Pogo asks kids for TV spot ideas
ConAgra Foods Canada is putting the Pogo brand in kids’ hands – almost. A cash-winnings contest is asking kids, ‘When you’re eating a Pogo with one hand, what do you do with the other?’ But the three best answers get more than a Pogo pay cheque. The commercials will run on the re-branded Teletoon and YTV.
Super Bowl XLI ad poll: Canadians liked Bud, hated Dion
Every year, Canadian advertisers pay big bucks to reach the millions of eyeballs tuned in to the NFL’s annual love-fest for America’s favourite sport. Are they getting their money’s worth? Yesterday, Solutions Research Group of Toronto conducted a survey of Canadians 12-plus to find out.
Super Bowl down half a mil from 2006
The Big Game, as expected, stomped other Sunday night programming. Audiences were down from last year, though, and the Super Bowl fell short of CTV’s CSI numbers.
Cineplex expands its opera opps
Cineplex theatres across the country are beaming live performances from NYC’s Metropolitan Opera, and plan to offer sponsorship and advertising opps beginning this fall.
Canadians ask for enviro-friendly publications
A new poll suggests that 94% of Canadians say newspapers should use environmentally friendly paper sources.
Genesis Media adds 16 staffers
In the past 24 months, Genesis Media has won over dozens of new accounts – Delmonte Foods, Indigo & Chapters, Mr. Lube, Sirius Satellite Radio, and Altamira, to name a few. Growth demands people, and the Canadian-owned independent has staffed up.
CHUM launches interactive radio show
The Sound Lounge will put the power of radio playlists into listeners’ palms in urban markets across Canada today. The new CHUM Radio rock show boasts interactive features for its fans, from mobile to online to on-air, culminating in user-generated quasi-national radio.
Ad pundits underwhelmed by Super Bowl spots
Traditionally, it’s the biggest single event of the year for heavyweight commercials to attract eyeballs on both sides of the border. Global will report later today how many Canadians watched, and MiC will report the number tomorrow. But this year’s game definitely won’t go down as the most memorable ever, according to these industry professionals.
2 Magazine preps web-based reality series
Toronto-based 2 Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for couples, is taking its ‘Couple Makeovers’ idea – traditionally a nine-page print feature rife with brand integration – into the realm of video podcasts. Set to launch with the mag’s spring issue in March, the eight-episode series takes the sponsorship opps live and online.
CTV wins every night but Saturday
BBM/Nielsen Top 30 – Jan. 22-28, 2007
Global’s got Prison Break at #10, Heroes at #13, and House at #16. CBC’s hockey programming earned it spots at #12, #14, and #19. And the end of the viewing day, CTV’s got the highest nation-wide peaks for every night of the week except Saturday.
MiC‘s K.I.S.S. pick: Ancient Egyptian e-nigmatic viral
When you think ‘Egypt,’ hieroglyphics may come to mind, and that’s the idea behind one of the pass-along incentives just added to the Egyptian Tourism Authority’s revamped website. Log on, compose an e-card, and it will arrive in exotic symbols – driving the recipient to the site for translation, plus a pitch.
Slice lines up brave new world of brand-friendly programming
A Canadian edition of Project Runway is in the works for the fall schedule on Slice. Alliance Atlantis’s re-branding of the old Life Network. Project Runway‘s success on the old Life Network in Canada, is raising expectations that more women 18-49 will turn to the station. And stay tuned for more seamless brand integration opportunities from Slice.
MiC‘s K.I.S.S. pick: local street art goes global
Artist Julian Beever’s elegant chalk recreation of William Haussoullier’s ‘Fountain of Youth’ might have remained the sole enjoyment of folks passing by NYC’s Union Square. But then Aveeno posted a time-lapse video of the creation in progress on YouTube and now it’s winging around the world.
XYYZ launches an attack to halt Toronto’s ‘sex tax’
A lobby effort that can sum up your brand, your content, and your demo? Why not? After all, what’s politics without sponsors? XM Radio Canada and GotStyle Menswear are backing an online grassroots campaign to halt parking tickets.
MiC Rant: Levine says Turner stunt proves it’s not true that all publicity is good publicity
Guerilla marketing can be superbly effective. But PR vet Michael Levine fumes that what operatives of Turner Broadcasting did this week is bound to go down as the worst PR blunder since WKRP in Cincinnati dropped a gaggle of hapless turkeys out of a plane for a Thanksgiving promotion, assuming they could fly. They didn’t. And neither did an inexplicably clumsy effort that’s already resulted in arrests in Boston.
