Strut Creative is very happy to welcome Tom Muir to our team as Director of Technology. A new position within Strut, Tom brings considerable media savvy and project management skills to head up our web department, pushing our interactive strategy and capabilities to the next level and beyond.

As an online media professional, writer and poet, Tom is constantly looking for ways to enhance his understanding of the processes of communications and the ways in which new media is changing the game of language. For over 8 years, Tom led a Calgary-based team of web professionals in the development and management of the Citytv broadcast network’s online properties including www.citytv.com, www.breakfasttelevision.ca, www.cityline.ca, and www.citynews.ca, across a variety of enterprise-class Content Management systems and services. 

Prior to joining Rogers Communications, Tom worked for a number of Calgary organizations including WordFest, a major literary festival where he played a fundamental role leading the children’s education program. He also ran his own communications company, Leaddeli Media, for a number of years, as well as co-founding and managing one of Calgary’s most successful literary magazines, fillingStation.

With a lot of late nights and weekends, dogged determination and the support of fantastic clients, suppliers and friends like you, Strut has not only survived over the last ten years, it has thrived.

From a spare bedroom and a couple of leased Macintoshes Strut has grown into one of the top creative and web shops in Calgary.

A heartfelt “thank you” from all of us at Strut Creative -- It wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Remembrance Day is seen by many as a time for paying respect to those who served during World War I and World War II, and as the veterans of those wars slowly pass away over the years, so does Canadians’ connection to the day – especially among the country’s youth.

One of the reasons for this is that the current conflicts do not directly affect Canada as did the earlier wars, so the Canadian Forces putting their lives on the line for peacekeeping missions are not always top-of-mind at this time of year.

Ironically, many of the men and women serving today in places like Afghanistan and Darfur, are much closer in age to MuchMusic’s viewers than the veterans often associated with Remembrance Day, so Much wanted to reconnect their audience with the purpose behind Remembrance Day as well as raise awareness of Veterans’ Week. Challenging viewers to, “Remember. Any way you want,” the spot focuses on social networking used to share thoughts and stories and to organize ways to remember those who have served and are currently serving overseas.

Strut took the script and fleshed it out – writing content for and creating the social networking graphics before animating them on-screen. The 30-second spot starts with a couple key messages before the posts, tweets and texts appear at an exponential rate to fill the screen and morph into a poppy against a black denim jacket. Ear Candy created a wonderful soundscape that builds throughout the spot to a cacophony of message alert bings, beeps, bells and whistles mixed with the sounds of marching soldiers and drill sergeants before ending with an emotional moment of silence.

Visit www.muchmusic.com/veterans to learn more about Canada’s veterans; complete a quiz to receive a free music download; and see playlists from some of the peacekeepers who have served, or are currently serving overseas.

For several years now, Strut Creative has worked with Tomali Productions to promote Tom Jackson’s Christmas concert series, Singing for Supper (formerly The Huron Carol).

Tom and his musical guests cross the country, performing in a series of fundraising concerts in support of the local food bank within each community where the event takes place. From November 20 through December 18, Tom will be joined by Shannon Gaye and the acoustic duo, Pear, to bring a little extra Christmas spirit to 18 cities and towns.

In conjunction with this year’s Singing for Supper concert series, Tom Jackson is releasing a new Christmas single entitled The Gift, that will be available for purchase at the concerts, with proceeds going to the local food banks.

Be sure to attend a concert near you, but if you can’t make it out, The Gift will also be available on iTunes.

For tour locations and dates, as well as more information, visit www.singingforsupper.ca

If you have been watching MuchMusic recently, you will have been unable to escape the spot Strut completed for Much to promote an HP cross-promo contest in which you can win your tuition for a year as well as HP Notebooks, printers and other coveted stuff.

The script was written by Much and the visual style tied into the current HP branding with a little added edge for the Much audience. Strut designer and illustrator-extraordinaire, Danielle Erickson, drew pages and pages of doodles, which we then animated in After Effects. Much produced the audio in-house, and miraculously, the entire piece was finished in under 2 weeks from start to finish.

The spot caught the attention of viewers and the contest quickly rose to the top of the charts. Within the first 24 hours of hitting the air, Much was bombarded with 62 video and essay entries and 663 weekly prize entries.

The initial commercial will be re-cut and modified twice – once to feature the contest finalists and push viewers to vote for their fave, and finally, a spot to announce the winner of the grand prize.