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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

Why and How to Add More Diversity Into Your Marketing Efforts

Following the heightened activity during the COVID-19 lockdowns of ongoing ground-breaking movements like Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate calling attention to systemic issues in society, more people are taking a stand against the hidden and not-so-hidden injustices in the world – and companies are no exception.

There has been a groundswell of corporate engagement on issues that affect marginalized folks, and with it, a push for more diversity and inclusion in marketing campaigns, such as ones done by Coca-Cola, Google, and more.

Diversity goes beyond race and gender; it includes age, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, ability, and a variety of other factors. There are many reasons to consider these groups in your marketing efforts, and beyond. However, it’s important to avoid “woke-washing,” performative efforts to jump on the bandwagon of a movement – often to cash in – while not actually working to address a systemic issue.

Fear not: we’ve come up with a guide to help you add more diversity to your marketing efforts in an authentic, actionable way to truly make the world better.

Why You Should Consider Adding More Diversity to Your Marketing

  • Enhance brand perception and loyalty. An Adobe survey found that 62% of adults say diversity in a company’s ads impacted the way they perceive a brand, and 38% say they’d be more likely to trust a brand with diversity in their advertising. It’s not a coincidence that a brand that focuses on diversity and inclusion makes people feel, well, included.

    On the flip side, lacking diversity can lead to unwanted consequences. Top Design Firms reported this finding: “If two brands offer the exact same product, one in three consumers (34%) would consider each brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion when making their final purchasing decision.” By showcasing diversity in your marketing, you increase trust and loyalty with your customers.
  • Make customers feel represented. Think of your marketing like a high school cafeteria: if your marketing is mostly white, male, able-bodied, young, and affluent, there’s a big chunk of the population who would feel like they wouldn’t fit in at that table. Instead, these people would go to another spot in the cafeteria where not only would they fit in, but thrive with other similar people. Try to include all types of people in your marketing so everyone feels invited to take a seat.
  • Grow your audience. When your marketing represents more of the population, more people come to your table. Therefore, not only do people feel good about being included, but you grow your audience of people to market to, which continues to build as they share your company with their audiences. It’s really a win/win.
  • Increase your profits. About two-thirds of consumers consider making a purchase immediately after seeing an ad they consider to be diverse, and two-thirds of consumers also consider making a second purchase from a brand they believe is committed to diversity and inclusion, according to a Top Design Firms report. On top of that, by growing your audience, you have a bigger pool of potential customers to market to, and therefore, potentially sell your products or services to. 

How to Add More Diversity to Your Marketing 

  • Think beyond imagery. While it’s important to showcase diversity in your images, it’s important to take it a step further and put in the work behind the scenes. 
    • You’ll want to understand your target audience, including their demographics, values, opinions, and more. This will help you be authentic and thoughtful in your messaging to them. 
    • It’s also recommended to have diverse voices and points of view within your internal team so you’re truly practicing what you preach. This can also help avoid things like inadvertent cultural appropriation, or accidentally coming across as insulting or condescending to any audience segment. 
    • You may also want to audit your internal and external systems to gauge user experience. This is especially important in the case of ability, as you may be unintentionally excluding members of the population with certain disabilities if they’re unable to use your systems due to accessibility challenges. 
    • As well, it’s recommended to continually educate your team on politically-correct terms and allyship practices, historical contexts of certain groups, and current events that affect these groups today. For example, you can acknowledge the Indigenous land your company resides on somewhere on your website or social media profiles, and add the pronouns of your public-facing staff to show support to gender non-comforming and trans folks by helping normalize gender discussions.
  • Be strategic about your marketing. Choose your words and imagery carefully in your content, but know that a single ad or post isn’t going to please all people at all times. Try your best to be inclusive, politically-correct, and authentic, but if something is brought to your attention that wasn’t quite right, use it as a learning opportunity to do better next time. Acknowledge the shortcoming, and apply that knowledge to your next campaign. You can also look to your audience and directly ask what matters to them to ensure they feel seen and heard in your marketing. 

Get Expert Marketing Support with Sparx  

At Sparx, our mission is to create content to make the world better.
If you want to create inclusive marketing campaigns but aren’t sure where to start, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. We help purpose driven organizations secure their website, create great content, build experiences to delight their customers, and help grow their business. You can reach us here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

How to Create an Effective Marketing Strategy for Your Impact Organization

As we continue to navigate global challenges, it’s apparent that sustainable business practices are more important than ever. In response, there is a rise in impact organizations, companies that consciously, intentionally, and sustainably attempt to alleviate a local or global problem. 

While profit may still be a goal, “the main metric is whether the company achieves its aim of impacting social, cultural or environmental issues,” according to Entrepreneur. If this sounds like your organization, you may be tempted to shout your company’s goodness from the rooftop – and rightfully so. 

However, to achieve your goals, it’s important to broadcast your message in a way that ensures you reach the right people with the right message. Here’s our guide on how to create a marketing strategy to effectively and authentically promote your impact organization. 

Figure Out Your Impact Organization’s Goal

Before you begin your marketing strategy, you’ll first need to determine what you want to achieve in terms of your organization’s impact. Do you want to recycle a specific number of bottles? Deliver a certain number of free meals? Donate a set amount of clothing items?

To know how close you are to achieving your impact goal, you can use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). KPIs are measurements used to gauge aspects of your company’s overall long-term performance, and, in turn, your impact. 

For example, if your desired impact is donating a million free meals to people in need, a KPI could be the number of meals donated per sale made. The larger the sale, the more meals donated.

Once you have your KPIs in mind, you should determine what role your customers play – essentially, what action you want them to take to support the KPIs. Do you want them to make a purchase? Share a link to your company on their social channels? Watch a video to gain awareness of your cause?

In general, the better your company performs on the relevant KPIs, which are specific and measurable, the better you’re doing impact-wise

Determine Your Target Audience 

If you’ve ever implemented a communication or marketing strategy, you know the importance of determining your target audience before you begin. Your target audience are the people you want to reach; the people you want to take the desired actions you’ve outlined. 

