Alliance Atlantis changes the top of its totem pole
Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications announced a change yesterday in its operating management structure. Effective immediately, Michael MacMillan, formerly AAC chairman and CEO, will become the executive chairman. Phyllis Yaffe, the current COO, will become the broadcaster’s new CEO. MacMillan will continue to focus his efforts on overseeing the long-term growth and direction of the company, while Yaffe will steer the company in achieving its financial and operating goals.
AAC’s broadcasting wing owns such specialties as Food Network Canada, HGTV, Life Network and Showcase.
Teletoon Canada names two
Teletoon Canada has appointed Leslie Krueger VP of Marketing. In her new role, Krueger will be responsible for the strategic direction, development and evaluation of marketing programs, as well as the leadership of sales promotions, creative services and online media. She joined Teletoon in 2001 and was most recently director of marketing and promotions. She was behind the launch of Toon Trax, Teletoon’s first licensing and merchandising effort.
The net has also named Trent Locke VP of Finance and Planning. Locke has been with Teletoon since 2000 and has over 14 years of experience in finance and strategic management.
CanWest unveils U.S picks
CanWest went cross-border shopping and picked up a slew of new programs for the 2005/06 broadcast season for its channels, Global and CH. The new roster includes 11 dramas such as Fox’s Prison Break; the new Jerry Bruckheimer series E-Ring starring Benjamin Bratt and the thriller Fathom from NBC/Universal. Other new dramas are Head Cases, Reunion, Threshold, The Unit, The Gate and Bones.
Nine new comedies round out CanWest’s pickup list, including Old Christine with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Warner Bros.’ War at Home and Out of Practice, starring Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing from CBS/Paramount. More comedy buys are How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl.
Kingstar Media wins Time Life biz
Toronto-based Kingstar Media won the contract to purchase long-form media in Canada for Time Life’s DRTV division, which includes its best-selling line of music and video products. ‘We chose Kingstar because they know and understand the Canadian market and they have a proven track record in DRTV,’ says Pat Boos, VP, media at Time Life. Time Life Music offers music and video collections that are available through unique TV offers. Its Canadian offerings will now be priced in Canadian currency and will be made available to our francophone market for the first time. Kingstar Media is the first agency to handle this biz on Time Life’s behalf. ‘It was very scattered,’ says Jake Willitts, an account exec at Kingstar. ‘No one had this business in Canada. The Canadian market was accessed via spillover from the U.S. To position Canada as its own unique market with its own needs was part of our strategy.’ Willitts was unwilling to reveal the value of the biz. The contract begins June 1.
Amex checks in with suitcase at airport
The newest ad opp is a giant suitcase that measures 15′ x 20′. On Friday, Amex unveiled a new ad installation in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, which boasts a 12′ LED screen running Amex advertising. The suitcase even sports a PVC tag with an embedded digital logo. Amex is one of only a few corporate advertisers to be given access to space in Terminal One of the airport, in a buy by Toronto’s Mindshare. Says Tara Peever, a spokesperson for Amex: ‘Because we’ve been innovative in terms of creating more than just an ad, we’re able to surround our target customer – the frequent traveler – in a whole new way, in a whole new location. (This gives) us a critical advantage in the highly competitive travel reward segment of the card market.’
TMN orders in new co-promos
The Movie Network has ordered in a brand-new co-promo with Pizza Pizza to feed its re-airing of the popular Sopranos series. Every Wednesday, the network is airing back-to-back episodes of The Sopranos from seasons one through five. ‘This contest is the first of its kind for us,’ says Russ Ward, director of consumer marketing. ‘It’s a way for us to extend our brand and to get people into the habit of watching The Sopranos every week.’ The contest – branded ‘Dine with the Don’ – encourages viewers to sign up for weekly reminders on the Web to win one of 10 Pizza Pizza prize packs. The contest, brokered by TMN’s in-house sponsorship team, runs for 32 weeks, beginning June 8. The network is supporting this co-promo via 30-second spots, ads in Movie Entertainment and Famous magazines respectively and on its Web site. The 30-second spot will also air in Famous Players theatres in the GTA.
