Retail leverages its digital shelf space with sims and ad sales
Retail marketers are extending their web presence from simply having online shopping carts to adding entertainment to their brands and outside ad revenue to their baskets.
Tomorrow, U.S. retailer American Apparel is hosting a grand opening event of its latest location – a virtual store in the world of Second Life (secondlife.com) – with giveaways, prizes and a 15% discount on any real-life item bought in Second Life. A cross between MySpace and The Sims, Second Life is a 3-D, digital world where inhabitants create an avatar and live a second virtual life that now includes shopping at American Apparel and outfitting their avatars in the retailer’s fashions.
Nick Barbuto, director of interactive solutions for Cossette Media in Toronto, says anything within these virtual communities, whether it’s a virtual store set up by a site user or American Apparel actually setting up shop, gives a glimpse into the future potential for retail.
‘It’s not necessarily what they’re doing in their stores, it’s about leveraging new phenomena popping up on the Internet, and how can they leverage that from a sales perspective. Another great place for the future of retail will be the equivalent of Xbox 360’s marketplace that will facilitate real and virtual transactions as well.’
TVO and TFO to offer mobisodes for kids
Along with the range of fun and educational mobile content that will make up TV Ontario’s first foray into mobisoding comes an array of opps for sponsors to get involved, says TVO CEO Lisa de Wilde. ‘We literally just put our foot into this platform, so it’s early days. But we’re definitely looking at it as something that has potential for our existing sponsors and new sponsors. And it’s a new revenue stream for us.’ Logical potential advertiser or sponsor sectors, adds de Wilde, are banks and companies that support literacy, ‘but I would like to think it’s an opportunity to move into other types of sponsors as well.’
What’s been adopted from the popular after-school TVOKids block – in English as well as French for TFO viewers – and is now up for grabs for billboards, sponsor tabs or almost anything else that’s ‘consistent with our brand,’ she says, are ‘packages of unique, engaging, curriculum-linked educational content that’s directed at kids from grade one to grade five. It’s fun content that’s created in-house at TVO and features our very popular young hosts.’
TVO’s new wireless service was developed in partnership with QuickPlay Media and will be carried to cellphones by Bell Mobility, TELUS, Rogers Wireless, Aliant, Sasktel and MTS. French-speaking viewers, who de Wilde says have been underserved in the mobile market until now, will be able to access mobisodes of TFO’s award-winning youth magazine show, Volt, the first French-language series to be offered in Canada by mobile phone.
For information on how to access TVOKids content by mobile phone, visit the parents’ section at www.tvokids.com and, for Volt content, www.tfo.org/mobile.
J&J promotes toddlers’ bath line with online game for mums
A novel promotion for Buddies – Johnson & Johnson’s newest line of bath products for toddlers – came out of the consumer insight that the most enthusiastic players of online games are actually young adult women. This reality was cited in a recent study by the Consumer Electronics Association, which stated that fully 65% of American women 24-34 are regular online gamers.
That’s why Ottawa-HQ’d Canadian advergame pioneers Fuel Industries designed J&J’s Buddies Scrubbies game. It’s meant to be played by busy mothers after bath-time and lights out for the little ones, says Fuel CEO/CCO Mike Burns. ‘What we’re doing with this game is the same thing we do with every game we develop – create a virtual interaction with the product. But we chose to do it in a remarkably different way (because) women usually prefer non-violent play. … I think Buddies Scrubbies will open the door for more emphasis on targeting a female demographic through advergaming in the future.’
Mothers can find the game online at http://www.johnsonsbuddies.ca
BBM Media Snapshot: Can Canada become a soccer power in the future?
* 1.3 million Canadians (5%) practice soccer regularly.
* 45% of regular soccer players are teens, almost five times more the national average.
* 39% of those who practice soccer regularly are female.
* B.C. is the region with the largest incidence of regular soccer players.
* Compared to the national averages, regular soccer players are four times more likely to practice skateboarding, three times more likely to practice snowboarding, and almost three times more likely to practice football and volleyball.
* When compared to the national averages, regular soccer players shop two times more at Foot Locker, 1.9 times more at Champs, and 1.7 times more at National Sport Centres.
* TV (87%), radio (82%), and Internet (73%) are their top three media by yesterday’s exposure.
