November 10, 2016 – Electro-Federation Canada recently honoured the 2016 award recipients of its 3rd annual marketing awards program, with EBMag proudly sponsoring the Event & Tradeshow Category. Kudos to the following:

CATEGORY: Event & tradeshow
Sponsored by Electrical Business Magazine

EATON CANADA was recognized for its Technical Education Conference: a two-day solutions seminar and product showcase in the Greater Vancouver area.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t send a special shout-out to our B.C. sales team who, from the original inception of this whole program […] totally engaged themselves and 100% gave us their commitment and support to really make this event the success that it was,” said Eaton Canada’s Paul Tlustos in accepting the award.

CONVECTAIR was recognized for an inaugural event at its new centre for expertise and training, which conveyed the company’s commitment to energy efficiency.

“Our long-term vision is energy efficiency, and we’re really committed to it,” said Convectair’s Étienne Bolze, adding the event allowed the company to “showcase and present how our new centre […] helps us in going toward energy efficiency and energy usage awareness.”

LUMEN was recognized for its flagship event, Salon Lumen.

“Lumen is honoured to win this award for a third year. It’s always a challenge for us to be better year after year, but we have a great marketing team, so we’re looking for the next one,” said Lumen’s Alain Bergeron.

CATEGORY: Click & order e-commerce

UNIVERSAL LIGHTING’s mobile solution for LED driver replacement, QuikCross, earned the company distinction in this category.

“A lot of thought, a lot of effort went into this tool, this app, to help installers, help our technicians, and help our partners,” said Universal’s Lazar Petrov.

GESCAN was recognized for its site, gescan.com, which promises (among other things) a level of customer service one would typically only find in in-branch.

“It’s a privilege to lead a really talented group of people at Gescan that are focused on trying to create the best user experience possible, no matter where you are or how you […] buy in our industry,” said Gescan’s Jeff Derkuch.

CATEGORY: Integrated marketing

THOMAS & BETTS CANADA was recognized for PowerTrain—an online training program available in both official languages, designed specifically for electrical distributor employees.

“[The PowerTrain program has] really been a labour of love,” said T&B Canada’s Katharine Crowe, who traced its origin to about three ago when “we started looking outside of the box to try to come up with a program that went beyond the traditional Lunch-n-Learn”. She noted the company has some 40 brands and 200,000 SKUs, “but the challenge in all of that is to train people on all of those products.”

EATON CANADA received an integrated marketing award for a content marketing strategy relating to new provisions in the CE Code for AFCIs.

Eaton’s Rob Farrell thanked EFC and its Marketing Communications Committee for “their insight and leadership in putting on [the marketing awards] program”.

GESCAN won again in this category for its Fall 2015 “Need for Speed” promotion, which was carried across multiple channels, including flyers, in-branch digital tablets, social media and more.

“Integrated and omni-channel marketing is at the core of all of our campaigns, so winning this award is actually very special to us. I would like to thank our entire team at Gescan, as well as all of our sponsors and supplier partners,” said Gescan’s Jennifer Yates.

CATEGORY: Sustainability

SOUTHWIRE CANADA was recognized for its SIMpull Reel payoff solution, which improves safety when moving, setting up and paying off feeder cable reels, and reduces waste, including packaging.

“It’s a great honour to receive this award on behalf of Southwire Canada and the Southwire Contractor Solutions team that continues to innovate solutions along the lines of sustainable and safe work for the contractor, and for our distribution partners who participate,” said Southwire’s Axel Schlumberger.

CATEGORY: Merchandising & Display

LITELINE’s battery-operated shoebox display was recognized for its portability and usefulness in simple demonstrations.

“It’s really awesome to win this award,” said Liteline’s Mark Silverstein. “Two weeks ago, at Affiliated Distributors, we won Canadian supplier of the year […] and now being recognized for our marketing efforts is great.”

UNIVERSAL LIGHTING was recognized in this category, too, for its DriveOn campaign to educate installers and distributors on its driver replacement tools, including the aforementioned QuikCross mobile tool.

“I’d be remiss without mentioning Susan Phillips,” said Lazar Petrov. “She’s the one that really makes this happen; she really cares about our customers.”

CATEGORY: Corporate social responsibility

STANDARD PRODUCTS was recognized for numerous initiatives: since 2004, it has donated over $400,000 to various charities through its annual Donation Day and, in 2015, it became Habitat for Humanity Canada’s national corporate lighting sponsor.

“Standard is a Canadian-based company with offices across Canada, and something that’s very important to us is we like to give back in the areas we do business,” said Standard’s Jason Prevost.

SOUTHWIRE CANADA was recognized for its  Giving Back activities, which focus on three main areas: communities, employee volunteerism, and charitable partnerships and donations.

“When it comes to corporate social responsibility […] this is something that we all do, should do, can do, and will continue to develop,” said Southwire’s Axel Schlumberger.

Stay tuned to EBMag.com for the Call for Entries for EFC’s 2017 marketing awards program.