For impact organizations, this step can be especially important to ensure your audience’s values are aligned with your company’s. According to a PwC Canada survey, 34% of Canadians are willing to pay a premium for brands known for their sustainability practices, and 33% for ethical and environmental considerations. Value-aligned customers are also typically more loyal, and more likely to take the actions you want them to.

So, how do you find your audience? Personas, semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers, can help guide you in the right direction. Use data or research from your past, current, or ideal customers to create profiles. 

Though many personas start with basic demographic data, it’s also helpful to include details like where this customer spends time both online and offline, personality type, likes and dislikes, lifestyle, and issues they care about.

You can then use these personas to tailor how, where, and when you speak to your audience, including determining your content types, communication channels, messaging, and tone.

Fine-Tune Your Messaging 

While you’ll need to reach the right customers, you’ll also need to reach them with the right message in order to get them to do the right thing. You’ll want to determine what you need to communicate to convince people to do this.

Consumers are increasingly becoming savvier and more aware of their options before they buy, especially consumers who are seeking information on environmental impact, ethical production, and fair treatment of stakeholders. 

As mentioned, your target audience may be willing to pay more for your products or services, but they’ll need to know why they should be choosing your company over another – particularly if there’s a cheaper or more immediate choice in the mix. 

Your messaging should address the “cost” or impact of this choice. Essentially, answer the question of why choosing your company’s product or service is better overall by highlighting the values and benefits. 

It’s also a good idea to be transparent about your impact progress for your current and prospective customers to see. 

For example, Canadian clothing company Tentree plants 10 trees for every item purchased (their KPI). To date, they have planted nearly 58 million trees (their progress), and have a goal to plant one billion trees by 2030 (their impact goal). This information is clearly and easily found on the homepage of their website.

Measure Your Marketing Strategy’s Success 

Once your message is out in the world, you’ll probably want to know how it’s doing – more specifically, if you’re actually reaching the right people and moving towards your impact goals. The KPIs you identified earlier can be a useful tool to see if your company is making headway on these goals. 

You can also look at how specific campaigns or content pieces are performing, and use this information to fine-tune your target audience, explore which types of content work best, A/B test different versions of your marketing collateral, and more.

As an impact organization, you’ve chosen the path that may be less travelled, but it’s also the path towards making the world better. So, don’t be shy to share your good deeds! Just remember to do it strategically and authentically to ensure you’re packing the strongest punch for your cause. 

Create Memorable Marketing Campaigns with Sparx

At Sparx, our mission is to create content to make the world better.

If you need help securing your website, creating great content, building experiences to delight your customers, marketing your business, or you simply have questions, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. You can reach us here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips Work Life & Culture

8 Benefits of Working from Home That Can Help Make the World Better

In early 2021, 32% of working-age Canadian employees worked mostly from home, compared to only 4% in 2016. As we enter a post-lockdown reality, many employees are considering working remotely on a permanent basis.

But is remote work worth it for the long haul? Surely employees will miss their water cooler buddies, cubicles, and ergonomic office chairs, right? Well, turns out, this may not always be the case. In fact, working from home can positively impact the environment, both inside and outside your home. 

At Sparx, we’ve embraced remote work, a decision that aligns with our mission to make the world better. Here’s our list of 8 benefits of working from home.

Benefits of Remote Work for the Environment

1. Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contribute to climate change through a warming effect in the Earth’s atmosphere. In a 29-year time span from 1990-2019, this warming effect from GHG added by humans increased by 45%. 

While GHG can be emitted from a variety of sources, transportation accounts for a significant portion. In Canada alone, GHG emissions from passenger vehicles increased 21% from 2000 to 2018. By working from home, you’ll cut out your drive or transit ride to work, which helps to reduce GHG emissions.  

2. Improved Air Quality

While there are many factors that affect air quality, the two most common sources are ground-level ozone and particulate matter (i.e. smoke, soot, dust, etc.). Gasoline vehicles are guilty of contributing to both of these sources, as they burn fuel, which creates nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds that combine to create ground-level ozone. Industrial sources are bigger culprits of pollution, but any way to decrease your individual impact helps. 

3. Decreased Carbon Footprint 

Did you know that buildings generate nearly 40% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions? Bigger office buildings require more energy to heat and cool, which means they have a higher carbon footprint. 

Whether or not a building implements greener practices, such as renewable energy, is often left up to the building management and not you as an employee. However, when you work from home, you’re able to better control your carbon footprint by turning off lights, minimizing your water usage, and controlling your heating and cooling. 

4. Reduced Waste

The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper and 156 plastic water bottles annually.  On top of that, there are often huge amounts of food waste from unfinished lunches and expired items in the office fridge. Of course, some waste is unavoidable in certain workplaces, and some workplaces do a better job than others at waste reduction overall. 

However, by working from home, you not only save paper by shifting to online documents, but you can better control your overall waste by recycling, composting, and using your own kitchenware instead of coffee cups and takeout containers.

5. Decreased Water Waste and Microplastics

Did you know that ditching the office dress code can have a positive impact on the environment? The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global water waste, and is a major source of microplastics in the world’s oceans.
Typically, remote workers have more leeway when it comes to apparel. As long as you look professional from the waist up for video calls, you’re fine! By not needing to purchase an additional work wardrobe to conform to a specific dress code, you can help reduce the consumption and waste associated with “fast fashion.”

Benefits of Remote Work for Your Personal Environment

6. Improved Work-Life Balance

You can’t make the world better if you’re not taking care of yourself. Remote work allows for a better work-life balance because you can spend more time with loved ones and enjoy more time for rest and relaxation that may otherwise have been spent commuting. 

Your employer may also offer the flexibility to schedule appointments, provide caregiving, and complete courses during the typical 9-5 that you would not otherwise be able to do. Just look at Finland; it’s no coincidence the happiest country in the world also leads the way in flexible work.

7. Increased Range of Job Opportunities

Working from home lets you spread your skills and expertise around the globe by providing a broader range of jobs that aren’t limited to your geographic location. 

Remote work also promotes inclusivity, as jobs aren’t filtering out prospective employees based on socioeconomic status, especially if an office is located in an expensive area that’s hard to find accommodation in. As well, it allows for greater accessibility and job opportunities for individuals with disabilities and the aging population.  

