Staff
New lifestyle glossy targets ‘young sophisticates’
Calgary-based entrepreneur, Zinat Damji is launching a national lifestyle mag targeting ‘young sophisticates’ called ‘Generation Zi.’ Its premiere Fall/Winter 2005 issue debuts this month. The aud of 18-34 men and women will get commentary on everything from culture and fashion to technology and finance and will be encouraged to contribute online to the editorial content. The firm will also promote the Zi Magazine Scholarship Fund, an annual, sponsor-driven award of 10 educational scholarships of $10,000 awarded to Zi readers.
The magazine will be published quarterly and distributed through high traffic newsstands including Chapters, Indigo, Safeway and Shoppers Drug Marts across Canada. As well, 40,000 copies will be inserted in The National Post and The Globe and Mail, and with subscriptions, will total a first national circulation of 75,000. Cost of a full-page, colour ad is $9,500. Cover price of the magazine is $5.95 or $20 for four issues.
The launch will be supported with media relations, product placement, broadcast and print co-promotions, strategic partnerships and alliances, and interactive contests. Print and online ads will appear in entertainment and weekly newspapers nationally and a 15-second spot will run on select university campuses beginning Oct. 21 for two weeks through an agreement with Freefone, the public courtesy telephone and digital video advertising system. Media buying and planning are by Wendy Ell, marketing manager, Codell Concepts, of Calgary. Creative is being handled by Montana Creative, of Calgary with media relations by The Siren Group, of Toronto.
http://www.zimagazine.com.
Levi’s takes extreme approach to casting ads
Levi’s jeans took an innovative approach to finding models for its latest campaign. The clothing company sent talent scouts to extreme sports festivals Crankworx and Wakestock in August to check out how well the ubiquitous denim was molding to young buttocks and thighs with an eye to finding some new models. Participants were invited to be in a photo shoot to create mock ads.
The mock ads were posted at Crankworx and Wakestock as well as on levi.com/Canada. Festival attendees and site visitors voted for their faves with Penticton, B.C.’s Austin Ross and Toronto’s Kelly Given coming out on top. Next the two were shot for real ads that will appear in Exclaim! Magazine – Ross in the October issue and Given in November. The GEM Group was behind the initiative. GEM is a marketing communications agency specializing in sports and entertainment marketing.
Cannes Lions judging revamped for 2006
The judging process at the 2006 Cannes Lions Festival is getting a revamp. First, there will be separate press and outdoor juries judging the entries in those categories. The jury president, however, will continue to preside over the film, press and outdoor juries.
The second change is in the Lions Direct competition. There will no longer be any preliminary pre-Cannes ‘judging-at-home’ rounds. According to Terry Savage, executive chair of the festival: ‘Direct marketing is a tactile medium, and it is important that the jury see all entries…in their true format and not digitally.’ An increased jury of 30 plus the jury president will judge all entries in this category in Cannes.
In 2005, more than 11,300 ads competed in the press and outdoor competitions. A record 1,600 ads were entered last year in the direct category. The 53rd International Ad Festival will be held in Cannes, France from June 18-24.
BBM Media Snapshot: Do credit cards with loyalty rewards appeal to Canadians?
* 4.8 million Canadians (17%) have at least one credit card with loyalty rewards.
* The average personal yearly income of Canadians with credit cards with loyalty rewards is $50,000 (1.6 times the national average).
* 21% of these card holders completed their university studies (1.6 times the national average).
* 40% are middle management professionals and 22% are upper management professionals.
* 51% of reward credit card holders have Visa; 46% have a Master Card; and 20% have an American Express.
* Canadians with credit cards with loyalty rewards are 1.9 times more likely to be members of Aeroplan and 2.1 times more likely to be members of other airline reward programs, compared to the national averages.
* When compared to the national averages, the top categories in which they spent $150+ last year are: china/tableware (twice the national average), online shopping (1.8 times more), flowers for someone else (1.8 times more), and office supplies (1.7 times more).
