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Ford first to leverage CTV Digital
The Ford Motor Company of Canada just became the first advertiser to take advantage of CTV Digital, the recently launched multiplatform distribution strategy that combines the reach of conventional TV advertising with an innovative targeted digital media campaign. In addition to advertising across Canada on CTV conventional stations, the auto company has secured significant exposure for its 2007 Ford Edge on broadband via the CTV Broadband Network (www.ctv.ca) and on mobile, via the CTV Mobile Video News Service, currently available on Bell Mobility cell phones.
On CTV Broadband, a 15-second video ad and related banner for the vehicle can be seen on the news channel, which features hourly news wraps from CTV Newsnet as well as additional segments from CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson, plus W-FIVE and Canada AM. On Bell Mobility, an integrated custom Ford Edge video ad is also running in the opening sequence for CTV News updates on CTV Mobile Video News Service. Media edge is handling the campaign, which will run through September.
A smart stunt animates stupid.ca’s anti-smoking campaign
In a live reenactment of something many TV viewers and cinema goers have seen on screen, youth activists will drop a five-story, anti-smoking banner from atop MTV’s Masonic Temple in Toronto this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Inside the studio, hardcore Canadian band Silverstein will entertain a live audience and tape acoustic performances for MTV’s broadband channel, MTV Overdrive. The stunt is part of the Ontario Ministry of Health’s stupid.ca initiative to discourage youth from smoking.
A real scramble – ELODA ad analysis for August 18-24, 2006
Unilever appeared on the top 15 list after an absence, but Alliance Atlantis disappeared, while Wyeth-Ayerst Canada zoomed from 14th spot to 3rd. New from ELODA is a list of the top 10 advertisers with the largest number of new ads. 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.
Deadwood brings cowboys & covered wagons to 21st century streets
Alliance Atlantis’ History Television is going all out to herald the network premiere of the gritty and much-debated Deadwood series about the Olde West (with back-to-back episodes September 4, 9 p.m. ET). A multi-faceted media and publicity campaign using distinctive, sepia-toned creative (done in-house at AA) will roll out in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Kitchener and London that includes three weeks of radio spots, banner ads in major dailies, OOH presence on Eucan recycling receptacles and Resto signage in select bars with ‘Wanted’ bathroom mirrors. Complementing this on Showcase Action is a Deadwood-sponsored western movie marathon.
And then there’s the street campaign. On August 31, Tom Bishop’s Wild West team of cowboys, horses and a covered wagon will converge on downtown Toronto’s King and Bay biz district. The following day, the rowdies will stage the ‘Queen West Showdown’ at the Horseshow and Black Bull taverns. Costumed street teams will ‘create mock disturbances’ and ask passers-by for directions to Deadwood. The ‘Deadwood Shootout’ poker tournament at The Madison on September 2 will have live remote by The Edge 102. Repeat performances will enliven Dundas Square on September 3 and the Rogers Centre prior to a Blue Jays game on September 4. AA’s in-house team is being assisted with the street theatre by both MPG Maxx Media and Krista Slack & Associates.
Showcase to air Rescue Me webisode tonight
Just in time for Denis Leary’s return as a monumentally troubled firefighter in the third season premiere of Rescue Me, Showcase has snagged exclusive-in-Canada rights to a 14-minute webisode dubbed ‘Heroes.’ Given MiC‘s strictly no-spoilers policy, all it’s fair to say is that the storyline is set the night before the heroic guys of New York City’s Truck Company 62 are set to accept an award for bravery – only to find themselves battling their own greatest fears.
Four new series debut on MTV
MTV’s Premiere Week, during which four new series will bow in and five hits will return, begins next Monday, Sept. 4. The newbies are: Two-A-Days (60 min. x 8 episodes, Thursdays 10 p.m. ET/PT, starting Sept. 6), a documentary series following an Alabama football team through its high school football season; Made (60 min. x 17, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starting Sept. 5), a reality show that documents the internal and external transformation of individuals seeking change and getting help from experts; Juvies (60 min. x 8, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, starting Sept. 5), a gritty doc about young first offenders trying to turn their first brushes with the law into something positive; Why Can’t I Be You? (30 min. x 20, Mon.-Fri. 2 p.m. ET, starting Sept. 5), a look at the reality behind hero worship; and Next (30 min. x 110, Mon.-Fri. 5 p.m. ET, starting Sept. 5), which follows people enduring blind dates for the chance to win prizes.
Returning series are: Cribs (Mon., 10:30 p.m. ET/PT, beginning Sept. 4); Real World: Las Vegas (30 min. x 30, Mon.-Fri., 5:30 p.m. ET, starting Sept. 5), Laguna Beach (Wed.,10 p.m. ET/PT beginning Sept. 6); and My Super Sweet 16 ( Wed., 9:30 p.m. ET/PT beginning Sept. 6).
W network catches viewers up with Veronica’s adventures
While youth favourite Veronica Mars returns for its third season elsewhere, Corus Entertainment-owned W will be the first national Canadian network to help viewers catch up with the teen sleuth’s previous adventures. Lauren Bell stars as the high school student by day, sleuth by night who solves mysteries in the wealthy seaside town of Neptune, California (beginning September 8, 9 p.m. ET/PT).