TMN has also just launched a ‘Sun Screening Contest’ in partnership with La-Z-Boy. The Sun Screening Contest is offering ‘the best seat in the house,’ giving away one recliner per week over the next 13 weeks. It targets 35-40s, with a slightly male skew. The contest supports the network’s blockbuster summer premieres and is a ‘loyalty initiative,’ according to Ward. TMN is looking into more co-promos in the future.
Eucan to sell space on new recycling receptacles
Toronto City Council has allowed Vaughan, Ont.-based out-of-home ad agency Eucan to sell ad space on their new Recycling Station Ads (large recycling receptacles that measure 7′ x 4′) after a three-month test period. The city is testing 90 RSAs, which will replace Eucan’s numerous Silverbox units scattered throughout Toronto. Testing will be done in the summer with completion slated for the end of August.
The test units, which will be installed all over the GTA, will each hold two ad faces, according to Kevin Golding, the agency’s director of sales and marketing. He goes on to add that there has already been a lot of interest in the RSAs with the automotive and telecom industries leading the pack. Ads may be run for as little as two weeks up to as long as a season. The full program is set to be in place for early 2006 with 1,500 units citywide. Pricing details will be finalized by mid-June.
http://www.eucan.ca
NADbank releases the product piece of its 2004 media study
NADbank (Newspaper Audience Databank) has unveiled the product and lifestyle information segment of its 2004 study. Information on the retail shopping habits, product usage, media preference, and lifestyles of Canadians was collected from more than 24,400 adults 18+ in 19 urban markets covering 28 different product categories and 21 different shopping categories ranging from automotive product and services to shopping malls. The product categories covered include alcoholic beverages, automotive ownership and rentals, banking and financial services, business purchase influence, computer hardware and software, cellphones and pagers, CD and DVD purchases, lottery tickets, photography, real estate, restaurants and travel.
Anne Crassweller, NADbank’s executive director, says the important aspect of the 2004 database is that users can delve into 19 markets across the country and link daily newspaper readership to a host of local retail shopping and lifestyle behaviours. She says the 2005 survey, which is currently in the field, includes even more product/lifestyle categories than in previous versions of the study. The 2004 NADbank Study released in April involves readership data on 74 Canadian dailies in 52 urban markets and 55 community papers in 29 urban markets.
In other NADbank news, the organization has hired Donald Williams as its new research manager. Williams joins NADbank from Warrilow & Company of Toronto and was with Sprint Canada before that.
The tripartite organization has also announced its 2005 board of directors headed by chair, Sandy Muir, SVP of sales for Sun Media Corporation. The board includes Anne Crassweller, NADbank executive director; and new directors Sunni Boot; president and CEO, ZenithOptimedia Canada; Bruce Claassen, CEO, Genesis Media; Roger Dunbar; VP advertising sales, The Globe and Mail; Jean Durocher, VP marketing and sales, La Presse Ltée.; Caroline Gagnon, VP media director, Marketel; Jean-Claude L’Abbée, editor, Le Journal de Québec; Greg Loewen, VP strategic planning, marketing and new ventures, Toronto Star; Shannon McPeak, VP corporate sales, Osprey Media Group; John Tarantino; VP media director, Cossette Communication Marketing; and Jamie Thomson; president and publisher, The Daily News (Halifax).
Longo’s cooks up summer food mag
Longo’s free food and lifestyle custom magazine has just released its summer issue. This second in the series is entitled Longo’s Magazine – Experience Summer Flavours and is designed to appeal to customers’ desire to learn more about food production and prep.
