Laguna Beach and other MTV hits now available on ExpressVu and Rogers on Demand
Courtesy of MTV, Bell Canada and Rogers, a lineup of MTV hits is now free for the dialing for ExpressVu and Rogers on Demand customers. They include season one of Laguna Beach, Real World, Viva La Bam and The Real World: Austin. Shows to be added in the coming months include Jackass, Pimp My Ride, Punk’d, Wild ‘n Out and Wildboyz.
Laguna Beach is turning into such a phenom that a recent report from Youthography raved that the series had ‘struck teen drama gold’ and opined that, ‘although MTV in Canada has yet to release any measured media numbers publicly, our expectation is that both Laguna Beach and The Hills will show good results in the Canadian market … and only continue to perform as a notable aspect of youth culture here in Canada.
CHUM’s music nets release fall program line-up
MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic and Razer have confirmed time slots for 12 new series, including four original in-house productions. The homegrown series on MuchMusic are Music is My Life (30 min.), in which two young Canadians per episode discuss the music that changed their lives, premiering Sunday, August 27th at 8pm ET; and Much Adrenaline (60 min.), a sports-oriented show that tours the hottest events, spotlights the biggest athletes and their video requests and profiles thrill-seeking musicians, debuting Monday, August 28th at 7pm ET. Additionally, MuchMusic will air the second season of the hit series So You Think You Can Dance, premiering Sunday, August 27th at 6pm ET.
On sister station MuchMoreMusic, the new in-house productions are Back in … Love (30 min.), ‘a revealing romp through the all-time hottest celebrity hook-ups,’ debuting Monday, August 28th at 9:30pm ET, Nosedive (30 min.), premiering Monday, August 28th at 9pm ET, which scrutinizes the beginning of the end of a pop idol’s fame; and Supergroup (60 min.), debuting Sunday, August 27th at 7pm ET, in which five seasoned rock stars descend on Las Vegas to form a band and prepare for a concert in just 12 days, while none has a clue as to the identities of their bandmates. Included are Ted Nugent, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, drummer/Led Zeppelin heir Jason Bonham and Biohazard’s Evan Seinfeld.
MMM will also premiere producer Simon Cowell’s new Celebrity Duets (60 min.) on Wednesday, September 6th at 7pm ET. The unscripted series pairs established singers with non-musical celebrities to compete as singing duos. Included are Cyndi Lauper, Brian McKnight, Macy Gray, Clint Black and Aaron Neville. Canadian composer/arranger/producer David Foster will do the judging while viewers vote for their favorite duets.
Classic series airing on MMM this season will include Cosby Show spinoff A Different World (30 min.) beginning Tuesday, August 29th at 9:30pm ET, andFame (60 min.), Monday, August 28th at 10pm ET & PT.
Youth culture and lifestyle channel Razer will offer audiences aged 12-24 World of Stupid (30 min.), premiering Wednesday, September 6th at 6pm ET. It’s an investigative series that crisscrosses the globe to profile men determined to indulge in dangerous stunts; and Pushing the Limit (30 min.), debuting Saturday, September 2nd at 9pm ET, in which human endurance is tested by, among others, a veteran land-speed motorbike racer who survives two death-defying accidents and two Miami residents endure a Category 5 hurricane. Returning to Razer is the popular Madison series (30 min.), premiering Monday, September 4th at 10pm ET.
Droll and dramatic Meerkat Manor series returns
The second season of Animal Planet’s popular Meerkat Manor series premieres on September 4th at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. with 13 new episodes. Once again, mellifluous Brit actor Bill Nighy narrates the dramatic ups and downs in the lives of the quirky critters, who must surely be among Africa’s most interesting denizens.
Events
October 19-20
9th Annual CMA Digital Marketing Conference
Toronto
www.the-cma.org/events/digital.cfm
Extended to two days for the first time, the Canadian Marketing Association’s annual conference’s feature speakers will include: Bryan Eisenberg, a principal with Future Now Inc., Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image, and David Weinberger, co-author of the influential bestseller The Cluetrain Manifesto
September 20-21
Gender Marketing: Identifying the Most Lucrative Categories for Targeting Men & Women
Toronto
www.opendialogueinc.com/conferences
Conference is aimed at helping marketers and advertisers interpret market research data correctly and avoid ineffective generalizations. Presenting companies include Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather, Watt International, Rogers Consumer Publishing Websites, Canoe.ca, Astral Media Radio and Fuel Industries.
