Vespa creates buzz in the streets
Picture this: You’re sitting on a patio and see a delivery guy pull up on a Vespa scooter. He leaves the Vespa to do his thing and 10 minutes later, a pretty girl comes by and asks, ‘Is that your Vespa?’ You shake your head no and she says, ‘That’s too bad. I’d really like a ride on it.’ The girl asks everyone on the patio about the scooter in question. Finally, the delivery guy comes back and the girl asks him for a ride. He agrees and the pair rides off into the sunset.
Kinda makes you want one, huh? If so, you’ve just been sold.
That’s the thinking behind Vespa street theatre. Masterminded by Dentsu’s creative catalyst Glen Hunt, the street theatre generates buzz and takes advertising to the streets – literally. Hunt says 80% of the time, the actors ride off to the patio crowd’s applause. Talk about buzz.
BBM Commercial Tracking
Please open the attached link to view BBM’s Commercial Television Tracking Service GRPS by week and month for Montreal Franco covering the broadcast months of October 2004 to July 2005 inclusive and for Toronto & Vancouver for August 04 to August 05 inclusive.
Please note that the higher GRPS shown for Toronto and Vancouver in August 04 versus August 05 are attributed to the Summer Olympics on CBC.
GRPS are based on commercial minute ratings for Adults 25-54.
Max Trax Galaxie goes Sonic
Commercial-free digital music service Max Trax Galaxie is taking its brand even further through a new consumer mag called Sonic. Sonic, developed by Corus’ Max Trax and CBC’s Galaxie along with Toronto ad agency Zig, is a free bilingual pub for music lovers. The 20-page launch issue is being distributed this week to approximately 220,000 digital cable subscribers across the country. The next issue is slated for January 2006 with ad rates yet to be determined. According to a spokesperson, the pub is open to suggestions in terms of unique marketing opps. Sonic targets 25-54s.
Maxximum maxes out O-O-H ad faces
In the spirit of go big or go home, Toronto-based Maxximum Outdoor has announced new ad face acquisitions at the Yonge and Dundas intersection in Toronto. Most notable are three exterior backlits with a Yonge Street exposure, two large interior banners with main floor exposure of the Eaton Centre and yet another at the Eaton Centre entrance corner of Yonge and Dundas. Rates range from $8,000 to $31,500 net – for an ad that measures 84 feet high by 312 feet wide – for four weeks. Production costs are extra. The O-O-H agency took over the management of the ad faces from retailer Sears. Maxximum Outdoor’s clients include Travelocity and Adidas.
http://www.maxximumoutdoor.com
New comedy series begins production
Alice, I Think, a new comedy series for CTV and The Comedy Network has headed into production which will continue through Nov. 10. The production companies are Toronto-based Slanted Wheel Entertainment and Vancouver-based Omni Film Productions and Slanted Wheel president Jon Slan says they are interested in negotiating advertiser involvement.
The 13-part, half-hour series follows the trials and tribulations of a 15-year-old girl with an oddball family living in smalltown B.C. It is based on the successful book series by Nanaimo, B.C. writer Susan Juby and will air in the 2005/06 season.
Amberwood and YTV to roll out Rollbots
Ottawa-based Amberwood Entertainment and YTV have struck a development deal for Rollbots, a half-hour 3D animated action series for kids aged 6-11. Jonathan Wiseman, director of sales and marketing at Amberwood says that plans are in place to position Rollbots as a top new brand in the kids’ market through merchandising deals such as toys and video games among others. The production date for the series has not been announced.
OMNI to air Canadian-made South Asian drama
A new dramatic series from Rogers OMNI Television and producer North American Media, Canadian Desi, will be coming to TV screens Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. It will be appearing on OMNI.2. The 13-part series will run two back-to-back episodes each week, wrapping up in mid-November. The series runs in Urdu/Hindi (people who speak these languages can understand each other) with an English version coming next year. Canadian Desi follows the lives of three South Asian families of varied descent living in suburban Canada as they try to cope with clashes between the old world and the new and other issues.
Fraternity events draw corporate sponsors
Having trouble getting your brand in front of university students? Fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi has the answer. The fraternity has been organizing parties, but with a difference. These parties are a professional venture with corporate sponsorship, and raise money for charity.
University of Toronto student and VP of AEPi Kobi Gulersen says they had four parties last year, each drawing between 1,000 to 1,500 attendees. For one of them, Mac Cosmetics was a sponsor and gave away $40,000 worth of cosmetics (everyone got a take-home bag.)
Dose goes live, seeks sponsors and bloggers
The daily youth rag, Dose is hosting a series of live music events across the country. The first one, sponsored by Virgin Mobile and Molson Canadian, featured the Dandy Warhols at Toronto’s Mod Club last Sunday. In October, the Offishall Music Tour presented by Solo Mobile featuring rapper Kardinal Offishall hits university campuses in the daily’s publishing markets of Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. Gold-level and local sponsorship opps are still available.
‘Any [brand] that’s interested in talking to the college and university crowd is welcome,’ says Dose‘s director of marketing Mark Shedletsky. ‘So it makes sense for beer brands and local or national retail chains.’ The events will be supported via Dose magazine, Dose.ca and through local street teams in each city. The teams are hitting colleges and universities handing out swag including 10,000 sampler CDs.
