Have you Montrealers not always wanted to rediscover your own city following your own feelings while promoting local communities? Well Moodmap is designed especially for you. And the team is happy to unveil a new version for their first anniversary!
The idea was born when Julien, founder of the project, spent six months studying in Montpellier (France). He discovered there were flyers promoting places to go out depending on your mood and found it quite original. When he came back to Montreal, Julien let his idea mature. There was an innovation side to add to the project to become truly original: create a digital mood map for going out. To do so, finding the right people with the right expertise was critical: Julien had studied Communication but did not have any background in IT Development. This is where Gisele, Manon, Julien and Hugo joined the adventure.
The website which will soon celebrate its first anniversary is getting better and better: visuals, location-based research, social media sharing and… an English version of course! On Moodmap, you can customize your search through a huge list of actions and filters to discover the place that corresponds best. If you feel “chic” and want to “dance” and “date” you will find exactly the right spot to visit.
Creating an interactive new media
What makes the project truly innovative and different from other websites is its content marketing strategy: bloggers that are considered as experts of Montreal, curate Moodmap with reviews of their favorite places, depending on their moods and feelings, while promoting their own blog. A team of around 30 bloggers provides quality content to the platform like journalists. Among the latest reviews, Café Parvis by Foodologie.
Moodmap has also developed an interactive partnership with Bixi for the “adventurous” mood: every month you will be able to find a special urban biking itinerary created by a blogger to discover new places in Montreal. Recently, Montreal Addicts created an exclusive itinerary to discover Villeray and Rosemont.
Creating a community beyond the website
Of course, competition is high in the field of “outing blogs” especially in Montreal – Narcity, SoMontreal, Mtl Blog… but it all depends on the way you classify information and how you promote it. Julien and his team decided to use what they did best to differentiate: creating connections and networking. They therefore decided to organise regular events to have the community discover a new café during a 5@8.
Moodmap has also started partnerships around major events: Espace Libre, a performance space featuring experimental artists, is a partner of the “curious” mood and provides exclusive promotions and free tickets for the theatre season while Moodmap create customised articles on the plays and the places to discover all around it.
Summer days are also crucial for developing strategic partnerships: Moodmap partnered with Zone Homa where the festival’s team was given the opportunity to create exclusive itineraries on the platform, related to all the cultural events happening in Montreal.
Already celebrating their first anniversary, Moodmap is ready for more challenges: while integrating strategic brands in their articles, bloggers always keep in mind as a main concern to provide unusual and innovative ideas for going out, not only to millennials but also to older people who do not know where to search for ideas and even to tourists.
You can join the team and celebrate their anniversary on July 27 at Pub St Joseph and check the new version of the website… soon in English! Follow them too on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Innovation Montreal 