This Winter I chatted with Carol Grant (now Sauve) about CFN sponsoring CAPE. We have a history of success promoting local events.
Sadly politics have seen festivals like Lift Off and Winterfest destroyed by Cornwall City Council petty politics.
Telling groups who to advertise or work with always is a recipe for disaster. CFN was a media sponsor for Lift Off’s most successful year when it drew over 50,000 people as well as helping sell out Aultsville Theatre for a cover band and some of the Port Theatre’s most successful events.
Last year Carol purchased a small last minute ad on CFN. Personally having promoted and run over 200 events myself I have a grasp of what factors help or hurt an event. CAPE’s success its first year had a lot to do with the lack of events in Cornwall and a thirst from the public of simply wanting something to do. It was the right thing at the right time and was very successful.
A smart operator would analyze what worked and why. Instead of building on that success Randy Sauve decided to expand the event to two dates.
Events like CAPE need two factors to grow. A positive result to those asked to pay $20 per day to enter, and the same result from the vendors who bank most of the show. If you don’t have that positive balance you don’t grow.
And if you get results; IE a large crowd, you have a better chance of getting real corporate sponsorship.
You need to program and market an event like CAPE 12 months of the year.
CFN offered CAPE a huge package at a highly reduced price last Winter. The plan was to roll out marketing support four months in advance peaking during March and April.
With over 75,000 unique visitors in March alone, including over 1 million human page views, of which over 60% were in key markets to make CAPE a success petty Cornwall politics came into play. CAPE chose to not work with CFN.
As I do with many that play these games I write down predictions and notes. CAPE hit all of those notes as attendance was down on Saturday with a lot of vendors and attendees voicing issues, especially those that had been there the year before. Likewise, the post event chatter via social media is very very quiet.
Ironically I was invited to a business opening Saturday by its marketing manager who reached out via Twitter. Their ad buy alone from that single event was almost as much as the entire package to support CAPE would have been. Of course they are part of a larger company that doesn’t care about Cornwall silly politics.
Was CAPE a failure? No. Hopefully this was a simple hiccup that should be a warning to its organizers that they have a choice. They can do everything they can to make the event a success or they can manage it as badly as those that ran Lift Off and Winterfest.
You can’t get married every year to spark attendance, and to demand $20 per ticket in Cornwall or expect people to travel you will need to up the ante.
The good news is that there’s lots of room for improvement for CAPE which just might be good news for Cornwall.
What do you think dear CFN viewer? You can post your comments below.
If the people of Cornwall want something better than what they have now they themselves have to change their mentality in how they do business as well as for entertainment, etc. Cornwall’s mentality is mighty strange and one that I could never adjust to and I would never go back for the life of me.
CAPE was a success. It’s working how the two organizers set it up. If they are happy with how it went then that’s all that should matter.
Jamie I am sending you the story now because there are only 4 lines to you CFN and here it is: ‘He has lealed what disease has taken from me’; Woman anguishes over loss of service dog
http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/04/25/he-has-healed-what-disease-has-taken-from-me-woman-anguishes-over-loss-of-service-dog
Jamie I shook that lady’s hand and my daughter and I met her at Dollarama and then she went to shop where my daughter works. We made friends with Joel the dog as well and very intelligent. This lady is very nice and the store clerks would pack her things in a bag on the back of her wheelchair. The CNIB sure is unfeeling. Read the story.
Thanks Jamie for your comments & acknowledging CAPE. I’m sifting through the 100’s of tweets, Facebook/Instagram posts & great feedback from exhibitors, fans & guests now. Love your quote “Telling groups who to advertise or work with always is a recipe for disaster”. One shouldn’t feel pressured or bullied into doing so. Full speed ahead building on this year’s success for CAPE 2017.
Well Carol perhaps you can answer why you refused a discounted package on the areas largest media outlet for a once a year event? It can’t be because of numbers. There is no business model for refusing our totally generous offer? Right? 🙂
When you run an event you may “own” it or be the promoter, but there’s a responsibility to all including those that support it, buy tickets, rent vendor space etc. A promoter owes it to everyone to draw the most people possible.
CFN offered you a substantive multi month promotional package keyed at local and outside markets to ensure that a maximum amount of exposure would be achieved.
