When Blue Ocean had a client looking to expand their customer base in the New York area, they didn't have to look further than their customer service delivery partner to find a perfect solution. Blue Ocean custom built a lead generation model and reporting system and launched a comprehensive outbound pilot campaign designed to help them meet their growth targets.

Blue Ocean's technology team custom developed tools for lead generation Agents that integrated seamlessly with the client's Salesforce systems. Hot leads could be sent from the Agents desktops directly to the Blackberries of the client's sales team so that even if they were on the road, they could contact potential new clients in a matter of minutes.

The program has been a huge success. The client has added many highly ranked clients to their roster and the pilot campaign has transitioned into an ongoing program with full time, dedicated Agents.

Colour has been a Gold sponsor of Laing House's unique signature event, The Masquerade Ball, since it's debut in 2007 providing in-kind donations of creative design and production.  In support of this year's event to "unmask" mental illness Colour worked with the theme "A Night in New York" to design a series of promotional items including posters, tickets, rack cards, save-the-date cards, and the program for the evening.

The Masquerade Ball is a night where you don't have to be yourself and can escape from the ordinary. The concept behind the creative was working with the whimsical, magical sense of the event overlaid on the ordinary, or everyday life. The posters feature imagery of New York City, which were donated by NYC photographer, Susan Sermoneta. The mask identity displays the NYC skyline in the outline.

This year's black tie event at the Cunard Center features a dinner, auction, dancing to Big Fish and, of course, masks are encouraged!

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In response to a desire for Blue Ocean to empower their Agents, the company's team developed The Pier - an online employee program offering a selection of Agent tools where their employees can self-manage their jobs.

The program has three main features, the first of which is an automated time request system. Blue Ocean is able to honour 95% of schedule requests and The Pier drastically reduces processing time and improves scheduling efficiency. The second feature makes schedules live and accessible via the system two weeks in advance. The third feature is a performance management system which provides a personalized account of all work activity including achievements and schedule adherence giving Agents a comprehensive view of their job and a reference point for improvement.

Blue Ocean prides itself on having the capabilities to internally develop technology that improves the efficiency of all of its business processes. The Pier is a great example of this by taking something very metric driven and making it about fitting the lifestyles of their staff. Most importantly, it’s about respect.

Colour teamed up with the From Victims 2 Victors event, an evening aimed at building public interest in social and economic aid to Afghanistan after 2011, when Canada will withdraw from Kandahar. The event featured Captain Trevor Greene, an author, journalist and motivational speaker born in Nova Scotia who survived being struck in the head by an axe while speaking with elders in an Afghan village three years ago. Captain Greene was joined by Juno Award winning singer Jully Black and Gemini Award winning documentary filmmaker, PEN President, and human rights activist Nelofer Pazira.

Colour was tasked with inspiring people to attend the event and make a difference on an international issue by acting locally. Through promotional posters and an email campaign, the goal was to reach out to community leaders looking to make a larger impact on global issues and for direction on getting their communities involved.

The event was a success with Captain Greene addressing a crowd of over 500 people with an inspiring message of forgiveness and healing. Victims 2 Victors is expected to grow into an annual event.

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