BBM Commercial Tracking
Please click on the link below to view BBM’s Commercial Television GRP Trending by week and broadcast month for the restaurant category in Toronto covering the broadcast months of October 2004 to October 2005 inclusive.
Get lucky, get hooked, and score with new digital channels
Marketers looking to connect with consumers through closer ties to editorial, have a number of fresh options with three new digital TV channels – CGTV, GolTV, and WFN -available on cable through providers such as Rogers. These niche channels aren’t for everyone but each is expected to attract their own core of rabidly passionate viewers and take brands looking to reach these groups along for the ride.
WFN, the World Fishing Network, hopes to hook viewers when it launches December 1. Programming is segmented into five unique program blocks that marketers can wrap their brands around: Ultimate Fishing (tournament-based programming); Maple Leaf Fishing (fishing in Canada); School of Fish (instructional shows); International Waters (featuring destinations, lodges, and resorts); and American Angling (fishing content from the U.S.).
OOH companies cozy up to mobile tech partners: Pixmen + Hypertag; NEWAD + Lipso
Montreal’s guerrilla OOH company Pixmen has announced an ongoing partnership with U.K.-based company Hypertag through an alliance with Toronto-based Urban Mobile Media. Hypertag uses a chip to allow consumers to download information, such as free ring tones, promotional codes or coupons, from ads to folks’ cell phones. The two combined will allow the consumer to download promotional info and swag (such as m-coupons) directly from the Pixmen’s screens. Meanwhile, NEWAD has announced a hook-up with mobile tech firm Lipso. The partners will jointly work on a new, youth-focused SMS campaign for Bank of Montreal’s Mosaik Mastercard product.
Decima study: digital TV households to surpass analog by the end of the year
Canada is several months ahead of previous projections when it comes to digital TV subscriptions according to Decima’s latest tracking study of the digital TV services market, The Digital Domain, conducted in the second quarter of 2005. The pace of growth has been so brisk that the number of households subscribing to digital cable and satellite TV will exceed analog by the end of this year. Decima predicts digital households to reach 5.1 million by the end of 2005 and 5.9 million at the end of next year.
The Ottawa-based research company credits the growth to the efforts of cable companies to switch analog subscribers to digital as well as the fact that Bell ExpressVu more than doubled its subscribers in the second quarter of this year.The number of digital TV subscribers in Canada increased by an estimated 178,000 or 4% in the second quarter of 2005 (February/March to May/June), compared to 132,000 or 3% in the same period last year. There were almost 4.7 million digital TV subscribers in Canada at May/June 2005.
Other Digital Domain findings include:
· The number of digital cable subscribers increased by an estimated 102,000 or 5% in Q2 2005, an improvement over the same period last year;
· The number of satellite TV subscribers added in Q2 was more than double that added in Q2 2004; and
· The number of households capable of receiving high-definition television (HDTV) programming and those with personal video recorders/digital video recorders continues to grow as cablecos and satellite TV companies see strong demand for higher-end digital set-top boxes with HDTV and PVR/DVR capabilities.
LCD ad screens target hand-washers
Montreal-based Power Medias is about to interrupt your bathroom time. The company has launched LCD units to go in bathrooms – one built into a hand dryer and the other as a stand-alone unit to hang above existing hand dryers or paper dispensers. The networked screens loop 20 static ad images and can be found mainly in restaurants and bars. So far signed are automaker Ford, Caisse Desjardins and Stop Centres, a chain of laser treatment clinics in Quebec. Power Medias has 200 faces in 100 locations all over the greater Montreal area, says Sammy Atsaidis, director of sales and marketing. He also says that the four-month-old company is in conversations now with spirits brands and other automakers as advertisers, while looking to expand to more shopping malls and cinemas. Power Medias is planning to hit Ontario by mid-2006, with national deployment by 2007. Ad rates range from $750-114,000.
http://www.powermedias.ca
Tetley tea dances with Nettwerk in successful online CRM romp
Tea maker Tetley is pleased with its partnership with Nettwerk Music Group in an online collaboration called the Tetley Music Lounge (TML). The members-only site, found at http://www.tetley.ca/musiclounge provides to-be-released, exclusive music downloads from Nettwerk at no cost to members. Launched through TML were Sarah McLachlan’s live version of ‘Ice Cream’ and the Barenaked Ladies’ take on ‘Jingle Bells.’ Adrian Capobianco, VP, interactive at Toronto-based Fuse Marketing (the agency behind the concept) says the site is slated to be up for a year, providing one musical download a month for Tetley members. Since its initial launch in late October, TML has seen ‘several thousand downloads. We’re giving people a reason to sign up and a way for them to engage with the brand longer. And for Nettwerk, it’s another means of distribution.’ On average, he says, visitors spend 10 minutes on the site, with 10% of visitors spending more than half an hour. Tetley’s target demo is mainly women 20-35. Print media buys were handled by The Media Company.
Dan Media expands to U.S. malls
DAN Media has expanded its mall food-court network of large-format, full-motion, multi-format video screens into the U.S. via a joint venture with Clear Channel Malls, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor. The network screens content from Yahoo!, including news headlines, sport, entertainment, financial information and the Yahoo! Buzz Index, in 15-minute loops with 30-second commercials. DAN Media, a division of Digital Advertising Network, will also be handling creative production for all advertising spots featured on the U.S. network. In Canada, the company has screens in 66 mall food courts and reaches more than 8.7 million consumers weekly. The new Clear Channel Digital Mall Network will be launched in 10 malls in New York and Los Angeles before expanding into 200 malls in the top 20 U.S. markets over the next two and half years.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians who attend professional football games
* 500,000 Canadians (2%) attend professional football games regularly (when in season).
