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MiC‘s K-I-S-S Pick: MEGA Brands times launch of new Magnetix toy for CN Tower’s big 30
What better way to launch your newest magnetic construction toy than to piggyback onto the 30th anniversary celebration for Toronto’s CN Tower – by staging a contest whose winner builds the tallest replica of same? Toronto-HQ’d MEGA Brands (formerly Mega Bloks) will do exactly that today and showcase its imagination-sparking Magnetix system during a weekend of special events. Plus, merely uttering the word ‘Magnetix’ will win a special admission price of three visitors for $30 to the tower’s lookout and glass floor levels. Deserving of a bow for MEGA Brands’ recent promotions is sizzling hot, Amsterdam-based Strawberryfrog.
MuchLOUD gets ‘Aggressive’ with Exclaim!
Exclaim! magazine is gearing up for its Aggressive Tendencies Tour, an annual cross-country concert tour to showcase the newest heavy music artists, and MuchLOUD has signed on as the exclusive presenting sponsor for the third year. The 2006 tour, which begins October 1 in Vancouver and ends on October 14 in Montreal, includes performances by Pelican, Daughters, and KEN Mode with guess openers in each city. MuchLOUD’s sponsorship includes a DPS feature in the mag that affiliates MuchLOUD with a relevant aggressive music discussion on touring bands. Christian Hamilton, national account exec for Exclaim!, says the relationship with MuchLOUD is a synergistic one that includes frequent on-air mentions of the tour on both MuchLOUD and Much Music.
‘Exclaim! lends an emerging music and street cred (to MuchLOUD) that can be difficult to reach for mediums that are not physically on the street and in the clubs, as Exclaim! is,’ he says. ‘Traditionally a crowd that’s wary of corporate branding, last year the tour sparked so much fervor it bridged this gap – the singer of the headlining band wrapped himself in the MuchLOUD banner for his on-stage set.’
The tour’s secondary sponsor is the D-TOX apparel brand. Exclaim! will be distributing 30,000 postcards promoting the tour with D-TOX information on one side and pertinent concert details on the other. In addition, Black Eyes and Broken Bones, a CD compilation of Canadian aggressive hardcore bands, will be distributed alongside D-TOX apparel at the merchandise table of each show, and each touring band member will receive D-TOX branded Exclaim! Aggressive Tendencies apparel.
HomeSense signs on as title sponsor of Skate Canada
HomeSense has signed on as the title sponsor of Skate Canada International in a four-year contract that extends through the 2010 Olympics, supporting more than 1,400 community skating clubs nationwide, and picking up some naming rights along the way.
The 2006 HomeSense Skate Canada International, for example, will take place November 2-5 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, B.C., and feature some of the world’s best figure skating talent, including all four Canadian 2006 Olympic champs. HomeSense is already the title sponsor of the HomeSense National STARSkate Championships and presents the Skate Canada STARSkate program, the STARSkate program athlete award, and a national youth skating camp.
A win/win initiative for Blockbuster
Blockbuster Canada will likely ‘do well by doing good’ with its support of the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation’s ‘My Bee In A B-o-x’ national spelling bee. All 445 Blockbuster stores across Canada will offer a Spelling Games and Activities Toolkit to customers who rent or pre-purchase Akeelah and the Bee along with a complimentary guide to planning family bee nights. Blockbuster stores will also host three-hour, in-store spelling games and activities, with prizing for children and their families, on September 9, the day after International Literacy Day. Sharp Electronics and Maple Pictures are also contributing promotional elements and merchandise to the initiative.
Telus stands pat, HP Zooms – Media Monitors for the Week of August 21-27, 2006
Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of August 21-27, 2006.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: OOH rules for back to school
Out-of-home is the real winner in this category with dailies and magazines picking up steam and substantial gains each year. In 2002, TV was in control but after that, marketers began to diversify their spending and fine-tune their targeting. Not surprisingly marketers of jeans are the biggest spenders on the back-to-school scene.
YTV forks up integrated ad opps
Starting on Labour Day, young viewers will be encouraged by Kraft Dinner and YTV to watch for an animated fork indicating new programming and prompting them to enter the YTV.com microsite for chances to win prizes. This ‘KD Fork it Over’ initiative is a good example of the integrated opportunities YTV will be offering marketers this season, says Tim Cormick, Corus Entertainment’s VP, client marketing. ‘Every solution involves a unique combination of the advertiser’s brand equity – including YTV programming properties, YTV hosted interstitials, the growing influence of YTV.com, and other YTV assets such as Whoa! magazine, YTV’s Weird on Wheels, and the creative and production capabilities of our dedicated client marketing team.’
Advertisers may align themselves with YTV’s hosted programming blocks: ‘The Zone’ after school; the Sunday night family movie block, ‘ZAPX’; and a new Saturday morning block. These blocks, says Cormick, ‘are fully integrated with customized broadcast, online, in-store and on-pack campaigns. YTV is also capable of customizing our programming schedule to fit a big idea’ – as happened when the net created a line-up of animated episodes featuring cars to coincide with the recent release of Disney/Pixar’s Cars.
YTV’s new season of kids programming is as follows: beginning September 9 at 7 a.m., Saturday-morning comedies include the new series Viva Piñata, The Far Out Adventures of Team Galaxy and Shuriken School as well as the returning Captain Flamingo, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom. Arriving as well are six new original Canadian productions: Erky Perky, Nelvana’s Ruby Gloom, Game Gurus, Weird Years, and Nelvana’s Grossology, also airing on Discovery Kids.
Along with Weird Years, two new acquisitions to the after-dinner schedule are Malcolm in the Middle and Nickelodeon’s Fatherhood, based on Bill Cosby’s book chronicling the challenges of family life. Robotboy, is being added to the after-school block. In addition to a raft of family movies, YTV will air new episodes of 16 returning series, including Avatar, Being Ian, Catscratch, Drake & Josh, Prank Patrol, The X’s and Unfabulous.