8. Decreased Commute-Related Stress

According to Stats Canada, over 12 million Canadians commuted by car in 2016, with an average commute time of 24 minutes. Those commuting by car, especially with long commutes, are at a greater risk for a variety of health problems. Studies have found that people who commute by car, especially those with long commutes, are at greater risk of health problems, including increased blood sugar, higher cholesterol, blood pressure spikes, back aches, and stress and anxiety that can lead to long-term health problems. 

By working from home, not only do you eliminate the pesky commute, you can prioritize your mental and physical health by getting more sleep, spending time with family, working out, and cooking healthier foods at home.  

Whether you’ve been working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, reevaluating your career path, or re-entering the workforce, you may want to consider embracing remote work. Not only can it improve your environmental impact, it can make you happier and healthier. Plus, you may even save money while you’re at it!

Work with Sparx

Sparx Publishing Group is a digital marketing agency that creates content to make the world better. We’ve embraced remote work, and we’re always looking for enthusiastic, ambitious, and value-driven people to work (virtually) with us. Our roles cover publishing, marketing, design, copywriting, project management, and coding. If this sounds like you, keep an eye on our Careers page for the latest job openings. 

If you’re an organization seeking marketing support, you can reach out to us via our Contact page. 

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

How to Avoid “Rainbow-Washing” during Pride Month

June is Pride month, which celebrates members of the LGBTQIA+ community, supports their rights, and honours their resilient past. Pride month is more than just a rainbow-coloured party; it began with protests like the Stonewall Riots in the US, and the Operation Soap riot in Canada. 

Whether or not your organization employs members of the LGBTQIA+ community or has clients who identify as LGBTQIA+, you should consider participating in Pride month to show your support and solidarity. 

However, there is a right and a wrong way to do Pride. The phenomenon of brands embracing the rainbow during Pride but avoiding actionable or tangible support to the LGBTQIA+ community is known as “rainbow-washing.” 

Rainbow-washing can be considered as virtue-signalling, which often leaves a poor impression of a brand. As an organization who wants to live your values, it’s important to walk the talk. Here’s our guide on how to avoid rainbow-washing and be a true ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Do Your Research 

The landscape of the LGBTQIA+ community is vast and complex. 

There are unique identities, intersections, and struggles within the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, which makes it important to do your research before your organization jumps into Pride promotion. 

Dive into the history and important figures of the gay liberation movement, issues that affect the LGBTQIA+ community, politically-correct terms to use, groups that fall under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and what the various Pride flags mean. 

Include LGBTQIA+ Folks in the Conversation

It’s important to involve people in the LGBTQIA+ community in your Pride month efforts to ensure you’re being truly authentic and supportive. Do you currently employ “out” members of the LGBTQIA+ community? See if they’d be interested to help with the ideation and decision-making process. If not, respect their wishes. When asking advice from your LGBTQIA+ staff that goes above and beyond their normal duties, they should be compensated for their time and work.

You can also hire a LGBTQIA+ consulting organization to help get your Pride and LGBTQIA+ allyship efforts right, including within your workplace. Some great resources include Qmunity, Pride at Work Canada, TransFocus, and The 519. 

Amplify LGBTQIA+ Voices 

As with other social causes, it’s a good idea to amplify voices within the community instead of trying to dominate the space. Not only does doing the latter potentially hurt the livelihood of LGBTQIA+ members by increasing the chance they’ll get drowned out in the noise, your audience may view it as disingenuous or performative. 

Plus, by elevating LGBTQIA+ people and their stories, you can align your company’s efforts, show you’re knowledgeable and active in the LGBTQIA+ community, and shine a light on issues that are important to your organization.  

Donate to LGBTQIA+ Causes 

If you have the resources, it’s a good idea to put your money where your mouth is. Expensive  healthcare (such as gender affirming surgery for trans folks), lack of mental health services, and homelessness are all issues that affect the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Luckily, there are organizations that deal directly with these issues (and more) that your company can donate to, And of course, you can show your audience that you’re supporting these organizations. While it’s important to find non-profits that resonate and align with your brand, some to check out are The 519, Rainbow Railroad, and Pflag.  

Post More Than a Rainbow Flag

By this point, you’ve probably taken the hint to not just “rainbow-ify” your organization’s profile photo logo or chuck a Pride flag on your Instagram feed and call it a day. Ensure you bring value and awareness to your social media posts. 

Hopefully, you have a wider Pride campaign that you can push through your social media channels (i.e. new partnership, product, or donation plans). Otherwise, why not post about the history of Pride month, important LGBTQIA+ figures, or your favourite LGBTQIA+ activists?

Make it a Year-Round Commitment

Pride may be just one month for your organization, but it’s a lifetime for individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community. Consider making your efforts an always-on commitment. One way to ensure you incorporate inclusive content regularly is to work backwards from Pride the following year. If you were looking back over an entire year, what would you want to see in terms of LGBTQIA+ positive initiatives or content from your organization? Once you’ve determined that, you can schedule these efforts in your content planning strategy.

You can also ensure your organization is an inclusive workplace (there are even certificates for this), become an “equal opportunity employer” to attract new LGBTQIA+ hires, ask your current LGBTQIA+ employees how to better support them, evaluate your marketing efforts, and continue to donate and partner with LGBTQIA+ organizations. 

Important note: LGBTQIA+ conversations often centre white cis gay men, so it’s important to acknowledge diversity and intersections of privilege (i.e. gender, race, religion, ability, etc.) in your efforts. For example, showcase LGBTQIA+ persons of colour in a marketing ad.

Three Examples of Organizations Doing Pride Right

1. Kiehl’s

Kiehl’s is an American skincare retailer headquartered in New York. Not only have they sponsored NYC Pride since 2010, in 2020 they announced a partnership with LGBTQIA+ youth suicide prevention non-profit The Trevor Project with plans to “make a positive impact through funding, awareness and resources that can help change [LGBTQIA+ youth’s] lives for the better.”

