Why you need to join the Ontario Community Awareness Network

(Formerly the City of Barrie Network)

The advantages and benefits that come from helping to build our shared community
Overview : Who? : What? : When? : Where? : Why? : Information Package

Proven results

Before launching the Ontario Community Awareness Network, we wanted to make sure it worked for other types of businesses, and we are happy to be able to show that it does. During the summer of 2018, Kayte Armstrong, a highly experienced small and large animal veterinarian, graduated from a comprehensive four-year program in Osteopathy. Approximately a year earlier, Kayte had opened a manual therapy business called Still Moving that she ran part-time while finishing her career-changing education and occupational training.

During that year, the Facebook for Still Moving attracted only about 40 likes and followers, and the client list was suitably modest for a part-time business. When Kayte graduated it was time to promote, so she asked our crew to produce and post advertisements for Still Moving which ran for ten seconds before four of our videos during October and November. The response was simply astounding. The Facebook page for Still Moving jumped to more than 160 likes in less than two weeks, and the calls for information and online bookings grew exponentially.

As can be seen in the screengrab on the first page of this information, interest in Still Moving spiked immediately after each video advertisement was shown as part of one of our programs. Kayte also followed our request to share the video on her business Facebook page and to make of note of how her business had helped us present the community programming. Our tests with Still Moving proved that advertising through the Ontario Community Awareness Network offers a variety of effective options, and all at rates that cannot be touched by any other media.

Mutually Supportive Networking Through Altruistic Advertising

To stay in business, we must all attract customers. However, advertising though any form of media can be like a stroll though a minefield when trying to reach prospective customers in a way that is appealing. In that light, Barrie’s only social content video channel is now able to offer an industry-exclusive option for your business to reach tens of thousands of local consumers with an attractive altruistic message for the lowest rates available for any local media. Our fully-established and growing community-oriented platform quickly tripled the size of our commercial division while also causing a dramatic increase in interest for a local independent medical business that we partnered with to streamline their promotion.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network is new, but our multiple local award-winning business in Barrie is eight years old. Since 2014, through to 2018, we have been identified as ‘Barrie’s Best Videographers’ as chosen by local businesses, and we have produced programming for, or been consulted by, every major business group and organization in Barrie. Those include but are not limited to the City of Barrie, the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce, the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, Georgian College, and the townships of Adjala-Tossorontio, Essa, Innisfil, Medonte, Nottawasaga, Tecumseh, and more. See Local Focus for details.

The first smaller spike in traffic is the result of our sponsor credit advertising, while the last day is the result of a ten-second feature video post. — The first smaller spike in traffic is the result of our sponsor credit advertising,
while the last day is the result of a ten-second feature video post.

Our social voice, Five Points Media, is also well-established within the City of Barrie. Now four years old, it features better than 2,000 followers and an audience of more than 5,000 (and up to 30,000) views per video we release.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network is more than just broadcast quality videos about those helping our community. It is a promotional vehicle through which altruistic advertising boosts small and medium local business, and it is a non-competitive referral network though which only-local businesses can promote themselves and each other directly to the computers, smart TVs, and phones of people living within our community.

Five Points Media provides a voice for those who have none, commentary as a social eye on our city, and a powerful tool of self-promotion for community groups and charities. Ours is a professional production facility that creates only state of the art production quality. This can be seen by viewing some of our recent community videos like the Community Give and Get, ‘Let’s Give a Kid a Christmas’ Superheroes Promo, the Candlelighters Superhero Stomp Promo, and the Barrie Public Library - BPL Comic Con 2018. It is also a social voice that connects local residents through programming like the Remembrance Day Ceremony, Barrie, 2018, Trials and Triumph Promo - First assisted team to enter Barrie Triathlon, and Accessibility - 'I felt . . . like nothing I guess'. A full list of our most recent 50 or so productions can be found here.

This website contains likely more information than most business owners will read; however, we want our members to make an informed decision. Altruistic advertising is now the most powerful means of self-promotion ever known, and until now it was available only to massive companies with seemingly unlimited advertising budgets. Now, through the Ontario Community Awareness Network, local businesses can work together to promote themselves to consumers in a positive way that shows community unity. It also works to help the community and the charities that call Barrie home, which builds buyer trust and loyalty. Our structure of production and broadcast is also designed to allow each member business to promote themselves by sharing our productions and taking appropriate credit for their participation and support.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network offers a win-win-win scenario for local businesses, the community, and the city’s economy. It is now being offered only in the City of Barrie and is available only to local businesses. Membership is exclusively available to only one business in each industry-specific category. If you are interested in discussing details, please call us now before a competitor takes your place.

