Canada Day Jam should bring families out in force
Corus Entertainment’s The New Country 95.3’s free country music concert is back for a third season. Along with sister companies Max Trax Digital Music and CMT Canada, New Country is organizing Maple Lodge Farms Canada Day Jam. The fest begins at noon on Friday, July 1 at Sunnyside Park in Toronto and features, in addition to the concert, a midway, a petting zoo in the Family Fun Zone with YTV’s Weird on Wheels on hand and an evening fireworks display at Ontario Place.
Apart from presenting sponsor Maple Lodge Farms, space is still available for other advertiser involvement. The rain-or-shine event runs from noon until 9 p.m. Last year’s event brought together more than 100,000 country music enthusiasts.
http://www.corusentertainment.com
New pub for allergy sufferers
It’s pollen season and what better time could there be to launch Allergic Living magazine. The publication for allergy sufferers covers the latest allergy research and treatment in addition to all the trappings of a lifestyle magazine including home decor, cooking dining, parenting, travel, health and beauty but all skewed to living and dealing with allergies.
Allergic Living is endorsed by Anaphylaxis Canada (www.anaphylaxis.org) and the Canadian MedicAlert Foundation (www.medicalert.ca). The pub is being put out four times a year by AGW Publishing of Toronto.
http://www.allergicliving.com
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians who drive minivans
* 3.2 million (12%) Canadians drive a minivan.
* There is an equal split between men and women driving minivans.
* Minivan drivers mostly live in large households. 71% have households of 3 or more members.
* 55% of the minivan drivers – 1.4 times the national average – have children living at home.
* 64% of minivan drivers are between the ages of 25 and 54 years. 5% of minivan drivers are teens.
* The average personal yearly income of Canadians who drive a minivan is $34,000, slightly higher than the national average of $30,000.
* 63% of minivan drivers own or lease more than one vehicle per household.
* Minivan drivers drive on average 15,700 kilometers per year, somewhat higher than the national average of 13,500 kilometers per year.
* Minivan drivers are evenly spread across Canada’s regions.
* The top four media for yesterday exposure against minivan drivers are television (87%), radio (85%), daily newspaper (53%), and Internet (52%).
* Looking at radio weekly reach, the top three formats among minivan drivers are adult contemporary (21%), news/talk (19%), and classic/mainstream rock (10%).
* The top three television program genres watched in an average week by minivan drivers are movies (68%), news/current affairs (64%) and suspense/crime drama (43%).
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’03 / Spring ’04
The preceding information is from BBM RTS, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 55,000 Canadians, conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.
Britney and Kevin get chaotic on Global
Curious? For the inside scoop that even In Touch can’t deliver, tune in to Global Television beginning Wednesday, May 18 for the new reality TV series Britney and Kevin: Chaotic. The six-episode series starring mommy-to-be Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline gives viewers a glimpse inside the couple’s relationship and includes never-before-seen footage of home videos during their courtship, engagement and wedding. Also included is new footage and commentary with Kevin and Britney.
The new reality show will be following Global’s Wednesday night lineup of That 70’s Show and Gilmore Girls, targeting 18-34s with a slight female skew. It airs at 10 p.m. in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; 8 p.m. in the Maritimes and Alberta; and 9 p.m. in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.
FA Cup Final should score huge aud
Here’s the reason why soccer fans won’t be heading to the cottage this long weekend: English Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester United vie for the FA Cup on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. PT on Rogers Sportsnet. The two clubs are the only ones left from over 600 teams originally in the competition and the broadcast is expected to draw big numbers.
MPG grabs WPP veteran
U.K.-based media agency MPG continues its expansion, nabbing rival WPP Group’s eight-year veteran Suzie Warner as global director of marketing. The newly appointed Warner has just come off a stint with WPP’s Burston-Marsteller where she was director of brands and integrated marketing, having worked on international campaigns for Jim Beam Brands and Heineken International. She will oversee MPG North America, including Toronto-based MPG/Maxxmedia, as well as all global marketing projects supporting MPG’s pan-regional and multi-national campaigns.
