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History takes on Mission X
History TV is airing a new, hour-long doc series called Mission X beginning Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. The weekly series investigates revolutionary inventions through the use of materials testing, crime investigation and lab simulation.
PMB Factoid
Department store loyalty cards: by household income
Fall TV season analysis: So far, so good
Although there are no runaway hits like last year’s returning hits Desperate Housewives and Lost, the general consensus of broadcast buyers is that so far it’s an okay TV season. As for this season’s winners, everyone seems to agree that Prison Break(Global) is on that list but that was pretty much expected prior to its launch. A couple of surprise hits for the buyers are Invasion (CTV) and Ghost Whisperer (CTV), which is pulling bigger numbers than expected on Friday night. Prior to launch, neither one of these shows were predicted to be sure-fire winners. Some thought that the space invasion/government cover-up story line of Invasion (CTV) might only have an attraction for a niche audience of sci-fi nerds while Ghost Whisperer could either ride on the coattails of the popular Medium or be avoided for being simply a copycat.
On the cancellation front, it’s not expected to be the same kind of bloodbath of the past few years that had buyers scrambling to reschedule all the ‘make-goods’ caused by so many shows getting the axe.
Cars leap off the screen in Pontiac promo
Talk about engaging your audience. It’s a big night on Sunday, Oct. 30 for French-speaking Quebec. Not only is it the night of the Pontiac-sponsored ADISQ gala (a music gala a la the Grammys airing on Radio-Canada), but it’s also the climax point for the automaker’s ‘crève l’écran’ promo. Twenty-five cars will be given away during the broadcast as part of a multi-level awareness program. How to tell if you’re a winner? By placing a Quebecor-supplied, colour-coded decoder on your TV screen to read an instant win message. Pontiac distributed 1.5 million promo bags with decoders throughout the province beginning yesterday in what they claim is the first promo of its kind there. The street teams were strategically dispatched to areas where the company’s research has found to have a high concentration of non-Pontiac owners.
‘Pontiac is a sponsor of the ADISQ and they wanted to generate awareness around the 2006 models,’ explains Isabelle Adam, account executive at Blitz Direct, Data & Promotion, the agency behind the gig. ‘The gala usually generates 900,000 viewers on average in Quebec.’
As part of the promo, TV spots were produced by Radio-Canada inviting folks to tune in to the show and hang on to their decoder. Radio teasers are also currently in circulation, drawing traffic to a microsite at www.25pontiacs.com. Visitors can also sign up online for a chance to win gift certificates from entertainment ticketing company, Admission.
‘We’re also planning to do a phone survey after the promotion closes [on Sunday] to gauge effectiveness,’ says Adam. Media buys were handled by Cossette Media with Blitz at the creative helm. The promo targets adults 18-44.
Best Buy invades desktops with branded games
It looks like Best Buy has figured out a way to remain top-of-mind. Thanks to Ottawa-based agency Fuel Industries, the Minnesota-based electronics retail giant has been able to land its logo right on its targets’ desktops with branded games that become the computer’s wallpaper when downloaded. Golf launched in September, while Invasion debuted this month. The branding is subtle, consisting of just a small Best Buy logo in the top corner. The emphasis is on the free content: a golf game to appeal to older, executive types, and Invasion, an arcade-style game aimed at younger males.
‘Our intent was not to have Best Buy shoved down everybody’s throat,’ explains Todd Dexter, Best Buy’s assistant creative director of hub image advertising. ‘It’s about speaking to different segments differently.’
Fuel came up with the idea after consistently hearing clients wonder how to reach their targets in unique ways. ‘Typically, if you’re not online, marketers can’t reach you,’ says Fuel’s creative marketing strategist Sean MacPhedran. ‘So we thought: how can we create content that’s outside the browser? [Clients] are trying to provide smart entertainment.’ Best Buy is promoting the desktop games with online and print efforts, including ads in magazines Maxim, Blender, Forbesand Men’s Health. Fuel is currently shopping the feature to Canadian brands though nothing has been inked yet.
Discovery HD preps for higher def
Discovery HD, launching next month, is slated to be Canada’s first round-the-clock HD specialty net. The new Discovery HD will replace the current incarnation of Discovery HD originally launched by CTV in 2003. The new channel will be independently scheduled and content will be specifically created for the channel to maximize the use of HD.
