PMB Factoid
Diet soft drink consumption; by gender
Savvy media executions highlight CD launch promo
The folks at Capitol/Virgin Music are unleashing a ‘typhoon’ promo using radio, print, OOH, SMS and scooters to hype up the Jan. 24 launch of rock band Yellowcard’s new CD. In a national promo called
Milk gets hip with hip-hop mobile karaoke campaign
Milk is cool again thanks in part to the launch of a new ad campaign aimed at teens. A just-released spot by Toronto-based Due North Communications has the Milk Girlz jammin’ with overall-clad farmer homies outside a club, while touting the coolness of milk. The Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), always on the cutting edge of cool, are also bringing karaoke to phones via Mobiloke technology, a tool developed by Toronto-based mobile entertainment shop Silverbirch Studios. Log on to milkhiphop.ca and milk drinkers can download three versions of the Milk Girlz song to their mobiles. Phone screens display song lyrics while handsets play the tune providing instant karaoke. Wallpaper and ringtones can also be downloaded on the site.
Roberta Jessup-Ramsay, director of marketing for DFC says the objective here is to give milk an image that young people can make their own. ‘It’s something your Mom used to give you because it’s good for you and all that. This is our way of saying, ‘Lighten up a bit. Don’t take it so seriously.” A national in-theatre ad campaign is slated for launch in March. M2 Universal handled media buys.
CTV and The Globe and Mail deliver election results to mobile screens
In a bid to move to a different form of media, CTV and The Globe and Mail are making the leap to the small screen. Mobile screens, that is. On election day, mobile-toting Canucks can get free, real-time text message results from CTV.ca and globeandmail.com, respectively. Both sources will send updated polling info including national and provincial results to mobiles via shortcodes. The mobile application was developed by Charlottetown, P.E.I-based Magnet Mobile Media.
Top TV advertisers: Eloda ad analysis
Not much change from last week when entertainment (at 13.5%) took the top spot as the category with the largest variety of TV ads on rotation for the week of Jan. 6-12. In second place was retail (at 10.1%) and nabbing bronze was food (at 8.9%). In a year-to-year comparison of categories with the most new TV ads, the same time period in 2005 is markedly different from this year, with the entertainment category (at 43%) taking the lion’s share of the market. In 2006, however, the number one spot is shared by four categories – drug products, entertainment, public service and retail are all tied at 13%. 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: Media Monitors ad analysis
Though Telus hangs on to number one for yet another week in the race for top 10 brands with the most ads in rotation in Toronto, you know it’s election time when number two is Elections Canada and number three is the Conservative Party. On the category side, TV & cable TV reigned supreme, followed by cellular and paging systems at number two and restaurants at number three. Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of Jan. 8-14.
http://www.mediamonitors.com
Super Bowl has brands and bands abuzz with themed promos
Global Television is celebrating the 40th Super Bowl with a chance for viewers to win an invite to the Super Bowl Passport Party in Windsor, Ontario, with musical guests INXS. Five party attendees will have the opportunity to be whisked to Ford Field in Detroit to watch the championship match-up. Running until Jan. 22, Entertainment Tonight Canada viewers can watch and win by identifying the INXS song of the night, given by way of a five-second clue. Thirty- and 15-second TV ads, plus banners on Global’s site and canada.com are promoting the contest. A Global spokesperson says the contest received 2,688 viewers four days into its Jan. 7 launch. According to the net, last year’s Super Bowl drew in just under 3.5 million viewers. Creative was handled in-house with media buys by TK.
Reebok has also sponsored the NFL Fan Zone, a branded Super Bowl environment at the Super Bowl Passport Party. Running from February 2-4, brands such as McCain, Campbell’s Chili and Snickers are sponsors of games including a field goal kicking challenge, an obstacle course and gauntlet, respectively.
Canada.com and Google enter a multi-year partnership
CanWest Interactive and Google have announced a multi year partnership that will provide Canada.com visitors with content and search-related advertising in exchange for Google’s advertisers reach across Canada.com‘s network. Canada.com receives just under 3 million hits each month, and includes driving.ca, remembering.ca and working.com in its network of sites. Google and canada.com will share revenue from the advertising.
