Armed with an event management degree from Glasgow Caledonian University, Calum McGuigan came to Toronto from Scotland in 2006 after exploring the city on a four-month rugby trip. He soon landed a job as a special event officer at Daily Bread Food Bank, where he planned the nonprofit’s annual gala and fund-raising events. Then, in fall 2009, a few months after gaining permanent residence status in Canada, he decided to branch out on his own with Fervent Events.
McGuigan says he planned to split the firm’s services into two categories: event planning and guerrilla marketing. But a few months into the entrepreneurship, he saw a growing demand for the latter and switched his focus to coming up with creative marketing stunts and building street teams for product distribution. “Everything kind of fell into place for me, because in this economy, everyone is looking to do something cheaper and guerrilla marketing offers that,” he says.
To build awareness of his services, McGuigan staged a silent disco in the financial district in early 2010, recruiting 10 friends to dance and lip-synch for 45 minutes. He filmed the scene, put it on YouTube, and within a month, was planning another performance for Entripy Custom Clothing.
Shelli Brar, Entripy’s manager of communications and community relations, says McGuigan pitched four street-campaign concepts, including one that involved a street team walking through three major intersections and freezing in high-five positions.
“We’re really big into social media, so we put video of it on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, and got interest right away,” Brar says. “I think a campaign like this shows creativity, and it fits into what we’re doing as a brand.”
McGuigan says his strategy involves scouting the top spots for mass distribution in the city and building a roster of brand ambassadors (he mostly looks for model, actor, and musician types). He recently coordinated a team to hand out 12,000 promotional pens, yo-yos, and buttons in a three-hour morning rush for wholesaler Entertainment One, saying his motto is to be “creative rather than aggressive.”
“I usually get ideas by thinking about normal moments and then recreating them in out-of-context places—like a bar scene happening on a street corner,” McGuigan says, referencing a recent stunt for Amsterdam Bicycle Club, a local bar. “I also keep an eye on current events and try to put positive or wacky spins on often negative trends.”
