PMB 2005 shows steady market
‘There’s a lot of good news for magazines,’ says PHD Canada’s Rob Young of the PMB 2005 study released yesterday. ‘If I were Rogers or Transcontinental, I’d be saying ‘yippee!”
PMB released readership data on a record number of 102 magazines. This includes more first-timers than ever before with eight English and five French pubs participating. The new books included Canadian Home & Country, Cottage Life, Fashion18, Inside Entertainment, Ottawa City, Sports Illustrated, TORO, Where Canada, Cote Jardins, En Primeur, Le Devoir, Recevoir and Styles de Vie
Product placement rakes in billions
Product placement in TV shows reached US$3.46 billion in 2004, says a study by Stamford, Conn.-based PQ Media, a custom media research firm. This reflects a 30.5% jump over the previous year and it appears that it’s only going to grow.
‘Product Placement Spending in Media 2005’ reveals that paid product placement is growing more quickly than unpaid, making up 29.2% of the market, compared to 18% in 1974. The study cites ad-skipping technology such as TiVo as triggering the boom, especially in reality series. Product placement is projected to grow another 22.7% to $4.24 billion in 2005 due to more paid placements, larger deals and increased use of PVRs.
http://www.pqmedia.com/research-publications.html
Caribana keeps on trucking
Toronto’s 38th Caribana street festival isn’t far off and MangoMoose Media is offering an alternative advertising opportunity in the form of trucks that travel the parade route on the peak day of the festival, July 31. There are five trucks still available with the advertiser’s message to be placed on both sides of the vehicle. Cost for these two faces is $3,950 and for the whole fleet (10 faces) $15,000. Ad size is 20 feet by seven feet. This is the first year Mango is offering the service. One advertiser is signed up so far: Hardknock Music of Toronto is using a truck to launch a new artist.
Caribana was created in 1967 as a community heritage project for Canada’s centennial year. Based on the Trinidad Carnival, the festival now also includes the music, dance, food and costumes of Jamaica, Guyana, the Bahamas, Brazil and other cultures represented in Toronto. It attracts about a million partygoers each year, with hundreds of thousands of people traveling from the U.S. to participate.
http://www.mangomoose.ca
http://www.caribana.com/
Juicy Fruit launches youth contest
Juicy Fruit gum is reinforcing its ‘Sweeeet’ positioning with a redesigned Web site http://www.juicyfruit.ca/. The site has been revamped to be more appealing to the gum’s target teen audience with a lot of interactivity and a colourful, graphics-driven interface.
The site plays a key role in the ‘Sweeeet Shot Contest,’ running March 27 to July 31. Participants give personal info and sink virtual basketballs to win a chance at a trip to Toronto, $500 spending money and $5,000 towards post-secondary tuition. Once in T.O., the winner attends an NBA game and takes three shots from the free-throw line. Each ball in wins them an additional $5,000, up to $20,000. There are also weekly draws for 18 iPod minis. The agency behind the initiative is BBDO.
ComBase Market Focus: Vancouver, B.C.
* More than 1,250,000 adults in Vancouver report reading a weekday or weekend edition of their local community newspaper. This is 78% of the city’s adult population.
* By comparison, 67% of adults report reading any daily newspaper (weekday or weekend).
* Almost a quarter of the Vancouver population (367,900 adults) cannot be reached with daily newspapers and only read community newspapers.
* Exclusive community newspaper readers in Vancouver tend to be female and between the ages of 25 and 34.
And when it comes to other media in Vancouver:
* 27% of adults admit they didn’t listen to any radio yesterday.
* 15% report listening to non-commercial CBC stations.
* 44% of adults report watching less than 9.5 hours of television in the past week, or less than an hour and a half a day.
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.
HGTV has designs on the generation gap
HGTV is combining family dynamics with design as two twentysomething offspring enlist a couple of young designers to redo an outdated room in their parents’ house. Called, oddly enough, My Parents’ House, the show will air Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. beginning April 5. Will the eccentric characters, sometimes charged family interaction and chic design transformations make for compelling viewing? HGTV is hoping both generations will tune in to find out.
