Scotiabank markets itself as Canada’s hockey bank, but thanks to Ryan Burella it has become Canada’s photography, film and avant-garde art bank, too.
As the manager for the bank’s arts and culture sponsorships, Burella is instrumental in building and growing partnerships with organizations like Nuit Blanche, the Giller Prize and Hot Docs film festival. But, unlike his coworkers running the bank’s multi-million-dollar NHL deals, Burella is not backed by big media budgets and international branding to make his sponsorships work. His job obligates him to be a one-person team.
Jacquie Ryan, vice-president of sponsorships and partnerships at the bank, says describing his job as being just sponsorships is somewhat of a “disservice” to Burella “because it doesn’t explain what he does.” Aside from being part deal maker, event coordinator, account rep and arts advocate, he also runs day-to-day marketing tasks. “He is responsible for every spectrum of marketing,” says Ryan, “from events to customer communications, from social and digital to traditional print advertising, and some broadcast as well. He’s responsible for the gamut.”
And he’s proving to be exceptionally good at all of it. Internal research from Scotiabank shows, when compared to other similar organizations that are sponsoring the arts, Canadians now believe Scotiabank “does it best”— the first time in the bank’s history. That shift has been driven in large part by Burella. For example, when Scotiabank became the lead sponsor of the Gillers back in 2005, the Canadian literature award was but a single event: a nighttime gala. Under Burella’s management, it has expanded to become a series of events across the country, bringing finalist authors to different cities for readings and Q&As in the lead up to the big night.
Burella “really took a leadership role… We hadn’t been able to get that off the ground before he got here,” Ryan says. Burella also worked with Scene to get Giller content and prizes out to the movie loyalty program’s 6.7 million members, which became Scene’s most popular social contest of 2014. Scotiabank’s overall earned advertising value on last year’s Giller program increased 18% over 2013.
Applying that level of rigour to last year’s Nuit Blanche sponsorship (for which Burella managed an art installation on the bank’s behalf, garnering tons of social media attention) earned similarly strong results: 32% increased earned advertising value over 2013, and upswings in brand opinion, consideration and “likelihood to recommend.”
Burella’s results are so consistently good, he’s being asked to get involved in projects outside his portfolio. When Scotiabank put its name on cinemas in Halifax, Saskatoon and St. John’s, he helped orchestrate grand-opening events for more than 750 retail banking clients. And last year, the self-described “out and proud” 29-year old was asked by CMO John Doig to help organize a consumer-facing campaign to show the bank’s support for the LGBT community. Timed around gay pride festivals in key markets, the campaign included LGBT client events and out-of-home wraps around select branches and ATMs. Some of those wraps remained in place long after Pride because branch managers were getting such positive feedback from clients.
Gallant Law, the bank’s director of sponsorship marketing, says much of this success is due to Burella’s “client focused” and “solutions oriented” approach, skills he cultivated on the marketing team at Sears Canada for three years before landing at Scotiabank in January 2014.
But Jacquie Ryan believes Burella’s skills are equal parts nurture and nature. “It just so happens Ryan has a passion for the arts, too. He’s a passionate guy. I imagine if you put him on something else, he’d be just as passionate. He loves his work. He loves marketing.”
