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Hazelton Lanes devises mini-programs
Upscale Toronto shopping enclave Hazelton Lanes has developed a series of 12 ‘interstitials’ designed to inform and entertain. They run 60 seconds, exclusive of advertising and are considered ‘program content’ by the CRTC as they don’t directly relate a commercial message to the viewer. This despite an intro that states ‘Presented by Hazelton Lanes.’
The mini-programs are running on Toronto station CFTO April 1 to June 17, targeting the mall’s primary audience of affluent women 35-54. In them, TV host and fashion journalist Karen von Hahn will offer commentary on urban style, fashion and lifestyle. Says Alexa Cain, marketing director of the mall: ‘The interstitials allow for greater depth, breadth and variety of message, are non-traditional and clearly differentiate Hazelton Lanes from anything other shopping centres are doing.’
MIJO debuts Net-based video distribution
Toronto-based MIJO Corp. has launched a Web-based TV spot distribution service called MIJOnet. Available through its MIJO Comprehensive division, the new system digitizes and prepares broadcast quality MPEG-2 files from video masters, transports the files to stations via a secure Net-based network then dispenses the spots into the broadcasters’ on-air systems.
On http://www.mijonet.com, broadcasters and agencies can view low-res files of the spots delivered to their servers as well as where MIJOnet has ‘ingested’ the spot but delivery to the station is pending. Now agencies can view creative, place orders, track their status and access other pertinent spot information. The system can distribute spots nationally in as little as two hours.
Post jobs (on) NOW
Toronto free urban weekly NOW Magazine has linked with popular job site Brainhunter’s Global Talent Network to offer a career Web site http://www.now4work.com/, Advertisers pay a small fee to post jobs (although it’s free until May 1), while seekers can upload resumés gratis. Employers will have the ability to post, edit and delete jobs, as well as screen candidates based on specific qualifications and search the resumé database for candidates within their industry.
NOW‘s readers are ‘highly educated, upwardly mobile and urban,’ says interactive sales and marketing manager Zunaid Khan. The mag comes out Thursdays and has 406,000 readers.
Vancouver rolls lucky ‘7’
The Globe and Mail‘s new ‘7’ section will launch tomorrow on the West Coast. The tabloid format, pullout section will feature dedicated daily Vancouver pages, a guide to the arts, reviews, listings, features on celebrities and an insider’s guide to the latest happenings in Vancouver.
The theme for the launch campaign of ‘7’ is ‘You’ve got 7 days to live. Live it.’
Media includes print, out-of-home, radio and cinema ads. A contest coincides, centred on Vancouver residents’ seven favourite things to do in the city. Readers will have a chance to win one of a selection of $7,000 prize packages.
That’s Entertainment
The pay-TV guide Feature has been renamed, refined and will be re-released into the market in May. Movie Entertainment was chosen as the title, and the new version will take over with the hope of building on Feature‘s 879,000 household circulation base.
Customers who get pay-TV in eastern Canada can buy a monthly magazine subscription for $12 per year. The mag will expand on features, news, programming times, reviews and info on all things pop culture. It’s expected to reach 18-45s in the upper income bracket.
With the new layout, Movie Entertainment is offering advertisers a rate card linked to a guaranteed rate base, meaning any shortfall on delivery will be refunded or made good. Publishers are committed to running a minimum 2:1 editorial to advertising ratio.
Marvin Boisvert, president and publisher of Movie Entertainment says: ‘We’re really, really changing its focus. Obviously we will always try to put advertisers in a pleasing environment.’ In the new layout, advertising will never face advertising. The first issue will be 108 pages.
http://www.movieentertainment.ca
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Spring Cleaning
Household cleaning products, equipment, and services overwhelming choose television to sell their wares. The medium accounts for more than 80% of the spending with magazines the closest contender with a slice of spending ranging from 6.2% in 2001 to 12.8% last year.
ComBase Market Focus: Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories adults are very strong community newspaper readers, with 84% reading any community newspaper (weekday or weekend) compared to 31% who report reading any daily newspapers (weekday or weekend).
* 56% are exclusive community newspaper readers, and only read the community paper and not the daily newspaper.
* Exclusive Northwest Territories community newspaper readers tend to be women between the ages of 25-34.
And when it comes to other media in NWT:
* 33% of adults admit they didn’t listen to any radio yesterday.
* 28% report listening to non-commercial CBC stations.
* 48% of adults report watching less than 9.5 hours of television (that’s less than an hour and a half a day) in the past week.
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.
Teletoon goes to Wars
Teletoon has launched a special presentation titled ‘May the 4th Be With You’ celebrating the release of its broadcast of Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume II (Chapters 21-25). The net will be the exclusive Canadian broadcaster to air this highly anticipated sequel. This 90-minute animated episode is meant to serve as a lead-in to the much-anticipated release of the feature film Star Wars Episode III, which will strike theatres May 19. George Lucas hand selected animating genius Genndy Tartakovsky to create Star Wars: Clone Wars, and the first instalment of the series won an Emmy in 2004. During its March 2004 premiere, Star Wars: Clone Wars (Volume I) ranked as the net’s number one show with teens 12-17 and boys 12-17, and amongst Teletoon’s top three with males 2+, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The series will air in the Detour block, which is aimed at teens and adults. Teletoon is hoping to attract a broad demo of animation fans for the special. Both male and female viewers aged 12 to 34 are expected to tune in. The show will air Wednesday, May 4 at 10 p.m. Two promotions will push the franchise. Teletoon will partner with Hasbro Canada April 18 to May 8 for a Web contest at http://www.teletoon.com; and with Energizer Max Batteries May 8-29 for a two-pronged online trivia challenge – one for younger kids at teletoon.com and one for older audiences at http://www.thedetour.ca.
