Top TV advertisers: Eloda ad analysis
P&G once again proves the ad juggernaut, taking the top spot as top brand with the largest variety of TV ads for the second week of November this year and last. New to the top five in 2005 is Kraft (at number five), with last year’s number four, Pfizer, dropping off the list altogether. Check out others topping the charts, and which categories had the most new spots and new advertisers. 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
Telus cuts through holiday clutter with innovative OOH – and carrots
Telus Mobility is dangling carrots this holiday season. As part of its holiday campaign push, Montreal’s McGill subway station will be overrun with rabbits – all over columns, staircase ramps, walls, floors and on mega murals. ‘It will be a totally branded Telus environment,’ says Anne-Marie Laberge, director of communications at Telus Mobility. ‘There will even be rabbit holes [decals] on the floors.’ According to Laberge, a province-wide mall campaign beginning November 26 and running for a month will also feature Telus Oasis – a kiosk with reps handing out Telus-branded carrot bags and carrot juice complete with the tag line ‘Health. Happiness. Carrots.’ The objective of the campaign, created by Taxi in Toronto and Montreal, is to ‘cut through the clutter’ during the holiday season. Media was handled by The Media Experts in Montreal.
MINI’s media biz goes to The Media Company
MINI Canada has named Toronto-based The Media Company as its media AOR as of the new year. The Media Company has been MINI’s parent company, BMW Canada’s media planning and buying agency of record for the last two decades. MINI Canada’s media biz has been managed by Toronto-based Gaggi Media Communications for the last three years.
AOL Canada gets cozy with CBC in new third party ad deal
AOL Canada has inked an exclusive third party ad rep partnership with the CBC. The partnership will have AOL Canada working with CBC.ca for third party ad sales representation, search syndication and content integration. The deal will also have AOL as CBC’s exclusive partner for selling CBC.ca‘s online inventory, and will have the former act as non-exclusive sales representative for CBC.ca‘s custom inventory such as sponsorships, contests and unique ad units. AOL has also renewed an agreement with CBC.ca to provide the former’s site visitors with CBC content and video on AOL’s news and sports channels. The new partnership will help AOL Canada reach nearly 4.5 million online Canadians monthly.
Interactive phone kiosk makes its debut on campus
Centennial College has signed a deal with LynkMedia to install an interactive telephone kiosk on campus. The kiosk utilizes a touch screen that allows students to retrieve and send emails, access advertiser websites and, yes, even make free local phone calls. The system combines magazine, place-based and interactive media in one, says Liliane Vidicek, president of LynkMedia. ‘It’s a very interactive screen because students can email a product from an advertiser ‘s website to themselves.’ Vidicek says she’s currently in talks with other colleges and universities to install the kiosks, and is on the verge of signing major brands as advertisers. A similar kiosk was installed by LynkMedia at Vaughn Sports Village last week. Ad rates are approximately $300 for one month.
http://www.lynktel.info/media
Knorr on the hunt for The Next Great Chef
Toronto-based Knorr Foods has cooked up a new Canadian reality documentary series called The Next Great Chef. The show follows 20 wannabe chefs as they compete to win the title. Starting Friday, December 2 at 8 p.m. on Global, there will be 10 half-hour episodes and an hour-long season finale on Saturday, February 25. Edi Osghian, executive producer/director/writer at Next Entertainment says the show is offering sponsorship opps to brands next season. No airdate has been scheduled.
PunchMuch lets viewers play VJ
MuchMusic’s fully-automated, all-request channel/show PunchMuch will be added as a programming block on MuchMusic. The show, which bears the same name as the channel, will be available to Much viewers three times a week. PunchMuch on MuchMusic made its debut last night. The show/channel puts the video playlist in viewers’ hands wherein, using mobile phones, viewers can text in to vote for videos to be added on the show’s playlist while participating in live, on-screen SMS chat. PunchMuch airs Monday to Wednesday and on Saturday every week at 6 p.m. Of the interface screen on PunchMuch, Randy Mauskopf, senior manager, creative media solutions, CHUM Specialty says: ‘We’re working on various integration possibilities for brands [and] we’re looking at customized ad opps for advertisers.’
PMB Factoid
Canadians who drink port: English Canada, French Canada
Satellite radio jockeys for Canucks
With the imminent launch of satellite radio here, both Sirius Canada and direct competitor XM Canada are prepping their troops for battle. This week, in a move that coincides with their programming grid launch in Canada, XM in the U.S. plans to trump Sirius with, well, Donald Trump in its first product placement deal on tonight’s episode of The Apprentice.
On this side of the border, XM is trumpeting its programming lineup — Sirius unveiled theirs two weeks ago — and of note is the former’s announcement of an NHL channel, called Home Ice, that promises to broadcast 1,000 games per season. ‘Advertisers would be interested in this as it’s all original content. We’ve invested a lot in it and, for the beer brands for example, it makes sense,’ says XM’s VP of programming Ross Davies. The real winners in this war?
Chatelaine recipes unplugged
For busy cooks on the run, Chatelaine has launched a new service to make meal planning easier. The Chatelaine Wireless Recipe Alerts program delivers great dinner ideas as well as the lists of ingredient to create them, straight to cell phone screens. Kelly Granander, Chatelaine marketing associate, says although the service doesn’t carry any ad content right now, there will likely be opportunities for marketers to get involved in the future.
Consumers can find out more about the program at chatelaine.com/mobile or register by texting ‘recipe’ to 568568 on their cell phone. Three text-message alerts are sent out each week and users are charged 25 cents by their mobile service provider for every Recipe Alert they receive.
They put ads where? Branded rain falls in Japan
You’ll never look at precipitation the same way again. The folks at Japan’s NTT Cyber Solution labs have created projectors that display images of what looks like rain. Turn your hand up to catch the drops, and catch an ad instead, projected right in your palm.
http://www.ntt.co.jp
Blue Thunder to light up GTA
As part of the multi-million dollar, multi-year sponsorship Scotiabank and the CFL signed earlier this year, the two are working together to promote the Toronto Argos around the GTA this week with a branded, mobile fanzone. In light of the upcoming November 20 east championship game against the Montreal Alouettes, the Argos dance team, Blue Thunder, will be performing at Dundas Square and at the Scotia Plaza Concourse today. Talk about an uplifting Thursday. The single entitlement partnership with Scotiabank is the first for the CFL.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Telecommunications
Dailies are the category’s communications choice
Telecommunications is big business and although daily newspapers and TV get the largest pieces, all media get a healthy chunk of the spending. Total spending in the category increased significantly between 2001 and 2004 while the percentage allotted to each medium stayed fairly constant.
Kevin Smith to attend Degrassi again
Kevin Smith just can’t leave CTV’s Degrassi:The Next Generation. The indie director is back on the show along with Jason Mewes (Jay, Silent Bob’s sidekick from Clerks) in a two-part episode called ‘Lexicon of Love’ on Monday, Nov. 28 and Dec. 5 at 8:30 p.m. The story line has Smith and Mewes attending the Toronto premiere of their film.
