Dose leverages Oscar fever with week-long election
Dose, the CanWest-owned multi-platform brand, has built an election around the 78th Annual Academy Awards involving feature stories each day, campaign buttons and online voting at dose.ca/Oscars in five key award categories. Feature stories will cover all the nominated movies, directors and actors in addition to suggested campaign slogans, songs and hot-button issues. Campaign buttons are being distributed by Dosereporters in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver featuring catchy campaign slogans to spotlight award nominees and drive readers to vote online. The March 3 issue of Dose is a weekend guide to the Oscars and the results and event coverage will be fully covered in the magazine issue and online.
Toyota short debuts on Oscars
Toyota Canada will be launching its all-new 2007 Toyota Camry during the broadcast of The 78th Annual Academy Awards, Sunday on CTV. The two-minute feature commercial – What You Want Is What You Need – will be unveiled during ET’s pre-Oscar show at 8 p.m. and then will run once only in Canada inside the Academy Awards broadcast. The mega-spot created by Saatchi & Saatchi will be retooled into a 60-second version and along with two new 30-seconds will air on CTV through May.
Top TV advertisers: Entertainment trumps public service; Eloda ad analysis – Feb. 17-23, 2006
Entertainment remains a strong category with the most new advertisers in French markets (38%) and second most in English markets (19%) behind the public service category (26%). P&G and General Motors kept their hold on the number one and two spots when comparing brands with the largest variety of TV ads for Feb. 17 to 23 versus the same time last year. In English Canada, the top three categories with the largest variety of spots in rotation were entertainment (14.5%), retail (13.1%), and public service (9.7%). 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
Top radio advertisers: Telus gets chased by the Ontario government; Media Monitors – Feb. 20-26, 2006
Telus Mobility led the pack by calling in with the most ads on rotation in the Toronto market last week. The Government of Ontario ran second with its slate of union-related ads while amusements and events company Canadian International nabbed the third spot. The restaurant category continued to lead with 33 advertisers tracked last week, followed by amusements and events (14 advertisers) and cars/light trucks and local dealers (38 advertisers). Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of Feb 20-26.
http://www.mediamonitors.com
Youthography: MP3s still main reason for teen downloading
Youthography (youthography.com), a Toronto-based young consumer marketing and communications consultancy, says its 2005 poll found that nine out of 10 teens and young adults download and that MP3 downloading is the most prevalent reason given for doing so. That is consistent with what the company found in 2003, although at that time only 15% of youth had portable MP3 players so most were downloading the songs to computers. In just two years the percentage of young consumers with MP3s grew to 50% with 72% of teens downloading 1 to 20 songs each week. MP3s were strongest with the 14 to 29 demo – females, 63.6% and males, 66.5% – while downloading of games was heaviest amongst those aged 9 to 13. Pictures, games, movie trailers, TV shows and commercials were on the list of content that teens and young adults were downloading.
Although downloads of sexually explicit material was virtually non-existent amongst 9 to 13 year olds and females 14 to 29, it accounted for 27.1% of the material downloaded by males aged 14 to 29. Youthography conducts a national survey of over 1500 Canadians aged 9 to 29 and puts its findings into Ping, a quarterly publication highlighting major developing trends within the Canadian youth culture.
Babe watch at the Juno Awards: Pam Anderson to heat up Halifax
The host of The 2006 Juno Awards is sure to draw more eyeballs for its April 2 airing on CTV. Pamela Anderson, former Baywatch babe and ‘The Most Powerful Canadian in Hollywood’ in 2005 according to Canadian Business magazine, has been confirmed as host of the two-hour awards broadcast. Scheduled performers to date include Bedouin Soundclash, Broken Social Scene, 2006 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Bryan Adams, Coldplay, Michael Bublé and Nickelback.
Multi-platform coverage of Paralympic Winter Games on CBC
CBC will be presenting coverage of Torino 2006 – The Paralympic Winter Games daily from March 11 to 19 on CBC News, CBC Newsworld, CBC Radio and on its Web site at cbc.ca/paralympics. Weekdays, five-minute packages will be airing while weekend coverage will be on CBC Sports Saturday. A special half-hour broadcast welcoming the athletes home with air March 28 at 7 p.m. on CBC and three Paralympic specials will air on CBC Sports April, 1, 8 and 15. Torino 2006 will involve 700 athletes from 41 countries vying for the 58 medals to be awarded for sports including alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.
Judge Alex presides on OMNI.2 in March
An ex-police officer, and now trial attorney and criminal court judge, Judge Alex, will preside in a half-hour drama series on OMNI.2 beginning Monday, March 6 at 5:30 p.m. The show will air every weekday.
Ex-crooks dole out advice on new Discovery Civilization series
A new 15-part, hour-long series uses former burglars’ expertise to improve home security. The show begins airing on Discovery Civilization on Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m. It Takes a Thief joins former burglars Jon Douglas Rainey and Matt Johnson as they demonstrate how thieves can get inside houses.
SMG study: 50-plus not being served by media or marketers
Marketers haven’t made an effort to be relevant to 50-plus consumers and media outlets are also missing the boat, according to Joanna von Felkerzam, insights director for Starcom MediaVest Group in Toronto. She says this large and lucrative demo want the usual things out of media – relevance, information, and entertainment – but that the agency’s latest 50-plus research indicates that there is no real relevant, highly-enjoyed content for them.
‘They are not excited by media. As a matter of fact, the lack of targeted media is a reflection of a larger social conundrum we are all facing today and it needs to be fixed now.’ Von Felkerzam says other findings of the Surveillance fiftyplus survey that impact media selection for the 50-plus demo include:
Énergie drink puts Astral Media radio brand in your hand
How about a radio brand in your hand? This was the thinking behind the launch yesterday of Énergie, an energy drink launched by Montreal-based Astral Media Radio’s network of the same name. The product, which carries the same logo, branding and graphic elements as the radio network, is an equal partnership between Astral Media Radio, Cott Beverages in Toronto and Laval, PQ’s Couche-Tard chain, targets the radio net’s bullseye demo – the 18-34s. The partnership deal was done in-house.