2. IKEA Canada

Have you ever gone to IKEA and needed one of those giant blue shopping bags for all your candles, pillows, or Swedish meatballs? Well, the beloved furniture company made these shopping bags rainbow for 2019’s Pride month and donated all profits to Pflag, “Canada’s only national organization that offers peer-to-peer support striving to help all Canadians with issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”

3. Lyft Toronto

While Pride has been affected by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, rideshare platform Lyft was an active participant in Pride Toronto in 2019, including being their official rideshare platform. They had a parade float, offered discount codes, and donated $1 to HIV/AIDS hospital Casey House for every ride taken during Pride Toronto using their code. What’s more, Lyft didn’t just show their “pride” during June, they also became the first rideshare app to let passengers choose from a wide range of pronouns, as launched with their #TwoIsTooFew campaign. 

What Sparx is Doing 

In addition to embracing the rainbow flag on our website and our social media profile pictures, this Pride month, we will be:

  • Rolling out pronoun transparency with the internal team, so Sparx employees can disclose their pronouns on all communication channels (this includes a discussion about the importance of disclosing pronouns),
  • Highlighting on our social media channels mission-aligned organizations in the LGBTQIA+ community that are working to make the world better,
  • Amplifying Pride by posting on our social media channels, including a post about the history and facts about the Pride flag,
  • And of course, posting this blog!

Get in Touch

At Sparx, our mission is to create content to make the world better.
If you need help securing your website, creating great content, building experiences to delight your customers, marketing your business, or you simply have questions, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. You can reach us here.

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Work Life & Culture

The Story Behind Our Font: Proxima Nova

The Relationship Between Type and Branding

As typographer and designer Doyald Young points out, a business’s journey into typeface begins with this basic push-pull scenario: “Every company truly wants to appear unique…yet they also want to fit within a certain group of taste.” 

In short, a typeface can help determine how you stand out – but also where you fit in. 

This is why we thought about our audience when selecting a typeface as part of our brand strategy. Will the font appeal to the type of people we’re trying to reach? And if so, is it also unique enough to differentiate us from our competitors?

But even before brand strategy comes into play, a typeface has a very basic function: to be read. For that reason, legibility is key. 

Legibility refers to the reader’s ability to distinguish one character from another, and is determined by a few different aspects. Legible fonts are “transparent” to the reader, which means they don’t call too much attention to themselves or interfere with the message. They also have “big features,” which include things like a large x-height and easily recognizable character shapes.

Accessibility is an important consideration, too. For websites or online content, a highly legible font that will render correctly on most computers is preferable. Flexibility in font types and weights – like bold, italic and thin – gives designers a varied palette. This flexibility can be used to easily create a visual messaging hierarchy, ensuring readers see and absorb the most important message first.

Proxima Nova and Retrofuturism

To better understand why Sparx chose Proxima Nova, we sat down with Liz Choi, our Communications Designer. She explained that both she and the President of Sparx Publishing Group, Hamish Khamisa, wanted a look that was futuristic yet retro. She describes it as “modern, but…punchy, bold, and vintage at the same time.” 

As it happens, there’s already a name for this kind of aesthetic: retrofuturism. Liz describes it as how “the future would look like in a very imaginative, fantasy-like way.” 

The Jetsons, Star Wars, and Guardians of the Galaxy are good examples, not only because they share the retrofuturistic look, but also, as Liz explains, because they “are all fiction, and anything is possible when you’re creating fiction.” 

Why Retrofuturism Works for the Sparx Brand

The anything-is-possible aesthetic of retrofuturism is perfectly suited to Sparx Publishing Group’s anything-is-possible brand and values. 

Proxima Nova’s modern look helps convey the company’s progressive and future-focused culture, sense of humour, playful creativity, and lighthearted approach. And the unique styling of this typeface helps us differentiate our brand as something interesting and special.

The futuristic element of the font’s aesthetic is a nod to the spark of inspiration – turning imagination and dreams into reality, and creating a future that’s better in every way. This ties directly into the Sparx mission to make the world better. We strive to be the agents of positive change, nurturing small ideas that grow into global ideas. After all, anything is possible in the future!

Proxima Nova’s vintage feel also helps us create a connection with our audience of future-focused thinkers. 

Most of us recognize shows like Star Trek and The Jetsons, which portrayed an idealistic view of the future. These shows were a product of their time, and the creative choices around what a futuristic world would look like were heavily influenced by what people were familiar with in their time. 

Today, the news has increasingly more examples of that idealistic future being brought into commercial reality, with companies like SpaceX reigniting the idea of extraterrestrial adventure in the collective imagination. In short, choosing Proxima Nova reflects our commitment to dreaming about what’s possible in the future even though we’re using the tools of today. 

Finally, Proxima Nova is a more distinguished choice than, say, an open source font. Intentionally selecting something special doesn’t just fit our branding aesthetic, it’s also a public statement of the professionalism we put into our client work.

Proxima Nova: Cool Trivia and History

Proxima Nova was released in 2005. But type designer Mark Simonson actually started working on the typeface almost 25 years earlier in 1980! In 1994, an early version called Proxima Sans was released. (In case you were wondering, “proxima nova” means the “new next” in Portuguese.)

But even before that, in 1993, an early version of Proxima Nova had an out-of-this-galaxy debut. At that time, Simonson was calling the unfinished font Visigothic, and decided to try it out on a packaging project he was working on: Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama. Fun fact: The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, the same year that Proxima Nova was first conceived of.

Simonson says that “it felt a little weird using my unfinished type design for the project, but it seemed to work. I showed it to the other people I was working with and they thought so, too. So I used it.” That adventurous leap of faith ended up being the first public use of what would become Proxima Nova. Talk about a star-studded premiere!

In 2005, another famous piece of retrofuturism premiered: the film version of War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise. This classic science fiction work by H.G. Wells was first published in 1897, but is best known for its release as a radio drama in 1938, which allegedly caused listeners to panic when they tuned in and mistakenly thought the alien invasion was real. 

Of course, we didn’t know all this when we initially chose Proxima Nova, but clearly the futuristic feel of the font is something others see too. The more we learned about its application, the more we were convinced that this font was just our type!

