Annette Bourdeau
Springboard launches digital grocery shopper
Your typical shopping cart is about to get a lot more high tech, allowing marketers, as well as participating retailers to advertise while the consumer shops. King City, Ont.’s Springboard Retail Networks (springboardnetworks.com) is launching the Concierge Electronic Shopping System in the fall.
The device, to be put on shopping cart handles in grocery stores cross-country (so far the company has signed one major chain), will provide ultra-targeted dynamic ad opps and allow retailers to display in-store specials through its wireless web portal.
John st. spreads ’em
You’re not crazy – that billboard for a law firm is covered with butter. Toronto-based agency john st. created a unique media campaign for butter brand Gay Lea touting the product’s spreadability.
The tagline ‘You’ll want to spread it on everything’ is illustrated in TV and outdoor executions; the latter features faux billboards – hawking sleazy lawyers and plastic surgeons – covered in butter, running over from adjacent Gay Lea billboards.
Check your brand into the Fairmont
Want rich people? Fairmont Hotel’s lucrative customer base (target demo: 35-55, HHI $125,000 +) is certainly appealing to most marketers. Sony Canada is tapping into it to promote its high-profile compact entertainment system, the PlayStation Portable (PSP). From now until the end of August, guests at the hotel chain’s 20 Canadian locations will be able to sign out PSPs to be used during their stay.
Some of Fairmont’s other non-traditional brand partners (as opposed to the usual hotel partners like airlines and credit card cos) include BMW, Hewlett-Packard and Holt Renfrew. ‘We decided to become more aggressive in pursuing [non-traditional] partnerships in the last few years,’ says Brian Richardson, Fairmont’s VP of Brand Marketing, adding that the chain pinpointed 10 specific categories like automotive, food/beverage and technology to actively seek partners in. ‘We’re really open to working with anyone who is targeting the same demographic.’
Ad opps with online chat
Remember those futuristic videophones from the Jetsons? Well, new instant messaging technology is making video chats available to the masses – and giving you the opportunity to run ads while the conversation windows are loading. ‘It’s targeting an engaged audience,’ says Subtej Nijjar, communication services marketing manager at MSN Canada in Toronto. MSN’s Messenger 7.0 launched last month, along with its ‘MSN Video Conversation’ application, which includes new IM ad opportunities like in-window text ads and sponsorship of ‘MSN Tabs,’ in-window icons that link to MSN Web pages for news, information and services. Canadian advertisers already on board with the new in-window opportunities include Levi Strauss Canada, as well as Unilever Canada’s Axe body spray.
Advertisers can run rich media ‘commercial-like experiences.’ Nijjar says the ads will likely run for 15 seconds and will range in price from $10 to $25 CPM depending on the size and the targeting. ‘We’re doing tons of user testing to determine time limits and sizes for the ads,’ he says.
Mobile search engines: the new killer app?
MSN is adding a little razzle-dazzle to the search engine scene. The tech giant launched its own search engine on Feb. 1, and has invested US$100 million in developing superior search algorithms to provide more relevant results and grow a loyal user base. Marketers already on board with keyword buys include Dell, Lavalife and LLBean.
Competitors aren’t standing by idly, either – Google and Yahoo both recently introduced desktop search tools, and AOL launched a local search service at the end of February.
The heated competition means the race to offer the latest technology is speeding up, and mobile search could be the next big thing. While insiders say discussion about m-search is still premature, two U.S. companies, Medio Systems and Fast Search & Transfer ASA, are already developing related applications to sell to telcom carriers.
AMW gives B2B, lawyers consumer treatment
Toronto’s Axmith McIntyre Wicht is challenging the staid B2B/professional services advertising formula with the launch of two new campaigns this month for corporate clients NewAlta and Osler Hoskin Harcourt.
AMW contracted renowned photographer Shin Sugino to shoot breathtaking photos of large, powerful, dirty hands wringing the last drop out of various machinery for NewAlta, an Alberta-based company that recycles the byproducts of the oil and gas industry. The firm is trying to gain attention from potential investors across the country. The print ads broke yesterday, and will run for three to six months in national publications like the Globe and Mail, National Post and ROB Magazine.
Esso pumping out ad space
The Globe and Mail and Toronto’s Mojo radio are taking full advantage of VST – Canada’s Point of Influence Network, now set up at 118 Esso stations across the GTA. The network, launched at five test stations in late 2003, broadcasts two- to three-minute loops of news content and ads on sunlight-viewable monitors mounted above gas pumps. The Globe and Mojo are each running 15-second spots, as well as sponsoring news content.
Black Tower ads need security
People will take anything they can get their hands on. At least that’s what TBWAVancouver demonstrated with its recent stunt for client Black Tower Security Services.
The agency swathed a 10-foot x 20-foot billboard with grab-worthy household items like framed paintings, rugs, pillows and cookware on Friday, Feb. 25. By the end of the weekend all the items had been lifted, revealing the campaign’s simple message: ‘People Steal. Black Tower Home Security.’
Kokanee bows on-air Glacier Girl Contest
Take the archetype of hot girls promoting beer, throw in a contest and top it all off with a reality TV concept and you’ve got a recipe for innovative new marketing territory. When the hit TV show Smallville scooped up one of Kokanee’s three Glacier Girls, Erica Durance, the beer company was left one girl short of a trio. Enter Grip creative partner Rich Pryce-Jones’ stroke of genius: recruit the replacement via a contest, and broadcast a reality-TV inspired microseries chronicling the progress.
It’s a wrap for Global
CanWest employees are gearing up to pimp their rides – literally. The company is in the midst of launching phase four of its Global & CH Car Advertising Wrap Program in the Greater Toronto Area, which pays select employees to wrap their vehicles in ads.
‘We want to augment what we do through traditional media, and get into areas where traditional ad space isn’t available,’ says Scott MacLeod, Global’s director of media planning and television. He’s primarily targeting the 400 and 401 highways to reach bored commuters stuck in traffic.
