BBM Top 20
For a list of the top 20 TV shows for the week of March 14 to March 20, according to BBM, click the links below:
National Top 20
Ontario Top 20
Quebec Top 20
Toronto Top 20
Vancouver Top 20
WestJet hires Media Experts
Calgary-based airline WestJet has named Toronto-based Media Experts to do media planning and buying. The account was worth about $12 million in 2003, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Meanwhile Toronto’s Taxi will be handling all creative and marketing strategy.
NADbank to unveil readership data
On April l, NADbank will release the readership data for the 2004 NADbank Study. The NADbank 2004 release will provide readership data for 74 Canadian daily newspapers in 52 urban markets and 56 community newspapers in 29 markets. The 2004 NADbank Study product, retail and lifestyle data will be released at the end of May 2005.
http://www.nadbank.com
BBM Media Snapshot: Cola Wars
* 28% of Canadians drink Coke or Diet Coke once a week or more.
* 26% of Canadians drink Pepsi or Diet Pepsi once a week or more.
* Canadian teens 12 to 17 drink more cola than average and show a slight preference for Coke with 38% drinking Coke or Diet Coke once a week or more, and 34% drinking Pepsi or Diet Pepsi once a week or more.
* Pepsi is most popular in the Atlantic Region and Quebec while Coke is more popular in Ontario and the Prairie provinces. Cola drinks in general are not as popular in B.C. as they are in other regions.
* While men are more likely to drink cola than are women, there is no significant preference for Coke over Pepsi or vice versa among the sexes.
* Other than regional preferences there is no significant difference in the demographic makeup of Coke and Pepsi drinkers.
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.
Food Network Canada serves up new series
Toronto-based Food Network Canada has some new shows on the menu. Restaurant Makeover is a Canadian series that challenges two industry heavyweights to overhaul a struggling restaurant. The show will air Tuesdays at 7 p.m. beginning April 5. BBQ with Bobby Flay gets its Canadian premiere Saturdays at 7 p.m. beginning Apr. 9 and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:30 p.m. beginning May 23. Grilling maven Flay hits the road in search of all that is grilled, smoked and barbecued and meets colourful characters along the way.
Returning series include David Rocco’s Dolce Vita, Mondays at 7 p.m. beginning Apr. 4; Surfing the Menu, Mondays at 7:30 p.m. beginning Apr. 4; Licence To Grill, weekdays at 6 p.m. beginning Apr. 4 and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. beginning Apr. 9; Boy Meets Grill, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. beginning May 24 and Summer’s Best, Mondays at 8 p.m. beginning May 23.
The Food Net is owned by Alliance Atlantis.
CH rolls out Revelations
Unlikely partners, religion and science, are brought together to battle that end-of-the-world thing always dangling over our heads.
Bill Pullman stars in the new six-episode hour-long drama series, Revelations, aimed at viewers 25-54. Pullman plays an astrophysicist in the pre-Armageddon days who has to put science aside and take a leap of faith to stop the Bible’s prediction of the end of the world. The NBC show’s pedigree includes exec producer Gavin Polone (Panic Room) and exec producer/writer David Seltzer (The Omen.) Revelations will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m., beginning April 13, on CH Hamilton and CH Vancouver Island.
Mystery uncovered
CanWest Global’s specialty net Mystery is ramping up for some additions to its lineup.
Blind Justice, a show just rolled out on CH, will now be seen on Mystery as well. The show will air Sundays at 6 p.m., beginning March 27. As well, it will continue on CH in its regular slot of Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, season five of Andromeda premiers on Mystery this Thursday at 10 p.m.
Discovery Health takes on Hollywood
April is ‘Healthy Makeover Month’ on the Discovery Health Channel and it’s being kicked off by four hour-long episodes of Body Challenge Hollywood. Starting on Sunday, April 3 at 2 p.m., Eric Estrada tops the list of celebrities on the show competing to see who can drop the most weight. The series will then air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. through April.
Discovery Health stays right on track with a one-hour special called I Lost It! Celebrity Special airing directly after the Body Challenge Hollywood marathon on Sunday, April 3 at 6 p.m. This special will explore the specific stories of stars like Dennis Franz of NYPD Blue and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
‘Healthy Makeover Month’ doesn’t stop there, with programs like Health Cops: Undercover, Trash Can of Skin and National Body Challenge II all airing through April. The key target demo for the network is women 25-54.
Starcom welcomes Glennie
Peter Glennie has joined Toronto-based Starcom MediaVest Group as IP director. Glennie has worked in traditional and online media on such brands as Air Canada, Levi’s, Volkswagen and P&G, all in a contractual project capacity. He was one of the pioneering media professionals to use online media in Canada.
RedPoint, Bowman part company
President and publisher Dan Bowman has departed Calgary-based RedPoint Media Group. He has been replaced by former chair and CFO Don Graves. RedPoint publishes such magazines as Wine Access, Avenue, Calgary Inc. and WestJet’s new Up! in-flight magazine.
Bowman’s Avenue Media Group merged with Graves’ Calgary Publishing in 2003 to form RedPoint. Graves has now bought Bowman out.
Events
March 31
PR for Competitive Advantage
416.465.0070
Ontario Club, Toronto
ama-tor@allstream.net
AMA past president and Marketing Hall of Legends co-chair Jim Warrington moderates ‘Sharing Secrets and Success Stories.’ Panelists like Rob Assimakopoulos, VP marketing, Molson Canada, talk about how strategic public relations make a difference for them.
May 16-18
Canadian Marketing Association 2005 National Convention & Trade Show
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto
416-391-2362
http://www.the-cma.org
Among the events of interest at Canada’s mondo marketing confab, David Baxter, executive director, Urban Futures Institute, discusses ‘Demographics, Life Cycles & Life Styles: Practical Strategies for Reaching Consumers Today and in the Future.’
PMB Factoid
23% of French Canadians purchase beer at convenience stores. Grocery stores: 30%
BITE offers ‘truly’ interactive TV
Andy Warhol would be proud. Touted as the first ‘truly’ interactive television station, BITE, found on Rogers Cable channel 198, entered the crowded broadcast landscape yesterday offering its male target the chance to not only control their programming, but become part of it as well.
President and CEO of BITE Television Jeffrey Elliot hopes to woo advertisers to the digital channel by bringing together everything the 19-34 guy is into: TV, Internet and mobile/wireless entertainment under one edgy, Jackass-the-movie-type format.
AMW gives B2B, lawyers consumer treatment
Toronto’s Axmith McIntyre Wicht is challenging the staid B2B/professional services advertising formula with the launch of two new campaigns this month for corporate clients NewAlta and Osler Hoskin Harcourt.
AMW contracted renowned photographer Shin Sugino to shoot breathtaking photos of large, powerful, dirty hands wringing the last drop out of various machinery for NewAlta, an Alberta-based company that recycles the byproducts of the oil and gas industry. The firm is trying to gain attention from potential investors across the country. The print ads broke yesterday, and will run for three to six months in national publications like the Globe and Mail, National Post and ROB Magazine.
Esso pumping out ad space
The Globe and Mail and Toronto’s Mojo radio are taking full advantage of VST – Canada’s Point of Influence Network, now set up at 118 Esso stations across the GTA. The network, launched at five test stations in late 2003, broadcasts two- to three-minute loops of news content and ads on sunlight-viewable monitors mounted above gas pumps. The Globe and Mojo are each running 15-second spots, as well as sponsoring news content.
