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.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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.’