Weiss gets a Brainstorm
After nearly 20 years with the firm, Ed Weiss is leaving Echo Advertising to take on the role of media director at The Brainstorm Group. Both are Toronto-based agencies.
Weiss punches the clock for the last time as Echo’s associate media director this Friday. He will be in his new post at Brainstorm on May 30.
Event
May 11
Magazine Day 2005
Bonaventure Hilton Hotel, Montréal
514-499-9847
www.magazinesquebec.com
The Association québécoise des éditeurs de magazines’ (AQEM) 7th Annual Magazine Day features workshops and panel discussions with leading francophone publishers, editors and art directors. Highlights include workshops with Jean-Marc Léger (‘Perception and Reality: What do Quebeckers think of their magazines?’) and Nathalie Marcil of Ipsos Decarie (‘Advertising and Magazines: A Matter of Love and Convenience’) among others.
PMB Factoid
Professionals are 67% more likely to drink green tea.
Correction
Incorrect information appeared in our top story ‘Zoom rolls out new services’ (MIC May 5/05.) Zoom Media’s new Proof of Performance Web site was developed by software firm Ayuda Media Management Systems. Their Web address is www.ayudatech.com.
Zoom rolls out new services
Montreal-based Zoom Media, a targeted lifestyle media and marketing company, yesterday announced the launch of three advances in its service.
With its new Proof of Performance Web site, advertisers and agencies will now have a personal online campaign tracking system with 24/7 online security access to view their campaign posting details; they can track the progress of their campaign by viewing pictures of every board posted. Developed by software firm Ayuda Media Management Systems, the site is scheduled to go live the week of June 6 at www.ayudatech.com.
BBM Commercial Television Tracking Service
Please click on the attached link to view BBM’s Tracking of Commercial GRPS by week and month for Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal Franco. Toronto and Vancouver cover the Broadcast months of May 2004 to April 2005 inclusive and Montreal Franco covers the broadcast months of October 2004 – April 2005 inclusive. GRPS are based on Commercial minute ratings.
Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
Notes from the media landscape
Word on the Net has it that a new company is starting up to reach bloggers en masse. Info is sketchy at this point but it looks like a shop called Pajamas Media has been formed by Charles Johnson, Marc Danziger and Roger L. Simon to work in two areas: aggregating blogs to increase corporate advertising, and creating their own news service. The co is working on a model to sell ads en masse, rather than blog by blog and expect to go live in the next few weeks.
Elsewhere, Heavy.com, the world’s leading broadband network with more than five million viewers monthly, has launched the first download content for Sony’s PlayStation Portable. Heavy’s entire library of animated and live-action broadband programming will be available for free download on the PSP.
Heavy’s first PSP advertising partner is Unilever’s Axe brand, which will offer episodes of its branded content series Evan and Gareth on Heavy.com for PSP downloads. ‘We are very excited to be the first mover in the hottest content platform available today,’ said David Carson, Co-CEO of Heavy.com in a release. ‘Sony recognized that our content was ideal to reach its target demographic of 18-34 men and to showcase the PSP’s non-gaming capabilities.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Gardening
TV rakes in bulk of lawn and garden spending
ComBase Market Focus: National community newspaper readership
While 69% of Canadian adults read the last weekday issue of their community newspaper, only 47% read yesterday’s weekday daily.
* 26% are exclusive community paper readers.
* 42% of Canadians are light TV viewers.
* 26% of Canadians did not listen to radio yesterday.
* 9% listen only to CBC.
Among adults with a college, university, or post-grad education, 67% read community papers compared to 52% that read the daily paper.
* 60% of adults 18 to 24 read the last weekday issue of their community newspaper compared to 37% who read their weekday daily newspaper.
* 67% of professionals read their community paper compared to 52% that read their daily newspaper.
* 72% of adults with a household income over $75,000 read the last weekday issue of their community newspaper compared to 61% who report they read the weekday daily newspaper.
Exclusive community newspaper readership:
* 27% of women read only their community newspaper.
* 31% of self-employed adults only read their community paper and cannot be reached with advertising in daily newspapers.
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.
