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Corus gets into the MMOG game
Corus Entertainment has inked a deal with Quebec-based Frima Studio to develop a network of massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for kids, code-named Constellation. MMOGs are a hot and sticky gaming phenom which allow players to explore a vast virtual universe where they can compete, chat, collect, create and customize characters and play mini-games. The MMOGs are set to launch later this year, with a mission to strengthen core Corus brands in the digital world.
The deal will provide marketers targeting kids aged 8-12 with ‘unique and integrated sponsorship opportunities,’ says Corus Entertainment president/CEO John Cassaday. ‘MMOGs are among the fastest growing segments in online games and, to date, nothing of this magnitude has been developed for kids in North America.’ Frima Studio, founded in 2003, has produced interactive content for the likes of Warner Bros., MegaBloks, Shockwave and SRC/CBC.
‘There’s no shame to being third when you’re trying something new.’ – On the MiC with Shelley Palmer
Shelly Palmer is a true television pioneer. He invented Enhanced Television, has weekly business news shows seen on public TV and online, writes a popular TV business news blog, and has even composed theme songs and award-winning music for many television shows. Palmer, managing director of NYC’s Advanced Media Ventures, is also an expert on how disruptive innovations and emerging platforms are revolutionizing media and entertainment. MiC caught up with him to get his read on where the mediaverse is headed, prior to his presentation at the second annual Media in Canada Forum: Getting to Engagement on October 3.
Vauntcom to add screens in the ACC
Calgary-HQ’d Vauntcom Media Corp. is planning to add the Air Canada Centre in Toronto to its roster of Canadian venues – where advertisers garner impressions by the millions on LCD and plasma screens. Among those marketers, says Glenn McConnell, SVP national advertising and business development, are Toyota and Maple Pictures (the Canadian spin-off of Lion’s Gate Films).
This week, Vauntcom held an official launch party at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, where 140 screens have been active since April. The company sells sound and motion ads in main concourses and washrooms at Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome, with 249 LCD displays, at Ottawa’s Scotiabank Place (170 displays), Edmonton’s Rexall Place (95 displays), and Vancouver’s GM Place (65 displays). ‘This is the first time anybody has really tied all these centres together,’ says McConnell.
BBM revises Top 30 national data for Sept. 4-11
BBM Canada’s website (below) contains a revised version of the data published in MiC earlier this week. The revisions apply to the Top 30 programs nationally for the week of September 4-11, 2006. The revised data, says a BBM spokesman, ‘reflect the appropriate application of time-shifted viewing as it relates to viewers tuning to stations that originated outside of their designated time zones. (e.g. a Calgary designated viewer who chose to watch a specific program on a station emanating from Toronto).’ The market reports for Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary were correct as originally issued.
Mazda hooks up with Marvel Super Heroes
Thanks to partnering with Mazda Canada and Yellowbrick-Holman Exhibitions, the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto will offer visitors to its Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition the opportunity to don a superpower-enabling ‘exo-suit’ and actually lift a Mazda CX-7 vehicle. The aim of the show, which opens Oct. 18, is to illustrate the connection between science and Marvel Super Heroes. Other elements of the joint initiative are on-site signage, online content and dealership promotion.
MTV launches global auction to fight HIV/AIDS
MTV in Canada has launched an online auction in support of MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, which is dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness. Auction items are being donated by a raft of sponsors including the CFL, Contiki Holidays, Converse, CTV, EMI, Gibson, Hilton Whistler, HMV, Sony Playstation, SonyBMG, Universal Music Group and Whistler Blackcomb.
Bidders who log onto www.mtvauctions.ca before Oct. 26 will have shots at such items as a pair of Vespas autographed by celebrities at TIFF and MTV LIVE, and trips around the world to destinations including MTV’s Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen and Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart in New York. Also on offer are autographed items such as Mariah Carey’s denim jacket and Andrea Bocelli’s Braille lyrics, plus opportunities to co-host MTV’s flagship interactive talk show, MTV Live, or to have a bidder’s band appear on the shoe, dates with the hosts, professional styling from MTV’s stylist, and a guest spot on the Laguna Beach After Show.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Photography
Flash, bang. What a picture! Marketers in this category spread their dollars across TV, magazines, and newspapers primarily, leaving steady supporting roles for OOH and radio. It’s been a photo-finish race between TV and magazines the past four years with magazines coming out on top in 2004 and TV regaining the lead last year.
