Discovery picks eight
Fall arrives with a crash and a bang on Discovery Channel with the network’s purchase of eight new hour-long properties. Canada’s Worst Driver takes a look at dangerous drivers en route to road rehab. Some build it. Others blow it up. Mega Builders captures some of the biggest and most dangerous engineering projects worldwide. Meanwhile, the Blasters blows the lid off of demolition blasting. Mean Machines counts down the toughest machines in history and Greatest Ever takes a cheeky look at modern technology, featuring advocates who spark debate and defend their faves. For crime nuts, there’s On the Run, a look at how law officials track down baddies and True Crime Scene for CSI fans who just can’t get enough. Finally, Breaking Vegas uncovers casino tricks. Time slots will be finalized next week. The channel’s programming is aimed at adults 25-54 with a male skew.
OLN picks up nine
Toronto’s Outdoor Life Network’s (ONL) hit dirt and come back with nine new series for fall. WPCA Half-Mile of Hell is a behind-the-scenes half-hour reality show featuring Chuckwagon racing. Then it’s time to hit the dirt on Dirt Riders, a countdown of the toughest cowboys and rodeo women. Man Trackers is a cat-and-mouse reality chase through the Rocky Mountains. Fearless is an Emmy-nominated OLN original series set to make its Canadian debut. The series profiles people pushed to the limits. Then, follow Ewan McGregor (Star Wars) and Charley Boorman (Deliverance) as they hit the open road in The Long Way Round. The half-hour Countdown highlights the most dangerous places on Earth, hardest animals to hunt and more. For living room globetrotters, there’s Globe Guides, a half-hour series that looks around the world in search of the most exciting festivals. Outdoor Investigations looks at the greatest outdoor puzzles in North America and finally, Nature Brigade takes 30 minutes to follow the lives lead by modern-day environmental gladiators. OLN targets adults 25 to 54.
Vision TV seeks seekers and preachers
Toronto-based Vision TV’s got two shows behind the pulpit, one that has the network searching for passionate, charismatic church leaders and another that seeks out seekers. Candidates from all over the continent are invited to compete in a series entitled Preach For The Top, designed to showcase their talents from behind the pulpit and within the community. Seekers, a new doc series is scoping for five individuals to travel with host and exec producer Ralph Benmergui. The show follows the group on a three-week journey to spiritual hotspots across North America. Both shows are set to air in 2006. The network’s primary target demo is women 50+ though its fastest growing group is women 18-49, says David Todd, marketing and communications at Vision.
PMB Factoid
Spending on cosmetics ($50+ per month); by city
Global rings up new promo and fall lineup
Global’s announced its new fall programming yesterday at an event at the Carlu, attended by Mr. Apprentice himself, Donald Trump. The standing-room only event was punctuated by the ringing of cell phones as part of Global’s new promotion entitled ‘Global’s Calling – If you’re in, you win.’ With phones hidden under select chairs, CanWest’s top brass gave away prizes of $1000 each throughout the event to a handful of lucky attendees.
This was a taste of a wider consumer promo engineered to net and keep eyeballs. The contest works like this: Viewers are invited to register their info online and to watch Global nightly for a code word. Prizes range from $500 up to $10,000 for viewers who know that word when called. Global’s Calling starts July 11 and runs for eight weeks. The network will also utilize trucks in the Vancouver and Toronto markets wrapped with contest details. The trucks will be visiting neighbourhoods to catch viewers at home who may be in the know.
Lamar travels with TransLink
Lamar Transit Advertising Canada (formerly Obie Media Ltd.) has kept the Vancouver-based TransLink business that it’s handled since 1998 following a review of the account. The new licence to handle all transit advertising for TransLink buses, trains, Seabuses and SkyTrain stations runs from August 1 through to July 2015, with an option for another five years.
In addition to products such as bus wraps and full backs, SkyTrain Wraps, Sky Strips and Michelangelo interior ceiling displays, Lamar plans to introduce new backlit posters and high-end LCD panels into the market.
Q107 goes digital with OBN
Q107 has launched a campaign with Toronto-based out of homer Outdoor Broadcast Network (OBN). Song title and artists playing on the rock radio station is displayed on OBN’s four video boards scattered throughout the city, alerting drivers and pedestrians listening to radios to tune in. ‘When people see the video board message, there’s a natural inclination to want to tune into the station and see if the song is actually playing,’ says Darren Wasylyk, director of marketing and promotion at Q107. OBN owns four video boards within the GTA with six more in development, said Peter Irwin, president of OBN. The company plans to have the additional boards in operation within the next year. The boards are located within Toronto’s highest traffic spots such as Yonge and Bloor, Yonge and Richmond, Yonge and Dundas and Sheppard and Don Mills to a total reach of 2.3 million per week. A 10-second spot on regular rotation on all four boards bears a price tag of $7000 weekly
Razer and PunchMuch set for summer debut
Toronto-based CHUM TV is rebranding their youth lifestyle and music video channels as Razer and PunchMuch. The new channels will debut June 30. Razer grabs 12- to 24-year olds with its lineup of music, TV, movies, anime and gaming. Program titles include World Famous for Dicking Around and Cops, Cars and Superstars to name a few. PunchMuch is a fully-automated, all-request music video service that allows fans to punch in requests for videos, join in on SMS chats and more via their mobiles. Razer and PunchMuch will occupy the spots formerly taken by MTV and MTV2.
New Study: radio ROI 49% more than TV
Radio’s ROI is 49% better than television. That’s the conclusion of the third major study from the New York-based Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) called Radio’s ROI Advantage.
RAEL also felt the findings demonstrated radio’s effectiveness as a primary medium, with slightly more impact when radio was used in conjunction with TV.