* TV (89%), radio (88%) and Internet (65%) are their top three media choices by yesterday exposure.
* Looking at radio weekly reach, their favourite formats are: 25% news/talk (1.3 times more than the national average), 15% adult contemporary, and 11% classic/mainstream rock.
* News/current affairs (68%), movies (67%) and suspense/drama (48%) are the top television program types they watched in an average week.
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’04, individuals 12+
The preceding information is from BBM RTS, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 60,000 Canadians, conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.
Discovery preems Mean Machines
Discovery channel’s new 10-part half-hour series, Mean Machines, makes its debut on Thursday, Oct. 20 with two back-to-back episodes beginning at 9 p.m. The series counts down the toughest and meanest machines in history, from subs to transporters to cranes.
NHL Net offers free preview
The NHL Network has begun a 32-day free viewing period available to all digital cable and satellite subscribers continuing until Oct. 31. The regular season begins Oct. 5 along with NHL On The Fly which is back for a fourth season from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. with nightly live look-ins to games across the league. The NHL Net offers around-the-clock hockey programming.
Cossette nabs Marchand
Brett Marchand has joined Toronto-based Cossette Communication-Marketing as SVP/managing director. Marchand’s mandate will be to drive the creative product.
He was previously president/CEO of Lowe Roche, also of Toronto. Prior to that, Marchand spend time client-side – five years at Campbell Soup and a stint as VP marketing at Molson during the ‘I Am Canadian’ era. Later, Marchand oversaw the development of the groundbreaking commercial ‘The Rant’ which won a Cannes Lion.
Bogias joins Astral
Nick Bogias has been appointed to the position of director, affiliate marketing at Toronto-based Astral TV. Bogias, along with his team, will be responsible for developing affiliate marketing programs for The Movie Network, Family Channel, Mpix and Viewers Choice brands, as well as creating new channels. He joins Astral after a long stint at Pepsi where he was the national business development manager. Bogias will report to Domenic Vivolo, SVP marketing and sales at Astral.
Events
Oct. 6
Power Conversations: Talking with Clients the Right Way
The Ontario Club, Toronto
647.393.9649
ama-tor@allstream.net
The Toronto chapter of the American Marketing Association presents this breakfast roundtable on how to engage customers in two-way conversations and leverage the learning to better satisfy the customer. Panelists include Lynne Dabols, marketing manager, global banking, IBM.
Oct. 13
NABS Sociable
Cherry Bay Beach Club, Vancouver
info@thesociable.com
www.thesociable.com
The National Advertising Benevolent Society helps ad folk in need. Zoom Media is hosting this evening of drinks, music and good company with all proceeds going to NABS West.
CTV and MTV to partner
CTV and MTV have partnered to up MTV’s presence in Canada, expanding CTV’s reach into the youth market, and all its promo and digital tenets. Media buyers are viewing the new deal in a very positive light.
Helena Shelton, VP, broadcast operations of MBS/The Media Company, says, ‘CTV’s partnership with MTV is very smart. They will now have huge inroads into youth targets. The big question is: they say there will be a block of MTV programming on CTV main channel, but they are so strong and (have) full simulcast, where can they possibly put this block that makes sense?’
Hockey sells for Zero and Blue
Hockey’s back and the fans – and the brands – are feeling the excitement. Take Coca-Cola Zero. In an afternoon event yesterday, the brand-new Coke with zero calories hosted the World’s Largest Air Hockey Tournament in Toronto’s Dundas Square. On the guest list were Toronto Maple Leaf alumni Wendel Clark, Nick Kypreos and Darryl Sittler. Also on hand were world air hockey pros Danny Hynes (ranked number one in the world) and Andrew Yevish. The air hockey puck dropped and in the match between Clark and Hynes, it was a clear win for the air hockey champ against the former Leaf. Torontonians got in on the action too, with up to 500 people in attendance, watching and playing air hockey and sipping the new beverage.