Air Canada ups McKee’s marketing role
Charlie McKee, formerly Air Canada’s senior director, strategic marketing, has been promoted VP, marketing. With AC since 2001, he was EVP, commercial at lastminute.com, a London-based Internet retailer, and held a variety of senior management posts at Virgin Atlantic Airways in New York, Tokyo and London.
Events
Nov. 14
Word Up! Conference
Toronto
Word Up!, Canada’s Word of Mouth Marketing Conference, will feature North American industry leaders from such companies as Matchstick, Edelman, Yahoo! Canada, and Ice.com and focus on getting the most out of MOW marketing in both online and offline efforts.
Carat: A handful of keepers in the fall TV grab bag
Carat Canada has picked its favourites from the roster of new U.S. shows on the fall TV sked – and it’s a very short list. Caroline Gianias, SVP and GM of Carat Toronto, has earmarked only six shows as winners: Shark (Global), The Nine (CTV), Traveler (mid-season launch on CTV), Justice, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (CTV) and Smith (CTV).
This seems about right, considering that just 10 of the 31 U.S. shows picked up by Canadian broadcasters last season are returning for a second go-round. Gianias says Canadian networks are at the mercy of the likes and dislikes of the American viewing public. Once again this year, broadcasters will continue to manipulate their schedules as they respond to the changes in the U.S., in an attempt to maintain as much simulcast programming as possible.
Rising young media star
This is the seventh installment of our ‘Rising Young Media Stars’ series, in which we profile the next gen media minds. Media pundits have been adamant that to succeed in the new mediaverse, agencies require new ways of thinking. Curious as to who these new thinkers were, and what they were thinking, strategy and Media in Canada canvassed the industry, asking media shops to single out their top innovative and strategic recruits. And we’re scouting for more of the same – so tell us about the hot talent in your shop.
Andrew Braunston
communication planner, Carat Canada
Claim to fame: Recently part of the Carat team on the Adidas account and the brand’s World Cup activities, which involved a TV campaign and assisting Adidas in various projects outside of that medium.
Background: Before moving to Canada about two years ago, Andy worked on an advertising project for the British government. He’d always wanted to be in advertising and decided that media was the area in which he could thrive. Carat is his first job on the agency side. ‘I think I’m fairly imaginative and creative, yet I don’t have the artistic background. I took economics at school.’
Talk to MiC
Hey, Media in Canada readers. We’re repeating our open invitation for you to show off and sound off in two new ongoing features. ‘The New Plan’ showcases the savviest media campaigns extant, ones that exemplify the way forward in the new mediaverse. ‘What’s on your mind?’ is for quick and pithy rants and raves. Got it? OK, ball’s in your court. Email our staff writer, Terry Poulton (tpoulton@brunico.com) or phone her (416.408.2300 x252).
Alliance Atlantis commissions multiplatform push for Jet Li’s Fearless
When action flick Jet Li’s Fearless premieres on September 22, it will do so amid a multiplatform initiative prompted by Alliance Atlantis’ growing enthusiasm for pre-release web pushes. Says promotions and advertising director for AA and Odeon Films Jennifer Otter, ‘This is an evolution of our overall strategy to build up our online presence into a more integral part of our overall media mix, most notably for wide release movies with a core audience of males 18-34. When we released (Jet Li-starrer) Unleashed in 2005, we did a relatively small Internet buy, mainly on the websites of top-ranking, male-skewing radio stations. With the more recent release of Silent Hill, our goal was to be much more aggressive and innovative online. We bought in-game posters on the Massive Network, super-banners on MSN and videogame site IGN.com, as well as on WWE.com, among others.’
Motorola links small screen to big screen for TIFF
Motorola’s sponsorship of the Toronto International Film Festival began last year when the Toronto-based mobile brand tapped TIFF’s Talent Lab to showcase the possibilities of the tiny screen by providing young filmmakers with its video capture mobile handset. The Lab gives emerging Canadian filmmakers input from folks like Terry Gilliam while they make a short. The maker of the short that was voted best by the mentors did a courtesy message sponsored by Motorola that screened before each TIFF feature. Students also produced ‘MotoFilms Self Portraits’ and six of the films created last year are being screened at the festival this year in Motorola’s Mobile Shorts. Colleen McClure, director of marketing at Motorola, says TIFF is a great sponsorship platform as film buffs are often interested in making their own movies.
New this year is Speaking for Reel, a contest judged by Motorola, which focuses on 60-second films on topics of importance to student filmmakers and supports Motorola’s philanthropic Raise Your Voice program. The winner – Ryerson School of Image Arts student Andrew Cividino – is now Motorola’s official filmmaker to the festival and gets to capture events behind the scenes (also strolling away with $5,000 towards his next project). Visitors to www.shopmotorola.ca during the festival (Sept. 7-16) will be able to view Cividino’s ‘Festival Mobile Moments.’
Leading up to TIFF, Motorola also has a blog exploring the art and science of mobile filmmaking, and is helming a contest at www.motorola.ca/motoreel/festival for a chance to win a Motorola Moto Q multimedia video capture phone. The company will also be teaming up with Bell using street teams to give movie fans a hands-on experience with Moto Q, conveniently targeting TIFF-goers as the city breaks out in endless theatre lineups. ‘It’s a good time to showcase video and mobile and our devices are suited to [TIFF],’ says McClure. ‘The technology is improving, the category is growing – and TIFF has been very flexible in letting us create our own plan.’
