Toronto to host colourful AR show

Toronto’s new VR lounge, House of VR, will host a VR showcase, Prosthetic Reality, from Aug. 1 to 15. The experience will use AR to allow users to digitally interact with real physical artwork through their mobile phones and provided tablets. A kids’ version of the experience will also be featured in partnership with Crayola. The experience, entitled Colour Alive 2.0, will allow children to digitally colour real colouring pages and see the characters come to life through AR.

Production starts on CBC drama

Kristin Kreuk, star of CBC’s new drama, Burden of Truth

Burden of Truth, the new CBC legal drama starring Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) began filming July 18 in Winnipeg. The 10×60 series features Kreuk as a big-city lawyer who returns to her hometown to take a seemingly simple case, only to find herself in a fight for justice for a group of sick girls. The series is part of the CBC’s dramatic fall TV slate, which it unveiled in May.

New creative agency wins

There were a few new major creative agency announcements this week. First up, Under Armour chose Lg2 as its first creative AOR in the market. BMW also signed a new creative deal, picking FCB, its first new AOR partner in over two decades. Also naming a new creative partner was The Société des alcools du Quebec (SAQ), the province’s liquor retailer, which signed Cossette as its lead integrated agency. The 30-month contract (with two options to renew for 12-month extensions) will see the merging of a number of assignments including brand marketing, experiential and media, into a single contract. Cossette previously oversaw only marketing.

UB Media Joins COMB

OOH advertising company UB Media, which operates in the resto-bar, campus and cinema verticals, was recently granted membership to the Canadian Out of Home Measurement Bureau (COMB). This marks the first COMB accreditation for any cinema advertising networks. According to a press release from UB, its cinema network is the largest of its kind in the Quebec province, with the bulk of its concentration in the Montreal area. Michael Minicucci, president and CEO of UB Media said the partnership will bring more transparency to UB, as well as the cinema OOH vertical.