So why pitch a decidedly male-skewed sport like hockey with a brand that’s zero calories? Ironically, Coca-Cola Zero is aimed at young males. ‘Our research shows that males wanted the same Coke taste but with no calories. So we came up with a formula to fill that need,’ said Andrea Young, group brand manager. ‘[Hockey] is the perfect tie-in because of its passion point. Men love hockey and it’s a perfect fit for our demo.’
The launch of the new Coca-Cola Zero will be supported by O-O-H and TV executions as well as sampling at various NHL games and at colleges and universities across Canada. Cossette in Toronto, with Maverick handling PR, did the ad campaign and media buys.
In yet another hockey-tied promo, Labatt Blue is releasing a special edition Hockey’s Back 15-pack case. The specially marked cases will be outfitted in their own hockey jerseys to herald the game’s return and will be available as of Oct. 3 in beer stores across Ontario. The promo was created by Toronto agency Grip, with print and TV buys managed by M2 Universal.
Flash Media-Retail: Vice launches Japanese brand
From its Montreal punk rag roots to its current NYC-HQ’d constantly morphing media entity (publishing, film, records, TV, fashion, online), Vice has come a long way. And it’s the media brand’s many facets that has enabled its most recent marketing partnership, a form of flash retail with Japanese fashion retail brand UNIQLO. This month, Vice emptied its Soho store of its diverse range of designer lines, books, etc. and remade the shop into a UNIQLO store. The brand is set to expand into the U.S., and this marketing effort was a precursor to opening its 10,000 square-foot mega SKU stores in New Jersey.
The Vice team edited the hundreds of items in the line to a few well-chosen basics that would appeal to the Vice audience. And the edited collection is on pace to do the greatest gross retail figures since the store opened, according to Ben Dietz, director of business development. For UNIQLO, the effort was valuable as PR alone, to give Manhattanites – not to mention tourists – a taste of the brand, which has also launched in the U.K. The retail experiment lasts just for the month, and while the strategy called for consumers to discover the UNIQLO branded store for themselves, various PR events, including some for media, were held at the location, culminating in a closing party at the end of Ad Week. Dietz says it’s a strong possibility Vice would do this for other brands, and likes the fact that the regular store reinventing itself overnight keeps consumers on their toes.
On TARGET: Instant memories with digital cameras
Since first hitting the consumer market in the beginning of the nineties, digital cameras have definitely made their way into urban Canadian homes. With 46% of the Valuable Active Crowd owning digital cameras, the technology is gaining widespread acceptance and is no longer reserved to just early adopters.
Media habits
TARGET results also reveal that digital cameras are cannibalizing time usually spent watching television. On average, urban and active Canadians owning a digital camera are watching 12.8 hours of television per week, compared to 14.1 hours for those not owning the device. Digital cameras do not impact significantly on the average number of hours spent listening to the radio.
Levi’s to sponsor Exclaim! music tour
Youthful music rag Exclaim! has announced jeans giant Levi’s as a major sponsor in its first annual Four for Fall Cross-Canada Concert Tour. Kicking off on Oct. 17 in Waterloo, Ont., the tour brings together musical acts Luke Doucet, the Fembots, Whitey Houston and Shout Out Out Out Out across the country. To support the tour, Levi’s is giving away merchandise for lucky winners at each show as well as a CD featuring tracks from each of the artists on the tour. Automaker Toyota is also a sponsor, though details regarding their involvement were not made available. This is the first time Exclaim! has partnered with both Toyota and Levi’s brands. The deal was brokered by Toronto-based agency GEM Group. Exclaim! targets 18-34s with a male skew.
- Corus Entertainment to shut down five children’s channels
- Snap appoints The Trade Desk’s Bob Cornwall as new GM in Canada
- Industry experts weigh in on TikTok Canada’s halt to cultural funding
- Touché! wins new grocery client in Quebec and New Brunswick
- Nextdoor rolls out ads for the first time in Canada
