Terry Poulton
Ikea taps new YouTube wannabe to launch bed-making contest
‘We’re looking for bed-making maniacs who aren’t worried about what Mom says…,’ announced the Swedish home furnishings giant yesterday while offering a US $5,000 prize for the most imaginative consumer posting of the quotidian activity on newbie social network Shycast.
Mini bows ‘talking’ billboards down south
Actually, playful messages – such as ‘Nice roof graphic, Bob!’ – will not be voiced, but spelled out in lights as Mini drivers who’ve signed up for the innovative Motorby pilot program drive by. But the initiative now underway in four US cities makes Mini the first major marketer to morph RFID technology into one-to-one communication with customers.
Branded content from Grand & Toy to guest-star on Canada AM
To give its office makeover contest added oomph, G&T worked with CTV to create four ‘Office of the Future’ segments for the early morning talk show.
Touché!phd chooses ‘don’t tell it, show it’ on-screen M.O. for media pitches
The pictures on the newly installed giant screens at the Montreal agency impart far more than a thousand words to the agency’s media strategists as they contemplate which products and proposals to pursue and which ones to take a pass on.
Montreal Gazette promo teases via scrawled lipstick notes
To promote its upcoming special report Degrees of Separation, which focuses on the dominant role of women in Canadian universities, the newspaper will infiltrate washrooms and changing rooms with hard-to-miss messages on the mirrors.
Scotiabank launches novel rewards program, nabs naming rights for Cineplex theatres
Rechristening Cineplex facilities in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton as Scotiabank theatres is only part of a deal being touted as the first-ever movie-themed debit card and rewards program launched by a Canadian bank.
They put ads where?
And now … wristvertising – turning consumers into walking or, even better, dancing billboards. That’s the concept a US-based entrepreneur recently launched at a network of trendy clubs. And now wristband advertising is catching the eyes of the beautiful people cavorting in Utah.
Lionsgate and Habbo to let teens decide which animated movies get made
Talk about letting the market decide. Habbo World’s multi-dimensional virtual community is being invited to vote on which of ten animated shorts will end up on screen.
UrbanTraveller.com to advise trippers what’s on in their destinations
As of mid-February, people planning trips to major Canadian cities will have a one-stop site for checking which cultural events will be happening during their stays. And advertisers will have the option of a full urban media buy.
Youth brand Heavy.com launches Canadian division
The popular NYC-based interactive broadband destination – home of such faves as Behind the Music That Sucks, The Massive Mating Game and Tourette’s Cowboy – is hopping over the border to add an engaging and measurable marketing platform aimed at Canadian males 18-34.
2006 went out with strong marketing spend: ICA/Canada Post survey
Marketing budgets were boosted in all categories in Q4, adding up to the strongest marketing spend growth recorded since the survey began in 2003, and signaling buoyant growth in ’07.
Mobile projection billboards get Bluetooth connectivity
The Toronto company that was first to turn storefront windows into giant, transparent ads is now projecting virtual billboards wherever a client wishes. Optiadmedia is also ready to send messages to nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices and report to clients how many consumers opt to respond.
Torstar plans to boost its ethnic reach
Already publisher of the Canadian version of Chinese-language daily Sing Tao and Sway, a weekly geared to Toronto’s African- and Caribbean-Canadian communities, the Toronto Star is now leveraging the success of a magazine geared to all the 250,000 immigrants who arrive here annually – plus planning a Toronto edition.
Will Canadian marketers boldly go to AAC’s Blogtv.ca to engage consumers in real time?
As Canada’s first and only live-video user-generated site winds up its first month of operation, no one knows whether marketers were eavesdropping as consumers expressed their passions and concerns. But so far, none has grabbed the chance to get in on the act.
AAC confirms CanWest is wooer; media pundits weigh in
The worst-kept secret in the Canadian broadcasting world is finally out of the bag. But media strategists are wondering this: Will the impending deal create too many 500-pound gorillas at their bargaining tables?
- Some GroupM Canada senior executives have left the agency
- Is GroupM being dismantled? Reports point to rebrand and restructuring
- Havas Media Canada makes three senior leadership appointments
- Media leaders concerned ad spend not going to Canadian media
- Upfronts 2025: Fox announces significant investment in sports