Holmes to helm National Geographic specials
National Geographic Channel has enticed Mike Holmes (of Holmes on Homes fame) to join the net. Holmes is set to star in a series of themed specials called Top 10 Countdown with Mike Holmes. The first episode in the series, airing on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 3 p.m., counts down phobias from spiders to snakes to closed spaces. The second episode – on megastructures – airs on Saturday, Nov. 12, with other specials scheduled to air in early 2006.
OLN adds drama to its lineup
Specialty net OLN is getting dramatic. The net’s first hour-long drama series about a family’s struggles against a farming conglomerate, Devil’s Perch, makes its debut on Monday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. Target demo is adults 25-54.
Alien Racers hit Canadian TV screens
Teletoon is adding half-hour series Alien Racers to its Saturday morning lineup. The show is launching in Canada on November 6 at 10 a.m. before it settles into its regular timeslot at 11:30 a.m., beginning November 12. The Alien Racers toy line of action figures and vehicles is also slated to hit Canadian toy stores in the fall of next year. Alien Racers is produced by MGA Entertainment, the same people behind Bratz. Target demo is boys 8-12.
Event
November 15
Delivering Hyper-Targeted TV Advertising
Velma Graham Theatre, Toronto
www.ctam.ca
This event, hosted by the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), is a discussion on the future of TV advertising, as moderated by Michael Vaughan of ROBTV.
Marketers allotting more of their budgets to Internet: here’s where the money went
Marketers are putting more advertising money into online but not enough to have an impact on other media. The ICA Survey of Marketing Budgets released yesterday, indicates that higher sales and profits fueled ad budget increases for the third quarter of this year with Internet seeing the highest gains. And MIC scored time with M2 Universal and ZenithOptimedia pundits to get their take.
Media agencies have been experiencing this trend with their clients and expect it to continue, as the Internet becomes a standard component of integrated campaigns. The latest projections from ZenithOptimedia peg growth in Internet ad spending in Canada at about 20% year over year for 2005 through 2007 while little or no change is expected for other media, including cinema, during the same period.
Good year for radio according to CBS report, 8.7% increase overall
Toronto-based Canadian Broadcast Sales (CBS) reports that radio advertising increased 8.7% overall based on national growth of 17.0% and local growth of 6.1% during the 12 months ended August 2005. During that same period, spot and non-spot radio sales in the U.S. increased by only 1%.
The national radio sales firm experienced growth in five product categories: office machines/furniture 400%; loyalty/rewards programs 163%; food and food products 92.9%; insurance 59.2%; and automotive 46.9%.
Five categories accounted for 51.4% of the national spending: retail $23.033M (17.2%); automotive $18.171M (13.6%); telecommunications $11.653M (8.7%); restaurant/fast food $8.094M (6.1%); and beer/wine/coolers $7.809M (5.8%).
Interestingly, rather than niche targeting, it is the broad 25 to 54 year-old demographic that is the most popular group as the target of 43.65% of the revenue, a 10% increase over the previous year. Adults 18 to 24 drew 16.9% of the spending and women 25 to 54 captured 9.4%.
CBS, owned by Corus Entertainment Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., has six offices across Canada and accounts for 60% of national radio revenues.
Baxters warms up Chatelaine readers with soup-vertorial
Baxters Soups is targeting the readers of Chatelaine. Just in time for the holidays and for ‘soup season’, the U.K.-based company has placed inserts in the French and English versions of the mag. Perforated recipe cards using soups will run adjacent to ad page buys in Chatelaine for the November, December and February issues. As part of a national awareness campaign, Baxters is also sampling its products at Women of Influence luncheons in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, explains Ed Weiss, media director at The Brainstorm Group, the Toronto-based agency behind the deal.
Chatelaine‘s November issue, featuring the campaign’s ‘warm lunches’ theme, is currently on newsstands.
‘Each issue will have a different theme,’ says Weiss. ‘In December, it’s holiday ideas and February will have a winter theme. We worked with Chatelaine’s own food editors and photographers to create the ads. We wanted it to appear like an advertorial.’
Top TV advertisers: Eloda ad analysis
In a repeat of their 2004 top commercial volume performance, P&G followed by General Motors, once again take the no. 1 and 2 spots, respectively, with the most TV spots on air last week. And new to the top three this year is Toyota, in third place in the ‘most spot variations’ running. Check out whom else topped the chart, 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.