Remember CFN isn’t one person. It’s all those that read it every month. You essentially cut your event from that audience and at the same time disrespected them.
Btw dear CFN viewers, Carol is Carol Grant, promoter of CAPE.
Edited to add:
Carol, if you feel you were pressured or “bullied” by CFN to advertise CAPE with us I’d be more than happy to publish the full transcript of all of our communications unedited. Feel free to message me or post your permission, which I offer as a courtesy.
Btw, Carol, I looked at the Cape Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/capecornwall/?pnref=lhc
And the CAPE Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/CAPE_2015
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see “hundreds of tweets”. Perhaps you can post a link to some of them or where they’re located? Your twitter page only has 318 followers and there don’t seem to be many tweets?
Again, kudos to what you did achieve, but like Lift Off and Winterfest, and other events, sometimes it’s not about what you achieve, but what you fail to achieve.
Working together as a community always gets better results for everyone. Playing silly politics, being ignorant, intolerant, and exclusive always nets ultimate failure.
I think the whys and the why nots of CAPE advertising on CFN shouldn’t be discussed here. That should be between CAPE and CFN in private. They may not want to reveal the whys and whynots to the general public.
Jamie you clearly misread. To clarify my earlier post – if you reread it CAREFULLY it states that I LOVE your comment about not being pressured or bullied. There is NO MENTION whatsoever nor was it implied anywhere about CFN or anyone in particular doing so but I agree 100% that it does indeed happen. 🙂 I’d be happy to post our entire conversation myself if I have YOUR permission – absolutely!
Limited in characters and not admin so posting again. lol) Yes I did in fact not participate in the first ad package as it was offered too early when revenue had not yet even been generated to sustain ads for CAPE 2016. It has nothing to do with numbers at all – your stats, reach and demographics are clearly indicated and had no bearing on that decision just as an FYI.
Hugger I don’t know about you, but it’s time for many things to be more public in Cornwall. We’ve lost Lift Off, Winterfest, and other events. We’re about to lose our public art gallery. All because of “dirty secrets”.
{MODERATED FOR ABUSIVE CONTENT}
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Comment policy reminder
CFN has a new comment policy. You must use your real first and last name. As well if your email bounces we will terminate your posting privileges.
We value all input from our amazing CFN viewers and are always trying to improve the viewer experience which includes making this a safe, informative, and entertaining platform.
If you have any questions please email info@cornwallfreenews.com
Admin…I agree some things should be public, not everything. Not everyone wants their laundry washed in public. But a business’s decision and reasons to or not to advertise with any media outlet should be between the business and the media outlet. If the business agrees to having those reasons published then yes they can be published.
I was a guest at CAPE 2016 and had a wonderful time. So did each of the attendees with whom I spoke. I see this piece of writing not as “news” but as someone being bummed out that they were not a bigger part of the event or did not receive the ad buys for which they had hoped. We came in from Atlanta and really enjoyed ourselves and hope to be back next year. This “article” wreaks of desperation.
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Yes, we lost Lift-Off, WinterFest and other “events.” We lost Lift-Off due to the title sponsor deciding their money could be better utilized elsewhere; in this case it went to Waterfest. As for Winterfest I could never understand why we “celebrate” winter; it’s one of the most depressing times of the year. Festivals come and go all the time; so losing these is not a Cornwall exclusive.
Hugger due to the four year city hall led boycott this is a very different circumstance. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
No Hugger, we lost Lift Off due to corruption and mismanagement. Ignorance and incompetence mixed in with some very strange politics and rumors of theft.
Because enough people didn’t speak up the community lost its calling card event. It’s as inexcusable as the community about to lose its community art gallery.
Tragic. This story was a call to focus on that not happening with CAPE. Look at one of the organizers facebook page and you see them embraced with a few of the worst politicians I’ve seen since living in Cornwall.
As you say “We’ll have to agree to disagree.” I see some things very differently than you and some others on here. I don’t always see the bad things. In some cases there are silver linings. IMHO in the case of Lift-Off perhaps it was time for it to ride off into the sunset. It had become not what the original intent was. It had become an overblown version of it’s original intent.