Look to Your Branding Future

If you’re looking to the future of your business and need help with brand strategy, creating great content, marketing your business, or if you simply have questions, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. You can reach us here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips Sustainability Tips

Sustainable Business Practices

Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword these days. Especially when it comes to business. That’s because business practices, whether sustainable or not, have far-reaching consequences. And this can have a profound impact when it comes to making the world a better place, something that Sparx is passionate about.

Investing in sustainability drives innovation. Redesigning a product so it meets new sustainability standards, reduces waste, or repurposes materials presents new opportunities for those willing to rise to the challenge. Even during the creation or design phase, it’s important to consider where a product will end up. A landfill? Or can it be repurposed or recycled? In short: what impact will it have on the Earth?

The cherry on top: according to this article in the Harvard Business Review, “80% [of the studies analyzed] show that stock price performance is positively correlated with good sustainability practices.” So you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Sparx’s 3Ps of Sustainability Practice

So how can a business be sustainable? At Sparx, here’s how we approach the business of sustainability:

Philosophy: It all begins with the simple belief that it’s the right thing to do. As stewards of the earth for future generations, we recognize not only the environmental and social issues that threaten our planet. We also believe it is our responsibility to leave the world in better shape than how we found it.

Possibility: Altering business practices so they meet sustainability goals requires innovation and creativity – and sometimes a reminder that it is possible. Having examples of organizations or individuals doing seemingly impossible things is the best catalyst for others to follow suit. Just think: there was a time people thought running the four-minute mile was impossible!

Profitability: Operating a business sustainably is undeniably the right thing to do, but unless it improves the bottom line, many companies won’t be on board There’s good news on this front, too. According to a recent survey, “more than 50% of Gen Z shoppers… are willing to pay more for a sustainable product.” And sustainability is one of the top drivers of repeat customers. Win-win.

Making the World Better One (Sustainable) Step at a Time

So what does sustainability look like in action? Here are a few examples of businesses that are working to make the world better and who can demonstrate that doing the right thing is possible and profitable.

Phool: Based in India, this enterprising business helps upcycle some of the over 8 million tonnes of floral offerings thrown into the country’s waterways each year. Phool (which means “flower”) concentrates its efforts on one of the most polluted stretches of India’s holiest river: the Ganges. The company turns the floral waste into incense sticks, paper, and coloured powders used for holy festivals. Other ideas are in the works too, such as a biodegradable alternative to styrofoam and a form of leather, or “fleather.” Not only is entrepreneur Ankit Agarwal keeping pesticides out of waterways, but he also employs more than 100 women, many of whom previously worked unsafe jobs or scavenged to survive.

The Soular Backpack to SAMARA: In 2015, entrepreneur Salima Visram launched Soular Backpack. Designed with Kenyan schoolchildren in mind, these backpacks come equipped with a solar panel that charges a battery pack. Once home, the children can use the battery pack to power an LED lamp to do homework by – a safer, less expensive alternative to kerosene. Initially, the business had a one-to-one model: for every backpack bought, one would be donated to a child in Kenya. But the backpack was a hard sell in North America: “Ultimately, people want a product they will use,” she realized. So she pivoted, and SAMARA – a line of elegant, vegan handbags – was born. The new line now funnels funds to Soular.

Stella McCartney: The luxury fashion designer recently debuted the “world’s first-ever garments made from vegan, lab-grown Mylo™ mushroom leather.” The sustainable alternative to leather uses renewable mushroom root systems to create the fabric, and is not petroleum-based like many other leather alternatives. The two pieces – pants and a bustier – are not currently for sale, but do “pave the way for future commercial offerings.” A campaign featuring model Paris Jackson modeling the pieces is generating buzz around this new, innovative fabric.

Handmade and Sustainable: Marketplaces like Etsy are filled with eco-conscious makers who often handmake their sustainable wares. There, shoppers can find online shops like Vita Beata Boutique, which specializes in post-consumer, biodegradable greeting cards. Plus, all the hand-drawn cards are made with paper embedded with seeds, to “create a lasting keepsake.” Compared to the boxes of cookie-cutter greeting cards found on online sites like Amazon, it’s easy to see why a customer might pay more for an innovative product made with such consideration and care.

Get In Touch

Make no mistake about it: sustainable business practices have a profound impact on the world around us. At Sparx, we know the profound impact words can have, which is why it’s our mission is to make the world better, one sentence at a time.

If you need help crafting content or marketing your business – whether your focus is on sustainability or other pursuits – or you simply have questions, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. You can reach us here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips

World of Online Advertising: How It Works

Online advertising is not one-size-fits-all – and that may be one of its greatest strengths. 

Compared to traditional print ads, online ads can be very precisely targeted based on the audience’s age, location, or other demographics. These days, blogs, email newsletters, online articles, and social media are changing the advertising game, with ads often becoming an extension of the content the audience has navigated there to see.  

Types of Online Advertising

To get started, here’s a breakdown of some of the different types of online ads:

Digital Display Advertising: These graphic ads are found on third-party sites and use images, text, audio, video, and flash to catch the eye of their target audience. They can be found on websites, social media, and apps.

Search Engine Advertising: Also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). These paid ads appear alongside other search engine results pages (SERPs) and are tailored to a consumer’s immediate interests. After all, they did just type it into their search bar.

Text Ads: Making the leap from print to online, text ads now usually refer to text-based hyperlinks that promote a brand or product and often use a pay-per-click (PPC) model.

Social Media Marketing: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are popular options thanks to robust analytics tools, which help marketers closely track the success of their ads.

How Online Advertising Is Done

So now that we know a little more about the world of online advertising, how does it actually work?

According to the “Father of Advertising,” David Ogilvy, “A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.” At Sparx, we agree. 

The best advertising not only complements its surroundings, it just feels like it belongs. When done right, a well-placed ad can enhance a user’s experience. Which is why where your ad is placed is just as important as what it says. 

On our own Sparx Trading website, for example, we only accept ads that speak to our specific audience.

How you place your ad brings into play direct versus programmatic media buying. Programmatic media buying is, well…programmed. 

Basically, you set up an account on an automated ad-buying platform and purchase your ads through that. Social media ads are a good example of programmatic buying – once you have an account, you can buy ads to your heart’s content, day or night.

