MB Celebrates its “Sweet 16” with Mad Men Theme

100 Guests to Gather for Tribute to the Golden Age of Advertising and

“Can’t-Miss” Celebration of the Year

Ottawa, Thursday, September 29, 2011 - Marketing Breakthroughs, Ottawa’s top marketing firm, celebrated 16 years in business by throwing an exclusive invite-only bash for Ottawa’s business community and selected VIP guests.

This exclusive event was held at SOMA, a downtown fitness studio and spa. SOMA was be transformed into a 1960s-inspired lounge, reminiscent of a Manhattan club from the era. With 1960s-inspired food and drink and full Mad Men-themed costumes and décor, guests felt like they are rubbing elbows with Don Draper and Roger Sterling.

Alongside the 1960s theme was a cutting-edge multi-media and social media showcase. Guests tweeted throughout the event using the hashtag #MBSweet16. All Tweets using this hashtag were displayed live on giant plasma displays – much like the interactive billboards at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. By participating in this social media element, guests felt like they are truly a part of the event.

With walls lined with 1960s decorations and poster-sized advertisements from the era alongside MB’s plasma displays, this event will surely be the most talked-about business social gathering of the year. As Ottawa Event Producers, MB was thrilled to host this exciting event. “We’re proud to have successfully grown our business in Ottawa and to have fun while we recognize our achievements,” said CEO, Steve Klein.

In addition to a birthday celebration, this event also had a live charity auction (with celebrity-auctioneer “Stuntman Stu”) benefitting the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and The Caring and Sharing Exchange (home of The Christmas Exchange). Over $6,000 was raised for these worthy charities.

Steve Klein founded Ottawa's Marketing Breakthroughs in 1995. Since then, MB has helped some of Ottawa’s best known brands grow. This includes Preston Hardware, HolmesHeating, District Realty, Paramount Properties and MacEwen Petroleum. As the winner of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 Professional Services firm of the year, MB specializes in web marketing, traditional marketing, and offers Canada’s only “VP Marketing” service for companies that have neither the time nor the resources to have their own internal marketing department.

MB Produces Another Successful Ottawa Event

After months of careful and dedicated planning, Marketing Breakthroughs produced the 26th Annual Gold Plate Dinner on Tuesday June 14, 2011.


Marketing Breakthroughs' Steve Klein has been the volunteer Executive Producer of this unique Ottawa event since 2008, providing event production and design expertise. This year proved to be one of the most successful years ever with nearly 600 attendees.

Now in its 26th year, the Gold Plate Dinner is a gala fundraiser with proceeds going to the Hellenic Community of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. The Gold Plate Dinner is a unique and exciting gala on Ottawa's fundraising dinner landscape, due in part to the traditionally unconventional "elimination draw" where, one-by-one, every attendee is taken out of the running to win a brand new 2011 Mercedes-Benz C250, valued at over $40,000 from Star Motors of Ottawa. In addition to this phenomenal prize, there were live auction items and additional prizes.


Marketing Breakthroughs managed all aspects of this event, including graphic design of menus and table cards, video production, live auction coordination, website copywriting and design, staging, audio/visual production, decor, food and beverage planning, production of the day itself, and countless hours of meetings and planning to ensure that the event ran very smoothly.


Before the wonderful dinner, guests feasted on hors d'oeuvres under the big top - a 5,900 square foot tent erected at the front door of the Hellenic Meeting and Reception Centre. After guests took their seats, they enjoyed a presentation of the making of the Gold Plate Dinner and feasted on succulent duck salad, anti pasto, orange sorbet, a Frenched 14 oz rib steak with pearl onion au jus, sweet salty roasted potato, micro carrots, asparagus, and sweet pepper bundles accompanied with a butter crusted lobster tail. And for desert? A delicious trio of savory delights: deep fried cheesecake, tapioca pudding in a chocolate cup, and a delicious fruit tart.

Hosted by celebrity Emcee, Majic 100's Stuntman Stu, the dinner and live auction raised more than $130,000 for the Hellenic Community and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Attendees ate fantastic food, bid on trips to Europe and the Napa Valley, and had a wonderful evening.

After this year's event, Erin Giakoumelos said the following about Marketing Breakthroughs' successful event production.

Thank you for taking care of the endless details of this event. It is a great comfort to have such a caring team to work with, and I am so grateful for your interest, dedication and professionalism that contributed to the success of the Gold Plate Event.