BBM’s Bennett retires
Bill Bennett, senior research methodologist at BBM Canada, is retiring effective September 1 after seven years with the research organization to settle in the small Ontario town of Simcoe. When he moved to Canada from Houston 31 years ago, Bennett says he only intended to stay for just a year or two. ‘I’ve also been one of those lucky, lucky people who has enjoyed every minute of my working life. I’ve made friends with some really terrific and talented people over the years. Life in general and Canada in particular have been very good to me.’
Before going to BBM, Bennett was research director for CHUM Limited and a media planner with Hayhurst Advertising in Toronto for 10 years before that. Throughout his career, he held such industry roles as president of the Broadcast Research Council, director of the Canadian Advertising Research Foundation, and guest lecturer in research and consumer behaviour at the University of Toronto’s graduate school of business administration.
XM Canada appoints McKenzie SVP, sales & marketing
XM Canada has appointed Donald McKenzie SVP of sales and marketing, where he will be responsible for all sales and marketing functions, including retail, automotive distribution channels and listener care. With 22 years experience in sales and marketing in a variety of industries, he spent the past 10 years in Canada’s wireless tele-communications arena and was instrumental in the creation of Clearnet, now TELUS Mobility.
Transcontinental Media announces new media appointments
Transcontinental Media has appointed Chris Harris as national sales manager, new media. He was previously Yahoo Canada’s director, business development and, before that, associate director for strategic alliances at Bell Canada-MSN/Sympatico.
Other appointments in the Transcontinental’s new media group are Walder Amaya to business development manager; Rose Anne Bonanno to account manager; and Émélie Brunet to manager, sales development, Montreal.
PMB Factoid
Taken a Business Trip in Past 3 Years: Indexed by Gender
Sunni sounds off: way too many serials this season
Sunni Boot, president/CEO of Zenith Optimedia, responded to MiC‘s invitation to denizens of the mediaverse to speak up about what’s on their minds. Here’s what’s on hers: ‘OK, so networks and stations on both sides of our uncontested border believe in the idiom of more is better and even more is even better. Therefore, if three serial dramas are good for audiences, then ten will be fantastic!
‘But will they? Let’s face it, we already have a relationship with Lost, 24 and Prison Break. We care deeply about these people and want to see what’s happening to them each week, especially hotties Michael and Lincoln now that they’re out of prison and on the run. Shades of The Fugitive, only now there are two for the price of one.
‘But the question is, do we really have time to flirt with seven other serial dramas? From where I sit – unlikely, even if a couple more do make it to the ‘I cannot miss this show status.’ Bottom line? This is more likely to bring DVD revenues to producers than viewer revenue to networks.’
Bell takes over broadcast role at TIFF
In a surprisingly un-ballyhooed coup, Bell Canada has taken over the broadcast partner role at the Toronto International Film Festival that Rogers had a lock on for decades. Last week, a mildly worded news release announced that all TIFF’s celebrity press conferences and interviews, red carpet arrivals and glitzy parties will be available to Bell ExpressVu customers and on FreeVu! Festival Access (channel 835 for HD and 307 for standard digital) as well as on Bell Mobility cellphones.
Ousting Rogers was a perk – if not the actual raison d’etre – of becoming TIFF’s lead sponsor. Another is that, in return for an undisclosed sum, Bell will have exclusive telecom sponsorship and preferred supplier status at the fest until 2018 – as well as exclusive naming rights to the Festival Centre, which is due to open in Toronto’s entertainment district in 2008.
Advertisers pile on as Canadian edition of Hello! debuts
After 60 years of covering the British royal family, Hello! launched a Canadian edition last week with a cover story about the closest Canuck equivalent: the Trudeaus. The first issue of the Rogers Media-produced entertainment weekly has a cover price of $4.95 and a goal of 25,000 newsstand sales. It’s chockfull of ads from such biggies as P&G, L’Oreal, Revlon, Chanel, Dior, CTV, Alliance Atlantis, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, Toyota, Nissan and Cadbury.
Publisher Shelley Middlebrook says she expects advertiser enthusiasm to continue, and that the magazine will introduce itself with a big splash during the Toronto International Film Festival. There will be a celebrity-heavy launch party at U. of T.’s classy Hart House, and the mag is teaming with Alliance Atlantis, Air Canada, the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and Yves Rocher to present a prize package of a trip for two to attend the festival. Hello! is also contributing Jeanne Lottie purses to the fest’s VIP loot bags, and joining with Rogers to promote events in support of One by One children’s charities, with actor Matt Damon hosting the kickoff event during TIFF.
Advertisers in the new Canadian edition will benefit nicely if it leverages Hello!‘s top-notch profile and track record of producing celeb news in its 10 other editions around the world.
Visa Perks expanded big-time in second go-round
So pleased was Visa Canada with the results of last year’s Visa Perks experiment that it aggressively expanded the initiative for its second foray, says Toronto-based senior product manager Sylvie Briz – who declined to disclose details on the initial ROI.
For a six-week push ending September 30, Visa’s profile-boosting campaign has evolved from Toronto-only m-couponing with local retailers and support from local radio, plus online contests last year to the national rollout of a raft of integrated features. These include: public transit domination; radio tags and promotions in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and bilingually in Montreal; customer statement inserts; a VST media pilot at 115 Esso and five Canadian Tire gas bars in the Toronto area with 15-second, text-based animated spots above the self-serve pumps; and in Montreal only, igotcha branded web pads – a portable WiFi device in coffee bars, gyms and restaurants that offers up to 15 minutes interaction with viewers when initiated.
