New Canadian women’s mag seeking non-traditional range of advertisers
BOBBi publisher Abbis Mahmoud, whose premiere issue hit newsstands last week, bills his new publication as ‘the first complete lifestyle and fashion magazine’ for Canadian women 17-34 – one whose differences from other such publications begins with the fact that its covers will always feature a man, the first being actor Matthew McConaughey.
With a cover price of $4.95, the magazine’s initial circulation is 76,000 (70% newsstand, 3,750 paid subscriptions). Toronto-based Mahmoud says his strategy is ‘strong editorial content’ and a maximum ratio of 40% ads, and that he is ‘welcoming fashion and beauty advertising, but also seeking advertisers who want to reach this demographic but haven’t traditionally advertised in women’s magazines – liquor and beer, motorcycle, gadgets, computers, video games, online gaming, dating.’ Advertisers in the inaugural issue include Calvin Klein, Rocawear, Schwarzkopf and Ocean Pacific.
Mahmoud plans to build on his successful track record as publisher of another Canadian magazine, Urban Male, with an aggressive marketing campaign that will begin in September with BOBBi billboards and radio advertising in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and Halifax. Meanwhile, in a series of promotional stunts in these cities, ‘BOBBi boys’ will stand at the busiest intersections handing out free copies of the magazine. As well, launch parties across Canada will be staged with ‘special celebrity appearances.’
In the future, Mahmoud says his team will host large events throughout Canada on a regular basis to which ‘anywhere from 2,000 to 50,000 people’ per event will be invited. These, he says, ‘will be excellent opportunities for advertisers to market and sample to a captive audience in cool settings.’
Temporary pre-site: www.umm.ca/bobbi/coming-soon.html; permanent (to come): www.bobbimag.com
Rising young media star
This is the sixth 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.
Robyn Baldwin
Strategist, OMD Toronto
Claim to fame: After just three months in the industry, and at OMD, Robyn negotiated a creative, content-driven location buy for Wrigley Excel Extreme, which included wall murals and site-specific billboards in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. She cherry-picked optimum locations in terms of linking creative to what surrounded the boards. The Yonge and Dundas media tower in Toronto, for example, made use of the retail-centric placement with the line ‘More Intense than Chicks at a Shoe Sale.’
AltFinds: Mykaussie.com
MiC routinely explores beyond the main menu, sussing out alternative media options and finding niches where the fragmented masses are re-congregating. Enter Mykaussie.com, which includes Mykwebworld and MykwebTV – arguably the first-ever sports Internet TV show. The site may have been flying below the mainstream radar for several years, but it’s been no secret to football lovers around the world, or almost anyone who’s ever Googled NFL, football or cheerleaders.
Clocking about 2,000 visitors a day from a male-skewed audience primarily logging on from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia, the site is the creation of Calgary-based ‘Myk Aussie’ (real name, Andrew Harrison), a transplanted bloke from Down Under who bills himself as the sports-comedy-media guy. Consequently, Mykwebworld is the ultimate fan site – chock-a-block with sports, news, columns and hours of three-to five-minute TV shows covering NFL, CFL and Aussie football, plus lots and lots of cheerleader interviews. There’s also some coverage of golf, snowboarding and skiing.
Advertisers have the option of buying regular online ads or spots built into three-to-five-minute Internet TV shows. To date, the site has been used successfully by a flock of online retailers of sports tickets and other companies targeting jocks. These include Pure Romo Nutrition, an energy-enhancing product from former NFL star linebacker Bill Romanowski, Sportsinteraction.com, Vividseats.com, tickco.com, buyselltix.com, gotickets.com, and a dating site for affluent singles called Millionairematch.com.
The former mechanical engineer and manager of a large Vancouver IT company, who immigrated to Canada in 1998, considers his site to be primarily an online TV station that serves advertisers well. ‘A sports bar in Calgary, for example, recently advertised in my Gaelic and Aussie Rules Football MykwebTV show. We included a tour of the bar and interviews with the barmaids, so the viewer was obliged to watch the commercial as they were watching the show,’ he explains. ‘There’s no zapping with MykwebTV and we have full-screen, amazing quality on both PCs and TVs.’
