My Coop Experience at the Ontario Association of Food Banks

I did my coop  at a place called The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB).  It's a small charity located in an inconspicuous building at Bathurst and Bloor.  Excluding me and the other intern, there are only six employees working at this charity.

The OAFB coordinates the efforts of 120 food banks across Ontario.  Their members range in size from the huge Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto to tiny food banks located in remote rural communities.  One of their biggest programs is the Community Harvest program.  Essentially, they save over 25 million pounds of fresh, edible produce each year that cannot be sold due to cosmetic reasons such as size, shape and colour.  A second program they have is the Rural Kids program, in which they help get food to hungry children in rural communities.

The work I did at the OAFB contributed to two major events:  The Duffers Golf Tournament and The OAFB's annual conference.  A big part of my job was to do research on potential corporate donors and strategize who could best assist our charity.  I came up with the idea to try to get Premier Kathleen Wynne involved in our Rural Kids program.  I did research and discovered that she isn't doing well with rural voters.  I reasoned that Kathleen Wynne might have been interested in getting involved with the program to improve her image with rural voters.  My manager really liked the idea and I got a taste of making use of copywriting to write a letter to a powerful politician.

Though I was unsuccessful in getting Kathleen Wynne involved in the program, the experience has certainly helped to make me more worldly.  Through my experience with the OAFB, I can now add "strategic constituency development" to my resume.

To learn more about the OAFB, visit their website at http://www.oafb.ca
     

What I learned about Google Analytics

I know very little about Google Analytics.  I'm doing the best I can to learn about it.  One thing I quickly noticed is that you can add a cookie to your browser to prevent your own page views being tracked.  This is important in getting an accurate representation on the amount of page views your site has.  There's likely many people out there that try to hyperinflate their page views by viewing their own page a huge number of times.  However, there are probably ways in which savvy users can identify this. 

I've also learned about two important definitions related to Google Analytics.  They are:

Metric:  Metrics measure the data and are placed into columns.  They focus on numbers. Examples include number of site visits and the amount of time on the site.

Dimension:  Dimensions describe the data and are contained in rows.  They must be paired with metrics for meaningful data analysis to occur. Examples include city, country and browser.

I learned about metrics and dimesions from a blog called LunaMetrics, owned by Robbin Steif.  It can be found here:

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2009/06/22/dimensions-metrics-difference/

Linking to the blogs of my classmates

Prof Tom Supra is having students in the Strategic Relationship Marketing program at George Brown College link to the blogs of 5 other students.  Here are my 5 links:

http://canadianmotorsportsmarketing.blogspot.ca/2013/05/motorsports-marketing.html

Kaustabh Pitale's blog talks about Canadian motorsports marketing

http://yashthethinktank.blogspot.ca

Yash Mugenkar's blog focuses on American Express

http://ericatin.blogspot.ca/

Erica Tin's blog talks about the digital landscape

http://lifeinfoods.blogspot.ca/

Alison MacKinnon's blog is all about food

http://iouphotography.blogspot.com

Ryan Chan's blog is about photography

Conveying a lot of meaning using few words

I'm an introverted guy and I don't talk much.  However, I find that I'm quite good at saying a lot by saying little.  As two special ladies have told me, "I'm a simple guy without being a simpleton." I've read a marketing book that talked about billboard advertising.  It stated that billboards should contain a maximum of 7 words.  People won't pay attention to long-winded billboards.  A billboard I really like is one by Homesense.  It says "Green and Gold, Got it Sold."  It's clear, catchy, concise and communicates what the brand represents.  Sometimes it pays to say a lot by saying little.

The struggle to find your passion

I'm at a major crossroads right now.  To be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life.  I've always had an interest in writing.  I can remember receiving praise for a story I wrote in the second grade.  More recently, I've received praise for some copy I wrote during my time at my coop position.  Moments like these are making me consider a career in copywriting.  It's important to love what you do.  Otherwise, even the simple act of getting out of bed can be a real hassle.  Passion in what you do will make you want to jump out of your bed and tackle the day with vim and vigor.  Am I truly passionate about copywriting?  I don't know.  I'll only find out with repeated practice.