BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians who watch home improvement shows
* 8 million Canadians (29%) watch home improvement shows on TV in an average week.
* 40% of them watched 3 or more hours of home improvement shows in an average week.
* Home improvement shows have slightly more female viewers (57%) versus (43%) for males.
* Home improvement show viewers have, on average, a personal yearly income of $43,400, slightly higher than the national average ($39,500).
* The top home improvements done during the last 2 years were: interior painting/wall paper (48%); landscaping or yard improvements (39%); and exterior painting/staining (28%).
* While Canadians spent on average $3,800 on home improvements in the past 2 years, home improvement home show viewers spent $4,500.
* The top media by yesterday’s exposure for home improvement show viewers are: TV (91%), radio (86%), Internet (61%), and daily papers (54%).
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’05, individuals 12+
The preceding information is from BBM RTS, 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.
Animal Planet goes Down Under
Animal Planet will be taking a special look at the history of the wildlife of Australia, a mostly dry continent occupied by some of the deadliest animals on earth. Wild Down Under is a five-part series with episodes including ‘Wild Australasia,’ ‘Desert Heart,’ ‘Gum Tree Country,’ ‘Island Arks’ and ‘New Worlds.’ The series will run Mondays at 9 p.m., from June 5 until July 3.
OLN doc series follows handicapped trekkers
June finds OLN rolling out a BBC documentary series about 11 physically challenged people crossing Nicaragua. The people in Beyond Boundaries have handicaps ranging from being in wheelchairs to being deaf, blind or amputees. During the 355k trek, participants find their real abilities while others can’t see past their physical limitations. The documentary airs in four parts with the journey airing Sundays at 7 p.m., beginning June 4.
CanWest MediaWorks gets new SVP
Brett Manlove has been appointed SVP, broadcast sales and marketing at Toronto-based CanWest MediaWorks. Manlove was most recently VP of local sales, based in Vancouver. In his new post he will oversee all sales and marketing activities for the broadcast division. In other industry involvement, Manlove is president of the Broadcast Association of British Columbia, treasurer of the Television Bureau of Canada, and board member of the Advertising Standards Council of Canada.
Hurlbut joins Alliance Atlantis
Jennifer Hurlbut has been named VP, marketing and publicity, dramatic networks at Alliance Atlantis. She was previously at the helm of a marketing team at Kelloggs Canada, where her credits include the Special K ‘Keep it simple’ campaign and the All-Bran campaign with William Shatner.
PMB Factoid
Frequency of switching channels versus muting the sound; by gender
On the MIC with Robert Lampman, Head of business development & sales
Canadian marketers, take note: It doesn’t matter who your target is, soccer will deliver. FIFA’s Robert Lampman says the sport cuts across all social-economic and age groups, according to the org’s research in 26 markets. Plus, soccer has both genders hooked; 37% of women worldwide typically tune into the World Cup tournament, which kicks off this year in Germany on June 9. Lampman was a principal author of the org’s new sponsorship program, which was brought in house three years ago. It’s been a well-choreographed play, enabling more efficient communications with partners and leading to more innovation, such as Coke’s 26-country trophy tour and McDonald’s campaign to select 22 German kids aged 6 to 12 to be player escorts. Between 1994 and 2006, the value of FIFA’s sponsorship deals has doubled to 1.1 billion Euros.
The Digital Future Project study: Social network site users want their 15 megabytes of fame
Sympatico/MSN held its annual Digital Ad summit last week, attended by a crowd of marketers, agency types and media. Presenter Jeffrey Cole, director of the L.A.-based Center for the Digital Future, shared key trends gleaned from the research field, specifically from a year-over-year study entitled The Digital Future Project. The Project explores the influence of the Web on Americans and in this year’s study, Cole found that for the first time in its history, kids are watching less TV because of the Net.
Women drivers are looking at ads: Visiontrack eye-tracking study
A recent study conducted by Toronto-based Visiontrack, an eye-tracking tech research firm, has found that OOH signs with three rotating ads were looked at more often than the average poster. The study, commissioned by OMAC members Astral Media Outdoor, Pattison and Viacom, was conducted in the fall of last year and builds on European and U.S. studies conducted in the same vein. The difference? The Canuck study outfitted respondents with eye-tracking devices during an actual 1.5-hour commute (other studies had participants in a simulated environment), recording everything within their field of vision, and tracking objects that they fixated on. ‘We tracked people with different routes at different times during the day in the test markets of Ottawa and Montreal,’ said Rosanne Caron, president of OMAC. Caron adds that respondents were not informed about the ad-tracking component of the study and were simply told that they were tracking the drive to see what they were looking at. The study found the following:
* 55% of OOH ads were noticed on their first drive-by
* OOH ads were looked at 2.04 times on average
* TRIOs (with three rotating ads) were looked at more often than static ads (2.46 times versus 1.91 times for the standard poster)
* 57% of women versus 53% of the men saw the ads
* Passengers were more likely to see ads than drivers (73% versus 52%)
Caron says more studies are planned for the near future.