Life offers fashion series
The backbiting fashion industry is the latest forum for reality TV. Life is introducing Project Runway, hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum. The series starts with 12 amateur designers, one of whom is eliminated each week, as a team of judges and industry mentors weed out the chaff to discover the next big design talent.
The 12-part series will air Mondays at 8 p.m. beginning April 11. It’s a pick-up from the Bravo channel in the U.S. Life is looking for an aud of adults 25-54. Banana Republic is a sponsor in the prize.
http://www.LifeNetwork.ca
SRC taps into battle of the sexes
Radio-Canada is preeming a new show called La Guerre des sexes (The Battle of the Sexes) which pits a male team and a female team in a car rally that includes several tests of visual/spacial skill. According to scientific evidence, the men should prove the winners, but will they?
The five-episode series will run Mondays at 9 p.m. beginning April 11.
FT introduces a straight man’s POV
Citytv’s FT-FashionTelevision is debuting a new segment. ‘The Husk Report’ features Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson as Danny Husk, ‘a straight man, asking hard questions.’ Husk has been assigned to cover the behind-the-scenes events surrounding Fashion Week and will use his experience as a war correspondent, investigative journalist, and fire marshall to do so. ‘The Husk Report’ will appear in five weekly segments airing Saturday, April 23 at 6:30 p.m. through May 21 on Citytv Toronto and Citytv Vancouver.
http://www.fashiontelevision.com
Showcase family preps for May
Showcase and its digital offshoots Diva and Action are prepping to air their May offerings. On Showcase itself, Queer as Folk, the barrier-breaking gay-themed soap, is returning for its fifth and final season May 23. The show will run Mondays at 10 p.m. Highlights will include guest appearances by Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O’Donnell.
The action on Action includes the Get Out of Jail Festival running the week of May 22 at 9 p.m. Fare includes such gems as Cool Hand Luke on Thursday May 26. Meanwhile, sassy sister station Diva is serving up the Love on the Run Festival the weekend of May 28-29 with chick flicks like Witness with hunky Harrison Ford on Sunday at 11 p.m.
Event
April 20
Spotlight on Specialty: Beyond the Numbers
Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto
416.967.4067
Alliance Atlantis Communications, in partnership with strategy magazine and Media in Canada, presents this second annual event designed to provide up-to-date info and research about Canadian specialty TV viewing. Highlights include Peter Sealey, former CMO at Coke and former president of marketing and distribution for Columbia Pictures, talking about the best use of TV advertising dollars, and discussing philosophies underlying brand loyalty and consumers’ emotional connection to brands.
PMB Factoid
6% of Canadians belong to a coffee shop customer reward program. Females are 21% more likely to belong.
Mobile search engines: the new killer app?
MSN is adding a little razzle-dazzle to the search engine scene. The tech giant launched its own search engine on Feb. 1, and has invested US$100 million in developing superior search algorithms to provide more relevant results and grow a loyal user base. Marketers already on board with keyword buys include Dell, Lavalife and LLBean.
Competitors aren’t standing by idly, either – Google and Yahoo both recently introduced desktop search tools, and AOL launched a local search service at the end of February.
The heated competition means the race to offer the latest technology is speeding up, and mobile search could be the next big thing. While insiders say discussion about m-search is still premature, two U.S. companies, Medio Systems and Fast Search & Transfer ASA, are already developing related applications to sell to telcom carriers.
Mitsubishi picks BBDO Canada
Following the announcement earlier this month that Mitsubishi Motors North America had chosen BBDO as AOR in the U.S. comes the news that Mitsubishi Motor Sales Canada has given BBDO Canada its business here. Andrew Gray, the car maker’s national marketing manager, cited consistency across media platforms and geographies as key and felt BBDO Canada understands that challenge.
As the lead agency in Canada, BBDO will handle media planning and buying as well as advertising, direct marketing, interactive and retail components. The account will be run out of the Toronto office, while tapping BBDO Montreal and Proximity Canada too.
