during the week-end. Plus there is a ton of Green P parking just across the cafe and when you’re done you can take a lazy walk around the Old Carpet Factory and re-discover the area.

If you are ever in the market for some cool surface graphics (decals) you have to consider http://www.whatisblik.com/ - Blik has really cool designs and art work that rock the senses! They also have some great re-stick graphic designs for a baby room. The idea is not new but the creativity behind the graphics is wild. I think I need the Nintendo Mario decal for our bedroom. It’s on to the business case development process for me.

With approx. 87% of Canada’s online population on or using social networking sites it is becoming rather imperative that your company has an online social networking strategy. This strategy should include but is not limited to:

- Social Network (SN) groups/communities

- SN advertising

- SN & Blog integration

- SN search strategies

- SN research and evaluation

- SN co-branded promotions

- A SN resource dedicated to managing all of the above

- Company blog content and link management

Your brand is being discussed in groups and social communities online and you need a marketing/brand advocate to manage and monitor these interactions while providing senior management with weekly or monthly reports. With such a large online population using social networks you will have (or will soon have!) geographic and psychographic data to target new or existing segments online to grow or retain customers. Your advertising can be a lot more targeted and in doing so drive better results. I also believe SN is an integral part of online customer service and soon if not already you will find a more of your customer interaction occurring within social networks.

Stay ahead of the curve and start integrating social networking marketers into your organization or expect to be left behind.