PMB Factoid
PMB Factoid – Has a Swimming Pool: Penetration by Language
MiC dawgin’ it during dog days
Next week, Media in Canada will celebrate the civic holiday by taking a no-news-is-good-news break – publishing only on Thursday, August 10th, because with no one working on the Monday, there will be no news to send for Tuesday. Check us out on August 15th, when we get back to our normal schedule.
Vespa emerges for TIFF
The Vespa butterfly campaign has emerged from its cocoon, with a 30-second cinema incarnation set to hatch next month during the Toronto International Film Festival. It builds on the wild posting campaign that broke in late spring, featuring installations of six interpretations by artists from around the world of the Vespa as a butterfly.
‘It kind of emanated from this spring-has-sprung mentality,’ says Morey Chaplick, president of Toronto-based Canadian Scooter Corp. The spot features a dark cocoon that bursts into a psychedelic, colourful Vespa butterfly, set to groovy music. ‘We wanted to tap into this retro feel – Vespa is an icon of the sixties,’ says Glen Hunt, creative catalyst at Toronto-based Dentsu Canada.
Vespa is debuting the spot at TIFF to leverage its partnership with Toronto-based Tribute Entertainment Media Group, which will have a VIP lounge during the festival where celebs passing through will be asked to sign two Vespas to be auctioned off for charity.
Rising young media star
This is the second 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 – one of whom this continuing series will profile in each issue over the coming weeks. And we’re scouting for more of the same – so tell us about the dazzlers in your shop so we can shine a spotlight on them.
Kevin Hung,
SMG IP manager, Starcom Worldwide, Toronto
Claim to fame: Kevin recently made his mark with two campaigns. One was the worldwide launch of the Visa Olympic Game themed around Torino 2006. Canada was number one globally with consumer participation, more than 61% higher than any other country. Canada also had the highest number of games played and highest amount of time spent with the game. Additionally, his online campaign for LEGO Canada’s Bionicle brand on YTV.com not only generated buzz and upped the cool quotient of the action figures with tweens, sales were up 186% at Toys R Us during the campaign’s run.
Tell us and we’ll tell the (media) world
Hey, you. Yes, you Media in Canada reader. This is an open invitation to show off and sound off. We’re launching two new ongoing features. One, which we’re calling ‘The New Plan,’ will showcase the savviest media campaigns extant, ones that exemplify the way forward in the new mediaverse. With the other one, ‘What’s on your mind?’ we’re going 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).
Marketing budgets rise, with DM & digital topping the pack
Current marketing budgets were revised upward in Q2 according to the latest Survey of Marketing Budgets from the Institute of Communications and Advertising (ICA), with direct marketing claiming the sharpest upgrades, followed by Internet-related marketing – gains that were attributed to DM and direct’s cost and accountability advantages.
Current marketing budgets were increased in Q2 by 29% of companies, compared to just 6% that reported a decrease, and the upswing was across all main categories of marketing spend, marking the strongest upturn since the survey began in Q3 2003.
ViTrue shows how to do CGM safely
Consumer generated ad mash-ups can be mighty scary for control-freak brand managers. But, like it or not, consumer generated media (CGM) ain’t going away. So why not facilitate it?
A new Atlanta-based company called ViTrue has set out to hook up advertisers with tools to encourage users to have fun with their brands. ViTrue has partnered with Sharkle.com, a free YouTube-ish video-sharing community with 100,000 registered users and one million unique visits per month. The company also has a partnership with Publicis Group’s media futures arm, Denuo, geared to getting Publicis clients into the CGM arena.
NADbank: Zero in on the lucrative boomer market with dailies
NADbank has crunched some numbers from its 2005 Readership Study to convince advertisers that dailies are the media to use to target baby boomers. One selling point is the fact that eight out of 10 adults aged 50-plus report reading a daily newspaper over the past week, compared with the 76% average for adults 18 to 49.
While average household income for 50-plus, at $64,000, is less than the $72,000 average for the younger demo, their average investment holdings are more than double – $190,000 (50+) versus $75,000 (18-49).
Within this target, about 9% are the most lucrative baby boomers. They have average investment holdings of $490,000. Twenty percent of lucrative boomers have holdings of $500,000 or more. The majority of them – 87% – also report reading a daily newspaper over the past week.
The 50-plus group also spends about 58 minutes reading a newspaper Monday to Friday compared with 39 minutes for adults 18-49. A greater percentage of boomers also read Saturday (61%) and Sunday (37%) newspapers versus 43% and 25% for younger adults.