In contrast, direct media buying brings more of a human touch – and expertise – to the whole process. It’s a little like the bricks-and-mortar version of shopping. 

Sure, you can buy almost anything online, but if you have questions or prefer more personalized service, you want to talk to a real human with expertise in the product being offered. 

Is Online Advertising Dead?

The rapidly shifting market of online advertising seems to bring up a common question: Is display advertising dead? 

The answer is no, with a caveat: as long as your advertising content is good. Ad blockers stop aggressive pop-up ads and auto-play content – basically the worst of the worst of interruption marketing. 

Some believe that newer players to the market, like TikTok and Instagram Reels, will eventually replace advertising as we know it. But it’s not an issue of replacement, otherwise television, radio, and newspaper ads would have disappeared long ago. Instead, it’s a matter of adapting and shifting gears. 

The name of the game? Capturing the audience’s attention. 

At Sparx, constant testing – and ad updates whenever needed – help ensure our clients’ messages never get boring or repetitive. 

Communicating value is the bottom line and leads to questions like: What does the audience want to buy? What’s in it for them? Or, as entrepreneur Seth Godin put it, “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”

At the end of the day, advertising is still big business, and it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. 

In 2020, Google’s advertising products created more than $426 billion of economic activity for two million businesses – in the US alone. And, on average, businesses pull in $2 for every $1 spent on ads on Google’s platform. Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

Want Help Creating Your Online Ad?

When it comes to growing your business, online advertising has an important role to play. If you need help getting started, or have questions, the experts at Sparx Publishing Group are always available to chat. You can reach us here. 

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Impact Inspiration & Initiatives Work Life & Culture

Making the World Better: How Small Efforts Can Spark Big Impact

At Sparx Publishing Group, we create content to make the world better. Beyond the work we do with our clients, we also want to explore tangible and direct ways of improving the world around us.

We’ve learned some valuable lessons along the way, including pitfalls to avoid, and reaffirmed a cornerstone of our worldview: that if you look for opportunities to do better, you will find them.

We’d like to share with you how the journey started.

Make The World Better Day

Sparx launched the first edition of Make The World Better Day (MTWBD) on September 30, 2020. The spark that inspired this day came from a place of both hope and loss.

The founder of Sparx Publishing Group, Hamish Khamisa, wanted to honour his daughter, Anahera, who was stillborn at 35 weeks. As difficult and painful as that moment was, the love and hope that Anahera embodied were the sparks that set in motion a challenge to transform tragedy into inspiration.

Inspiration is at the very core of the Sparx name. Drawing on that, Make The World Better Day is a testament to the belief that a spark, no matter how small, can ignite positive change.

At first, we weren’t sure exactly how to go about making the world better, but we believed that starting anywhere was better than waiting to find the “perfect” somewhere to begin. The simple desire to get started revealed another little treasure of insight: As marketers, we could not only do good, but our skillset is uniquely qualified to amplify good.

Starting with a blank canvas, we decided to set aside one full workday for everyone at the company to stop working on their usual tasks. Instead, we participated in activities that would amplify good.

In order to leverage our diverse skill sets, we had every member of our team submit ideas of what “better” meant to them and nominate causes or organizations that they felt were in line with their personal view of “better.”

As a team, we also decided that we wanted to make a local impact, as well as impact others in different parts of the world. To accomplish this, we chose a local organization, Sea Smart, to provide our marketing expertise to. We also looked to the popular microfinance platform Kiva to be the vehicle through which we discovered global opportunities for good.

A Cleaner Planet Is a Better Planet

A cleaner and greener planet was a key theme that emerged from several team members’ perspectives on “better,” so it made perfect sense that caring for the ocean was where we could start.

Sea Smart is a charitable organization, headquartered in Vancouver, that educates and engages children in connecting with the oceanic world. Through hands-on learning and discovery, the organization inspires and empowers children to care for the planet. The Sea Smart mission resonated with our view of making the world better, so we connected with Sea Smart to workshop and launch an awareness campaign.

The campaign consisted of display ads that we designed and distributed through the Sparx Publishing Advertising Network (SPAN), our in-house advertising network.

We were able to deliver over 100,000 impressions to British Columbian visitors to a major Canadian financial website. This campaign exemplified how our small team of 17 was able to impact thousands of individuals, even in a small way, by enabling them to learn about Sea Smart and their mission to improve the health of the world’s oceans.

Kiva Projects: Small Loans, Big Lessons

We also wanted to invest in individuals and organizations that are doing essential work in their own local communities, so we chose Kiva as an avenue for that investment during Make The World Better Day.

Many of the groups represented on Kiva are working to improve local autonomy through food security, infrastructure improvements, and education.

One of the reasons we decided Kiva would be a great fit for MTWBD was because it is an easy-to-use platform for connecting capital to local initiatives that we otherwise would not be able to access. The money provided to these initiatives is also not a donation; it’s a loan.

We initially earmarked a total of $2,000 across four separate groups that we had researched and voted on as a company. However, as part of our due diligence, we learned about the sometimes shockingly high borrowing costs of certain loans to individuals seeking support from Kiva. In the time it took to research more about the platform, as well as the agencies who would be disbursing the loan funds to the various projects, the window for donating to the selected projects closed.

Investing funds through Kiva presented a valuable learning experience for Sparx. One of the important lessons was that doing due diligence ahead of time would have better prepared us for the realities of participating in microfinance lending through this platform.

It was eye-opening to learn that interest rates that would seem stratospheric in Canada are considered acceptable for microloans administered in other parts of the world where Kiva operates. The last thing we wanted to do was to perpetuate a cycle of debt burden that would ultimately not let them create a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The solution to our concerns about the borrowing costs and how the platform actually works was to start small. Instead of committing the full $2,000 right away, we ventured forward with a $500 investment in a woman-led business in Congo.

Depending on the outcome of our experience with Kiva, we will evaluate how we go forward on the platform. As a company, we have decided that if Kiva doesn’t work out, we can also redirect our efforts to make the world better in our local community.

MTWBD Inspired Us to Do Better

Our first Make The World Better Day was a success in that it demonstrated it’s possible for us to approach improving the world by leveraging our strengths as a creative agency.

