DY hits youth where they eat
Digital Youth (DY), an online wireless youth network, and Digital Advertising Network (DAN), a mall-based video display company, have organized an interactive contest targeting tweens and teens. The Mobile Minutes $20,000 Text & Win Contest will be running in food courts during May and June.
Trivia questions will appear on digital video display screens in food courts, and participants will use their mobile phones to text message their answers for a chance to enter into the draw for grand prize. Urban radio station FLOW 93.5 will promote.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians who attend home/garden shows
* 4.5 million (17%) Canadians attended a home/garden show one or more times during the past year.
* Only a slight majority of home/garden show attendees are females (55%).
* The top two age groups attending home/garden shows are between the ages of 45 to 54 (23%) and 35 to 44 (20%). Hardly any young people (12 to 24 years old) attend.
* Highlights about home/garden show attendees include: 84% of them own their own house; 71% live in single detached homes; 20% plan to move during the next two years.
* 14% of home/garden shows attendees have hired gardening/landscaping services.
* The top three improvements/projects during the last two years among home/garden show attendees were: interior painting/wall paper (52%), landscaping or yard improvements (51%), and exterior painting (36%).
* 32% of home/garden show attendees spent more than $5,000 on home improvements in the past two years, 1.5 more than the Canadian average.
* The top three media for yesterday exposure for home/garden shows attendees are radio (89%), television (88%) and daily newspaper (61%).
* The top three radio formats among home/garden show attendees (weekly reach) are: news talk (23%), adult contemporary (20%) and country (9%).
* 66% of home/garden show attendees consider ‘gardening and homes’ their top type of magazines (readership in past month), followed by ‘food and beverages’ with 48%.
* Movies (71%), news/current affairs (69%) and home improvement shows (50%) are the top television program types watched in an average week by home/garden show attendees.
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.
Gay wedding series set to preem
Global TV and Vancouver-based Paperny Films have finished production on My Fabulous Gay Wedding. Actor/comedian Scott Thompson will star in the six-episode reality series as the ‘Wedding Fairy.’ Toronto stylists and planners will work with six gay couples in a time-crunched period leading up their wedding days. The show will debut on Global on Wednesday, June 1 as follows: Ontario/Quebec/B.C. at 10 p.m., Manitoba/Saskatchewan at 9 p.m., and Maritimes/Alberta at 8 p.m.
See MIC Aug. 19/04 for more info on the series.
Ray ends his day
The sitcom heavyweight Everybody Loves Raymond is airing its final episode after nine seasons. The last show will be preceded by an hour-long retrospective special titled Everybody Loves Raymond: The Last Laugh. Featured in the pre-show will be behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and producers, past clips, and the drama from the last week of production. The final half-hour episode will air Monday, May 16 on Global in Ontario/Quebec/Alberta/B.C. at 8 p.m., Manitoba/Saskatchewan at 7 p.m. and the Maritimes at 9 p.m.
Time change for BBC Canada
Please note that Blackpool has changed its air date and will now premier on BBC CANADA on Aug. 7 at 9 p.m. rather than June 5 at 9 p.m. as was reported in MIC April 28/05.
Alliance names two VPs
Elizabeth Duffy-MacLean has been named VP public and regulatory affairs with Alliance Atlantis Communications in Toronto and Chris Fuoco is the new VP affiliate marketing. Duffy-MacLean joins AAC with more than 15 years of experience in the private sector in specialty and conventional broadcast regulation. She spent time working with NetStar, CTV and most recently as VP, regulatory affairs and policy Strategy with Bell Globemedia. Fuoco has been with AAC since May 2003, when he joined as director of affiliate marketing. Previously, Fuoco served as director of core programs for Bell ExpressVu.
http://www.allianceatlantis.com.
Events
Nov. 24
The CASSIES
Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, Toronto
416-482-1396 x 230
514-842-5681
http://www.cassies.ca
This Canadian advertising awards show is based on proven business effectiveness. There is a new category of award this year for B2B. Deadline for entries, which are to be filed online, is June 30.
PMB Factoid
Clerical/secretarial workers are 56% more likely to buy 10+ pantyhose per month than the average women.
Ad-ID may come to Canada
Ad-ID, a centralized Web-based system for digitally coding all types of advertising executions, is expected to eventually make its way to Canada. Bob Reaume, VP of media and research for the Association of Canada Advertisers in Toronto, says the ACA will likely be involved in bringing the system to Canada. He says this could be as a subsidiary of or in partnership with Ad-ID (Advertising Digital Identification LLC) in the U.S., which is operated by the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies of New York.
Reaume says the ACA has already had some preliminary discussions with the Ad-ID groups in the U.S. and with the Television Bureau of Canada because the TVB’s approval and commercial clearance numbers would have to fit in with the Ad-ID system.
