OUTtv offers free previews leading up to ‘Coming Out Day’
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender programming is ‘coming out’ for free as OUTtv launches a free preview of its new fall schedule this week. From Sept. 28 to October 13, OUTtv’s fall line-up – including five new original series and the much-anticipated Canadian debut of Dante’s Cove – will be available on Bell ExpressVu, Videotron, Cogeco Cable and Source Cable.
The free offering coincides with the celebration of Coming Out Day across North America. To mark the occasion, OUTtv will air a special day of programming featuring coming out stories from different families and cultures, documentaries and movies. The fall schedule also includes the second season of Cover Guy, the popular male model hunt series. Another offering, Let’s Shop, takes viewers to the world’s shopping hot spots. Returning programs include the world’s first Gay and Lesbian marriage show, I Now Pronounce You, and Picture This, which takes couples through their wish list of renovation plans.
‘We are very excited about bringing Dante’s Cove to Canada – a show which is a GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender) favorite in the USA,’ says OUTtv VP programming and marketing Wendy Donnan. It’s also a show our audience has been voting for!’ OUTtv is owned by a consortium of shareholders, including Shavick Entertainment, Peace Point Entertainment Group, Re:Source Media, Score Media and Pink Triangle Press, Canada’s largest and longest running gay and lesbian media group.
Claassen elected CMDC president
Bruce Claassen, CEO of Genesis Media was elected president of the Canadian Media Directors’ Council at the organization’s recent annual meeting. Returned to the board were Sunni Boot (ZenithOptimedia Canada), Cathy Collier (Cossette Media), Hugh Dow (M2 Universal), Cynthia Fleming (Carat Canada), David Harrison (PHD Canada), Lorraine Hughes (OMD Canada), Gerardo Marinas (MPG maxxmedia), Anne Myers (OMD Canada), Karen Nayler (Mindshare Canada), Jeanne Northcote (MBS/The Media Company), Ruth Smith (Axmith McIntyre Wicht), Penny Stevens (Media Experts), Jeffery Thibodeau (Sharpe Blackmore Euro RSCG), Theresa Treutler (Doner Canada) and Michael Walker (The Walker Media Group). Newly elected to the CMDC board were Sarah Ivey (Initiative Media) and Lauren Richards (Starcom Mediavest Group).
Airborne hires Beloff to drive branded mobile promotions
Montreal-based Airborne Entertainment, a subsidiary of CYBIRD Co., has hired marketing & promotions vet Charles ‘Skip’ Beloff as VP of mobile promotions. He was formerly EVP at digital signage company Dan Media, and spent more than 15 years as a producer for CFCF TV.
More CGM: Canada.com lets users put their faves on the map
Users of the Toronto and Vancouver city guides on Canada.com can literally put their favourite places on the map – along with pics, video and opinions – as part of a Canada MediaWorks partnership with Platial, an Oregon-based company that’s currently building an interactive atlas with user-generated features.
Mario Alfano, senior VP for CanWest MediaWorks Interactive, tells Media in Canada that ‘in order for this to become a useful tool, it has to be populated. We’re letting the early adopters go in and make the content richer.’ Future branding and sponsorship opportunities could come in the form of sponsored weekly themes such as favourite pet shops or entertainment venues. Flags and tags could also be useful in generating superimposed maps targeting – for example, hikers, bikers or mothers in search of kid-friendly coffee shops. ‘There’s definitely an opportunity here for marketers to bring a lot of good will,’ says Alfano.
Platial CEO Di-Ann Eisnor says that results for what she calls ‘the citizen-driven experiments’ in the two cities will be reviewed within one month. ‘Obviously, if they’re positive, then we’d like to have a footprint wherever Canada.com is.’ Monthly site traffic averages 3.55 million unique visitors.
Flashlight Comics aims to take sponsors to school
Flashlight Comics, a free anthology of literacy-boosting comics by Ottawa’s IronLungFish Press, is aiming for a December launch into schools across Canada, and offering selected national and regional sponsors and advertisers ‘unprecedented distribution and unparalleled exposure,’ says owner and publisher Dave Whelen – who is presenting the opportunity to media buyers in Toronto this month.
Marketers involved with child-positive and healthy products, services and events (a list of criteria is posted on the publication’s website) will be offered the services of a core team of illustrators to help adapt spot ads into comic form.
Shooting for readership of 500,000 or more in the first issue, Whelen says he’s ‘about 10% there. We just signed on our 400th school.’ In Whelen’s perfect world, Canada’s 11,000 elementary schools (a potential total audience of 2.1 million) would receive Flashlight Comics six times a year.
Talk to MiC
Hey, Media in Canada readers, share your ideas with us. ‘The New Plan’ showcases your savviest media campaigns, ones that exemplify the way forward in the new mediaverse. ‘What’s on your mind?’ is for quick and pithy raves – like M2 Universal president Hugh Dow’s recent thumbs up about the Toronto Star‘s new downloadable edition, or Zenith Optimedia prexy/CEO Sunni Boot’s rant about the probable fate of serials. Got it? OK, ball’s in your court. Email our staff writer, Terry Poulton (tpoulton@brunico.com) or phone her (416.408.2300 x252).
Industry heavyweights join forces in Ad ROI Inc.
