Idol throws out challenge to media
More hot air is expected from the Toronto media as they switch from their blah blah blahs to mi mi mi, la la la la’s. CTV dared the Toronto press yesterday to drop their pens, microphones and dignity and sing on stage in front of the judges of Canadian Idol. Organizers are billing the audition as ‘The Toronto Media Idol Challenge.’
The event will be taped on Monday, April 18 at 3:00 p.m. at the Royal York Hotel and broadcast for season three of the popular show. Two weeks remain before Toronto auditions start for the new season. CFTO entertainment reporter Jacintha Wesselingh and CHUM FM’s Meg Tucker have already signed on to vie for the title of Media Idol. A prize of $5,000 will be given to the winner’s charity of choice.
Amen, Epoxy merge
Montreal agencies Amen and Epoxy have merged under the name Amen.Epoxy. Amen’s one-year-old media arm will continue to use the Amen Media name. The division’s GM is Sylvie Lalande.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians and long distance phone calls
* 7.48 million Canadians (28%) spend $40 or more on long distance calling per month.
* Of those spending $40+ per month on long distance calls, 57% are female and 43% are males.
* The top three age groups among those spending $40+ on long distance calls are 45 to 54 (21%), 35 to 44 (20%) and 65+ at (17%).
* 34% of people living in the Prairie region spend $40+ on long distance calling. This is the highest compared to the national average of 28%. B.C., Ontario and Atlantic regions are average with 31%, 30% and 27% respectively. Quebec is the lowest with only 18% of the population spending $40+ on long distance calling per month.
* 26% of the people who spent $40+ on long distance calling also bought pre-paid calling cards in the past year.
* 41% of people who spend $40+ per month on long distance calls also spend $30+ a month on their cellular telephone.
* 12% of people who spent $40+ on long distance calling changed their supplier in the past 12 months.
* The top three media (yesterday exposure) for people who spend $40+ on long distance calling are: television (87%), radio (85%) and daily newspaper at (57%).
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.
MTV launches Web channel
A new MTV Web channel will give advertisers a vehicle to sport their goods online. MTV will debut a Web-based video content channel called Overdrive. The site will offer users with high-speed connections the chance to click and pick from MTV’s news, interviews and music videos, as well as clips from its reality shows. The site will handle between 50 to 70 clips per category every 10 days. Each clip will range between two to six minutes in length and will be played using Windows Media Video, and Windows Media DRM (Digital Rights Management). Ad space will be offered in 15-second video segments that will play prior to the start of the selected clip.
MTV Networks and Microsoft formed a strategic agreement to deliver digital entertainment at last January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, and Sony Pictures will feature ads on the new site. Overdrive will start Monday, April 25.
Pamela Anderson goes intellectual
Pamela Anderson aims to diversify this spring by taking a job at a bookstore on Stacked, a new half-hour comedy on Global.
Looking to hit the 18-49 audience, Anderson’s character, Skyler Dayton, wants to settle down from her wild lifestyle, and she finds stability at Stacked Books where she is surrounded by the owners (two brothers), a jealous female co-worker and the store’s mainstay customer played by Christopher Lloyd. The show will air Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. for six eps, beginning April 13.
CMT to air Country Music Awards
This year, the 40th annual Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMs) will air live to the 25-54 CMT crowd on Tuesday, May 17 at 8 p.m. Leading the pack with six nominations is superstar Tim McGraw, who is among the artists performing, along with Toby Keith and George Strait.
Last year, the ACMs aired on May 26. It was the number one show on CMT for that week for adults 25-54. It also ranked 40th in the top 50 shows that week for adults 25-54 for all of specialty.
Toronto1 gets horse racing
Toronto1 is teaming up with the Woodbine Entertainment Group to bring viewers live thoroughbred racing for the 2005 season.
Starting Saturday, April 16 at 2 p.m. and continuing weekly, races will air until the season ends on Dec. 10. The coverage will aim at an 18-49 audience, skewing male. The weekly ‘stake races’ will come live from Woodbine racetrack in Toronto.
Cossette vet joins TAM-TAM
Sabina Bastian joins Montreal-based TAM-TAMTBWA as VP of senior strategic planning and account group. Bastian comes from Cossette Communications Group in Montreal where she spent 17 years, most recently as VP, senior strategist, and worked on Bell Canada, BCE Emergis, Transcontinental and GM. Bastian will fill a newly created postion with TAM-TAMTBWA. TAM-TAM’s roster includes Apple, Effem (Uncle Ben’s and Whiskas), W Hotels and Nissan Canada.
http://www.tamtamtbwa.com
PMB Factoid
87% of adults 65+ shopped at a drug store in the past six months.
CMDC conference offers countless ideas but accountability still a question mark
A stellar lineup of speakers, thought-provoking panel discussions and entertaining banter highlighted ‘Called to Account! Managing Risk and Accountability,’ the annual Canadian Media Directors’ Council conference held Tuesday in Toronto.
One of the opinions that threaded itself throughout the day was that – whether client, agency, or seller – the focus of media buying can no longer be on CPMs.
BBM Canada Commercial Television Tracking Service
Please click on the attached link to view GRP Trending by week and month for Montreal Franco covering the broadcast months of October 2004 – March 2005 inclusive. GRPS are based on Commercial PPM minute ratings.
Montreal Franco
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.
