Nickelback flies with WestJet
On Oct. 13, Nickelback is taking 80 fans hostage on a WestJet airplane. Well, not exactly. But thanks to a lofty promo conjured up by the marketing brains at Mississauga, Ont.-based EMI Music, the quirky airline is lending the record label a 737 for a day-long promo centred on the Canadian band’s new CD All the Right Reasons.
And according to Richard Bartrem, director of brand and communications at Calgary-based WestJet, the airline had all the right reasons to get involved. ‘EMI approached us with this idea, and we jumped at it. We offer an exceptional guest experience, so it fits that way, and it also fits in line with us wanting to do something different that traditional airlines wouldn’t touch.’
On the day in question, 20 media reps from across Canada (plus five international press folk) and 80 lucky winners will fly cross-country with the band, touching down in Halifax, Toronto (where they will visit MuchMusic and a nearby HMV), Calgary (where they will perform a concert in a hangar for winners), and finally Vancouver (where the guys will participate in a photo shoot at the HMV megastore). A photographer has been hired to take shots of the guys in flight and around town. These will be posted to a site accessible to fans.
Paul Shaver, VP marketing at EMI, says there will likely be a special mid-flight acoustic performance, but that not much else is planned as of yet, in an effort to encourage spontaneity. The campaign is being promoted for three weeks on MuchMusic, as well as in various print and radio media sponsors in each market. The deal was done direct.
Rev promo re-energizes with Q-tags
Houston, Tex.-based mobile interactive company Q-tags has come to Canada. Beginning Oct. 1, the company – through its Canadian partner, In Touch Mediagroup of Mississauga, Ont. – has upped the energy on energy drink Rev’s ‘Revival’ promo in the Toronto and Vancouver markets. ‘We’re talking to our demo through q-tags,’ explains Lisa Jazwinski, group brand manager, low-proof at Brampton-based Bacardi Canada. Q-tags are a call-to-action technology using SMS to drive viewers to respond to an ad. ‘The creative [in the clubs] will prompt people to text ‘Rev’ to 78247. A weblink is then sent to their mobile urging them to enter a contest to win a Toshiba Gigabeat.’
Jazwinski says this is a way for her to try a new technology and a different way of interacting with Rev’s legal drinking age-to-24 demo. Q-tags are trackable and pose no risk to advertisers because they are pay-for-performance with no set-up fees or contracts, says company founder and COO Jeremy Kochko.
http://www.qtags.com
Trendum acquires BuzzMetrics
Analytics firm Trendum has acquired BuzzMetrics, a company that conducts word-of-mouth research. Both are based in New York. The new company, which will continue its business under the BuzzMetrics name, has the backing of VNU, the owner of research brand superstars ACNielsen and Nielsen Media Research. VNU is a minority shareholder. BuzzMetrics names Mazda and Hewlett-Packard, among others, as clients.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians and home improvement
* 1.2 million Canadians (4%) spent more than $20,000 on home improvements during the last 2 years.
* 57% of those who spent $20,000+ are between the ages of 35 and 59 years old.
* The average personal yearly income of Canadians who spent $20,000+ on home improvements is $59,000 (1.9 times more than the national average).
* They are 4.6 times more likely to have $500,000 or more in savings or investments, compared to the national average.
* The average value of their home is $300,000 (1.4 times more than the national average value of owned homes).
* 40% have lived in their present home no more than five years. 88% have no plans to move during the next two years.
* 68% bought a previously owned home (1.5 times more than the national average).
* The top three improvements done to their homes were: interior painting (72%), landscaping or yard improvements (62%), and windows or door installations (60%) which was 3.2 times more than the national average.
* When analyzing retail shopping categories (of $500+ in the past year), Canadians who spent $20,000+ on home improvements spent 4.7 times more on china/tableware, 4.6 times more on garden supplies, 4.2 times more on home décor and 3.5 times more on household power tools, compared to the national averages.
* TV (89%), radio (88%), daily newspapers (58%) and Internet (55%) are the best media to communicate with Canadians who spent $20,000+ on home improvements (by yesterday’s exposure).