* Looking at radio programming preferences, soccer players listen 2.4 times more to modern/alternative rock and 2.3 times more to urban, when compared to the national average.
* The top four specialty channels among regular soccer players are Much Music (35%), Discovery Channel (30%), Comedy Network (25%), and TSN (25%).
Source: BBM RTS Canada Spring ’06 – Individuals 12+, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 60,000 Canadians conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information, contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.
Sun TV offering marketing opps for two new telenovelas
Camp and catfights galore will be rife five days a week on Sun TV thanks to the debut of two telenovelas (the South American term for ‘soaps’). In Fashion House, ’80s divas Morgan Fairchild and Bo Derek will be at each other’s throats playing ruthless fashion moguls scheming to take over the haute-couture industry’s hottest company. And Table For Three will follow the story of two brothers on the run from the mafia and in love with the same woman.
Produced by Twentieth Television, both shows premiere September 5, at 5 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET respectively, with 65-episode story arcs stripped Monday through Friday over 13 weeks. Don Gaudet, Sun TV’s GM programming, is enthusiastic about marketing opps. ‘With serialized TV enjoying new heights of viewer popularity, we are very excited to be the only Canadian station to air these U.S.-produced telenovela-style dramas this fall.’
What’s in the works so far, he says, is ‘looking for a radio partner to do a cross-promotion, watch/listen-to-win contest around the series launch. This will kick off with a pre-promotion the last two weeks of August and a contest starting in September to look for a key word in the broadcast and listen to the radio the next morning to phone in for great prizes.’
Discovery to premiere series about wackiest inventions never made
Scouring dusty old records might sound dull, but Patent Bending, the Discovery Channel’s new half-hour series, proves otherwise. Premiering August 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET/11:30 p.m. PT, the 14 episodes examine nifty inventions that never made it off the drawing board. Then a team comprised of an industrial engineer, a scientist and a jack-of-all-trades inventor gives the designs a second chance, figures out why they didn’t work, corrects the problems and comes up with new hybrid versions.
Included are a bicycle-operated lawnmower, a floating tent, uphill skis, a motorized picnic table, a helmet-mounted parachute for emergency evacuations of tall buildings, a carwash contraption for humans contaminated with nuclear fallout and, yes, a better mousetrap.
So far, automotive and retail advertisers are getting in on the action, but sponsorship status is still on offer.
PMB Factoid
Sailing – Penetration by City
Lauren Richards to head Starcom MediaVest Canada
In appointing veteran media specialist Lauren Richards CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group Canada today, Chicago-headquartered parent company Starcom MediaVest Group clearly signaled an intention to boost its focus on media integration.
‘Integration is paramount for any successful company or product and innovation in media is definitely one of my big beliefs,’ Richards told Media in Canada. ‘I’m so glad we’re now in the days of seeing media working more closely side by side with the creative people and the account people, and having more confidence in ourselves (to be) fully at the table as part of the team.’
Prior to officially settling into her new office within the Leo Burnett agency on July 31, Richards was senior VP/national media director of Cossette Media for 18 years until resigning last September. At Starcom, she succeeds Patrick Walshe, who left this week after a stint of about two and a half years.
Leo Burnett president David Moore says he is ‘very excited about partnering with Lauren because I know her track record and I know the passions she has are all about media innovation. I think she will be a great leader and one who’s going to partner very successfully with Leo Burnett.’
If they’re coming, he will build it
Ginormous, interactive LED screens perched high atop venues like Toronto’s Dundas Square aren’t new. Temporary versions of same – capable of capturing action in real time, and assembled Lego-style right at the hot spots where huge throngs of people will soon show up – are.
‘We say ‘where is a big crowd going to be, what’s its demographic makeup?’ And then we go after advertisers who’d like to reach those particular people on our screens,’ says Paul Riley, president of Jazz Media Group, who launched his Toronto company last October.
Smart Woman Survival Guide offers intelligent opps to marketers
‘A host of organic product placement opportunities’ has been built into W Network’s upcoming The Smart Woman Survival Guide series, says Marilyn Orecchio, director of sales for the net.