King gets mini-series
Citytv and A-Channels will be the first to broadcast the king of rock ‘n’ roll’s master recordings in a mini-series entitled Elvis scheduled for the second week of May. The two-part effort was filmed with the co-operation of Elvis’ estate. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Bend it Like Beckham) plays Elvis in the fact-based drama that follows the rocker from his poverty-stricken roots to icon status.
Targeted to family audiences and older demographics, the mini-series will air on Citytv Toronto and Vancouver on Sunday, May 8 at 9 p.m. and Wednesday, May 11 at 8 p.m. A-Channel Edmonton and Calgary will have it Sunday, May 8 at 9:00 p.m. and Wednesday, May 11 at 9:00 p.m. and A-Channel Manitoba will air it Sunday, May 8 at 8:00 p.m. and Wednesday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. This series will be simulcast with CBS.
PMB Factoid
Percent of the PMB Health Enthusiasts cluster who do aerobics: 11. Exercise at home: 31
NADbank 2004: Post continues decline, Globe stays stable
The NADbank 2004 study (www.nadbank.com) reports good news for newspapers overall. The number of Canadians who read daily papers (11,793,500 weekly in 2004) has remained fairly constant since 1999, although increasingly some of that readership is moving to the online versions and the free daily papers.
The free dailies continue to eat into the readership pie. In Toronto, they accounted for 25% of newspaper readers in the market in 2004, up from 19% the previous year. Montreal readership jumped to 20% in 2004 from 17% in 2003.
TMN HD spinoff will seek partners
The Movie Network is launching a high-definition channel on May 1. TMNHD will be offered free of charge to subscribers of The Movie Network. The 24-hour sked will include material from HBO and Showtime, Hollywood hits like White Chicks and TMN’s own original Canadian drama series.
Once the channel is up and running, TMN will be seeking B2B opps. Since TMNHD will be commercial-free, the net will be looking beyond the 30-second spot to deals with such partners as a manufacturer of HD TVs. Russ Ward, director of consumer marketing, says TMNHD is also considering a promotion with a retailer to showcase HD content in their stores, similar to the one TMN OnDemand did with Future Shop when that net launched.
Says Ward: ‘We are looking forward to exploring how HD can be used to create new opportunities to partner with product companies.’
ABC and PMB launch joint service for small pubs
The Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Print Measurement Bureau have joined together to provide a subscriber research verification service. The service is specifically designed for Canadian magazines with ABC-audited circulation too small to qualify for the PMB measurement survey. The ability for smaller publications to have reader profile studies conducted according to joint ABC-PMB guidelines should give them more credibility with advertisers and media buyers.
http://www.accessabc.com
http://www.pmb.ca
Microsoft leverages untapped elevator door medium
Microsoft Canada is going after its target in their natural habitat – office workers in office buildings. The tech giant’s latest campaign, ‘New Era,’ is leveraging innovative ad space, including elevator doors as ad vehicles for the first time in Canada. MacLaren McCann’s Toronto office secured space on over 50 elevator doors in over 20 buildings across downtown Toronto and Vancouver.
The campaign broke in Canada last week and includes subway domination, transit shelters, parking lots, Elevator News Network (ENN) and washroom ad space in addition to traditional media. There are two versions of the elevator door wraps, which will be up for four weeks. ‘We want to make sure we reach people throughout their day,’ explains Mike Bulmer, Microsoft Office product manager at Microsoft Canada.
The creative for the campaign was done in MacLaren’s New York office. The creative team helped the Toronto office customize ads for elevator doors. Jack Wu, MacLaren McCann’s media planning manager, oversaw the campaign’s media buys.
BBM Media Snapshot
A profile of Canadians who frequently read advertising flyers inserted into the local weekly paper
* 18% of Canadians frequently read the flyers that come with their local weekly paper.
* They tend to be in the older demographics, with 56% aged 45 or older and 17% in the 65+ segment.
* They are more likely to be female (60%) than male (40%).
* 37% have a yearly household income of $60,000 or more.
* B.C. has the highest incidence of frequent readers in Canada at 28% versus the 18% Canadian average. Ontario is also higher than average with 21%. The Prairie region has average readership (18%) while Atlantic Canada is below average (12%). Quebec has the lowest proportion of all (11%).
* Their top five retail spending categories – in which they have spent $150 or more in the past year – are women’s clothing (57%), men’s clothing (48%), auto service (47%), children’s clothing (35%), and furniture (27%).
* In terms of yesterday exposure, the top four media for Canadians who frequently read weekly newspaper flyers are: TV (90%), radio (87%), daily papers (59%) and the Internet (49%).
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.