* Based on weekly reach, news/talk (22%), adult contemporary (18%), and hot adult contemporary (10%) are their favourite radio formats.
* The three most popular types of TV shows among Canadians who spent $20,000+ on home improvements by weekly viewing are: news/current affairs (68%), movies (63%), and documentaries (50%).
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.
OMNI launches new series with spirit
Rogers OMNI TV in B.C. has launched the province’s first spiritual daily prime-time current affairs TV show. The Standard aired its first show last night to viewers in Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley. The hour-long program, delivered from a Vancouver perspective, will air stories from around the world, sharing people’s spiritual sides. News items will also have a decidedly religious bent. The Standard airs daily on OMNI TV BC at 9 p.m. local time. According to producer Jonathan D. Roth, the show targets males 35-54. The show will be supported by an outdoor campaign beginning Oct. 3.
Discovery to release True Crime Scene
For people with a penchant for murder – solving them, that is – Discovery Channel is set to launch True Crime Scene. The new hour-long forensic science series begins airing weekly on Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m.
Event
November 9
ACA Fall Event
Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto
The Association of Canadian Advertisers’ fall event will feature an executive forum themed ‘Media Creativity: The New Marketing Imperative.’ Panelists include Doug Checkeris of the Media Company and keynote speaker Charlie Crowe, media affairs writer for The New York Times and founder of C Squared Communications. The ACA Gold Medal award will also be presented to Corus Entertainment president/CEO John Cassaday.
http://www.aca-online.com
Rethink wins Best of Show at Extras
The Canadian Newspaper Association’s Extra Awards, which honour the best creative advertising in daily newspapers, wrapped up in Toronto last night, and those assembled were entertained not only by the innovative award-winning creative on display, but also a funny and thought-provoking keynote on how to create great newspaper advertising.
Tim Roper, CD of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, deaked around Rita to fly in from Miami to deliver his creativity-inspiring speech,in which he pronounced newspaper advertising as ‘an intimate conversation,’ and ‘the one media left – O.K., the Web’s better – that allows you to interact on an individualistic, ritualistic basis.’ He went on to describe his agency’s approach to newspaper advertising: ‘We go around breaking stuff, rules mostly, and whenever you do that you have to replace them.’ Some of the new rules include forgetting about the iron curtain between newspaper and magazine creative, and the old retail-style haranguing formulas for newsprint, and instead treat everything as branding. ‘Every time a brand goes out in the world is a form of branding.’
Analysis: Hot summer saw hot radio ratings race
David Bray is SVP of Hennessy & Bray Communications in Toronto.
Perhaps it is just the remnants of a long hot summer, but the race for ratings is as hot as ever as demonstrated by the new BBM released yesterday.
Toronto: EZRock climbed back to the top of the heap, posting a formidable 8.2% share of A12+ and a 13.8% share for F25-54. CHUM-FM fell back from 8.6% share in S2 to a 7.8% share of hours tuned for A12+. They held the #1 position for F25-54 with a 15.9% share. Q107 retained the #1 spot for males 25-54 despite a significant drop to a 10.8% share, down from a 13.5 in S2. 680News continued its strong showing with a 5.5% share of A12+.
Verklin tells MIC Forum seven things to watch for in the months ahead
The first Media in Canada Forum was held Tuesday at the Toronto Downtown Marriott. The crowd of nearly 400 – a cross-section of media, agency and marketing execs (half involved in media buying) – was abuzz after hearing from media experts including keynote speaker David Verklin, the New York-based CEO of Carat Americas, Paul Woolmington, head chef of NYC-based The Media Kitchen and Brian Elliot, Amsterdam-based CEO of hot shop StrawberryFrog.
There are seven major trends in media to watch for, Verklin advised in his keynote, themed around the Crackle of Change affecting media. The first is the ascendancy of digital as a primary motivator functioning in a DM-style role. Verklin noted Carat had observed that ‘80% of people going into a Hyundai dealership had been online first,’ and he predicts that while online creative work is rarely discussed, ‘it will be the centre play.’