Boomers: Newspaper reading habits
* Spent less time reading daily newspapers compared to past year: 20%
* Spent the same time reading daily newspapers compared to past year: 69%
* Spent more time reading daily newspapers compared to past year: 11%
Boomers will continue to be a major force as a consumer group, although their consumption of various product and service categories will change as they age. According to NADbank’s analysis, boomers, while heavy users of traditional media, are open and adaptable to new technologies and media. They are a lucrative segment for the travel industry and for automobiles, being most likely to turn to dailies for information about automobiles (40%) than any other medium.
Since they have a longer life expectancy than previous generations, boomers will also be big consumers of health care services. Fifty percent of them already read the health pages in their daily newspapers compared with 30% of adults 18 to 49.
Wendy’s Canada may be whipping up eggs again
Wendy’s American HQ announced this week that it will once again wade into the breakfast sector of the high-stakes QSR industry down south. But Wendy’s Canada says it’s too soon to confirm whether it will follow suit here. ‘We’ll be watching with interest what happens in the U.S. and coming up with a made-in-Canada strategy very soon,’ spokesperson Franca Miraglia told Media in Canada yesterday.
Predicting the size of the probable ad spend, or shifted ad budget dollars, if Wendy’s does start serving breakfast to Canadians is tricky at this point. But a logical comparison was provided in a report by AdAge.com that McDonald’s recently spent U.S. $69 million in measured media to launch McGriddles, while Burger King laid out $21 million to introduce its Enormous Omelet.
Wendy’s flopped big-time in its first foray into the breakfast market in a five-year test that began in 1986. Despite spending a reported $10 million in advertising and promotion, the chain managed to capture only about 8% of early-morning American munchers. The failure was widely attributed to choosing sit-down menu items such as made-to-order omelettes – just as the grab-and-go, eat-it-in-the-car craze was setting in. This time out, during a full-market test across the States, portable food choices will dominate the breakfast menu.
Joel Baum, professor and competitiveness authority at the University of Toronto’s Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, doesn’t fancy Wendy’s chances of making a go of it in the overcrowded Canadian breakfast sector. ‘Wendy does have the advantage of access to Tim Hortons’ knowledge of the breakfast/coffee business, as well as their coffee and baking operations. But the need to avoid taking sales from Tim Hortons will make a morning entry in Canada even more difficult.’
Shavick calls OutTV a ‘fixer-upper’
OutTV’s new owner, Shavick Entertainment president James Shavick, says of his latest venture: ‘We realize it will be a labour of love (and that) this is a fixer-upper. But our company has good cash flow and we’re very intrigued by the challenges ahead.’
The Vancouver-based prodco purchased controlling interest in the troubled gay and lesbian digichannel and its sibling, Hard On PrideVision, for an undisclosed sum on July 7th, and Shavick says he plans to air gay-themed film and TV content made by his production company, among others. ‘In order for a channel of this sort to be successful, it has to be a destination where people will want to stop,’ he says.
The deal requires approval from the CRTC and comes just three years after the channel, originally called PrideVision, was sold for $2.6 million by the Headline Media Group to broadcaster Bill Craig. In 2004, it was rebranded as OutTV. The channel had conflicts with Shaw Communications, and in January sought bankruptcy protection following a dispute with the western cable company over satellite feeds.
If approved, the deal will leave Shavick with 52% of the company shares, while Toronto-based Pink Triangle Press – which publishes gay and lesbian newspapers in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa – will increase its ownership to 38% from 21%. The remaining 10% is owned by channel founder John Levy.
A version of this story appears in the August 7th issue of Playback.
Major interactive players attempting to set click standards
Formulating standard click measurement guidelines is the mandate of an industry-wide working group assembled by the New York-based Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC). On board so far are Ask.com, Google, LookSmart, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo!
The idea is to come up with a detailed definition of what constitutes a valid online click, and also to outline an industry-driven auditing and certification recommendation for search engines, ad networks, third-party ad servers and any other company that counts clicks as part of its performance-based marketing.
A full copy of IAB’s previous metric rules, Global Measurement Ad Impression Guidelines, can be found at www.iab.net/standards/measurement.asp.
- Lesley Conway named head of Walmart Connect
- UM named media agency of record for 7-Eleven
- Microsoft shuts down its DSP, shifts focus to own AI-powered ad platform
- Endy partners with WNBA in the brand’s largest sponsorship deal to date
- Spotted! Warner Bros. rolls out bloody stunt for new Final Destination