Student entrepreneurs launch ad-rich campus mag
With a goal of uniting all Toronto students through one non-campus-specific portal, two business students at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto are launching Campus Life Magazine on September 4th with an initial print run of 30,000. Andrew Au is the publisher and Shaheen Yazdani is editor of the publication – the print version of which will be published quarterly, with a monthly web-based edition.
Yazdani says the opportunity of reaching the desirable 17-25 student demographic has already attracted such major advertisers as General Motors and their financing division GMAC, General Nutrition Centre (GNC), Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, Toshiba, Redken, Sobe’s A-Rush and Heys International. She adds that the new magazine is also a natural fit for ‘consumer packaged goods, entertainment, alcoholic beverages, clothing brands, student travel and any other student-related products and services companies.’
Content will be written mostly by students for students and free distribution of the print edition will be through newsstand sales in campus locations across the GTA. For the second issue, distribution will be expanded to include other Ontario-based universities. The long-term goal is to boost circulation to 100,000, reaching all schools across Canada by 2008. The magazine’s debut will be animated during early September with the ‘Unite Tour,’ a series of parties hosted by MTV with live prize giveaways and performances by recording artist Jenna G. In time for the magazine’s second issue, a model search contest will be conducted.
Nothing to sneeze at
Timed for the annual ragweed onslaught, a dynamic marketing initiative from Schering Canada, makers of Claritin, has virtually transformed the tunnel leading to Toronto’s Yonge-Eglinton subway station into a grassy soccer field.
As well, six busy subway stations in the downtown area will feature soccer images in the branded subway initiative until late September. Both the creative and the media buys were done by Cossette.
Students get to sound off
Videotaping themselves dishing on everything from back-to-school blues to sizzling summer vacations, or texting in whatever’s top of mind, could win students prizes thanks to the ‘Hilroy Rant and Rave Contest.’ Concocted by MuchMusic, MusiquePlus and Genesis Media, the exclusive co-branded, multi-platform initiative is open to back-to-schoolers across Canada.
Video and text messages may be submitted until midnight ET Sunday, September 3rd. Entries can be viewed online and voting will decide who wins the grand prize – a trip for three to any concert in North America, along with having the winning video featured in a 30-second on-air spot on MuchMusic and MusiquePlus.
A whole different approach to ‘viral’
Next up in the ‘they put ads where’ category: detachable germ barriers for shopping cart handles. Targeting health-conscious shoppers, initially in the U.S. only, Michigan’s Cogent Marketing is introducing DoodleGrip – a child-friendly foam tube that a parent can snap over shopping cart handles to form a barrier against bacteria and germs.
Sudsvertising? Beertainment? Harbinger?
In a move that may put ideas into other marketers’ heads, Anheuser-Busch is reportedly getting into the content business. The largest American brewer evidently plans to launch its own in-house film and TV production company to make humorous shorts and sitcom-type programs to be broadcast over the Internet and to cellphones. A-B’s Bud Productions division has previously experimented with producing sports content, notably recent NFL pre-season games for the St. Louis Rams. With an annual marketing budget of U.S. $1.56 billion, A-B certainly has the wherewithal to make a splash.
Media Dimensions snags Sunwing account
Toronto’s Media Dimensions has been appointed the media planning and buying agency for Sunwing Travel Group – handling all media strategy and execution for all media forms beginning in September.
More playing of musical chairs – Eloda ad analysis for August 11-17, 2006
Targeting the back-to-school market boosted Staples The Business Depot to fifth spot after an absence. Meanwhile, McCain tumbled from 6th position to 15th, Rogers jumped from number 5 to number 3, and the movie studios were scattered about. 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. Check out others topping the charts and which brands had the most new spots.
New daily lifestyle talk show to offer mecca for Canadian advertisers
The host has been named for a new daily lifestyle talk show that will premiere on CBC some time this fall, but so far no name or official premiere date is known for a series whose mandate is to ‘openly and often humorously scrutinize what the experts and laymen have to offer in the areas of health, decorating, child rearing, relationships and romance, to mention a few (topics).’