Arguably, the bigger achievement was the shift in mindset that started to occur within our organization. Doing one intentionally good activity inspired us to look for even more activities later on in the year.

Movember: More Than Lip Service

A chance to grow facial hair and raise awareness for a good cause during November lockdowns was a creative example of how our Make The World Better program sparked good. Sparx’s Marketing Specialist, Ash Castellino, suggested the idea of a Sparx Movember team.

Movember is a global public health initiative that takes place every November. It aims to raise awareness of, and spark conversations about, men’s health issues – particularly suicide and cancer – in the hopes of reducing preventable deaths.

The Sparx team raised almost $500 during the month. And, the moustaches grown by President Hamish Khamisa, VP of Operations Ken Yeung, Web Developer Pedram Milani, and Ash himself were magnificent.

From left to right: Ash, Hamish, Pedram, Ken (no photo)

Our participation in this initiative once again demonstrated that small actions can have a cascading effect. One group’s investment in making the world better can inspire the efforts of those around them to support doing the same.

Holiday Season Gifting Turned Into Giving

During the holiday season, Sparx has traditionally sent gifts to clients as a way to say thank you and celebrate the holiday season. Inspired by our Make The World Better mindset, however, we decided that in lieu of gifts of items or treats, we would donate funds to causes and organizations that matter to our clients.

Through a series of client- and donor-matching programs, we were able to jointly donate a total of 5,000 meals to various local food banks across Canada and the US. In addition, we were able to amplify donations to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a local humane society in Florida.

It was amazing to see the impact we were able to make with this program, as clients were both touched and inspired to participate in this initiative.

Making the World Better Every Day

When we began the process of translating Sparx’s mission of “Content to make the world better” into tangible actions, it felt a bit like pushing a stone up a hill. The challenge of having so many possible directions that we could have taken was, at times, overwhelming.

Approaching the challenge as a team and focusing our efforts enabled us to gather momentum and attract others into that purpose – not just in our official Make The World Better projects, but also in other spontaneous initiatives that have had a real impact.

We genuinely embrace the challenge that the concept of “better”’ sets out. The next MTWBD will also be better, and in keeping with the spirit of the day, we hope to do better in 2021 than we did in 2020 at living our values.

Each day, we intentionally look for opportunities to weave in the spirit that MTWBD was founded on and direct our creative energy toward moments where we can amplify positive impact. In that way, we believe that we will be content to make the world better.

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Work Life & Culture

Look Back / Look Ahead: A Unique Look at the World of Investing

Sparx Publishing Group is so much more than just a digital marketing agency. At Sparx, we pride ourselves on providing valuable insights into a wide range of topics and fields. One of these includes the world of do-it-yourself investing, which we delve into through our in-house publication, SparxTrading.com.

Recently, we celebrated the launch of the latest issue of Sparx Trading’s one-of-a-kind magazine, Look Back / Look Ahead. Not only was it a fun and valuable project for us to deliver, but it also is an important example of our continued commitment to creating content that we believe will make the lives of individual investors better.

The Evolution of Sparx Trading

SparxTrading.com was launched in 2011 (one year before Sparx Publishing Group!) to educate new do-it-yourself (DIY) investors on how to get started in the investing space and also to keep seasoned traders informed about market updates.

Since its inception, SparxTrading.com has evolved to provide visitors with a myriad of useful tools, information, and industry updates, from online brokerage profiles and comparisons to the recurring Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup and Discount Brokerage Deals and Promotions blog posts.

Amongst Sparx Trading’s many offerings is the Look Back / Look Ahead series, which was launched in 2014. Now published in a magazine format, this series offers a unique perspective on the Canadian online investing space, providing highlights from the previous year and previewing what investors can look forward to in the coming year – hence the name, Look Back / Look Ahead!

What makes Look Back / Look Ahead truly unique is the fact that these in-depth articles are written by senior executives from the Canadian online brokerages themselves. This perspective allows for a frank view of any lessons learned from the previous year and the planned changes and improvements for the following year. In an increasingly digital world, it provides a human connection to the world of online investing and enables readers to hear from the individuals who often set the tone and vision for their respective online brokerage. Ever since its launch in 2014, the magazine has continued to garner strong participation from the country’s most popular online brokerages.

A Spotlight on the Most Recent Issue

The team at Sparx is excited for readers to peruse the latest edition, Look Back 2020 / Look Ahead 2021, which features six renowned Canadian online brokerages as well as an entirely refreshed look, including new branding. 

Last year, DIY investors experienced wild stock market volatility, high volumes, and very rapid change at Canadian online brokerages, and the magazine showcases how online brokerages had to adapt during these historic times by focusing on agility, communication, and user experience.

This year’s Look Back / Look Ahead is especially outstanding because of our recent digital companion series, The Influencer Edition. A first for Look Back / Look Ahead, this complementary series brings together some of the most experienced voices in the Canadian brokerage industry, including Rob Carrick of The Globe and Mail, Mike Foy of J.D. Power, and Glenn LaCoste of Surviscor, to weigh in on important lessons from the past year and to suggest what DIY investors should pay attention to in the year ahead.

Content to Make the World Better

Sparx Trading was first created in response to the financial crisis of 2009 and a macro trend of individuals needing better financial information to prepare for their financial futures. This publication was built on the mission of helping self-directed investors improve their financial decisions, to lead to better financial outcomes.

Today, SparxTrading.com embodies Sparx’s motto of creating “content to make the world better” by continuing to provide valuable information and data that can help individuals confidently understand and navigate the financial world and manage their own investing. It is a testament to the power of content to be able to make a difference, and it is our firm belief that helpful content is what ultimately earns a loyal audience.

Get In Touch

For any content marketing or financial marketing inquiries, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Sparx Publishing Group here. We’d be more than happy to help!

Feel free to stay up-to-date on the latest Canadian DIY investing news by subscribing to Sparx Trading’s newsletter here.

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Purpose-Driven Marketing Tips Work Life & Culture

What We Learned From Working at Home

One of the side effects of living through a global pandemic has been the movement away from working together in offices and toward working remotely from home. For many, this has been a temporary move, in anticipation of an eventual return to physical offices. 

