SBC Media to release new print properties aimed at women, youth
Toronto-based SBC Media Group has announced the upcoming release of new action sports lifestyle print properties targeted to women and youth. A glossy annual entitled SBC Ski & Snowboard Resort Guide is slated for launch in October 2006 and according to SBC group publisher Steve Jarrett, the company is projecting a 60,000 copy distribution via newsstands across Canada in addition to Snowboard Canada and SBC Skier‘s retail network. The annual will target 25-55s. Also on offer from SBC is the introduction of a women’s title in Snowboard Canada Women’s. Jarrett says SBC decided to go with a annual women’s mag because ‘readership [of Snowboard Canada] among women increased by 12% between 2003 and 2004. [And] according to the Canadian Ski Council, participation in snowboarding is now at 46%.’ The mag, which will focus on snowboarding from a women’s perspective, has a projected distribution of up to 70,000. The decision to go annual, says Jarrett, is to extend the title’s newsstand shelf life. Snowboard Canada Women’s will target 16-29s.
Much awaited in Canada will be the launch of a new surf title. The yet-to-be-named mag will launch in spring 2007 as a bi-annual, featuring paid newsstand and specialty surf, skateboard, wakeboard, snowboard and ski shop distribution. Jarrett says the company has received ‘enthusiastic response from surf lifestyle leaders [such as] Billabong, Oakley and Reef. [Its] editorial mandate is authentic, credible coverage of the growing Canadian surf scene from Vancouver to Nova Scotia and the Great Lakes.’ The surf mag will go after the 16-39 set, skewing male. All SBC titles will carry a full-page ad rate of $5450. And perhaps closer to launch, the company’s music fest Wakestock comes back to Toronto’s Centre Island in mid-August. Jarrett says sponsorship and sampling opportunities are still available. Last year, Wakestock boasted 32,000 participants over four days.
Teletoon promos promise fashion design, gold bars and radar guns
Teletoon’s sales promotion department has been busy, crafting promos that give away Vespas, gold bars and radar guns. Emma Fachini, manager of sales promotions at the net says, ‘what we’re finding now is that advertisers are really looking at branded entertainment as an innovative way to deliver their message.’ This month Toronto-based International Academy of Design & Technology is involved in a Teletoon promo called ‘Tailor-Made Tweety Design Challenge’. Canary clothing designs are found on the Teletoon site where young, wannabe Jeanne Beckers can vote on their fave, and earn a chance to win a custom-made Tweety-inspired Vespa. Fachini says it’s a good way to integrate a property with such wide appeal, ‘and this is a fun and interesting way to get involved with Tweety.’
Meanwhile, the net’s online stats attracted Mindshare for a month-long Kelloggs Froot Loops Treasure Island contest. The promo offers chances to win gold bars via an online treasure hunt. The net says it is averaging 1.5 million hits per month on teletoon.com (700,000 unique visits), and boasts fifth place of the top sites of the Entertainment Kids category, behind Disney, Mattel, Neopets and Meegos [according to Comscore ]. On April 10, young French viewers will get a chance to win the new Mattel Hot Wheels Radar Gun (a toy that can measure the speed of their toy cars) in yet another promo put together by Mindshare.
Dove launches cool national promo campaign
Readers of free commuter daily, Metro are in for some cool reading tomorrow. The entire April 5 issue (in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa) will be printed on a cool green-coloured paperstock to herald the launch of Dove’s new Cool Moisture Bodywash product line. A sample will also be affixed to the cover in addition to a double-page pop-up. Toronto-area commuters traveling through the Union and Eglinton subway stations this week will also get the cool treatment via a traveling photo exhibit entitled the Dove Cool Moisture Art Gallery. The OOH creative, developed by ad shop Ogilvy & Mather, will feature portraits of women with the products set within an art gallery-style exhibit. The exhibit will also be shown at the La Gauchetiere Building tunnel in Montreal and the Pacific Centre corridor in Vancouver throughout the month of April. Other elements include print and online buys, as well as a TV viewing contest on Global. The Dove Cool Moisture launch was a collaborative effort by ad shops, O&M, Capital C Communications and media shop PHD Canada.
