Major brand names partnering with big sporting events is nothing new. National brand advertisers have supported sporting events for decades. Sports themselves have come to rely on the BIG money sponsorship revenue.

What’s new is how brands are leveraging often very newsworthy content from the major events they sponsor – especially on social media channels. And why not. It’s usually great content and a little newsjacking can be damn good marketing. With a previously established relationship between sponsor and event – access to getting content can usually be arranged.

My recent work on Chevrolet Canada‘s partnership with Hockey Canada and the World Junior Hockey Championship in Alberta provides a good example of sharing on social media a very newsworthy event – and also using social media channels to promote Chevrolet’s presence there.

Because of Chevrolet’s partnership with Hockey Canada – we had access to tournament tickets. We used a pair of Gold medal game tickets to drive engagement with Chevrolet Canada’s facebook page by holding a contest. Using the Wildfire app platform – we built a custom facebook app that allowed people to enter the contest. Thousands entered the contest resulting in hundreds of facebook Likes for the page.

The IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship has a Fan Zone adjacent to where the games are played. Chevrolet has an activation display in the zone. A great experiential idea was having fans wish Team Canada good luck by signing a custom decaled Camaro SS.

Throughout the tournament we used the Chevrolet Canada social media channels to ensure people were aware of the activities in the fan zone. And not just leveraging the Chevrolet social properties – but also using the partnership with Hockey Canada to get mentions for Chevrolet on their social channels as well. A few times the official Twitter account for the games (and its over 10,000 followers) re-tweeted @ChevroletCanada messages. We ensured Chevrolet stayed active on two official Tweet streams for the tournament – #WJC2012 and #IwasThere.

Great examples of a convergence of experiential marketing and social media to expand the reach of an event.

(all photos Richard Budman)

Facebook photo albums from Live, newsworthy events usually make for great stuff to share on brand pages. Engagement and “Likes” are usually high. But the photos need to be very good quality, tell the story of the event, and be posted to social channels in timely ways.

Congratulations Team Canada on your #Bronze medal at #2012WJC in Calgary! You guys played hockey with hearts of #Gold. #IwasThere

— Chevrolet Canada (@ChevroletCanada) January 6, 2012

I’d like to thank the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame and our fans. This is your victory.

— Axl Rose (@axlrose) December8, 2011

Shots I took on my point-and-shoot camera at Axl’s Gn’R show in Hamilton, Ontario (November, 2011.)

Had the pleasure to recently shoot an assignment at BMO Field – Toronto’s home to soccer action. The occasion in mid-October was the Canada Men’s National Soccer Team as they are in the midst of qualifying play for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil match play.

I hadn’t shot at BMO Field before, so it was good to get a chance the day before game day to visit BMO Field and shoot during the training / media day. One thing that quickly occurred to me is my favorite lens, the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 wasn’t going to cut it come game day (and I didn’t think a 200mm lens was going to be long enough either.)

While BMO Field does have an intimate feel to it, the soccer action still seems to occur far away from photographer side lines, hence a fast (it would be a night game) and long lens would be a priority. I ended up renting a 300mm f/2.8 for the night game and turned out to be a great choice.


I was shooting on behalf of Chevrolet Canada who recently entered into a partnership with Soccer Canada and was supporting the team through vehicle activations around BMO Field and signage throughout.

Loved the Canadian spirit in at least one section of homers.

Protest marches can be fun to shoot – there are always colourful characters and the signs are a creative exercise in itself. But this is Toronto, the peaceful, so I pretty much knew there would be no photo opportunities like this yesterday. (all photos Richard Budman)
The crowd started to gather just after 10am. By the time it left the King and Bay intersection – it had swelled to well over a thousand people.

Toronto Police presence was light on the day. After the G20 fiasco and the black-eye it caused a normally outstanding police force – officers were taking no chances. Police kept their distance from protesters and stayed well on the outside perimeter working to ensure streets were cleared of traffic so the march could safely precede. But Toronto Police were certainly ready just in case the shit hit the fan and violence broke out. I did see many unmarked mini-vans in the area, each full of Police officers. You could sense if they needed reinforcements – in about a minute hundreds of Police could have been on scene.

There was no shortage of photographers documenting the day. We’re always looking for creative ways to gain height when shooting large protest marches (my best shots yesterday of the march moving along Adelaide were shot with me standing on newspaper boxes.)

In this age of everyone thinking they’re a great photographer because of an iPhone and software trickery like instagram – it was cool to see one dude going old-school with his Deardorff camera gear.

After the demonstrators left Bay and King, they marched east on Adelaide to St. James Park. Some estimates put the peak size of the march at around 2,000 people.

Great to see my old friend, the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington. Joe recently spent a week in Afghanistan covering things over there so it was good to hear about his experience preparing for such a dangerous assignment.

The march ended up at St. James park. How long they’ll last and how many days they camp out is anyone’s guess at this point.

A few photographers had their helmets with them in case any violence broke out and the projectiles started falling (I left mine at home.)

To support this large traditional media buy across out-of-home, digital and broadcast – Chevrolet took over Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto on October 4th for #ChevroletALLday – an all-day event of vehicle showcases, graffiti art, test drives, contest giveaway of a brand new Sonic, and capping the whole day off with a free concert from Fitz And The Tantrums.