Key marketers sign up for etc.tv trial
Etc.tv begins a 10-week trial of its advertising-on-demand network in November with a veritable Who’s Who of Canada’s major marketers taking part as charter advertisers. Molson Canada, which was the first to sign on back in March, is joined on the roster by the Big Three automakers Daimer-Chrysler Canada, Ford Motors of Canada, General Motors of Canada, as well as The National Bank of Canada, and packaged goods giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever among others. Ian MacLean, VP/GM of Montreal-based etc.tv, says the trial participants recognize the importance of understanding how consumers behave in a digital media world where they are now in control. Described as a Telescopic Television Advertising model, etc.tv allows advertisers to have extended conversations with self-selected consumers who opt in and choose to find out more about a brand, product, or service by using their TV’s remote control to access long-form ads.
Clicking an on-screen etc.tv icon in a 30-second spot brings up a menu of available content, which could be a long-form commercial, infomercial, or a branded half-hour show. Viewers can then choose to return to the live program, watch the content right away, or bookmark the content to view later. Because it is an interactive system, they can stop, pause, rewind or fast-forward the content as they would a program they’d downloaded to their PVR. During the 10-week test, the etc.tv application will be available on TVA and LCN news and information network to Videotron digital cable customers subscribing to its illico digital interactive TV service. Videotron has about 1.5 million cable customers in Quebec and more than 350,000 of them currently subscribe to the illico interactive service.
A full commercial launch of etc.tv will follow the pilot. MacLean is currently in talks with Canada’s other leading cable providers with his ultimate goal being the creation of a national ad-on-demand network.
New newsletter targets moms
There’s a new online publishing company in Toronto targeting the ‘mom market.’ The first edition of SavvyMom Media’s permission-based e-mail newsletter, SavvyMom Today, launched last Thursday. The publication counsels busy moms on everything ‘from diapers to dinner parties.’ SavvyMom Media cofounders and directors are Minnow Hamilton and Sarah Morgenstern. Hamilton says they have no paid advertisers as yet but have allied pro bono with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and are in talks with agencies, media buyers and clients. Sponsored e-mails are available. She adds: ‘With women making 80% of the purchase decisions, the newsletter is attractive to most categories so we’re trying not to limit ourselves and are looking at things that mums would buy for themselves and their families – everything from toys to cars.’
The newsletter is issued Tuesdays and Thursdays. As to readership, Hamilton says: ‘We put together a small database of own personal contacts and depended on word-of-mouth. Readers have to opt in because it’s permission-based.’ Hamilton says after three business days of operation, SavvyMom had 700 subscribers, including clusters in Alberta and B.C., despite the company’s plans to focus initially on the Toronto market. She hopes to achieve 5,000 readers by the end of the year and roll out to other major cities in 2006.
http://www.savvymom.ca
Telus Mobility, Amazon.ca ring up coupon deal
Telus Mobility clients will now be able to download m-coupons by text message. The capability began this month with a code redeemable for $5 at Amazon.ca.
The way it works, says Michael Brown, director of marketing and business development at Toronto-based aggregator MyThum, is that Telus Mobility includes an SMS code in with the customer’s bill as part of its perks program. The customer dials the request to a short code that works only on Telus phones since the idea is to reward its users. The number reaches MyThum, which acts as a receiving house and assigns the customer a ‘coupon’ number. The numbers are tracked so the customer can only redeem once. The customer then calls Amazon.ca with the number to redeem their m-coupon. Telus Mobility is looking to partner with other marketers on similar programs.
Toronto Sun gets revamp, new campaign
The Toronto Sun is unveiling a new campaign today focusing on the theme line ‘Definitely different.’ The effort will run for eight weeks and encompass radio, the Sun TV channel and the backs and interiors of Toronto Transit buses. Two creative approaches are being used. The Sun is offering free classified ads to private individuals who will place a three-line ad to sell anything from merchandise to used vehicles. The other aspect of the campaign boosts the Sun‘s newly expanded sports coverage featuring former Maple Leafs captain Doug Gilmour.
The Sun is also getting a new design and additional voices, most notably ex-politico Sheila Copps. Thursday’s entertainment section will also be bolstered. Creative veterans Gary Carr and Alan Marr provided the radio and transit campaign.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadian Corona drinkers
Amongst Canadians aged 18+ who drink beer at least once a week, 500,000 (4.5%) say Corona is the brand they consume most often.
* 60% of loyal Corona consumers are 18 to 44 years old.
* The region with the highest consumption rate is British Columbia at 1.6 times higher than the national beer consumer average.
* The average personal yearly income of loyal Corona consumers is $41,000, slightly higher than the beer consumers’ average income of $40,000.
* 38% of loyal Corona consumers (1.3 times more than the national beer consumer average) changed their preferred beer brand during the last two years.
* 44% of loyal Corona consumers state a preference for imported beers at a rate 2.2 times higher than the beer consumer average.
* 34% of loyal Corona consumers are members of a health club (two times greater than the national beer consumer average).
* Europe (39%), Mexico (34%) and the Caribbean (32%) are the top international destinations Corona consumers have visited. They have also visited Central and South America twice as often than the national beer consumer average.
* Loyal Corona consumers attended travel shows two times more often when compared to the national beer consumer average.
* The top three media by yesterday exposure for loyal Corona consumers are: radio (90%), TV (86%) and the Internet (66%).
* Their favourite radio formats (weekly reach) are: adult contemporary (20%), news/talk (19%) and mainstream top 40/CHR (15%, 1.5 times more than the beer consumer average).
* The top television program genres watched in an average week are: movies (70%), news/current affairs (60%) and documentaries (52%).
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.