Food category tops for Desperate Housewives viewers – Eloda analysis for March 24-30, 2006
In addition to its regular ad analysis, Montreal-based Eloda conducted a city versus city comparison of ads running during an ep of Desperate Housewives. In a market-to-market comparison (Toronto versus Montreal) of the show that aired Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m., food ranked as the top advertising category at 21% in Toronto and 18% in Montreal. The French must love shopping as much as food as the retail category there also tied for top spot during the broadcast at 18%. Second and third in Toronto were automotive and financial services/insurance, both at 14% apiece. Meanwhile Montreal also saw the financial category at number two with 14%. 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
Global seeks sponsors for Gemini Awards
Global will be broadcasting the 21st Annual Gemini Awards on Saturday, Nov. 4 and there’s lots of lead time for advertisers to get in on the act. Barbara Williams, SVP programming and production for CanWest MediaWorks, says the net will be as open as possible to incorporating advertisers into the show while respecting the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s needs and the fact that the Geminis honour programs from all networks. Global is expecting 25-54s to be the main aud, although the net’s usual target is 18-49s.
This year the show will be held in Vancouver – the first time it’s been outside Toronto. Global’s coverage includes parties and features during the week leading up to the show as well as a Red Carpet Pre-Show and Backstage Awards Buzz from The ET Canada Gemini Lounge on awards night.
BBC Kids goes after teens with new programming block and ad campaign
BBC Kids (BBCK) is hitting the streets of Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver in a bid to net 15-17 year-old viewers for its new teen program block. The block, called Rated K, made its debut last night at 9 p.m. As part of the launch promo, the net will embark on the BBCK Basement Tour, a traveling viewing theatre exhibit launching May 7, that recreates the look and feel of the classic, tacky basement – complete with patterned wallpaper and wood paneling. The basements will be set up in random spots such as movie theatres, parking lots and street corners, with street teams inviting folks to take a seat to watch some BBCK. April 1 saw wild postings and stickers in key markets drawing people to the just-made-live bbck.ca site. A mid-March execution also put the ‘tease’ in teaser campaign. ‘Bear Naked,’ a vignette of a stripteasing bear found at bbck.ca enthralled subway riders and invited teens to send the clip to pals. Other elements include: print ads in Fashion 18, Access and What Magazine plus email blasts to subscribers of Fashion 18, Vervegirl, Fuel and the Student Price Card. The net worked closely with Toronto-based youth consultancy shop, Youthography. Media buys were done in-house.
Vancouver daily readership up and The Province leads the pack: NADbank
Toronto-based NADbank has unveiled its Fall 2005 Study for Vancouver. The three free dailies launched in this market late last spring: Metro, 24 hours and DOSE, were taken into account in this study and have enlivened the Vancouver newspaper scene. Overall daily newspaper readership increased in the market last fall with 57% of adults 18+ reading a daily paper on an average weekday, compared to the 48% reported in NADbank’s 2004 full-year study. As well, 80% read a daily over the past week as compared to 74% for 2004.
The Province topped the read-yesterday group with 28%, narrowly edging out The Vancouver Sun which scored 27%. The free daily 24 hours fell next with 9% while Metro was 6% and DOSE only 2%. The Globe and Mail beat out The National Post at 7% to 5%. The 6/7 day cume showed The Province and The Sun tied at 49% and The Globe topping The Post at 18% to 12%. All data is provided by NADbank, the principal research arm of the Canadian daily newspapers industry. NADbank is comprised of dailies, ad agencies, media companies and advertisers.
Cheeky creative targets media buyers for ABC Canada
The long-running big versus small agency debate takes a humorous turn in a new fundraising campaign that targets media buyers for ABC Canada Literacy Foundation. Voicemail messages, online, print, and washroom ads pit the big agency Fat Cats against the smaller Media Minnows for the Gutenberg Media Grab (abcmediagrab.ca). The annual event offers up $750,000 donated print and OOH media at 65% off rate card, with different media lots sold each day from April 24 to 28.
The voicemail messages are tailored to big and small agencies. Execs at smaller shops hear from a fictitious SVP from ‘Glomcorp Global Media’ in a snooty British accent: ‘It’s not that we need the discounts here at Glomcorp, not with our obscenely large, free-spending stable of clients. However, I’d never miss the chance to take an opportunity away from a small fry.’ Big shops get a once-rebuffed job applicant from a smaller agency, boasting of the 65%-off media that ‘we’re going to get it first and leave your fake-tanned butt in the dust… This time it’s a level playing field, my friend, and you’re about to lose big time.’
The theme continues in trade pubs, online banners, DM postcards, and Zoom ads in agency washrooms: ‘Prove once and for all that the bigger they are, the harder they fall,’ and ‘It’s time to show the little guys why they’ll always be the little guys.’ The campaign was created by Toronto agency ACLC.
Discovery examines inner workings in new show
Discovery Channel, known for its interest in all things scientific has signed Natasha Stillwell (Daily Planet) to Break It Down. Stillwell and compatriots will look at such icky topics as what happens after we flush, to sticky topics like what happens when our road systems can no longer handle the amount of traffic fed into them. The team also looks behind the scenes at a junkyard, movie stunts, landfills and elevators. This six-part series, produced in HD, premiers Tuesday, May 2 at 8 p.m.
