This post is sponsored by Porsche Centre Oakville; 5000 sq. meters of state of the art lifestyle facility bringing people and Porsche together. Thank you for your support of our love of luxurious sports cars.

I always wondered when a new business opened, how long the owners took to plan, organize and get to the opening stages of their business and how they made it successful. How they found the target audience and kept them interested and engaged in their products?

On Thursday November 8th, I attended my first Marketing Summit as part of a group invited to collaborate in the development of a creative marketing strategy for Canada’s newest Porsche dealership alongside agency of record, 7 Communications. The Summit offered a chance for media outlets to take part in an RFP to align their respective audiences with the launch of this new Porsche Centre. The 55,000 sq. ft. facility is set to open May 2013 and will be Canada’s fifteenth Porsche centre and it’s largest, with room for more than 22 display vehicles. The location of this centre offers a unique marketing opportunity to reach the western edge of the Greater Toronto Area (Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Ancaster, Brantford, Grimsby and Milton), an area of evolving importance for the Porsche brand.

During the Summit Larry Futers, Managing Director of 7 Communications and Francesco Policaro the General Manager of Porsche Centre Oakville introduced the approximately forty representatives of regional and national media outlets to the thinking behind the new Porsche Centre and the innovative thinking of engaging media partners in this fashion – something I’ve never seen before. The opportunity to successfully launch a Porsche dealership only comes along once every few years and that both 7 Communications and Porsche Centre Oakville wanted to use this event to ensure all on-target idea’s were flushed out in an effort to maximize the more than $2,000,000 marketing budget that will be spent over the next 36 months.

My main takeaway about this dealership? Porsche Centre Oakville is not just a dream centre for Porsche and automotive fans… it is so much more. It’s a community within a community, bringing not only Porsche’s current and future owners inside but it is opening its doors to everyone. The addition of the Porsche Club Lounge and Porsche Cafe will offer a new kind of experience to their foodie visitors and for the families; they offer kids corner and the GT3 Cup driving simulator to keep both our inner child and kids entertained.

Laurance Yap, Director of Marketing for Porsche Cars Canada discussed several strategies that Porsche has implemented to stimulate and capture their target audience through experiential marketing and provided suggestions on how it can be applied to Porsche Centre Oakville’s future strategies. 5 star all inclusive roadtrips and winter driving classes were just a couple strategies mentioned during the Summit… either of which I love to participate in. Or perhaps test-driving the latest model Porsche’s enroute to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the weekend at a 5-star resort and winery? Count me in!

While much time was spent discussing Porsche’s priority of using unique experiences as a brand differentiator, the brand is also tapping into a variety of digital and social outlets to reach their target audience. Bonar Bulger, 7 Communications Director of Digital Strategy took the audience back to school and explained how the clever use of digital and social driven initiatives will be utilized to help drive awareness and consideration, pre and post open doors.

As a car enthusiast and a social media nerd, I learned so much about the business of marketing and about Porsche as a brand. I can’t wait to learn even more during Porsche Centre Oakville‘s journey up to their opening in May 2013.

Solmaz