AXE invites Canuck students to seduction school
AXE body spray is giving students an education in ‘unlimited seduction.’ To celebrate the launch of its new scent called ‘Unlimited,’ the brand has opened up a virtual school in AXE University. Guys and girls across Canada can sign up to register at AXE.ca for a chance to gain entry to an exclusive party.
‘The AXE U orientation event will take place Saturday, Oct. 22 in Toronto at a downtown nightclub, which will be completely transformed to resemble the fictional AXE U,’ says brand development manager, Leo O’Donnell. ‘The event will be attended by over 1,000 people. There will be 30 regionally allocated winners with the balance of tickets to be distributed via a variety of mediums. The event is intended for guys and girls 19-25.’
Axe.ca features a message board, an online survey to help students choose a post-secondary school; seduction scenarios as well as other online ‘course materials’ designed to attract student bodies. AXE U registration is open until Oct. 2. According to O’Donnell, this fully integrated program is not open for co-promotion.
The AXE brand team worked with four Toronto-based shops on the campaign: PHD did the media buy, Segal Communications did event management and promotions, Dashboard handled the Internet aspect and The Wilcox Group did PR and media relations.
MINI launches game-y new campaign
MINI Canada has launched a new campaign. The theme? Games. Print ads with crosswords, word searches and fill-in-the-blanks will appear in major Canuck magazines from September through November 2005. The ads will direct readers to www.mini.ca/cheatsheet for answers. Ten-week online ads will also appear on news Web sites nationally driving visitors to MINI.ca where they can participate in the online Speed and Safety Scenario Simulator. Drop-down menus and fields allow users to enter their name and create an animated scenario all their own.
O-O-H executions, such as billboard ads and washroom posters in the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal markets will have a fill-in-the-blank play on words. Versions with correct answers will be slotted in three weeks later. The campaign, which wraps up in late November, will track visitors to the cheat sheet, click-throughs on banner ads, number of simulations created and viral ‘send to a friend’ function.
The campaign was developed by Toronto-based agencies Taxi, Blast Radius, Pixel Pusher and Gaggi Media.
MINI says the campaign is targeted at young-at-heart people who are looking for a performance-oriented, premium product, rather than at a specific age group.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Career search and training
Dailies are the choice for career and training ads. They own this category, capturing anywhere from a high of 68.7% to a low of 51.7% of the annual ad dollars for the past four years. Radio showed the most improvement with annual increases resulting in a jump from just 0.4% of the pie in 2001 to 8.1% last year. Overall media spending in the category declined yearly from 2001 to 2003. The spend rallied last year but did not reach its 2001 level.
ComBase to unveil Wave 2
ComBase, the Community Newspaper Database, is set to release Wave 2 results next month. The organization (combase.ca) will be unveiling its Wave 2 survey results to Toronto agencies in a presentation to be held Wednesday, Oct. 26 at the Hilton Toronto from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The next wave of interviewing is scheduled to begin in January. Results from these interviews will be released in next fall. ComBase is a syndicated consumer-media survey of more than 400 Canadian markets.
BBC Canada puts big push behind Kumars
BBC Canada is bringing a colourful U.K. hit to this country. The Kumars at no. 49 follows a South Asian family living in Britain who host their own chat show in a building in their backyard. Guests are real-world celebs. The show will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m., beginning Oct. 11.
The diginet is putting lots of effort into promoting the program to both South East Asian viewers, current BBC Canada subscribers and a mainstream aud of A25-54. With the help of Mango Moose Media, they branded a Mini Cooper with Kumars artwork in August and drove around pertinent Toronto neighbourhoods during the Masala Mendhi Masti festival. Mango also sent out a street team of girls in saris to hand out Kumar postcards and branded snacks at the Festival of South Asia in the city’s Little India neighbourhood.
But the main campaign goes to market Oct. 3 in Toronto and Vancouver. Elements include outdoor in the Toronto transit system and the Vancouver SkyWall Mural; TV spots on South East Asian digital channels; print in TV books, the National Post, Metro Toronto, 24 Hours Vancouver and the Vancouver Province and targetted South East Asian publications.
