CTV to air new drama mid-April
CTV’s new, ensemble drama What About Brian, is set to debut on Sunday, April 16 at 10 p.m. before moving into its regular timeslot on Mondays at 8 p.m. The hour-long series follows Brian, the last (single) man standing among a group of pals.
Dose sponsors Whistler’s Telus Ski and Snowboard fest
Dose has signed on as the media sponsor for the 11th Annual Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler, B.C. The 10-day fest nets an average of 260,000 visitors and this year runs April 14-23. As part of its sponsorship, the youth rag has built an online destination at dose.ca/whistler, which will air daily video highlights from the fest. A branded Dose Zone on-site will feature a themed living room where riders and artist participants will sign autographs, and visitors can surf the Web and hang out with Dose writers. An eight-page Festival guide is also slated for the April 13 issue of the magazine. Seems the sponsorship is working. According to Dan Sorotschynski, director of marketing, a March-released Flyaway contest (in partnership with MTV) has already garnered 60,000 entries. The contest gives away a chance to attend the Festival, plus related swag and spending money. In addition, the Dose-built microsite has already had 150,000 page views in the last month.
‘Seventy-five percent of the people that go to this event are in our demo,’ says Sorotschynski. ‘This is just another way for us to connect with our readers and get the magazine into their hands. We want to increase their exposure to our brand online, in print and more.’
Time celebrates Canuck launch of Style & Design mag; searches for event sponsors
Time magazine’s ultra-luxe Style& Design mag has come to Canada. The spring edition launched quietly in late March as a smaller, 28-pager bundled with the magazine, says Kris Menon, director of marketing. The fall issue, however, will herald the title’s true debut. ‘It will launch in September as a standalone going to our top subscribers only. Our hope is that it will launch in the middle of the Toronto International Film Festival.’
Two editions are planned for its first year in Canada and Style & Design‘s spring and fall editions both carry a circulation of 90,000 and is geo-targeted to go to folks with a personal annual income greater than 75k. Additional copies will be distributed via select Chanel stores, at Audi dealerships and at the magazine’s sponsored events throughout the year. Menon adds that fall launch event plans for Style & Design are ‘quite big. We’re looking for key sponsor and advertiser support from luxury brands in the categories that make sense such as apparel, jewelry and cosmetics. Our goal is six key brands to partner with.’ He says the magazine is moving toward an overall integrated platform, extending the Time brand beyond print to live, exclusive events. ‘We’ll have celebrities [during film festival events] wearing jewelry [from our partners], or Audi as the official chauffeur for all our events. We want to build multiple touchpoints for our brand and partners.’ Time’s Style & Design carries a full-page ad rate of $15,960.
BBM Commercial Tracking for Montreal – March 2005 to 2006
Please open the attached link to view BBM’s Commercial Television GRP Trending by week and broadcast month for Montreal Franco covering the broadcast months of March 2005 to March 2006 inclusive.
Rich folk in Canada worried about ‘affluenza,’ says Sensus Research study
You may think wealthy folks have nothing to worry about, but you’re dead wrong. A survey entitled The True Wealth Report conducted by Vancouver-based Sensus Research found that 48% of thick-wallet types were either neutral or in disagreement with the statement, ‘As I’ve gotten wealthier, I’ve gotten happier.’ Seems they worry about their children turning into spoiled Paris Hilton types. Thirty-eight percent worry about maintaining a strong work ethic and a sense of values in their offspring and yet another 24% toss and turn over ‘affluenza,’ a disease spread among the superwealthy where succeeding generations have less motivation due to family wealth. Other findings include:
* 34% say their top concern is maintaining their lifestyle
* 53% own at least one Mercedes; 43% own at least one BMW and 33% have a Porsche in the garage
* Travel is tops with this group and 34% say London is where it’s at, with 33% saying it’s New York and 27% preferring Paris
* They like beautiful things; 90% collect art, 72% stock up on antiques and 69% keep their wine cellars well-stocked
* 69% donate more than $100,000 to charity – though three out of five say it’s for tax purposes
The study polled 165 Canucks with a net worth of $10 million or more. Data was collected over seven weeks at the end of 2005.