Branded alerts and targeted blogs: appearing on a computer screen near you
How would you like your target to receive a small ad that drives them to your site every time a content-related blog gets updated? That capability is coming later this year, says Royal Farros, CEO of Redwood City, Calif.-based MessageCast.
Currently MessageCast provides branded alerts to a variety of clients, such as Fox Sports, looking to build frequency of Web site visits. When the Jays are playing, the branded alerts provide a mechanism for updating the target market even while they’re virtuously working away at the office. Alerts appear in the bottom corner of computer screens, with updates like ‘Jays 2, Yankees 1, Top 1st,’ and a Fox Sports logo above the message. The message is a link that takes them to Fox Sports’ site where they can get more on the story. If they don’t click, the alert will melt away. Low annoyance factor.
TSN plays street hockey
While the NHL remains embroiled in labour disputes, Canadians will Play On! In TSN’s Official Canadian Street Hockey Tournament. The tourney consists of eight events held across Canada this summer in high-profile downtown locations and culminates with the Play On! National Championship to be held in London, Ont. Sept. 17-18.
The winning team will get a trophy, which will be designed and named via a contest. Winning team members’ names will be engraved on it, and the trophy, their sticks, jerseys and team picture will be placed in TSN’s themed exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The national Play On! tour is sponsored by Speed Stick, Sport Chek, allmaple apparel and Powerade. Tour supporters include Hockey Canada and the Canadian Ball Hockey Association. The event will not be televised.
Notes from the Media Landscape
We usually try to get a Canadian angle on things, but there are few borders left when it comes to the wired – and wireless – world, so here are some tidbits thinking globally for those reading locally.
Who knew from podcasting even a few weeks ago, now suddenly it’s everywhere. The latest is an all-podcasting radio station from Infinity Broadcast in which the content is created exclusively from listener podcasts. KYOURADIO will launch May 16 on San Francisco’s Talk KYCY-AM and stream online at www.kyouradio.com.
Then there’s the mobile explosion. Yahoo is next up at the plate with an announcement that it’s going mobile on Nokia smartphones. Millions of Nokia smartphone users can deploy Yahoo’s rapidly developing Internet services, ranging from e-mail to downloadable games to search. Harry Santamaki, Nokia Multimedia VP strategy and business development, described it as ‘a progressive step in facilitating the adoption of an online lifestyle.’ No kidding. www.nokia.com.
And finally Turner Broadcasting System is cutting out the middleman in its attempt to reach young men by creating a new broadband channel called GameTap. It will feature 1,100 video games old and new, right back to Pac Man. Starting in Q4, gamers can download software from www.gametap.com for US$10-US$20 per month. Plans include limited sponsorship opps for advertisers, although Turner declined to elaborate on advertising models.
ComBase Market Focus: 18- to 34-year-old demo in Ontario
The 18- to 34-year-old demo is a very desirable consumer group for many advertisers. As a consequence of this target becoming increasingly difficult to reach using traditional media, a number of new free dailies have been launched (Dose, 24 Hours, Metro) to seek them out.
Eighteen- to 34-year-olds are considered by many to be ‘media grazers’:
* 29% can’t be reached with daily newspapers in Ontario.
* 25% can’t be reached with radio in Ontario.
* 27% didn’t watch TV yesterday/last weekend in Ontario.
But in Ontario, community newspapers reach 70% of 18- to 34-year-olds with weekday editions. Even in the Toronto GTA the reach is 65% (per ComBase Pilot Study – Toronto GTA).
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.
Two new for BBC Canada
The BBC has plans for two shows to make their Canadian premieres. Blackpool is a drama/murder mystery that also manages to work in musical numbers and dark comedy. The show will have six episodes, and will air Sundays at 9 p.m., beginning August 7. When it first aired in England in November 2004, it scored 5.3 million viewers.
Meanwhile, Mad About Alice is a comedy about two exes trying to get over each other despite sharing a son, and jealous feelings about each other’s new love interests. The Britcom will run six half hours Thursdays at 9 p.m., beginning June 30. Mad About Alice had 6.6 million for the first episode that aired on BBC1 on Jan. 23, 2004.
Join the race for space
Hauling ass with 500 horsepower around a quarter mile track at speeds over 150 km/hr combine to create the perfect pitch for selling ad space to Canadian advertisers. An Ipos-Insight survey found that there are currently over six million loyal NASCAR fans in Canada. The Edmonton International Raceway caught up to this business opportunity this week when it joined the NASCAR Dodge weekly series. The first race in the weekly event will take place Saturday, May 9 starting at 6:30 p.m. MT. The Edmonton track is the third Canadian venue to join the Dodge Series. Quebec and Ontario both have tracks registered with NASCAR.