* Males are 1.4 times more likely to regularly attend football games.
* Young Canadians 12 to 24 years of age are more likely to attend (1.4 times the national average). Canadians 35 to 44 years are also above the national average.
* The prairie provinces have the highest regular attendance at football games.
* Regular football game attendees are more likely to have management (37%) and executive (22%) occupations.
* Regular professional football attendees participate in a broad number of sports compared to the national averages. They practice:
o 4.5 times more football.
o 2.7 times more curling.
o 2.7 times more water skiing.
o 2.5 times more soccer.
o 2.3 times more basketball.
* Regular football attendees also attend other professional sports events. They are 4 times more likely to attend golf tournaments, 4 times more likely to go to basketball games, 2.5 times more likely to go to baseball games, and 2 times more likely to attend hockey games.
* Radio (94%), TV (88%), Internet (59%) and newspapers (58%) are their top four media in terms of yesterday’s exposure.
* Looking at radio programming preferences, their top formats are: News/Talk (24%), Classic/Mainstream Rock (19%) and Mainstream Top 40/CHR (14%).
* Movies (78%), CFL Football when in season (70%), hockey when in season (69%, 1.8 times the national average), and news/current affairs (67%) are their most popular television programs by weekly average viewing.
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’04, 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.
History to air two war-themed series
History Television is airing two new series in January. Weapons that made Britain looks at the medieval technologies of war, from sword to lance and beyond. The series airs Tuesdays, beginning January 3 at 8 p.m. The six-part Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State will air beginning January 27 at 8 p.m., just in time for the UN-designated International Day of Commemoration, honouring Holocaust victims.
Life Net nets two new shows in January
Life Network is keeping its viewers entertained for the winter with two new shows premiering in January. Rich Bride/Poor Bride follows brides on small- or large-budgets as they plan dream weddings. The show airs beginning Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. Next, Birth Days looks at the emotional turmoil on the way to becoming a parent. Birth Days airs weekly beginning Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9:30 p.m.
National Geographic airs two new in ’06
National Geographic is set to premiere Frontiers of Construction weekdays beginning Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. The hour-long series focuses on a single engineering feat, such as underwater construction or robotics. Then, on Saturdays at 5 p.m., beginning January 7, Is It Real?, makes its TV debut. The 10-parter looks at the paranormal world with both skeptics and believers making their case.
XBOX 360 gamer media
The XBOX 360 launched today, and the ramp up to the new console hitting the shelves at midnight entailed a fair bit of inventive media tactics, forcing the gamers out there to use their noggins and decode some fairly cryptic messages.
One of the big pre-launch gambits was the XBOX 360 Experience, a series of gaming lounges set up in vacant retail spaces in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Xbox Canada head of marketing, Jason Anderson, says they were purposefully mum about it for the first week, to let the gaming community discover it for themselves, in true game style. The company also adopted a wild posting media strategy to get the word out, with ads that emulated typical street pole fare — but with a twist. One used car ad seemed quite normal, except the car was crashed and xbox360.ca was a contact listed; some of the posters featured characters from games, in typical Lost– style formats, while a handyman-style ad touted Alien Firearm Repair. Anderson says the posters were so popular that the kids were barely waiting for the sign posters to step away from the pole.
Part of the promotional media weight behind the launch, for which Microsoft is spending ‘beer money,’ came from a suite of partners that were involved in all aspects of the pre- and post-endeavours – typically, co-consumption brands. A Pepsi and Doritos ‘Be the First To Play’ contest was a big piece of it, leveraging Much exposure and bringing XBOX 360 into the grocery space with contest standees and on-pack promos for a console-an-hour giveaway. This actually sparked gamer blogs plotting the best online entry strategy. MuchMusic was title sponsor of the launch.
Mocknews: the medium is the message, or is it? Virgin Mobile messes with readers + Mayor Da Vinci lays down the law
Advertisers are pushing the limits to get attention, and they’re getting in the news to do it. We’re not talking public relations. This is news hijacking – and innovative media buys/plans are key to this ‘gotcha’ phenom. Case in point? Virgin Mobile and TV drama DaVinci’s City Hall. True story: If you happened to pick up a copy of free daily, 24 Hours last week, you may have been struck by the headline that read: ‘Magical reindeer ate my phone.’ No, this isn’t a joke – it’s a tongue-in-cheek tactic employed by Virgin Mobile to nab readers’ attention.
The mock news bit is just the first of many holiday tactics up Virgin’s sleeve, says James Powell, sr. manager, brand and communications. Powell insists that readers of 24 Hours loved the stunt and the paper is now being inundated with requests from other brands to do the same. Building on the current reindeer-themed TV spots on rotation now and to push sales of the Virgin Mobile Hot Box, he says: ‘Keep your eyes peeled. Hundreds of reindeers [in various sizes] will be finding their way into the lives of Canadians in December.’ Creative for the campaign was done by Lowe Roche, with media buying managed by Wills & Co., both of Toronto.
Canada’s Next Top Model searches for brands
New Citytv reality series Canada’s Next Top Model is scouring the country for participants – and they’re looking for brands too. The new show is slated to air mid-May 2006 and is the Canuck version of the Tyra Banks-produced America’s Next Top Model. Roma Khanna, SVP of content at CHUM says brand integration is inevitable. ‘The show’s [content] is built around marketing integration as the challenges in modeling are made of situations where competitors are promoting make-up, for example. We’re hoping to find a sponsor that will seamlessly integrate into the show.’ Khanna says the net is aiming to sign a sponsor with multiple brands, much like the deal signed with Procter & Gamble for the MuchMusic VJ Search reality series.