To put an innovative spin on things – Chevrolet became one of the first brands in Canada to broadcast the whole days events at Yonge-Dundas Square Live to Youtube Canada’s homepage and Facebook.

I’m part of a small team that is taking a closer look at Live experiential events for ways to leverage social media tools to reach even more people and create more engaging experiences between consumer and brand.

The success of the Live online broadcast feed had a lot do with the production value. There wasn’t just a single camera mounted high in the sky streaming the same boring shot. Multiple cameras roaming on the ground – and one on a crane – were used to produce the feed.

In looking for ways to ramp up social chatter around the October 4th Yonge-Dundas Square event. Popular Toronto bloggers and media were pitched and invited.

It doesn’t always look pretty in the tent but this crew got the job down beautifully editing their way through a continued 5 camera feed for twelve hours.

Fitz And The Tantrums capped off the evening with a great concert. Earlier in the day, they sat down for an interview that went Live to YouTube.

#ChevroletALLday was hosted by TSN personality Cabbie Richards. Here Cabby is getting Live testimonials about test driving the Chevy Volt from Casie and Keri.

Chevrolet Canada took over the YouTube Canada homepage from 10am to 10pm broadcasting Live the days events.

It was especially cool (and fitting!) to see noted on-line blogger Casie Stewart not just win a new Chevrolet Sonic – but have that whole experience unfold, in tweets and more all Live on YouTube in real-time.

On behalf of Cadillac, the official vehicle of the Toronto International Film Festival, I’m thrilled to be covering all things TIFF again for another year in a unique social media reporting assignment. With my insider reporting partner Skye Collyer, in our beautiful Cadillac CTS-V coupe we’ll ride to some of the best of what TIFF has to offer – the press conferences, red carpet premieres, and parties that take over downtown Toronto.

I hope you’ll join us Festival Insiders as we ride through TIFF this year. You will have a few ways to keep up with us during TIFF:

– The Festivalinsider.ca blog where I post stories each day about the red carpet premieres and events we visit.

– Cadillac Festival Insider features the photography of George Pimentel – a TIFF renowned celebrity photography with his own unique access. Photo albums are published daily throughout the Festival on Facebook and Flickr.

– I’ll tweet a lot on our popular Twitter feed at @FESTIVALinsider about all the TIFF action.

– We produce a daily series of YouTube videos hosted by my co-insider SKYE as we visit the hot spots around the Toronto International Film Festival.

– And if that wasn’t enough, I’ll somehow find the strength to get up at 7am each day during TIFF to chat with Mad Dog on 99.9 Virgin radio where I’ll dish all things TIFF.

– We’ll even giveaway a few TIFF premiere tickets, so for that reason alone, it’s worth following along.

A special week in late June when two of the most distinctive voices in soul history made separate, but equally important appearances in Toronto. Ms. Aretha Franklin and Sade made rare concert stops in the city. Online music news site Manifesto.ca asked to use photos I shot at the shows. Was thrilled to see my shots end up in beautifully penned reviews (coincidentally, by a friend) – Mindbender Supreme.

On Aretha Franklin’s show kicking off the 2011 Toronto Jazz Festival;
“It was truly something reminiscent of the arrival of royalty: it was like the musicians had to lay a bed of sonic rose petals, orchids and chrysanthemums down before the Queen would even set foot down in the court of the crowd and concert. Honestly, for any other artist, it would have been a tedious display of pretentiousness. But on this occasion, it actually felt proper.” – SEE MORE.

On the magical Sade show at Air Canada Centre;
“Sade. Ooh, let me say it again, just because it’s so sensual: SADE. Her name alone is nothing short of holy in many music lovers’ hearts. She eternally floats in the pantheon of immortal soul vocalists, artists that create above and beyond the confines of time, space, and the plastic parameters of the music industry.” – SEE MORE.

Sade has always been one of those artists that fascinates me. She is considered reclusive and very rarely gives press interviews. Sade quickly released four multi-platinum albums during the eighties – then almost as quick, she practically disappeared from public view and has released just two more records during the last twenty years.

The wait was worth it as Sade gave a mesmerizing two-hour performance with her very tight band. Sade started the evening in stiletto heels but my mid-performance to the end, it was bare feet.

I just had my point-and-shoot camera so it was fun again to challenge myself to try and get the best shot possible (all photos Richard Budman.)

I was quickly reminded of something when pulling out the camera – it’s far more challenging finding good picture composition for a thirteen piece band, than when shooting solo artists. In the case of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, I discovered being very close to the stage (the usual hotspot for capturing artists best) would not prove to be the ideal shooting location on this evening.
I started side-stage left. But having the band leader’s back to me (on piano) just wasn’t working.
When moving to first-row, centre stage – it took about a second for me to realize I just wouldn’t be able to capture a full band shot. You might have gotten something cool if you were shooting with a 10mm fish-eye lens, but I had nothing wider than my 35mm Nikon prime – no way I would get a full-band shot from this spot.
Spent a few minutes catching some close up stuff while I was in the front-row, but was anxious to move onto a better shooting spot.