I don’t really follow CAPE. Though it is good for Cornwall. I’m not into being an adult and dressing up as a cartoon / reality character or whatever for a weekend. To me that’s just too strange. I try to act my age. Not easy at times, as I don’t always accept my numerical age.
Someone not buying ads from you is equatable to bad “politics”? That’s a dangerous position to take. I appear as a celebrity guest at about 25 conventions a year across the U.S. and Canada. As such, I’ve seen many different types of events run in a multitude do ways. By any measure from my standpoint as a guest and my experiences on the con circuit, CAPE 2016 was a resounding success.
Hugger LO had its best year in this decade with over 50,000 in attendance according to the org. Within 2 years they were begging council for an emergency loan of $30K. What happened to the cash?
Why make false statements about US customs creating issues for balloons landing when it was the fault of organizers? Refusing to allow people to assist and not reacting to Ribfest did in Lift Off. LO had a retired CBSA officer offer to assist them regarding the balloon issue. LO did not take him up on his generous offer. Instead they crapped on DHS which was totally unacceptable, especially when Lihou spouted it in the Seaway News.
There was no organic reason for Lift Off to fail. It is a tragic failure of our Economic Development office, the “volunteer” board, and the community for not stepping up. And the Kinsmen still have stayed silent on whatever happened internally with their role.
People like me would like to see Cornwall do better. That can only happen when we stop letting the same failures run things. It’s not rocket science.
Again, if we all work together to make things happen we get far better results than when people play some of the games that occur far too often in our area.
Chris that’s not what was stated nor the point of the article. The point was very very clear. If people all work together you get a better result. As you’re not from Cornwall there are many issues you probably are not aware of.
Like wise, if you invested in travelling to a con I’m sure you value more people attending than less.
Welcome to CFN.
DHS?
I agree with your comments. But as you’ve said before Cornwall is a strange little city. It is still run by the old boys club and I’m not just referring to city hall. Too many back room dealings going on. Will we ever grow out of that? I seriously doubt we will.
Look man, I can read. I know the point of the article. You can try to spin it how you like, but you are obviously upset that they chose not to advertise with you and you feel like your involvement with the event could have made it more “successful.”
Also, you are commenting on my business as if you know how I conduct it. Do you know if I am actually financially invested in traveling to cons? You seem to think I believe more people equals a better con? That’s very much not the case. I have attended events with 3000 people that were much better then some with 20,000 people.
You’ve spoken your piece on your outlet. I’ll do the same on mine, the What’s Crackin podcast, if you’d care to join me. Recording later today or early tomorrow.
Chris when you “Assume” you make an “Ass”…..please do not put words in my mouth. I’m find typing what I feel and wish to communicate.
Chris I have run over two hundred events in my life. The goal is always to have more people come and not less. Of course there can be instances where you have more success with less people, but that’s an anomaly or something very targeted, but you knew that, right?
I checked out your site. Thank you for the generous offer, but I’ll pass.
Dear Jamie, I have just read your article along with the comments after being directed here by some shares on Facebook. Along with Chris, I was an invited guest to CAPE this past weekend. I have made appearances at cons that post attendance upwards of 60,000 that generated me less revenue than I brought in at CAPE.
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I’m not sure what you’re going on about but attendance actually doubled this year from what I’ve heard and I know a lot of people who were talking about CAPE, almost all of my friends were talking about it in some shape or form. I think someone here is jealous, I’m proud of the success they’ve had myself and cannot wait to see what year 3 brings; I ended up meeting a lot of cool people this year.
Perhaps you “have run over two hundred events in (your) life,” but that doesn’t qualify you to presume to know how Randy & Carol should run their events. They’re actually doing it, not trashing other events in a public manner. It’s fine that you’ve declined my offer to speak on my podcast. It’ll give me more room to share my own thoughts on the event & your comments about it.
Chris I didn’t trash their event. I have supported CAPE since its inception. And yes, having run over 200 events does give one a bit of an edge over anyone that’s run less than say….a handful, especially if they think it’s better to have less people attend than more 🙂 You have fun on your podcast.
(since I do not have anything to be sponsored) nor for personal gain, but just to try and help in what I can, I am a part of the geek/nerd world, and is enough to be stigmatized by society to carry further hate and needless spite, Conventions are safe havens for a segregated part of the population, as mentioned by a previous response.
