LONDON, ON – London, ON – An international creative communications competition has awarded one of its top prizes to Marketing Strategies & Solutions of London, Ontario, for the agency’s production of a booklet honoring the recently closed grader manufacturing plant in nearby Goderich.
The Summit Creative Awards recognized the booklet titled “The Best On Earth” as a Silver Award winner in its 2010 “Public Relations Events” category. The booklet and an accompanying newspaper advertisement were commissioned by Volvo Motor Graders as a “farewell” to the Town of Goderich and in recognition of the contribution made to the grader industry by generations of Goderich tradesmen and engineers.
According to Robert Adeland, President of Marketing Strategies & Solutions, his company also had a special connection with the Goderich grader facility. “The plant in Goderich passed through several ownership changes and brand names over the years, but the people in Goderich were a constant from generation to generation. Throughout most of the past 25 years, members of the team here at Marketing Strategies & Solutions in London have also been fortunate enough to work alongside the Goderich staff as their advertising and communications agency.”
The Summit International Awards (SIA) organization was created specifically to honor creative excellence in small and medium-sized advertising agencies. Over the past 16 years, the Summit Creative Awards have grown to attract entries from more than 50 countries.
Adeland acknowledges that the farewell booklet presented a unique and bittersweet challenge. “We were closing the door on an era for the Town of Goderich and for ourselves, as well,” he said. “It was a very emotional time for everyone at the grader facility, a time of both pride and sadness. Goderich was “the grader capital of the world” for over a hundred years. We wanted this booklet to represent all the great achievements of these people, irrespective of the nameplates on the side of the machines. “The Best On Earth” was a slogan we developed for their advertising campaign some years ago. At this point in history, we felt it struck the right tone for commemorating the people behind the machines.”
Production of the 24 page booklet was a shared effort by Adeland’s staff, Volvo employees and members of the Champion Antique Grader Club, also in Goderich. Prior to its purchase by Volvo Construction Equipment, the Goderich facility was known as Champion Motor Graders and as Dominion Road Machinery, dating back to 1910. The booklet features a collection of historic photographs of graders and the grader factory collected from company and personal archives. Text highlights major milestones and innovations in grader technology, beginning with production of the world’s first motorized grader. Two multimedia DVDs are also bound into the booklet, containing photo collections and videos of bygone days in Goderich.
As closing day for the facility approached, Volvo ran a full page advertisement in the Goderich Sentinel newspaper titled “Thank you to ‘The Best on Earth’.” Like the booklet, the ad, also created by Marketing Strategies & Solutions, combined recent photos with historical images to celebrate the motor grader legacy of Goderich.
To download a copy of this keepsake, go to www.marketingstrategiesandsolutions.com/thebestonearth.pdf
For more information on Marketing Strategies & Solutions, visit the website at www.marketingstrategiesandsolutions.com or contact:
Robert Adeland, President
Marketing Strategies & Solutions
433 William Street
London, Ontario N6B 3E1
t: (519) 432-8327
f: (519) 642-3372
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