The 13-episode lifestyle series about the lives and loves of a group of women who work on a fictional lifestyle TV show called Smart Woman debuts this fall, but the first two seasons have already been mapped out, complete with brand integration opps.
Entertainment still tops, but news crept up – BBM TV Top 30 for July 17-23, 2006
Although most viewers were still interested in musical reality shows, the situation in the Middle East prompted a lot of clicking to news shows. For a list of the top 30 TV shows for the week of July 17-23, 2006, according to BBM, please click the links below:
Ratings for commercials already here
Nielsen Media Research in the U.S. recently announced that, beginning this November, it will report national commercial minute ratings in addition to the program ratings they currently provide. This announcement and subsequent stories in the American media have caused confusion in the Canadian industry, and left some people wondering when a commercial minute audience service will be offered in Canada.
Actually, Canada is way ahead of our southern neighbour when it comes to commercial ratings. Nielsen Media Research launched the service in Canada back in 2000 through its SpotWatch product. A screen capture from the Executive Summary report of SpotWatch shown here features Total Program Rating and AA (average audience), Exclusive Program Ratings and AA (just the program, without the commercial spots), and Exclusive Commercial Ratings and AA (just the commercial spots, without the program.
Corus to enable broadcast-ready ads in on-screen TV listing guides
Corus Custom Networks, a division of Corus Entertainment, will roll out a new format for its TV listings channels in 77 markets across western Canada throughout the summer. Shifting from a vertically-split to a horizontally-split format will allow the listings to be displayed along the bottom half of the screen, while the top half is split into two advertising blocks.
One block will feature advertising in conventional 4 x 3 broadcast format, enabling clients to air commercials already produced for conventional television. The second ad block supports text-only content and will feature local weather and community messages. It can be linked to run simultaneously with the commercials airing in the adjacent advertising block.
The new format, which will be operated and managed on Shaw Cable-owned channels, ‘provides engaging, viewer-friendly information while delivering an excellent package to our advertising clients,’ said Tyler Alton, Corus Custom Networks VP/GM.
A screen capture of the new format can be seen at http://www.coruscustomnetworks.com/tvl.asp.
TSN revving up mobile and online brand exposure opps
Lots of news from TSN these days. First up was locking down a four-year extension of its broadcast rights to the IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship series, effective 2008 through 2011, including comprehensive multimedia rights. Added to that was a six-year deal with the Canadian Curling Association and a seven-year extension with Hockey Canada. (All are shared with RDS, le Réseau des Sports.)
Along with these initiatives comes an array of advertising and brand exposure opps including: full sponsorships with opening and closing billboards, feature opportunities, including Live at the Intermission, scoring summaries, starting goalies, game story and the TSN Turning Point.
But what’s arguably of more interest – given the propensity of tech-savvy TSN viewers to seek sports programming on emerging media – are numerous opportunities on digital platforms. On broadband, these include streaming video ads with synchronized ad banners (so that even after a commercial is over, a sponsor still has a persistent message on-screen). On mobile, spots are available for short commercials before or after short clips. And on video podcasting, options include short billboards or commercials surrounding downloaded clips. As well, podcasts are available for sponsorship. TSN encourages its clients to create 15- and 5-second versions of their traditional 30-second TV ads to allow the net to use shorter versions on digital platforms without the need for editing.
Nestlé launches ‘Nutrition for Kids’ interactive campaign
Nestlé Nesquik has launched a special advertising section titled ‘Nutrition for Kids’ on the websites of two Transcontinental New Media sites, Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce. The intention is to help busy parents become more nutrition-savvy and make smarter eating and beverage choices for their kids. Parents are being invited to share experiences, tips, tricks in getting kids to adopt good nutrition, and to ask questions directly to Nesquik expert dietitian, Vanessa Andrews. Nestlé is also taking a poll among site visitors to get their take on their children’s nutrition choices. ‘This will encourage parents to create a community they can go to for advice and tips,’ says Tony Angelucci, Nesquik marketing manager.
Promotional ad units are running across the Mochasofa/Mokasofa Network, Canada’s largest women’s web network, which reaches more than two million monthly unique visitors. The campaign plan and buy was handled by, Nestlé’s AOR, ZenithOptimedia.
www.canadianliving.com/nutritionforkids and www.coupdepouce.com/alimentationdesenfants