I cant wait for cape 2017…..As i read through all of these messages ( after i enjoyed my weekend at cape might i add) I cant but help feel that Jamie is a little upset that he was not apart of cape..just my thoughts though!! I had a great weekend at cape and my kids loved it also. I hope cape is around for along time so my kids get to enjoy it with their family.Good job Randy and Carol .
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Cornwall has always been a place for a certain type of people and the rest of the people are thrown to the side like a piece of garbage. Since my childhood I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of Cornwall and believe me I did and I would never go back. Many people who open their eyes and ears know fully well what is going on and strange I figured it out on my own since I was a child.
I cannot figure out how Jamie has stayed this long in Cornwall for all the living hell that he went through and still going through. If I were Jamie I would never have stood through all of this hell. Jamie must be cut out of some sort of a saint or a stone or something that he can take so much abuse from the town’s leaders to the regular people. I sure could not go through a tiny fraction.
Jules you should see the response to the story via the CAPE organizer, my former neighbor who I’d give lifts to work, Randy Sauve.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/268132703254772/
This is in a free speech group chiefly founded after I’d been blocked by the City of Cornwall from posting in “OUR” facebook page. I use the term our because the City belongs to everyone, not just a few folks in city management.
I question some of the facts you present here such as the wind was out of CAPE’s sails, it had low attendance and that there was little post CAPE chatter on social media. Did you, in fact, even attend CAPE? Because I was there all weekend and can testify that those facts are wrong. As a website that claims to be a news source should you not strive for accuracy in your reporting?
Neil we stand by our story. You’ve already shown your “colours” and you can try and bait and spin all you wish. Deep down you know the truth having been there.
From a few of our sources:
“my 8 friends that replied to me the consensus is that attendance seemed down from last year, the number of exhibits were about the same but there were more characters this year than last. Most felt that the exhibits that were there this year were of better quality than last years. I know the panels that we saw weren’t full by any means which surprised us. ”
” there weren’t enough volunteers this year in his opinion…there were only 2 people setting up tables for the entire event”
Silly thought. Unless CAPE is a not for profit or charity why are they using volunteers for manual labor? We do have minimum wage laws in Canada? The event pulled in lots of cash, especially according to what you posted just now so why ask people to work for free?
The point of this story is quite clear. I and many others don’t want to see CAPE go the way of Lift Off because of petty politics and ignorance.
The drama that you’re a part of on facebook sadly shows a side of this city that clearly holds us all back. It’s sad and you sir are a part of it.
And the utter irony is that after Randy Sauve started his drama yesterday on facebook it led to this story being seen SEVEN times more than it did on its release day.
I was one of the volunteers and I gladly gave my time to help the event succeed. I don’t ask or expect anything in return. I’m sorry if you feel I am a part of any drama, I am merely trying to point out that your facts are incorrect and deep down I do KNOW the truth having talked to many more than 8 people after being there all weekend. Incorrect is incorrect. So how can you stand by that?
{MODERATED} Mr. Harrelson I can assure you that Jules is in fact a real live human being. She’s a senior that lives in Ottawa who was from Cornwall. We don’t post comments that are potentially defamatory in nature and we don’t tolerate petty idjits.
Cheers
I want this guy Chris and others to know that there are big things coming that will shock everyone and we are going to face a worldwide global depression as well as WWIII and this is no joke. Yesterday or was it the day before my husband read it somewhere and I have been preaching this all over my household for years on end and they just laughed it off until my husband read if for himself.
You can tell this man Chris that I have lived a lot of my life in Cornwall and I know what the town is about and I picked myself up and left for Ottawa with my husband back in the mid 70’s. I knew that Cornwall was dying back then but today it is a graveyard and would take a literal miracle to come alive. All young people have to go elsewhere like they did in the past.
Cornwall was always for a certain category of people and for nobody else and this is completely true and I swear that what I say is the truth. Today things are a great deal worse than ever before and the rich who do the fraud get off and the little people who are nobody get the shaft. I cannot deal with Cornwall’s mentality at all and dealing with Ottawa is bad enough but Cornwall – OMG.