Video gamers (past month); by age

Global Market Insite (GMI) has launched Research Analyzer (researchanalyzer.com), a desktop-based data analysis, reporting and publishing tool to help researchers churn through mounds of market research data faster and in a more organized and uncluttered work environment. Research data can be imported from a variety of sources; reports can be published and distributed at the click of a mouse to a wide audience quickly using various standard publishing channels such as HTML, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and XML.
Features include a standard Windows user interface for easy navigation and drag and drop functionality; cross-table analysis with an ultra-fast analysis engine that allows analysis of one million or more respondents simultaneously and an unlimited number of questions per interview; top line reporting; a graph creation wizard; and customizable style sheets. With the Super Dig feature, users select a target group and questions to analyze, and then generates a list of the answers that correlate the most and the least with the target group.

Research Analyzer will be available in early April from Seattle-based GMI (gmi-mr.com), a global company providing integrated solutions to market research firms and corporate market research departments. It has Canadian offices in Vancouver and Toronto.

Look again at the pile of photos you just received from San Francisco-based Webshots.com. Sure they’re all yours? The Web photofinishing site is promoting HBO’s new show, Big Love, by slipping in run-of-the-mill shots of the characters (played by Bill Paxton and Chloe Sevigny, among others) among your pile of pics. Folks assume they received someone else’s photos until they notice the promotional flyer for the show at the end of the pile. Big Love, a program about a man with three wives, aired its premiere episode last Sunday on the Movie Network.

Dailies have travel spend all wrapped up

Daily newspapers overwhelming control this category with ad spending totaling 61.1% to 64.1% over the past four years. TV is a distant second with a high of 22.4% of the pie in 2004 and its four-year low of 20.2% coming last year.

April 19
Mediaweek presents TV Upfront Live
Marriott Marquis, NYC
Dana Gerber, dgerber@adweek.com
http://www.tvupfrontlive.com

This one-day seminar will explore the future of the upfront, including the market positioning of broadcasters, cable networks and syndicators, and the increasingly vital role clients are playing in this critical media marketplace. Speakers include Joan Fitzgerald of Arbitron and Pam Zucker of Mediavest USA among others.

Accessing the Internet from home versus work; by age

Major U.S. broadcaster ABC is set to help clients pinpoint their targets with the ABC M4 Consumer Optimizer, a new ROI tool designed to show advertisers what portion of a TV audience uses a specific product or product category.
The optimizer generates what ABC calls consumer ratings by blending Nielsen Media Research TV data with other viewing data from MRI (Mediamark Research Inc.). Not much has been released yet about the M4 Optimizer but more information is expected to be available from ABC within the next two weeks. Although some ABC clients will see a demonstration of the new research tool in the coming weeks and months, it must still go through the accreditation process of the Media Rating Council and won’t be ready for the big fall upfront market this year.

* 600,000 Canadians (2%) acquired an RSP loan within the past two years.
* 60% are between 25 and 44 years old.
* Quebec has the largest incidence of those taking out RSP loans (one and a half times the national average of 2%).
* Their average personal yearly income is $50,700; higher than the overall national average of $39,500.
* Compared to the national averages, they are two times more likely to have investments in mutual funds.
* Those who take out RSP loans are two times more likely to hold an American Express card, four and a half times more likely to have a travel and entertainment loyalty rewards on a credit card, and four times more likely to have a gas service station card.
* 69% of those with RSP loans did not contribute the maximum to their RSP in their last tax return.
* Compared to the national averages, they are two times more likely to have mortgage insurance.
* By yesterday exposure, TV (82%), radio (81%) and the Internet (62%) are the top media for reaching Canadians taking out RSP loans.
* Their top three favourite radio formats are: news/talk (35%), adult contemporary (18%), and mainstream top 40/CHR (13%).
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’05

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.

Outdoor Life Network’s new show, Mantracker, should draw viewers interested in adventure, suspense and the reality genre. The Mantracker is a veteran cowboy and outdoorsman trained by the RCMP to find missing persons in the bush but this time there’s a twist: In each half-hour ep, a pair of strangers from different walks of life team up for 36 hours and attempt to outwit the expert tracker and beat him to the finish line. The setting is Canada’s tough terrain from the Yukon to Alberta’s foothills. The show airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., beginning April 12.

Home renovations done in the past two years; by occupation

The National Advertising Benevolent society, based in Toronto, has put out a call for nominations for its 2006 Paul Mulvihill/NABS Humanitarian Award. The award honours members of the ad and media industries who have given of themselves to better the lives of others with local or national charities or community services. The deadline for nominations is March 31. The award will be handed out at the 22nd annual NABS fundraising gala in Toronto on May 11. Forms can be obtained from NABS at 416-962-0446, 1-800-661-6227 or at nabs@nabs.org. The winner will receive a $5,000 cheque, to be given to charity.

Lynn Chambers will assume the role of group publisher, Canadian Living and Homemakers, effective March 16. She will develop strategy and new business opportunities for the Toronto-based Transcontinental publications, as well as overseeing their editorial direction. Chambers brings 20 years of experience to her new job, most recently hailing from the publisher’s office at BELLE and Living Spree magazines for Fuel Advertising.

Toronto-based Rogers Publishing has appointed Shelley Middlebrook publisher of its new magazine, Hello! Canada, scheduled to launch this August. Middlebrook comes to the post from the CBC where she was senior manager, national sales for English Television. Before that she was EVP/group publisher at Media in Canada‘s parent co Brunico Communications. Hello! Canada is a spin-off of the upscale Spanish magazine Hola! and will cover national and international celebrities as well as fashion, décor, food and travel.

Furnishings are at home with TV and dailies

Spending shifted slightly in this category over a four-year period, moving from dailies to TV being the dominant medium. Magazines have maintained third place but lost some of its share of spending to TV. Marketers of bedding and mattresses were the biggest spenders in this category in both 2005 and 2004.