Media Monitors Spot 10 – Sept. 18-24, 2006
Canadian Tire, CH-TV, HP and Best Buy disappear from the top 10, and LCBO soars to #1. Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of Sept. 18-24, 2006.
ELODA ad analysis – Sept. 15-21, 2006
Pfizer tumbled to 14th spot this week from third place, while P&G and GM kept their top spots. This info was gathered through Montreal-based ELODA’s online TV ad tracking, auditing and viewing services. All data supplied is based on the ELODA recording grid.
Canoe hires GM for Autonet.ca team
Kevin Pepper has been appointed general manager of Canoe Network’s automotive portal Autonet.ca (www.autonet.ca). He was previously Trader Classified Media’s GM for the Ontario region, and director of business development at Vehicle Vertical – and known for developing PowerPage Gold, a leading Canadian automotive website publishing tool.
New appointments at CHUM Radio
Kerry French has been appointed to the new position of VP, business analysis, and Rob Farina to the new position of VP, program development, both at CHUM Radio. Formerly director of CHUM Radio Research, French will continue to oversee research and marketing analysis for CHUM’s 33 radio stations, in addition to being involved in strategy development for CHUM Radio. Farina, who will continue in his current role as program director of CHUM FM, will also work with stations across the country to enhance programming strategies, and on the division’s creation of innovative new content and format platforms.
Events
Oct. 09-13
MIPCOM
Cannes
‘Advertisers and Content’ will be one of the topics addressed at MIPCOM as brands, agencies, TV broadcasters and producers discuss new revenue opportunities inherent in on-demand, mobile and Internet. Companies in attendance will include Disney and Fisher-Price.
www.mipcom.com
Nov. 16
CASSIES Celebration
Toronto & Montreal
A record 39 CASSIE Award winners will be celebrated at luncheons in both Montreal and Toronto. All of the award-winning case studies proving advertising’s business effectiveness can be viewed in the Case Library section of the CASSIES web site at www.cassies.ca.
Nov. 14
Word Up!
Toronto
Presenting companies at Canada’s Word of Mouth Marketing Conference will include Yahoo! Canada, Edelman, Matchstick and W.O.M.M.A.
PMB Factoid
Watch Major Tennis Event: Indexed by Ethnicity
Storefront windows can now morph into ad screens
Thanks to cutting-edge ‘Window F/X’ technology imported from Europe, Boombox Marketing’s Optiadmedia division has begun transforming storefront windows in downtown Toronto into screen ads for whatever is being sold. Almost like holograms or floating screens, the ads are invisible from inside, but attention grabbers for passersby 24/7, even in bright sunlight.
‘Home builders, for instance, can run virtual tours of the residences they’re selling on the windows of their sales centres even when they’re closed,’ explains Optiadmedia’s Michael Dellios – who adds that touchscreen capabilities allow potential customers to literally window shop whether a store is open or is closed.
CAB president pushes policy-makers to ponder ‘Me Media’
Take a look at Pandora.com, where users can find their own ‘personal DJ.’ Type in a song or an artist and the website designs a radio station based on that initial hint of taste. ‘And after you do that, ask yourself if it makes any sense for the CRTC to continue to regulate commercial radio…’
That’s one of the big questions Canadian Association of Broadcasters president Glenn O’Farrell posed last week to the Broadcast Executives Society. Urging those attending to consider this and other stats and anecdotes, he painted a picture of what a regulated industry is up against in an increasingly unregulated world of fragmented content distribution. O’Farrell welcomed a government review of the television landscape, but served up cautionary warnings that, in order for Canadian content to thrive, policy-makers need to think long and hard about the ‘unprecedented challenges to the old order.’ In pursuit of today’s ‘audience of one,’ he said, broadcasters are forced to compete with one hand tied behind their backs.