With ROI being the main concern of advertisers today, the industry group set out to study the effect of radio advertising on product sales and to examine that against comparable TV advertising. The complex six-month ‘real world’ test was conducted by Millward Brown and Information Resources Inc. (IRI) using four pairs of actual radio and television campaigns for four brands – one grocery food, one grocery non-food, and two OTC drug products.
There were also four test markets: one where there was TV or incremental radio while the other three were scheduled with incremental radio only, national TV only, and both national TV and incremental radio.
According to the IRI data, the incremental radio campaigns were associated with sales lifts of 3.6% where there was radio alone and 4.6% when combined with TV.
Although higher, the national TV campaigns showed no significant difference in sales lift with or without radio, resulting in increases ranging from 7.3% to 7.7%.
Radio Marketing Bureau (rmb.ca) is the main Canadian partner of RAEL and RMB president John Harding is on its board of directors.
The full study can be found at radioadlab.org.
ComBase Market Focus: Reaching Boomers in Victoria CMA
Having attracted a wave of families with children over the past few years, Victoria has cast off its image as a market that consists of the newly wed and nearly dead. In Victoria, community newspapers are the best way to reach one of the market’s key target groups – boomer men and women – during the week.
Women 35 to 54
These female targets are becoming increasingly difficult to reach with broadcast media. More than half of women in Victoria aged 35 to 54 (51%) watch less than 9.5 hours of TV weekly and 43% of them listen to less than 3.5 hours of radio weekly.
Reaching women aged 25 to 54 who are typically the prime shoppers for their households:
* Only 58% of these women report reading their weekday daily newspaper.
* Almost three-quarters of female Boomers (74%) are reading weekday editions of their community newspaper and 17% say that they only read their community paper and not the daily newspaper.
Men 35 to 54
Boomer men in Victoria also have challenging media habits. Four out of ten men aged 35 to 54 (41%) watch less than 9.5 hours of TV weekly and a quarter of them (25%) listen to less than 3.5 hours of radio weekly.
Reaching male Boomers in Victoria with advertising:
* Only 52% of these men read their weekday daily newspaper.
* 72% report reading their weekday community newspaper and 23% of them read only their community paper and not their daily paper.
Source: ComBase 2003-2004 Study
ComBase, the Community Newspaper Database, is a syndicated consumer-media survey of more than 400 Canadian markets that provides market-by-market information. It is an initiative of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and its nearly 700 members across the country. For more information, contact Kelly Levson, senior project manager, kellylevson@combase.ca.
Nielsen media research spend trend: Father’s Day
TV touts Dad’s favourite things
Most advertising highlighting toys for big boys makes it way to TV in the run up to Fathers’ Day each year. Dailies come in a distant second, ranging from 28.5% in 2001 to 19.9% in 2004. Not surprisingly the biggest spenders are in the hardware/building stores and electronic stores categories with sports equipment, hardware/tools, and audio/visual equipment being the main gift suggestions.
CFL kicks off brand new season
The Canadian Football League’s (CFL) kicking off a 54-game broadcast campaign this season, with 21 of those games in High Definition. Popular fast-food giant Wendy’s is title sponsor this year. Wendy’s Friday Night football airs every Friday night during the regular season while Wendy’s CFL Live games will run through the week. The burger chain is also dropping dollars on Wendy’s Kick for a Million, where a fan can kick a field goal for a chance to win $1 million. A 20-yard field goal wins $1,000 while a 50-yard field goal nets a cool million dollar prize. Sony digital imaging and home theatre packages are also available to be won. The CFL’s regular season begins on June 22.
Corus beefs up interactive arm
Two new roles have been created within Toronto-based Corus Entertainment’s Radio Interactive group. Deborah Beatty, VP, interactive steps in to the role of GM, Corus Radio Interactive, effective this September. Beatty will handle overall operations and strategy of interactive programming as well as operations for all Corus radio stations. She will report to John Hayes, president.
Jeff Woods, director FM programming, Corus Radio Vancouver and on-air host is appointed programming and content director for Corus’ interactive arm. Woods will work with GMs and program directors developing content nationally. He will begin his new role on July 4 and will report to Beatty.
CTV lines up slam dunk roster for fall
CTV went to market and picked up five key items for fall. The schedule includes Close to Home, a legal drama from Jerry Bruckheimer starring Canadian Jennifer Finnigan; Invasion, an eerie drama starring Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch); Ghost Whisperer with Party of Five-alum Jennifer Love Hewitt; Inconceivable with Ming Na (formerly of ER); and the half-hour sitcom Twins from the Emmy-winning team (David Kohan and Max Mutchnick) that brought us Will & Grace.
Midseason pickups include a mixed bag of five American and three Canadian titles. Titles from the U.S. are Crumbs with former Wonder Years wonder boy, Fred Savage; In Justice with Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Sex & the City), a reality series called The Miracle Workers; the Evidence, a character-based drama from John Wells of West Wing and ER fame and What About Brian from the executive producer of Lost and Alias, JJ Abrams. Local purchases are Whistler an hour-long drama set in – you guessed it – Whistler, B.C.; Alice I Think, a teen series based on Susan Juby’s books and Jeff Ltd. starring Gemini winner Jeff Seymour as a megalomaniacal marketer.
Radio-Canada outwits zappers
When is a commercial break not really a break? When it’s a creative break. Creative breaks are a new integration technique being used by Radio-Canada to bring advertising into programs without the usual product placement approaches.
The French-language broadcaster plans to build on this concept and develop new going into this fall. One of its new tactics is long-form advertising, something it has just begun with a few clients who want to own the full two minutes of a commercial break. As a result, two-minute features are being created to run exclusively on R-C stations.
Additionally, the Radio-Canada Web site – once an ad-free zone – is going commercial this fall, offering standalone and integrated advertising that carries over from TV to the online platform.
