To stay in business, we must all attract customers. However, advertising though any form of media can be like a stroll though a minefield when trying to reach prospective customers in a way that is appealing. In that light, Barrie’s only social content video channel is now able to offer an industry-exclusive option for your business to reach tens of thousands of local consumers with an attractive altruistic message for the lowest rates available for any local media. Our fully-established and growing community-oriented platform quickly tripled the size of our commercial division while also causing a dramatic increase in interest for a local independent medical business that we partnered with to streamline their promotion.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network is new, but our multiple local award-winning business in Barrie is eight years old. Since 2014, through to 2018, we have been identified as ‘Barrie’s Best Videographers’ as chosen by local businesses, and we have produced programming for, or been consulted by, every major business group and organization in Barrie. Those include but are not limited to the City of Barrie, the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce, the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, Georgian College, and the townships of Adjala-Tossorontio, Essa, Innisfil, Medonte, Nottawasaga, Tecumseh, and more. See Local Focus for details.

Our social voice, Five Points Media, is also well-established within the City of Barrie. Now four years old, it features about 4,000 followers and an audience of more than 20,000. Our videos are watched by an average of 5,000 viewers, with some being watched by 30,000 or more.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network is more than just broadcast quality videos about those helping our community. It is a promotional vehicle through which altruistic advertising boosts small and medium local business, and it is a non-competitive referral network though which only-local businesses can promote themselves and each other directly to the computers, smart TVs, and phones of people living within our community.

the OCANetwork, also known as Five Points Media, provides a voice for those who have none, commentary as a social eye on our city, and a powerful tool of self-promotion for community groups and charities. Ours is a professional production facility that creates only state of the art production quality. This can be seen by viewing some of our recent community videos like the Community Give and Get, ‘Let’s Give a Kid a Christmas’ Superheroes Promo, the Candlelighters Superhero Stomp Promo, and the Barrie Public Library - BPL Comic Con 2018. It is also a social voice that connects local residents through programming like the Remembrance Day Ceremony, Barrie, 2018, Trials and Triumph Promo - First assisted team to enter Barrie Triathlon, and Accessibility - 'I felt . . . like nothing I guess'. A full list of our most recent 50 or so productions can be found here.

This website contains likely more information than most business owners will read; however, we want our members to make an informed decision. Altruistic advertising is now the most powerful means of self-promotion ever known, and until now it was available only to massive companies with seemingly unlimited advertising budgets. Now, through the Ontario Community Awareness Network, local businesses can work together to promote themselves to consumers in a positive way that shows community unity. It also works to help the community and the charities that call Barrie home, which builds buyer trust and loyalty. Our structure of production and broadcast is also designed to allow each member business to promote themselves by sharing our productions and taking appropriate credit for their participation and support.

The Ontario Community Awareness Network offers a win-win-win scenario for local businesses, the community, and the city’s economy. It is now being offered only in the City of Barrie and is available only to local businesses. Membership is exclusively available to only one business in each industry-specific category. If you are interested in discussing details, please call us now before a competitor takes your place.

the OCANetwork, also known as Five Points Media, was launched in 2014 in response to demand by the local community. Our crew had donated services to more than a dozen charities through our commercial video production company, 3B Solutions, but the demand continued to grow. Although it was not our intent, the exposure from consistently and repetitively donating community programming through our new social identify caused a phenomenal affect on the brand success of our commercial services, resulting in a tripling of interest and sales. Our reputation as ‘a company that cared about its community’ also opened doors to businesses that had previously been inaccessible, and it caused many local companies to reach out to us. Our testimonials speak volumes.

Soon our local clients were asking how they could benefit from sponsoring an event or being seen to support the community, and the idea for the Ontario Community Awareness Network was born. We now choose to work predominantly with businesses that support our community and philanthropists.

Our video programming is produced at the highest level of professionalism. All of our video equipment is specifically designed for professional production work, and we collectively bring to the table about 50 years of international experience in television news, documentaries, commercial programming, theatre work, and related areas of expertise. Our team is a mixture of sagacity and enthusiasm with the young learning from the experienced. the OCANetwork, also known as Five Points Media, holds a Five Star rating on Facebook, as does our commercial side at 3B Solutions. For four years, from 2014 - 2018, our commercial production company, 3B Solutions, has been voted by Barrie businesses to be the Best Videographers in Barrie.

the OCANetwork, also known as Five Points Media, is now fully recognized as a local media service providing community programming to Barrie and area. We regularly interview officials at every level of government, and we are frequently invited directly to cover charity, community, government, and even school events. However, unlike other media companies in our area, the OCANetwork, also known as Five Points Media, is a locally-focused and community-oriented media service with a mandate to help charities and the community in any way possible using video.

As such, we can offer a low-cost but high-reach alternative to standard media. We also maintain a low-overhead so that we do not suffer the fate of many local media providers. The sudden and unexpected loss of the Barrie Examiner last year is only one very real example. Since December of 2017, CTV has eliminated several key community features such as local sports, and we have also been hearing unconfirmed inside reports that more cuts are on the horizon. Community Access Channels provided by regional cable companies are also reducing their local programming as is evident from the cancellation of many popular shows and the recent dramatic reduction in production staff.

We do not support a future in which there is no local media. Nor do we want to subsist on feeds from central broadcasters. Not only is that scenario bad for local business, Barrie is a unique city that needs its own voice. We simply cannot allow ourselves to be absorbed into the media melting pot. The Ontario Community Awareness Network will give our community the voice it needs, and effective advertising options that work locally.

In addition to location-based programming, we are currently building a custom studio at our production facility that will be large enough to host talk shows, demonstration shows, and even political debates. We are also in the process of purchasing an online live video transmitter similar but more powerful than the one used by the local CTV affiliate. That will allow us to produce live shows and on-the-scene multi-camera broadcasts from any event anywhere. It also opens advertising and self-promotion options for businesses like restaurants who could use our new technology to produce entire shows focused on an issue shot in their kitchen.

The possibilities are truly unlimited.