Event
April 27
Magazine Day
Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto.
416-367-7312
www.adclubto.com.
The Advertising Club of Toronto presents ‘Church Meets State,’ a debate about advertiser encroachment on editorial.
Empowered consumer dominates CMDC conference
Empowerment was one of the recurring themes of the annual Canadian Media Directors’ Council conference on Tuesday. In exploring the day’s topic – Mining Growth: Discovering Potential in Media Mayhem – speakers referred to empowered consumers, the blurring of lines between media, and understanding how media is being consumed rather than how it is delivered. The day began with a keynote address by Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA. He focused on what he called his two passions: the future and growth.
Reader’s Digest Tops PMB 2006
Reader’s Digest has topped the readership ranking in the PMB 2006 study, released today, by a handy margin. The venerable pub scored 7,206,000 readers 12+, far outweighing Chatelaine, a distant second at 4,476,000 with Canadian Living in tight for third at 4,406,000. The field was spread more evenly with French-language magazines. Coup de Pouce was the frontrunner with the 12+ aud scoring 1,428,000. French-language Châtelaine came second with 1,292,000 readers, narrowly edging out Sélection du Reader’s Digest which scored 1,290,000.
The 2006 study included a record 114 magazines, a 33% increase since the last Through-the-Book study conducted by PMB in 2000. This year, 11 new titles have been added. Excluding the new titles, and based on a ‘like-with-like’ comparison, the overall readers-per-copy level was identical to PMB 2005 at 5.44. The average number of readers for the 85 magazines common to the two studies was constant at 1.2 million. The Recent Reading methodology has also been constant over the six years since its inception. The average across common publications in PMB 2006 (5.4) is virtually the same as PMB 2001, the first year of Recent Reading (5.5). A new element this year is a national segmentation of the Canadian population (‘Canada 39’) which combines existing PMB data on geography, ethnic background and language spoken to produce 39 distinct market segments from coast-to-coast. The study is based on 25,165 interviews conducted over 24 months from October 2003 to September 2005.
CTV hooks up with Doritos for an Enhanced Junos experience
CTV is presenting the 2006 Juno Awards this Sunday, April 2 at 7 p.m. not only on TV but online at playjunos.ctv.ca. The two-screen technology lets viewers watch the Juno broadcast while also getting interactive with the show. Doritos is the sole sponsor of the webcast during which the audience can guess who’s going to win and vote for the coolest stars on the ‘Hip-o-Meter.’ Doritos will have online ads and logos online as well as two :30s during the TV broadcast. Enhanced TV players will be asked questions about the Doritos commercials for points during the course of game play. More than 12,000 viewers played along with CTV.ca for the Oscars in March. The snack brand is also the Juno Fan Choice sponsor for the broadcast. Other broadcast sponsors include General Motors, Pantene Pro-V, and Nice’n Easy.
GM partnered with The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in a national radio contest held earlier, which nets station winners an all-expense-paid trip to the awards night along with a chance to win a Pontiac Solstice. CTV will air the car giveaway during the broadcast. Meanwhile, Pantene once again is sponsoring a branded hospitality suite for all award winners, presenters and VIPs during the broadcast. The net is looking to net 18-49s for the broadcast but for Doritos’ webcast, CTV predicts it will skew the younger 18-34 set.
Toronto-area awareness campaign invites public to check its head
Check your head lately? Seems Toronto mayor David Miller has, according to the folks at The Mood Disorders Association of Ontario (MDAO). Mayor Miller appears in one of a series of posters as part of a pilot, three-month-long multimedia campaign launching April 4 entitled ‘Check up from the neck up,’ which aims to normalize mental health and touts the MDAO’s just-launched website checkupfromtheneckup.ca, which houses a self-test.
The GTA-only awareness campaign includes bluesy then upbeat radio in full rotation, and OOH executions include print and digital creative at doctor’s offices, within the TTC’s Onestop Media network and at theatre lobbies. Media buys were done by Toronto shop, Media Dimensions. And at a BCE launch event, 10,000 bookmarks will be distibuted. The creative, done by John Burghardt Consulting and Grissom & Friends Creative Services, both of Toronto, bears an acorn as its visual signature – signifying untapped potential and also looks a bit like a human head with a cap.
‘Checking up on your mental health should be part of everything else,’ says Karen Liberman, executive director of the MDAO. ‘We don’t need another ribbon or bracelet,’ she says. ‘I like it because it’s a little nut. And we’re all a little bit nuts.’