We next tried side stage-right, almost behind the band. An interesting spot. But I still wasn’t completely satisfied.
When I got to centre stage, from the back of the main tent, I could start to feel we were getting closer to right spot to capture the band.
BINGO! Centre stage, about ten rows back felt like the right spot to capture the full band. Sometimes it’s too packed in shows to afford the luxury of moving around like I did for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra tonight. But the lesson on the night for me is if the shots aren’t feeling right and you’re not happy with the composition – move around in the venue and find other shooting spots.

So when the chance came to see Shad in a much more intimate (and warmer!) venue, I was all over it. Since it was more a night out with friends – I didn’t take the shootin’ that seriously and just came armed with my camera over my shoulder and one lens – my 35mm prime f1:8 – also great in low light which these club shows tend to be usually be in.

I’d been catching up with office work and doing those pesky taxes when by 4pm realized I hadn’t been outside all day, it was time for some fresh air. Noticed lots of Sikhs flowing into Queen’s Park. A quick google told me it was Toronto’s annual Khalsa Day celebrations and when noticing a ton of media – I figured somebody famous must be here (and now, maybe a picture moment or two.)

Another photographer alerted me that both Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton were both set to arrive and address the crowd. Since we are just over a week from a Federal Election here in Canada – both these guys are pretty big in the news right now (all photos Richard Budman.)

It was time to get the camera out. Decided to use my wide angle lens because I had a hunch there would be some tight press scrums around the party leaders and I would need to get in close for a clean shot.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff & MP Ruby Dhalla just before they take the stage to address the thousands of Sikhs that had gathered at Queen’s Park.

It was strictly shoes off on the Khalsa Day stage.
What’s this man thinking? If his party doesn’t perform well this election – many will second guess if Ignatieff is the right man to lead the Liberal Party.
I followed Ignatieff’s exit from Queen’s Park. I enjoy very candid moments with political leaders and their security. The Liberal leader would chat with and take questions from anyone approaching him.

I then went to look for NDP leader Jack Layton. There seemed to be a bit more buzz and media attention around Layton I could almost feel. Took me a few minutes to penetrate the circle of media around him, but when finally finding a hole got some nice picture moments.


The “shot” the media was looking for was whether the two party leaders would greet each other. I overheard people with Ignatieff say it wouldn’t happen. But when the Liberal leader exited the stage he would have to cross paths with Layton. It was very fast and Ignatieff gave Layton just a quick handshake and, “hello Jack.” It was very crowded and super fast so not sure if any media got a good shot of it. (mine sucks I think.)


Think they were protesting something.

But I was still doing office work past six on the eve of Sheen’s first appearance in Canada on his Violent Torpedo of Truth tour and I didn’t think I could get to Massey Hall’s stage doors in time for Sheen’s arrival for what I knew would be a mob scene of media and fans.

But when Twitter was telling me Sheen still probably hadn’t arrived to the Toronto venue by 7 pm and the crowd awaiting his arrival had grown quite large, it was time to check out the Massey Hall scene (all photos Richard Budman.)

The demonstration turned out bigger than expected as maybe thousands turned out to Queen’s Park, then marched a short distance to Toronto Police headquarters on College st. at Bay. The protest was inspired by an insensitive remark made by a police officer that insinuated the way a woman dresses can be a factor in her being targeted for sexual assault. The cop has since apologized for the remark, but hey, we wouldn’t be Canada if it didn’t inspire some type of movement.

Since I happened to have camera in bag, I decided to head around to another alley near Sutton Place hotel where I thought there might be a closer shot of what looked like a pretty dramatic scene unfolding (but really, I had no fuckin’ clue what was going on.)

Since my camera was tucked deeply in my bag and needed set-up, and I was ALSO carrying four bags of groceries and beer in both hands – I wasn’t even ready to shoot. [*As well, it's generally NOT good practice to just hurringly drop your knapsack and dive into it when MANY cops are in the near and ready with guns drawn.]

So as I went around the block and came through another alley I threw the grocery bags into a doorway out-of-sight (praying nobody would steal my beer!) and quickly set up the camera to try and grab a few shots. Within a few minutes, most of the police soon departed and the incident didn’t in the end seem that serious.

I love Sarah’s music and think she’s easily one of Canada’s great talents of the last generation. So the chance to shoot her was an opportunity I wasn’t going to miss – especially with being accredited and having some good publicist friends at CMW (as opposed to when major artists are usually out on tour, freelance photogs like myself sometimes stand a better chance getting hit by lightening than being accredited at venues like the Air Canada Centre.)

So I wasn’t going to miss my shot with Sarah. I had already learned, her performance would be short (2-3 songs max) and would lead off the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards Gala – so staking claim to a good photo position would be key. Photographers were already warned they would have to shoot from far back in the room – as to not block the tables situated close the stage. Since I already had my mind set on having to get as-close-as-possible to Ms. McLachlan’s performance, let’s just say when the lights went down and thanks to an understanding Gil Moore (yeah, the Triumph drummer) I managed to secure a most coveted shooting position. [all photos Richard Budman]