Adventures in sponsorship
PRIME will be airing a new reality series, Adventures in Catering, Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., beginning Nov. 12. The show goes behind the scenes to look at the challenges of mounting a seamless catered affair. The Triptych Media project is halfway through production having just finished ep six of 13. Producer Daniela Battistella says they have been in conversation with potential sponsors and that they’re open to product placement.
PMB Factoid
Korean car in household – by city
Budweiser flips out on Montreal métro
It’s the Budweiser party train! Well, not quite. But, during September and October, Montreal’s métro riders can check out a visual stunt crafted by Budweiser Quebec and BBDO Montreal, featuring a guy rocking out with his guitar.
Using old-fashioned flipbook techniques, 36 images of a dude in progressive stages of a guitar solo were affixed to all nine cars of a métro train on Montreal’s Green Line. So, as the train whizzes into each station, riders waiting on the platform can see the full illusion of the ‘performance.’ The photography was done by Montreal-based Martin Girard.
Butter for world peace
Messages of peace, tolerance, equality and freedom of expression from…butter? The latest campaign from the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec, called ‘Le beurre prend position’ (‘Butter takes a stand’) centres on such lofty ideals, aiming to promote ‘food for thought.’
There are eight different executions, all in French, featuring butter-worthy items like croissants, potatoes and toast with statements like ‘Unite the Nations’ and ‘Equality.’ One execution depicts a decapitated muffin with the line ‘Against Violence.’
Trojan woos women
Trojan Condoms unveiled a new brand targeted at women yesterday, called Elexa. Products include condoms, cloths, gel and a vibrating ring, and will be sold in feminine care aisles instead of condom sections at retailers like Shoppers Drug Mart, PharmaPlus and Wal-Mart.
A campaign to support the launch will break Oct. 3, with TV spots and print ads in women’s consumer mags like Flare, LouLou and Elle Quebec. A Web site, www.elexabytrojan.ca, is already active.
Creative for the campaign was done by New York-based Kaplan Thaler, and adapted for Canada by Allard Johnson. Maria Spensieri, Catherine Panarelli and Jocelyne Beaudet at Allard Johnson oversaw the Canadian media buys.
189 more stores join U.S. PPM test
Arbitron’s U.S. trial of its Portable People Meter (PPM) system has added the 189 Houston-area stores of that country’s largest drugstore chain, Walgreens. To take part, the stores will use encoded audio programming from In-Store Broadcasting Network consisting of music, third-party advertising, and in-house marketing messages.
According to Scarborough Research, at least 47% of the market’s adult population typically visits a Walgreens store each month.
Other retailers participating in the test include 109 Kroger stores, Best Buy, Gap, Gallery Furniture, National CineMedia, and Old Navy.
In its Houston test, Arbitron is using the PPM to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite TV; terrestrial, satellite, and online radio; cinema advertising; and place-based electronic media. Arbitron plans to study the correlation between store traffic generated by advertising to the retail visits of people exposed to media carrying a retailer’s ads.
CanWest first foreigner to nab U.K. radio licence, do IPO for print properties
The relaxing of the U.K. Communications Act has enabled Winnipeg-based CanWest Global Communications to become the first foreign company to be granted a licence by OFCOM, the broadcast regulatory body in the U.K. The FM licence has been issued for a 12-year term and the new station, Original 106, will target listeners aged 40 to 59 in the areas of Southampton, Bournemouth, and Portsmouth in southern England.
CanWest owns 95% of the station while Seven Broadcast, operated by two U.K. radio consultants, holds the remaining 5%.
The company is not new to international expansion. In addition to its TV, radio, and newspaper holdings in Canada, CanWest has a stake in Network Ten TV in Australia, five radio networks in New Zealand, and in TV3, Ireland’s first commercial TV station. Its previous attempts to expand in the U.K. involved failed bids for a TV licence and radio licences in Belfast and Manchester. In a CanWest release, president/CEO Leonard Asper said the company was encouraged by the awarding of the licence and plans to ‘vigorously pursue our international expansion initiatives.’
Adding to the kitty, CanWest is going public with a chunk of its newspaper and interactive business. CanWest MediaWorks Income Fund would hold approximately 28% of the Canadian newspaper business. CanWest-owned The National Post will not be included in the IPO. The transfer should yield about $1.45 billion. That money plus $830 million the company will borrow will be used to buy the businesses of CanWest MediaWorks.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Pamper yourself
TV is tops for cosmetics, grooming, and personal care products. It not only grabbed the bulk of spending in this category from 2001 to 2004, its share of the ad dollars grew greatly each year. The biggest spenders were cleanser/cosmetic and fitness and health advertisers but the largest spending increase was seen in the depilatories/feminine shaving products/body hair bleach product segment, which grew from 6.8% in 2001 to 17.3% last year.
Real Estate Book inks deal with Sympatico
The Real Estate Book and RealEstateBook.com, owned by Network Communications, are now the exclusive real estate content provider for Sympatico/MSN.ca. Sympatico has an effective reach of more than 80% of the online population and 15.5 million unique visitors each month.
Cossette loses Richards
Lauren Richards, SVP/national media director of Cossette Media for 18 years, has departed the Toronto-based company, effective last Friday. However she will continue in the capacity of senior consultant, working on projects. Pierre Delegrave, Cossette Media president, will fill the role of national media director for the time being.
Spot auditor expands team
Eloda, a Montreal-based tracker of TV spots, has appointed David Gilmour as CMO. Gilmour comes from Cirque du Soleil. Also appointed is Johanne Fondrouge as marketing director. Fondrouge hails from Cheval-Théâtre. Both are new positions. The new team will be pursuing expansion of a new broadcast ad monitoring and audit service in Canada and the U.S.
U.S. PPM trial includes podcasts and finds 13% of TV is O-O-H; Canadian PPM finds 12% more tuning
The U.S. trial of the Portable People Meter (PPM) in Houston, Tex. is demonstrating the technology’s potential to go beyond typical broadcast audience measurement to track radio podcasting and previously unmeasured out-of-home TV viewing.
The results of the podcasting test should help alleviate the worries of those concerned about the rapid evolution of broadcast technology and the ability of audience measurement services to keep up with the change.
W Net study to fuel brand extension
W Net has released a study, entitled ‘HEReport,’ which found that both moms and non-moms are hardwired with the same interests. The difference? The amount of time afforded to moms to pursue them. The report, which will be shared with the net’s advertisers and producers, was created to ‘establish a continual dialogue with Canadian women and gain insights into the demo,’ says director of marketing Shelley Findlay. W Network is currently at the negotiation stage of a brand extension initiative based on feedback from the HEReport panel, however further details were not disclosed.
For the report, W built an online, ‘blind study’ panel of 2,100 Canadian women. This is just one of the ways the channel hopes to develop targeted programming and, where possible, extend a brand. W is, after all, the net that aired Beauty Quest, a documentary inspired by Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. (See MIC July 7/05.) The ‘HEReport’ also finds that women are the primary decision makers in the purchasing of family clothing (75.9%,) groceries (75.4%) and, surprisingly, computers (43.4%.)
CTV.ca beefing up its content
Plans are in the works at CTV’s Web site, CTV.ca, to increase the local news content in the coming months, and to add a dedicated online destination for Toronto International Film Festival coverage (filmfest.ctv.ca). According to a recent report by Virginia-based comScore MediaMetrix, a consultancy firm that tracks consumer behaviour, the site continues to attract a growing number of Canadians. More than 2.86 million unique visitors surfed the news-based Web site in the month of July, according to the report, and traffic to the site has more than tripled in the past two years.