Four partners with long-time ties to the world of brand communications are joining forces to form Ad ROI Inc. On the list of heavyweights are Dan Reynolds, Adrian Sark, Chris Coleman and Rupert Brendon. The foursome will coach advertisers and agencies on how to increase their ROI in brand communications, offering training and proprietary services addressing everything from accountability and performance evaluation to relationship management and productivity.
Brendon, who will join Ad ROI when he officially steps down from his post as president and CEO of the Institute of Communications and Advertising in January 2007, says the partnership will ‘help people with the crucial decisions’ in pumping up ROI.
The new company is built on the foundation of Sark & Reynolds. Sark, one of the CASSIES founders, said the new alliance is ‘a natural evolution for all of us because we have had a personal and professional association for over 30 years. I was Rupert’s client at P&G. Later, Chris Coleman and I created a brand asset management system at Canada’s largest confectionary company, and for the last 10 years, Dan Reynolds and I have consulted with many of Canada’s largest advertisers.’
Jazz Media offering ground-floor basketball sponsorship opps
Toronto’s Jazz Media – best known for bringing its giant portable LED screens to major events – added sports marketing to its portfolio when the opportunity arose to exclusively handle corporate sponsorship and marketing initiatives for three new basketball teams that are set to join the 60-team American Basketball Association next year.
The company’s new Jazz Media Display Group will build corporate partnerships for the Mississauga Red Wolves as well as an as-yet-unnamed Halifax team and a team that will be based in Connecticut. Montreal already has an ABA team and Quebec City, Calgary and Edmonton are expected to join the league in 2007.
‘We will be contacting companies that may be seeking an opportunity to increase brand loyalty or develop a footprint in professional basketball within their communities,’ says Jazz Media president Paul Riley. He adds that ‘the ABA – many of whose teams are owned by celebrities and former athletes – is the fastest growing sports league in history, with the number of teams doubling over the past three years.’
Throughout North America, Riley says millions of people watch the games, and the target demo for the broadcasts is males and females 14-45. Games played by the three teams Jazz is representing will be televised by local broadcasters including Rogers-Peel in the Mississauga region, with projected viewers per game of 4,000 to 5,000. In Halifax, viewership is expected to about 10,000, but it’s too early to call for the Connecticut team.
OBN expands video board network to Winnipeg
The Outdoor Broadcast Network has added Winnipeg to its burgeoning network of LED video boards, which already includes Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Hamilton, Cambridge and Niagara Falls, and claims weekly impressions of 6.3 million. Company president Peter Irwin says his latest giant, two-sided board – strategically positioned near the famous Portage & Main intersection – furthers his goal of ‘making it easier for clients to purchase video boards on a national basis.’
He adds that utilizing affiliate sales agreements with other companies, as OBN did with High Point Media for the Winnipeg installation, ‘increases OBN’s ability to provide one-stop shopping for national clients who want multi-city video board coverage.’
www.obn.ca
Online parent resource relaunches
Marketers and advertisers looking to engage parents who go online now have one more option in KiddingAroundToronto.com. Started as a hobby a year ago, the site has relaunched – making its approximately 600,000 monthly hits (about 12,000 unique monthly visitors in the Toronto/GTA) available to sponsors.
The one-stop shop offers banner-ad spots throughout its extensive directory of local products, services and events for babies, kids and parents. Other draws are an e-mag and newsletter, coupon options, contests and a parents’ chat zone. So far, says KAT director of operations Leslie Schneeweiss, top advertisers include Beaches Family Resorts and the Hummingbird Centre, but the doors are open for anyone looking to reach moms and pops.
Top Drawer wins Golf Town account
Golf Town has awarded Toronto agency Top Drawer Creative its national media planning and buying agency for 2007.
CBC’s ardent wooing wins Mazda as Intelligence sponsor
Sponsorship and stylish rides for both good guys and bad guys will get Mazda on-screen in more ways than one with the premiere of CBC’s new Intelligence series. The 13-parter kicks off on Sept. 26 (8 p.m. ET) with a re-broadcast of the Gemini-nominated pilot. Episode one of the new season shows will be broadcast October 10 (9 p.m. ET).
CBC customer marketing manager Steven Pitkanen tells Media in Canada that Mazda vehicles were fit into the needs of the program without a specific number of placements. ‘We have to be very careful not to force-fit product placement. Mazda was great enough to give us, I think, five vehicles. They’ll be used by the heroes and the bad guys.’
Doctor Who morphs into hottie for season two premiere
With David Tennant (who played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as the tenth incarnation of the Time Lord, season two of Doctor Who premieres on CBC on October 9 at 9 p.m. Episode AMA last season was 758,000 for the 2+ demo.
Bravo once again showcases Canadian films
Bravo is once again dedicating Sunday night programming throughout the fall to celebrating what it deems important cultural milestones in Canadian film. Starting on October 8 (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), the broadcaster will air ‘On Screen!,’ a six-part documentary that uses clips, interviews with cast and crew members and commentary from critics to chart the journey from set to screen for each production.
Included are: Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (October 8); Nobody Waved Goodbye (October 15); I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (October 22); My American Cousin (October 29); Mon Oncle Antoine (November 5); and Roadkill (November 12).
Feldman puts Cook in charge of corporate partnerships
Nathalie Cook has been hired by Toronto’s S.L. Feldman & Associates as VP of corporate partnerships. She will focus on developing corporate partnerships and properties for the entertainment marketing agency, which reps such clients as Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones and The Chieftains. Formerly with the Special Olympics, Cook also spent twelve years at IMG.