LiveDeal.ca goes live
E-commerce site LiveDeal.ca, a joint venture with Torstar and its online arm Torstar Digital, launched yesterday. The site, which connects buyers and sellers regionally, will be accessible via Torstar titles The Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator, The Record and the Guelph Mercury‘s online classifieds and via livedeal.ca.
‘We’re leveraging our partners on the Torstar side in terms of online ads and partnerships,’ adds Simon Jennings, GM of LiveDeal. He says the company is also open to speaking with potential brands around page sponsorships, adding that users to the site will bring ‘tremendous local knowledge. A local business’ ads can be delivered via geo-targeting as the site is highly-targetable.’ LiveDeal’s American counterpart (livedeal.com) boasts to be among the top 10 ranked in unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix.
CBC to release sushi-inspired animation series
CBC Television will launch new animated series The Very Good Adventures of Yam Roll in Happy Kingdom. The new series will debut on Monday, Feb. 6 at 4:30 p.m. Yam Roll follows the adventures of a love-struck, sushi super hero named, yup, Yam Roll. The net will air 39 11-minute episodes on weekday afternoons at 4:30 p.m., in addition to a three-minute version on Saturday mornings beginning in April. The show targets kids 6-11.
Jennings heads to Livedeal.ca
Simon Jennings has been named GM at the newly-launched online classifieds site LiveDeal.ca. Prior to joining LiveDeal, Jennings has spent the last four years as national sales director at Yahoo! Canada. He has also held roles at DoubleClick Canada and ClickThrough Interactive.
Events
Jan. 31
Around the world over lunch: A Global perspective of newspaper initiatives and innovations
Toronto Delta Chelsea
nlaing@thestar.ca
AD CLUB of Toronto is hosting Newspaper Day 2006 with keynote speaker Earl J. Wilkinson. Wilkinson is executive director of the International Newspaper Marketing Association and former U.S. Congressional staff member and editor. Topics include changing audience metrics, current developments such as the ‘lite’ newspaper phenomenon in Europe, the latest on format change, and key learnings on paid promotions and how they’re boosting circulations.
March 29-31
iSUMMIT 2006 – Content that pays
MaRS Collaboration Centre, Toronto
http://www.isummit.ca
Organized and presented by the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA), iSUMMIT 2006 is an international interactive entertainment and media forum that will bring together pundits from across Canada and around the world. Topics include new revenue and distribution models that promise new opportunities for content producers, publishers, carriers and distributors.
Notes from the media landscape: Digital signage that talks to you
Talk about interactive advertising. NiagaraFalls, ON-based digital signage company, OneSmart uses an LCD screen that can sense when someone is standing in front of it, triggering interaction. After saying to you: ‘Hey, I just noticed you standing there, just wanted to say hi,’ the screen then signals your presence back to the server. This then activates the ads. ‘It detects, verifies and then sends back a message that someone is there and looking at the ad,’ says Dale Marion, president. LCD screens sit atop a convenience store’s ATM (two pilot systems are currently in place, one in St. Catherine’s and another in Hamilton) and while you’re getting your money out, you’re being sold to. Current clients include the International Online Gaming Club, which was so impressed by the system that they brought on a sister company to OneSmart. Local small- to medium-sized businesses round out the client list. Marion says the system’s next phase is the ability to recognize gender and age. After that? Logo and brand recognition. ‘So if you’re wearing something with a Nike logo, for example, it will be able to detect it and customize its message to you.’ Marion won’t commit a time frame for this, though he’s confident it will happen within the next year. While the company utilizes a pay per display model (one 15-second direct to consumer display costs 90 cents), Marion says a month-long campaign that reaches 70,000 people per system runs for about $350.
http://www.onesmart.ca
BBM Commercial Tracking
Please click on the attached link to view BBM’s Commercial Television GRP Trending by week and broadcast month for Montreal Franco covering the broadcast months of December 2004 to December 2005 inclusive.