Your business can now reach more than 5,000 mostly local new clients or customers
for just $25.00 or .5¢ per viewer - and that is without sharing, liking, and reposting

The goal of self-promotion is to introduce your product or service to prospective consumers and convince them to buy from you. Effective advertising is defined as the art of reaching the greatest number of potential customers with a positive or memorable message by using the most effective means that costs the least per consumer reached.

For more than four years our team has worked to develop the infrastructure of the Ontario Community Awareness Network. Now we can offer a proven means of business promotion that allows a hundred local non-competing businesses to promote themselves, each other, and the community through the shared message of ‘Our Community United’.

This is accomplished through the production of locally-focused community videos that are broadcast to tens of thousands of local people through self-promotional sharing on Facebook, and on other social media, and through our website.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network is like no other advertising option available anywhere. We use existing and readily available online communications technology combined with our 30 years of experience in international journalism and video production to reach tens of thousands of local consumers with stories about their own community. For business owners the advantages are numerous.

We currently have in place an established and growing audience of tens of thousands of mostly local people.
On average, when boosted on social media, our videos are watched by more than 5000 mostly local viewers.
Several of our social documentary videos have been watched by more than 30,000 Barrie area viewers.
Each member business will enjoy industry-specific exclusivity, so they will stand out against their competition.
Video is the most effective means of advertising, and interest in local video has increased 1,000% during the past year.
Videos about local issues and stories are amongst the most watched on the Internet and generate millions of dlilars in business.
Local stories generate interest from regional consumers and help boost brand exposure for neighbourhood member businesses.
Member businesses are viewed by our audience as active contributors to the community, which builds customer loyalty.
Local member businesses are promoted as being compassionate enterprises that help those in need.
Those of special needs and their families are known to shop at businesses that show support for their community.
Current youth ‘Hipsters’ have been shown to base a lot of their shopping decisions on the perceived ethics of the business.
Member businesses are seen to be actively building the city economy while helping those in need of community support.
Our local-only network of member businesses and viewers will cross promote and boost business awareness and sales.
Local charities benefit from our donated promotional services, and businesses benefit from being seen to help those causes.
As a locally-focused social-enterprise, we can offer the lowest cost per target audience rate of any local media.

Short-Term Introductory Offer – Available Only To Our First Twenty Members

We know that despite the various awards and kudos of the community and business establishment, we are an unknown to many local business owners. We also know we offer an amazing opportunity to those with the insight to understand the power of what we are offering. So, in order to show our abilities, we are offering to record and produce, free of charge, a broadcast-quality promotional video cut to ten seconds, thirty seconds, and a minute in length (see example links) offered only to the first twenty business that commit to a six-month period of membership. We will also provide a standardised webpage where your customers can see that video. We get to the low cost of membership later in this package, but sufficed to say, the value of the video and webpage far exceed the cost of the advertising. We will also be offering other incentives, such as no-cost promotions for altruistic events and reports from community projects organized by member businesses.

Costs

Membership in the Ontario Community Awareness Network is sold on a group package basis that when amortized results in a fee of only $25.00 per video.

That’s it. There is no other shoe about to fall and there are no hidden costs.

For that small price the name of every member business will be rolled in the credits and linked to in the tags on our heavily followed Facebook page. Then, each member company can share our production on their social media and make comment about their contribution.

If calculated on just 5,000 viewers, that cost breaks down to 0.5 cents per local consumer reached.

Although we will accept month by month arrangements, totalling just $250.00 per month to reach as many as 500,000 people over ten video projects, we can only offer the free video and webpage as outlined above to the first twenty member companies that pay the six months fees up front. We expect that offer to be taken advantage of very quickly, so it is not likely the offer will still be available after six months of scheduled payments. The videos, cut to ten seconds, thirty seconds, and a minute (see example links) are estimated to be valued at approximately $2,500.00 which more than covers the full six months commitment of only $1,500.00.

We can offer these extremely low advertising rates because we will be spreading production costs across one hundred local member businesses who will each contribute only 1% of production costs while enjoying 100% of the benefits of membership in the network. Also, as Five Points Media is a locally-focused and community-oriented media service our focus is on bettering our community. We also have no ties to big corporate mainstream media. Five Points Media is a completely independent venture that is currently unique to Barrie.

Each member will be granted access to a webpage on which we will post the subject matter of upcoming videos. If any member for any reason does not want to be credited in that particular video we will respect their wishes. Member businesses will also be offered the option on a first come first serve basis to run the ten-second commercial we create for them at the beginning of any program we produce. This will allow our local-only members to enjoy all the benefits of standard advertising, while projecting an image of altruism, while demonstrating an interest in their community, while networking with a hundred non-competing companies, and all the while spending very little to do so.