The time slot of 11-noon daily, plus repeats at 2 p.m., represent a host of marketing opps for a host of brands, says Jamie Michaels, CBC’s director of customer marketing. ‘Food, cooking, packaged goods, what have you – this will be a great environment for advertisers.’
As host, former science and arts journalist Gillian Deacon brings experience and name recognition to her new gig. Many Canadians know her as the host of CBC Television’s Code Green, a home renovation competition designed to educate Canadian homeowners about reducing greenhouse gas contributions. She has also been front and centre as host of such programs as Discoveries This Week for Discovery Science Channel in the U.S., and host/producer of the science news magazine @discovery.ca for Discovery Channel in Canada. Deacon will gain even more name recognition beginning in October, when she debuts as Chatelaine‘s new green columnist, answering readers’ questions about environmentally responsible lifestyle choices.
CBC scores broadcast rights for premiere skiing events
CBC Sports has signed a four-year broadcast and multimedia agreement for the rights to FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) Alpine Skiing. Beginning this 2006/07 FIS Alpine World Cup season and continuing through 2009/10, CBC will broadcast more than 30 hours of coverage per year including the FIS World Cup from Lake Louise, Alberta, and the FIS Alpine World Championships from Sweden.
As host broadcaster, CBC will kick off its coverage with the Alpine Ski World Cup from Lake Louise on November 25th – providing feed to broadcasters around the globe. Also on CBC this season will be World Cup events in Val d’Isere, France, Kitzbuehel, Austria and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Beginning in November, CBC Television and CBC Country Canada will also air Snowtime, the FIS Alpine World Cup Ski Report, weekly to provide the latest news and highlights from around the World Cup circuit.
House of Blues beefs up sponsor relations
Producer of more than 1,000 cross-country shows annually, Toronto- and Vancouver-based House of Blues Concerts Canada has promoted Libby Biason to VP sponsorship sales for House of Blues Entertainment, and Jen Walsh to director, client services for Canada. Over her four years with HOB, Biason has worked with such major marketers as American Express, Coca Cola, Bell, XBOX and Panasonic, and will now manage both the American and Canadian sponsorship efforts. Meanwhile, Walsh, who was formerly in marketing roles at Xbox and EMI Music Canada, will manage day-to-day relationships with Canadian sponsors.
The New Plan – a savvy six-way cross-promotion
Exemplifying the imaginative, multi-featured path it’s now possible – and imperative – for media to pursue, Exclaim! magazine, CBC, Mint Records, HMV, Puma and Mazda are teaming up in an exceptionally sticky, youth-oriented initiative whose end result will be a concert tour and free CD giveaway. That might seem like a no-brainer when young music lovers are the target. But check out what each of the six partners is bringing to the table to achieve admirable synergy and a potential ROI bonanza.
The kickoff concept was an anniversary celebration for Exclaim!, the Toronto-based music publication that’s been promoting new music to Canadian fans with frequent concert tours since 1991. ‘Past sponsors have included Jeep and Levi’s,’ publisher Ian Danzig tells Media in Canada. ‘And this year we once again brought together a number of organizations who are looking to target our dedicated readership.’
Domination or bust for Global’s virtual roadblock mission
Cheekily christening a host of upcoming multi-platform activities ‘Media Domination 2006,’ Global Television has vowed to give its new and returning prime-time shows as much oomph as possible by engaging in ‘one of the largest and most aggressive fall launch marketing initiatives on record in Canada.’
Scheduled to begin rolling out on August 21st, the campaign will feature what the network terms an unprecedented level of exclusivity in a raft of sole-advertiser buys, plus dramatic guerilla marketing, event presence and outdoor maneuvres.
A wide variety of custom creative was developed in-house by the television marketing department and tailored to key Global franchises Prison Break, House, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Survivor, Shark and Brothers & Sisters, with select outdoor creative updated regularly to reflect series’ premiere dates, reprising the network’s pioneering strategy last season. Key drop dates for the radio, online and guerilla portions of the campaign – geared to promote series’ premiere days – are August 21st and September 5th.