The first 300,000 copies of the service-piece-heavy pub will be carried in 14 Longo’s locations across central Ontario while another 300,000 copies will be polybagged with the June 22 issue of the LCBO’s glossy Food & Drink. According to Robert Koss, Longo’s director of marketing, the mag is ‘open to new ideas’ by way of sponsorship opps. The primary target demo is consumers 35-54 with a female skew, with at least two children and an average household income of $80,000. A one-time, full-page ad runs $11,000. In addition to the summer issue, Longo’s will also be featuring in-store cooking demos with cookbook author and chef Emily Richards.
Astral preps fall specialty trade show
Astral Media TVPlus, the sales rep arm of Astral Media, has set June 16 for its fourth annual trade show at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal. The event is designed to highlight the programming for the 2005/06 season on the eight French and 23 English specialty networks repped by TVPlus. Over the past few years, the number of advertisers, media buyers and planners, and program distributors attending the invitation-only show has grown from 200 to 500 and Astral is expecting to host an even bigger crowd this year.
Astral Media TVPlus handles sales for Canal D, Canal Vie, Z, Historia, Séries+, TELETOON (french), MusiquePlus, and MusiMax, as well as Life Network, Food Network, HGTV, History Television, Showcase, TELETOON (english), CMT, The Score, WWE, Discovery Health, National Geographic Channel, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, The Independent Film Channel, BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Kids, Documentary Channel, Treehouse, Scream, W Network, Fine Living and YTV.
ComBase Market Focus: Community newspapers reach the national ethnic market
The burgeoning ethnic market is of great interest to most advertisers. ComBase measures mother tongue (language first learned in childhood) and provides analysis on a number of different languages. At the national level:
* French is the most dominant single language other than English with 15% of adults nationally claiming French as their mother tongue.
* Asian languages (Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/Other Asian) represent 4% of the population.
* All other languages combined represent 17% of the population.
Because of their diverse interests and backgrounds, this market can be challenging to reach with traditional media.
* 46% watch less than 9.5 hours of TV weekly but 67% of these light TV viewers are reading community newspapers (any edition).
* 45% listen to less than 3.5 hours of radio weekly and are 9% more likely to be exclusive community newspaper readers.
* 47% read any weekday daily newspaper.
Community newspapers demonstrate strong reach against this target group:
* 68% read any weekday community newspaper.
* 25% read only their community newspaper and not the daily.
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.
New Comedy game show should skewer young males
The Comedy Network has a new game show that should have the young male aud shouting and banging their beer bottles on the table. That’s Distraction offers fabulous prizes in exchange for answering questions like ‘What is ice made of?’ The catch is that the contestant has to answer while being pummeled by pro wrestlers or having bottles broken over his head.
It’s based on the original British show and is hosted by award-winning British comic Jimmy Carr. The fun starts Sunday, June 19 at 9:30 p.m.
YTV reveals new slate for July
YTV is set to roll out four new animated series for July. Transformers Cybertron unleashes more hi-tech thrills for the animatedly minded and premiers Friday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. One Piece takes the adventure to a land of pirates Fridays at 8 p.m., beginning July 8; Shaman King is based on the popular manga and line of anime videos and finds a 13-year-old boy communicating with ghosts Saturdays at 11:30 a.m., beginning July 9 and Sonic X brings video games’ popular Sonic the Hedgehog to TV land Saturdays at 12:30 p.m., beginning July 9. The demo for all four shows is 6-11.
Babies are booming on Discovery Health in July
With Baby Month, Discovery Health Channel is focusing on all things rugrat in July, from nursery décor to medical miracles. One highlight is the series premiere of Yummy Mummy Thursdays at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., beginning July 7 in which host Erica Ehm looks at what it means to be a parent today.
Returning series include Canadian premieres of Make Room for Baby (a team of decorators, carpenters and painters have the duration of mom’s labour to create the perfect nursery, Thursdays at 8 p.m., beginning July 7) and Babies: Special Delivery (expectant parents grapple with serious medical issues and high-risk deliveries, Sundays 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., beginning July 3.)
The net is seeking an aud of women 25-54. The returning series originally appeared on DHC in the U.S.