Mega-entertainment push begins in English Canada – Eloda analysis for April 21-27, 2006
Entertainment category advertisers have flipped the on switch in English Canada where entertainment ate 55% of the top category pie for the week of April 21-27. In French Canada, however, top category went to retail at 33%, with entertainment trailing at 22%. Check out others topping the charts, and which brands had the most new spots. 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.
http://www.eloda.com
Paramount dethrones RBC: Top radio ads – Media Monitors for April 24-30, 2006
Paramount Canada’s Wonderland was paramount last week in the charts monitoring the brand with the most radio spots on rotation in Toronto. Paramount, non-existent in the charts last week, topped the list, pushing banking juggernaut RBC to second place. Also making its debut to the top 10 last week was QSR brand, Quizno’s. In the categories race, restaurants, nightclubs and casinos plied their siren song, topping the charts for the week. Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of April 24-30, 2006.
YTV ups interactivity, while McDonald’s ups activity in co-branded promo
In a bid to increase interactivity online and physical activity off-line, the YTV- and McDonald’s Canada-helmed Go Active! Film Festival launched yesterday. The program is a five-week integrated online and on-air promo where kids can create a film of their own for upload and voting on ytv.com. Winners will receive the Golden Cheeseburger award consisting of a trip for four to L.A., passes to a theme park and an iPod.
This year marks the second year for the co-promotion, and according to Tim Cormick, VP, client marketing at the net, the festival netted ‘very compelling responses last year in terms of film participation and [online] critics.’ He adds that the focus this year is in making the film festival site even easier for the younger end of the 6-11 set. As such, YTV built in an online tutorial complete with background sets, sound effects and characters. Promotional elements include TV spots and a dedicated microsite on YTV, as well as POS materials at McDonald’s restaurants nationwide. Ron Christianson, national corporate communications manager for the QSR, says OMD Canada was instrumental in putting the deal together.
Notes from the media landscape: Yahoo gets tech-y, MI3 promo is a bomb and Minority Report screens debut in Chicago airport
Yahoo! has launched a new site entitled Yahoo! Tech, a channel for non-techies who struggle with new gadgets. The community site has shopping, search and online forums in addition to content culled from Consumer Reports and the like. Four Tech gurus will each helm blogs catering to the different demos including the Mom, the Boomer, the Working Guy and the Techie Diva. Signed so far are advertisers HP and Panasonic. More heavily involved is Verizon Wireless. The brand will sponsor a weekly, online show on Yahoo! Tech entitled Hook Me Up, slated to launch on May 15. The reality-style show features regular folks undergoing a technical makeover. Verizon Wireless’ products will also be making a cameo appearance within the show.
A new Mission: Impossible III promo bombed last week in L.A. A coin vending machine housing the Los Angeles Times was blown up by the L.A. County’s bomb squad after reports by paper buyers claiming they saw a red plastic box with wires inside. The red box is actually a digital music gadget that would play the Mission: Impossible III theme when the rack door was opened. The promo is slated to last through May 7. And in yet another Tom Cruise-related innovation, the large, touch-screen interfaces used in the futuristic world of Minority Report is coming to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. L.A.-based agency Schematic will be creating the screens as a branded promo for consulting firm Accenture. The wall-sized interactive screens will allow travelers to access info such as stocks, news, sports updates and the like. The screens are visible to the user as well as to viewers farther away. New York’s JFK will also be getting the screens.
Spotlight on Specialty: Alliance Atlantis works to strengthen connection with consumers
Yesterday at its Third Annual Spotlight on Specialty Television, Alliance Atlantis Communications unveiled a new ongoing research project conducted via the Internet involving four consumer advisory panels.
Sara Moore, SVP of marketing and publicity, says the panels were established in February of this year as part of a determined effort to engage Alliance Atlantis network viewers in a more meaningful way, and she expects they will provide valuable insights on important industry and company issues.
