As reported by Kristin Laird from Marketing Magazine, Insurance
firm Aviva Canada launched the third edition of its Community
Fund competition earlier this week with the stated goal of improving
communities across the country. Individuals or groups submit ideas on
the contest micro site at AvivaCommunityFund.org. To date groups had
uploaded videos and project descriptions for anti-bullying films, urban
renewal projects and youth outreach programs.
Entrants are encouraged to solicit votes for these submissions through
social media sites. Two rounds of online voting will determine which 30
submissions move on to the final round. A panel of independent judges
will then determine the winners, which will be announced Jan. 25, 2012.
Each winning entry receives a prize from the $1 million pot.
Glenn Cooper, senior manager of public relations at Aviva, said the
company sees the annual Community Fund competition as a brand
promotion to help “spread the word about Aviva and the fact we’re a good
corporate citizen”.
“We’re being very honest, this was our marketing spend and we decided
to use it in a different way,” he said, adding that Aviva Canada generally
only interacts with its customers on two occasions: when they pay a
bill or file a claim (Cooper said the company handles over 200,000
claims a year). “We’re helping people every day of the year get back into
a normal routine after some sort of loss.” Helping Canadians through
the Community Fund “is an extension of that and another way for us to
interact with our customers.”