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.
Globe and Mail lobbies readers to vote smart
The Globe & Mail is hoping to engage readers’ attention with their issues – election issue coverage, that is. The paper has dispatched street crews in downtown Toronto and Vancouver that sport campaign-style buttons that read: ‘I have issues.’ The promo crews will be distributing buttons, copies of the newspaper and cards that tout the paper’s election coverage both online and in print. The Globe & Mail’s direct-to-consumer promo also involves a radio buy, an OOH component consisting of Captivate in-elevator ads and within the paper itself. The objective of the campaign, according to spokesperson Nancy Evans, is to get folks engaged, while getting them to focus on the election resources available on the web and within the paper. Naked Creative did creative, with media buys handled by Gaggi Media. Both agencies are Toronto-based.
Ford’s Fusion brand uses interactive ads to get a reaction
Automaker Ford of Canada is inviting consumers to walk all over their message with an interactive floor projection of ads touting their newly-launched Fusion brand. The installation, which uses Toronto-based GestureTek’s interactive floor projection technology – prompting ad images to change via gestures – will be unveiled at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) on Saturday, just in time for the company-sponsored Ford Night with the Leafs.
Dean Stoneley, director of marketing communications, says the automaker couldn’t resist using ‘GroundFX’ because of the Fusion brand’s tagline: Create a reaction. ‘This [technology] is exactly what we were looking for [because] it’s so consistent with that messaging.’ And, he says, from watching folks’ reactions in Montreal (where it was first installed at the Bell Centre), people are drawn to the technology, interacting with it and causing heads to turn. ‘The challenge with placing ads in a venue such as the Bell Centre and the ACC is all the noise. There’s lots of competition,’ says Stoneley. The interactive displays will remain until the end of the hockey season. Creative was done by Ford of Canada’s AOR, Young & Rubicam, with media buys by Mediaedge:cia.
Winnipeg gets OMNI TV
Rogers Media Television will be starting up an OMNI TV channel in Winnipeg, effective Monday, Feb. 6. OMNI TV Manitoba is the newly branded, newly licensed station the came out of Rogers’ purchase of NOW TV.
General manager Geoff Poulton, who has been with Rogers Broadcasting since 1989, will be heading up the channel. He will also continue as VP/GM of the Winnipeg Radio Group (92 CITI FM and 102 Clear FM). Over 900,000 viewers will have access to OMNI TV Manitoba. Programming will include multi-faith and multi-ethnic fare in addition to old favourites like Friends.
BBM Media Snapshot: 18% of Canadians download music
* 5 million Canadians (18%) download music occasionally/frequently.
* 52% are 25 years old or younger (2.6 times the national average), 13% are over 45 years old.
* 60% of people who download MP3s are male.
* 59% are single (2 times the national average).
* 39% are students (2.5 times the national average).
* 77% live on household of 3 or more members (1.3 times the national average).
* 28% spent more than 10 hours on the Internet during the past 7 days (almost 2 times the national average).
* Compared to the national averages, people who download MP3s:
o Participate on chat groups 2.3 times more.
o Watch TV via stream video 2 times more.
o Listen to the radio via stream audio 1.7 more.
o Access radio station’s websites 1.6 times more.
* They go to rock concerts, computer shows, sky shows, and sex shows almost 2 times more the national average.
* 21% recently bought a MP3 player (twice the national average).
* Their top media choices by yesterday exposure are: TV (86%, Internet (82%) and radio (80%).
* Their favourite radio formats by weekly reach are: mainstream top 40/CHR (16%, 1.8 times the national average), news/talk 11%, and hot adult contemporary 10%.
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.
Canuck series seeks product placement
Production began this week on a new Showcase series, Rent-A-Goalie, which will be airing eight eps in the fall. The prime-time comedy revolves around a hockey-crazed romantic operating a rent-a-goalie service out of a family-owned coffee shop in Toronto’s Little Italy. Some product placement has already begun, featuring the likes of Coca-Cola’s Powerade, Purolator and Humpty Dumpty but there are still slots available. Production continues until mid-February.
TSN loves tennis
Following on the heels of its announcement that it will be airing mega hours of golf, TSN has now unveiled its plans for tennis coverage in 2006. The new season begins this Sunday with 97 hours of the grand slam event the Australian Open from Jan. 15 to 29. TSN will also have the three other grand slams: the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. The net scored big points with tennis in the 2005 season, with an average audience of 81,000 viewers (Nielsen Media Research, All audience figures 2+), up 11% from 2004.
Winter Olympics in the wings
It’s that time again – the Winter Olympics are upon us and CBC is pulling out all the stops to cover them. The net has lined up 37 hosts, medallists and icons to call the play on the 15 sports involved.The coverage of Torino 2006 – The Olympic Winter Games begins Friday, Feb. 10 at 1 p.m. live with the opening ceremony. Host Brian Williams is joined by news anchor Peter Mansbridge in Turin. Beginning Feb. 11, the live morning coverage will be handled by Terry Leibel and the afternoon telecast will be in the capable hands of sports reportage vet Ron MacLean.
Global adds to its publicity team
Global Television has announced the appointment of Grace Park as their new publicity manager. Park previously worked with Toronto-based Astral Media as publicist for The Movie Network.
PMB Factoid
Canadians who snowboard; by age
RMB study: Radio a strong second to TV in key media performance metrics
The latest study from the Toronto-based Radio Marketing Bureau (RMB) found that radio is second only to TV in weekly and daily reach and time spent with the medium. The good news for advertisers is that radio is