At Sparx, we were ideally positioned to go remote. But although we had a robust project management system already in place, moving to fully remote work was a full-scale stress test of our processes. We encountered our fair share of pitfalls doing marketing work from home. 

In the world of Sparx, marketing consists of Creative (Design and Copy), Technology, Management/Operational, and Data. Each of the spokes of our “marketing wheel” is essential to a project’s success, but the challenges of remote work manifest differently for each segment. Working from home has meant that communication is increasingly important for all of us. With all that in mind, here are some tips for working from home effectively from each segment of the Sparx Publishing team.

Creative Communication: Design

When working together in a physical office, it can be easy to rely on whiteboards and paper sketches to quickly exchange ideas with coworkers. Large amounts of information can be distilled into a loose sketch or a one-minute conversation. Working from home requires more of an investment in communication.

Headshot of Nicole

“When working in a physical office, it can be easy to rely on whiteboards and paper sketches to quickly exchange ideas with coworkers.”

Nicole Yeh, Graphic Designer

Getting Out of the House: Copy

Paying attention to what other companies or brands are doing to help employees maintain connection during this time is key. The world of remote work is new to many people and is in a period of rapid evolution. Keeping tabs on the conversation around communication outside your walls can help you stay up to speed while staying at home. 

Just as important as keeping tabs on what others are writing is keeping tabs on yourself. Take breaks to stretch or move around so that you’re not sitting and staring at a screen for hours at a time. Tired eyes lead to typos, and sitting in one place without breaks can kill your posture.

Headshot of Christine

“Take breaks to stretch or move around so that you’re not sitting and staring at a screen for hours at a time. Tired eyes lead to typos.”

Christine Nguyen, Copywriter

Creating compelling copy requires a writer to consume more information than they put out in their work. One of the risks of writing from home is a lack of outside stimulus. Part of this problem can be solved with more time for research – making sure your work is connected to and references the larger world – but you also need stimulation from outside. 

In practical terms, go for walks, talk to your friends on the phone, listen to music, and get out of the house whenever you can safely do so. The more you encounter the world outside your home, the more life you will inject into your writing.

Embracing Distractions: Tech

You can’t entirely separate work life from home life when you work from home. While it’s necessary to create some division, working from home means that in reality you will have to embrace, or find a way to cope with, some of the distractions that home life brings.

Family or roommates (or pets) might need your attention throughout the day, and it isn’t always healthy to ignore them in favour of productivity. If you have a crucial train of thought that can’t be interrupted, communicate a time when you can address their concerns. Put the conversation on hold for 10 or 15 minutes, and make sure that you follow up.

Headshot of Pedram

“If you feel blocked on a task, you can get up and give your dog some pets, be loud if you want, watch TV while you work if you can multitask, or listen to music.”

Pedram Milani, Web Developer

The distractions inherent in working from home can also be helpful. If you feel blocked on a task, you can get up and pet your dog, be loud if you want, listen to music, or watch a “background noise” TV show while you work if you need it to focus. 

Although the lack of structure when working from home can leave you feeling unmoored, embracing it allows you to adapt quickly and move between tasks to take advantage of the ebb and flow of productive energy. Working from home means you have perks such as being able to move your “office” around easily and also access your pantry full of snacks at any time, which you don’t necessarily have in a traditional office setting. Take advantage of these perks.

Having said that, some boundaries are essential. 

Make sure you clock out when you’re done work each day. Create some kind of physical separation between you and your workspace. Eat meals with your family, for both the health of your relationships and your own physical health. It’s a mixed blessing that it’s much easier to snack throughout the day when working from home. 

It can also be more difficult to be physically active if, for instance, you used to commute by bicycle or stop at a gym on the way to or from the office. To stay active, you have to be intentional about making it a priority, whether that means planning a bike ride first thing in the morning, a run after work, or a midday calisthenics break.

Engaging the Team: Data

Working remotely doesn’t really change day-to-day reporting and analytics-related activities, but it does change the way that information is communicated to others. With a shared physical office, information can be presented in person, making it collaborative and interactive, which in turn makes it easier for an audience to understand.

Headshot of Anikita

“Working remotely hasn’t really changed my day-to-day reporting and analytics-related activities, but the way I communicate with people has really changed.”

Ankita Goyal, Marketing Analyst

When presenting data and analytics in a remote-work environment, it’s important to engage with the audience during a presentation. Ask for feedback and questions to make it more collaborative. As much as possible, tailor your presentation to everyone on the call. If people feel like they are getting some value out of a presentation, they will be more focused, making your job easier. 

This is important in generating data as well. Engage with your team proactively, and chat with anyone who can help with the project. It makes your reporting more relevant if you know your team and their needs better. To that end, make sure to clarify the scope of projects with as much fidelity as possible. Employ video calls for briefings to make sure that expectations and scope are clear for everyone involved.

Cutting Through the Chatter: Operations

Communication is key when working from home, but it can be easy to get sucked into a never-ending stream of instant messages, emails, and job ticket comments. If you notice that people are going back and forth endlessly in messages or emails, schedule a quick conference call to get everyone on the same page. It’s better to take some time to talk things through than to have a dozen text-based conversations going at once.

Headshot of Alex

“After six hours of video calls in a day, your productivity will drop to zero. Try to space out meetings if you can, to allow for some quiet work throughout the day.”

Alexandra Nikitina, Marketing Manager

While meetings are an essential tool for cutting through the chatter, remember that Zoom fatigue is a real issue. After six hours of video calls in a day, your productivity will drop to zero. Try to space out meetings if you can, to allow for some quiet work throughout the day.

Finally, information is key when working from home. Producing and sharing information online – whether through words, graphics, charts, or analytics – continues to be important and powerful, keeping us all aware, informed, and connected regarding everything happening at work and in the broader marketing world.

Bringing It All Back Home

Doing marketing work from home has its own set of challenges, but leaning into effective communication can make your team just as agile as when working in the office together. Working from home can boost creativity and productivity, and teams that lean into their strengths will continue to produce high-quality results.

If you need help marketing your business, whether your company works from physical offices or from home, or if you have any other content marketing inquiries, contact Sparx Publishing Group today – we’d be more than happy to help! You can reach us here.