Erin Giakoumelos, General Manager, Hellenic Community of Ottawa

MB would like to issue a special thanks to the Gold Plate Dinner organizing committee and partners: Dean Karakasis, Erin Giakoumelos, the Hellenic Meeting and Reception Centre, Gold Plate Chair, District Realty's Steve Ramphos, Doris Ramphos, Duocom, Event Design, and Miller McConnell signs.

For more on our Ottawa Event Design and Event Production, be sure to contact Marketing Breakthroughs.

Marketing Breakthroughs helps kick off Army Week

The Canada Retirement Information Centre (CRIC) could not have picked a more ideal day to celebrate military families, and Marketing Breakthroughs was there help lend its support.

With both the War Memorial and Peace Tower looking on from across the Rideau Canal on a beautiful sunny day, about a thousand people gathered inside Ottawa’s historic Government Conference Centre to kick off Army Week and thank families from CFB Petawawa.

“We think an afternoon of worry-free fun is the best way to show the military just how much they mean to us,” said CRIC President Franco Frangione.

The event featured speeches by local Mauril Bélanger and John Baird, local Members of Parliament, as well as Lieutenant-Colonel Keith Rudderham, Base Commander at CFB Petawawa. There was a ‘best dressed in red’ contest, where attendees showed off their “Support Our Troops” outfits, and free boat tours courtesy of Paul’s Boat Lines. All this in addition to a delicious free Barbecue.

The entertainment kept up throughout the afternoon, as stilt-walkers, jugglers, magicians, and a live band performed for the attendees, most of whom were dressed in their favourite red shirt.

The event went off without a hitch, thanks to the help of the CRIC, Paul’s Boat Lines, and members of the Marketing Breakthroughs team, who donated their time to organize the event and even paint some faces.

"Events such as this allows soldiers’ families a venue to celebrate,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Rudderham. “It makes them feel extra special about the fact that their mother or father, brother or sister is in the military."

The Secret's Out!

This past Friday, Vito Pilieci of the Ottawa Citizen broke the news that "Apple Inc. is secretly building a new Apple Store at the Rideau Centre." The word on the street is that it will be opening next month. Pilieci reports that "Apple has refused to comment on the opening of the store, despite having numerous postings on its website giving away the shop's location and tentative opening date." Apple has allegedly "forced the Rideau Centre to sign restrictive non-disclosure agreements forbidding officials from talking about the new retail outlet."

At first, I thought "what's the big deal, Apple?" But then I did a bit of Googling and found that these openings ARE a big deal for some people. Apparently, hardcore Apple fans have been known to fly across the world to attend Apple store openings.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any promotion for this new Ottawa store over the next few weeks, if/once Apple decides to start putting the word out. It should be interesting to see what strategies and technology they employ!

Great Glebe Garage Sale!

This Saturday is circled on my calendar... well, actually, Facebook is reminding me that there is an important upcoming event that day! The event is the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale, taking place on May 23rd this year. This community event has been taking place here in Ottawa since 1986. In the process of finding treasures for yourself, you'll be helping those in need. The Great Glebe Garage Sale continues to support the Ottawa Food Bank each year. Vendors and shoppers alike are encouraged to donate to this worthy cause.

Be warned - Ottawans take this event seriously! If you want to make the most out of the day, you have to head to the Glebe as early as possible! Check out blogger David Scrimshaw's tips for the big day here: David Scrimshaw's Blog.

Two Weddings...Three Continents... Four Weeks.

An Aussie Girl In Ottawa - Event Planning 101

The task threatens to be the ultimate of all event planning challenges - Plan two weddings across three continents to be held over four weeks - and plan it all online!

Any event planner should have seriously questioned such an endeavour. Except this time there was a catch... the weddings are mine.

Six months ago if someone had told me that my English boyfriend was planning a romantic New York City proposal to this Aussie girl and that the result would be planning a wedding ceremony in both Australia and England from my laptop in Ottawa, I would have doubted their sanity! But with family and friends around the globe with aspirations of celebrating our nuptials in person, and with eight years of event planning to fall back on, we decided to take the plunge to plan our ambitious transcontinental weddings via the world wide web.

And so begins the execution of Event Planning 101 - embracing all of the the dos and don'ts of the foundations of event planning to make our wedding the best day of our lives - both times!

I have the ring, the fiance and the dates are set. Now the fun begins... venue suggestions anyone?