http://sensus.cv-market.com/images/truewealth/2006_TWR_low.pdf
OOH company touts moving ad messages
OOH company GO Mobile Media is poised to send its ad-toting trucks out in May, as part of a tourist targeted program entitled GO T.O. The company has four vehicles that boast the ability to scroll billboards, project video on three screens, and a glass ‘fishbowl’ showroom on its flatbed. CEO William Kozma says that his company’s trucks are WI-FI ready. ‘As soon as Wi-FI is ready [in the GTA], we can have internet access to the vehicle. Consumers can get a wireless mouse and surf the net on the spot.’
Toronto-based GO Mobile Media first unleashed its bright green trucks in the U.S. as a testing ground in areas such as Seattle, San Diego and Phoenix and has done a national campaign for Ikea south of the border. Rates for campaigns range from $5000 up to $25,000, with production costs extra.
http://www.gomobilemedia.com
BBM Media Snapshot: How many Canadians can skate?
* 8.8 million Canadians (32%) ice skate sometimes or regularly.
* 13% are regular skaters.
* 26% of ice skaters are over 44 years old. Canadians 12 to 17 years old are 1.6 times more likely to ice skate.
* Ice skating is equally popular across Canada except in BC which has below average incidence.
* Those who ice skate also inline skate and play hockey (almost 2 times the national average).
* 9% of ice skaters purchased ski/snowboard equipment within the past 2 years (1.5 times the national average).
* Compared to the national averages ice skaters are 1.6 times more likely to go shopping at ‘Play it Again Sports’ and 1.5 times more likely to shop at Sports Experts.
* By yesterday exposure, TV (87%), radio (85%) and Internet (68%) are the best media to communicate with ice skaters.
* Based on weekly reach, news talk (17%), adult contemporary (13%) and mainstream Top40/CHR (13%, 1.4 times the national average), are their favoured radio formats.
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.
Designer Guys revamp Rogers Centre suite
HGTV’s The Designer Guys did their magic, revamping a luxury box at the Rogers Centre. The results will be aired on Tuesday, April 18 at 8:30 p.m. The new suite features an Astroturf-top bar and a custom-made baseball glove chair. The placement deal was done in-house. This is the second time that the net has partnered with the media giant. Last fall, the team from Design Inc. reworked yet another suite at the Centre in an episode that has since aired. In yet another (unrelated) tie-in, Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes threw the first pitch at last night’s Blue Jays game.
Animal Planet series to harness Horse Power
Horse Power: Road to Maclay makes its debut on Animal Planet on Tuesday, May 2 at 8 p.m. The hour-long six-parter chronicles the drama within the horse show circuit. Each ep follows teens as they compete for the Maclay Medal Finals.
New GM named for PHDiQ
PHDiQ, the interactive arm of PHD Canada, has named a new GM in Beat Richert. Richert boasts 15 years of international and domestic expertise. His previous positions include director of media at both Leo Burnett in Zurich and at Cossette in Montreal.
Updegrove joins Yahoo! Canada
Mark Updegrove is the new director of sales at Yahoo! Canada. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Updegrove held a sales leadership position at Viacom in New York. He was also the publisher of Newsweek.
PMB Factoid
Use of headache relief medication; by household income
On the MIC with Maurice Lévy, chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe SA, Paris
Maurice Lévy is recognized internationally as an innovator and visionary, and under his stewardship Publicis Groupe become the fourth largest communications group and the second largest media group in the world. International expansion has been active over the past 10 years, including a move into Canada with the purchase of 70% of Montreal-based BCP in 1996 and Toronto-based SMW the following year. Lévy joined Publicis in 1971, and since taking the CEO remit in ’84 has been busy acquiring a full range of marketing services and specialized communications companies. Publicis Groupe now owns ad agency networks Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, Fallon Worldwide and 49% of Bartle Bogle Hegarty as well as media orgs ZenithOptimedia and Starcom MediaVest Group. MIC took the opportunity to get some of Lévy’s thoughts on the agency business when he was in Toronto last week as keynote speaker at the annual Canadian Media Directors’ Council conference.
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.