‘This is a wonderful marketing tool for us,’ says Charles Benoit, Astral Media Radio’s VP of programming. ‘It’s a total brand extension. [Our research shows] that more than 40% of people do their listening in the car and the Couche-Tards are everywhere.’ He also says that Astral Media Radio’s research [culled from BBM RTS] has shown that energy drinks are very popular with the 18-34 set and though Red Bull may be the number one brand in the energy drink market, he hopes for ‘a strong number two’ with this product. Benoit says the company is planning to spend $1.5 million in radio airtime value to promote the new drink between now and the end of May. Énergie will be available at all 536 Couche-Tard stores all over Quebec. The radio network of the same name reaches more than 1.7 million listeners per week.
Vaseline invites folks to get touch-y via interactive exhibit
Unilever’s Vaseline brand is really putting the touch in touch screens. Last month, the company worked with Toronto-based Harbinger Communications to roll out a branded, 900-square foot interactive display at Toronto’s Fairview Mall called The Science of Touch. The display has four interactive stations designed to have mall visitors interacting with the brand. The first station features a 32-inch touch screen complete with audio that grades folks on their ‘touch quotient.’ The next station uses ‘Bob,’ a specially-built interactive mannequin with designated touch points. Visitors can touch each point and video bubbles appear, providing touch-y factoids about that body part. Another station houses a photo booth where folks can get a photo on the custom designed Vaseline couch as well as a product coupon. Finally, for more brand interactivity, visitors got to sample Vaseline products, while having their skin’s touchability assessed.
‘The brand’s studies show that there’s a touch deficit in Canada and Vaseline is trying to explain that without the hard sell so we decided to take a science centre approach,’ says Ian Gadsby, VP, production for Toronto-based Fourth Wall Media, the tech company behind the project. The traveling exhibit has just touched down in Calgary today and will remain there until March 12. Promotions for the exhibit were done online via vaselineskin.com and Unilever’s e-newsletter and website at homebasics.com. The Science of Touch targets busy moms, which is why the exhibit was unveiled at shopping malls, says Lisa Pasquin of Harbinger Communications.
BBM Commercial GRP Tracking: Montreal Franco January 2005-2006
Please click on the link below to view BBM’s Commercial Television GRP Trending by week and broadcast month for Montreal Franco covering the broadcast months of January 2005 to January 2006 inclusive.
Smart Cell Phone preparing to battle PPM in the U.S.
Arbitron’s PPM may be in for some competition south of the border as testing of The Media Audit/IPSOS Smart Cell Phone continues to get positive results. The first series of tests conducted by RAJAR, the industry organization that manages radio measurement in Britain, found that the ability of the Smart Cell Phone to pick up codes inserted on a cross section of music and talk format stations met the same thresholds as did that of Arbitron’s Portable People Meter. The Smart Cell Phone (SCP) – like the PPM – has been designed to be a multi-media measurement tool to read embedded audio signals in radio, TV, and the Internet in addition to OOH via its GPS component.
New York-based Arbitron says studies of how consumers use cell phones show that too many people do not have their cell phone with them all the time or do not have their cell phone turned on all of the time. It also says that less than 30% of consumers keep their cell phones with them at home. Cell phone on/off times and carry times vary widely by age and in the prime demo of 25 to 54 year olds, off times increase with each 10-year age group. While 61% of those aged 18 to 24 have their cell phones on all the time, that figure drops to 53% amongst 25-to-29-year-olds, 43% with those 30 to 44, and 39% with 45-to-59-year-olds. (Source: ‘Ownership and Usage Patterns of Cell Phones: 2000-2005’, by Peter Tuckel, Hunter College, CUNY and Harry O’Neill, NOP World, February 2005.) Arbitron contends that the option for consumers to turn off their phones would greatly bias radio survey results. On the other hand, the company says its PPM is always on and always listening. As far as compliance, Arbitron says its market trials show that people do carry the PPM consistently across all age groups.
The Media Audit of Houston, Texas is a syndicated service of International Demographics, a multi-media and marketing survey conducted in 85 cities across the U.S. It will begin field tests of its passive cell phone system in the U.S. mid-2006. With the omnipresence of cell phones today, The Media Audit believes the SCP will encourage a greater degree of compliance by panel participants because it’s an item they are likely to carry with them normally. Arbitron, which has been refining, researching and testing the PPM for the past 10 years, believes a cell phone would actually work against the device and is citing research to back that up.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians and figure skating events
* 1.9 million Canadians (7%) attend live figure skating events either regularly or occasionally, when in season.
* 57% of figure skating attendees are 55 years old or over (1.5 times more the national average).
* Only 25% of figure skating attendees are male.
* 7% are regular figure skating attendees.
* When analyzing their favourite clothing stores, those who attend figure skating events are at least 1.5 times more likely to shop at Talbot’s, Laura (any), Cotton Ginny, La Senza Girl and Reitman’s.
* Figure skating event attendees’ top specialty channels watched in an average week are A+E (36%), Discovery Channel (32%), the Weather Network (31%) and CBC Newsworld (28%). They are also 1.5 times more likely to watch WTN (The woman’s Network).
* Their top four media by yesterday exposure are: TV (90%), radio (86%), daily newspaper (59%) and Internet (56%).
* Figure skating attendees are 1.6 times more likely to prefer adult standards, when comparing their favourite radio formats to national averages.
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’05
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.
