CBC remembers the real Cold War
With this year’s NHL season days away from being cancelled, CBC is in the midst of planning a miniseries that should help Canadians through the healing process. The four-hour miniseries re-tells the story of one of Canada’s greatest glories on ice, the 1972 Summit Series victory over the Soviets. Set to air on CBC sometime next season, production will begin next month on Canada Russia 1972 (working title).
Eleventh Hour director, TW Peacocke, will head the project, with the support of Halifax’s Summit Films, Moncton’s Dream Street Pictures and the CBC. Filming will take place in Saint John and Fredericton, and only competitive hockey players will be considered for roles, with tryouts to begin Feb. 16 in Fredericton.
TSN revs up for NASCAR schedule
TSN rolled out the first of its 21-race NASCAR Nextel Cup Series broadcast schedule with last Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout televised entirely in hi-def. The schedule, which continues throughout most of 2005, will include sixteen more hi-def races and will finish November 20 in Miami with the Ford 400. NASCAR will also be touting its new season at the Canadian International Auto Show, kicking off this weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where it will host a NASCAR Pavilion and will run the Daytona 500 on two 42-inch plasma screens.
MPG North America names new CEO
Yesterday, Havas’ media network, MPG North America, officially appointed Charlie Rutman as CEO, overseeing all operations in the U.S. and Canada. Rutman, who was previously the president of Carat USA and EVP at Bates prior to that, will replace James Rose, who left the agency in November. Rutman will begin working at MPG in a few weeks and will be responsible for the performance of Toronto-based MPG/Maxxmedia as well as eleven other U.S.-based MPG offices.
Maclean’s magazine names new publisher and editor-in-chief
Ken Whyte, founding editor and former deputy publisher of The National Post, has been named the new publisher and editor-in-chief of Maclean’s magazine. Ken met with all Maclean’s staff yesterday but will not assume his new positions in full until March 14. For the next four weeks leading up to Whyte’s official start date associate publisher Deb Trepanier will continue to handle matters concerning magazine operations and Bob Levin will handle editorial matters following Anthony Wilson-Smith’s departure on February 25.
PMB Factoid
Seniors are 54% more likely to use artificial sweeteners
Roseanne or Martha? Leo B’s new research division knows
Forget the focus group for uncovering the whims of female consumers. ‘Friendship groups’ now help Leo Burnett define women in relation to their homes. LeoShe – a research division consisting of cross-functional women from across the Leo Burnett network – organized get-togethers for 15 women, and six to eight of their pals, to find out how North American women feel about their homes.
‘We wanted to go deep fast,’ says Rachel Lai, strategic planner at Toronto-based Leo Burnett, which counts Procter & Gamble and Visa among its clientele. ‘It’s easier to get women to be honest in front of their friends, because they are already comfortable with them.’ Plus, the meetings were held over dinner, making conversations easy.
New secure payment solution for digital content
Clickshare and Digital Containers have teamed up to create a secure payment processing solution that will allow for the sale of digital content over almost any digital medium. The software will automatically settle accounts and move payments, making sure that owners of copyrighted or licensed digital content will be compensated regardless of how consumers gain access to the material – from personal downloads to emails from buddies. Once an owner packages, registers and releases their property using the new software, Clickshare and Digital Containers will be able to track any distribution, and consequently invoice any party that acquires said property. For anyone to purchase digital content, they must first register at a Clickshare-affiliated site to obtain a Clickshare identity which functions similarly to a credit card whereby the buyer receives a monthly bill listing their recent purchases.
Cadbury Adams Canada’s names new Media AOR
M2 Universal, MacLaren McCann Canada’s media services division, was named yesterday as Cadbury Adams Canada’s new Media AOR. After launching several big advertising campaigns last year around brands such as Mr. Big, Dentyne Frost Bites and Dentyne Fire, Cadbury Adams is looking to M2 Universal to deliver ‘strong, innovative, strategic results’ in 2005. M2 Universal’s clients include Bacardi, Labatt’s, Motorola and Nestlé.
RareMethod at it again
Less than a month after RareMethod Capital purchased media planning firm Media Calgary, the interactive marketing firm yesterday finalized its acquisition of Axion Integrated Marketing, a Calgary-based event marketing services firm. Axion’s clients are predominantly U.S.-based and include FedEX, MCI and Ford, and the company’s technologies and services have been used at several high profile events including last weekend’s Super Bowl, the Indy 500 and assorted other PGA and NASCAR events.
Clear Channel Radio opens Canadian sales office
Clear Channel Radio, the U.S.-based radio syndicate, is opening a sales office in Montreal. Heading up the office for Clear Channel will be Marilyn Morai, who has been working for Clear Channel Burlington, VT for the past several years developing relationships with Canadian agencies and buyers. Clear Channel has not made any plans to start a Canadian station, but is opening the office to target Canadian advertisers interested in reaching U.S. markets with border proximity.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Valentines Day
Hearts and flowers are big business for TV and print
The best things in life may be free, but romance does have a price. Television, magazines, and daily newspapers benefit the most from the day of love while there’s lots of potential for OOH and radio to up their love quotient.
Valentines Day remains traditional both in terms of advertising media selection and the categories doing the spending – chocolate, flowers, and lingerie.
Click the link to see the chart
BBM CMR
Open the attached link to view BBM’s most recent Commercial Tracking information for Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver incorporating PPM Ratings:
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ComBase Market Focus: Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan adults are very strong community newspaper readers:
· 82% report reading any community newspaper (weekday or weekend) compared to 38% who report reading any daily newspapers (weekday or weekend).
· 48% are exclusive community newspaper readers. They only read the community paper and not a daily.
· Exclusive Saskatchewan community newspaper readers tend to be women between the ages of 25 and 34.
When it comes to other media in Saskatchewan:
· 31% of adults admit they didn’t listen to any radio yesterday;
· 10% report listening to non-commercial CBC stations;
· 41% of adults report watching less than 9.5 hours of television in the past week (or less than an hour and 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, combase.ca‘>kellylevson@combase.ca.
TSN adds ESPN hottie to Sportscentre lead-in line-up
taking the fierce ratings competition between TSN and SportsNet to the next level. Jim Rome Is Burning, hosted by long-time sports talk show host and official ‘King Of Smack’ Jim Rome, will air at 5 p.m. beginning next Monday and will lead into TSN’s other popular ESPN show, Pardon The Interruption at 5:30 p.m. and Michael Landsberg’s Off The Record at 6 p.m. before Sportscentre kicks off at 6:30 p.m. In recent months, most likely due to the lack of NHL hockey (or perhaps as a result of lockout coverage overkill), both TSN and SportsNet have seen declining ratings for their nightly sports newscasts, and have put together sports talk show programming to try and keep viewers watching until the 6:30 timeslot. TSN has opted to pick up more and more programming from ESPN (the only show TSN has yet to pick up from ESPN’s pre-Sportscenter line-up is Around The Horn) while SportsNet has countered with a simulcast of The Fan 590’s Prime Time Sports with Bob McCowan from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Final Jeopardy: can anyone beat Ken Jennings?
Jeopardy‘s 15-week-long Ultimate Tournament of Champions kicked off yesterday on CTV at 7:30 p.m. The concept of the tourney is simple; 150 of Jeopardy‘s most successful and memorable past champs (including six Canadians) square off against each other until the field is whittled down to two players who will be faced with the difficult task of facing off against Ken Jennings in the final showdown. Jennings, whose previous winnings topped the $2.5 million mark, is probably not in dire need of the $2 million Ultimate Tournament of Champions winner payout. But, considering H&R Block’s offer to Jennings of free tax preparation services for life after his famous Final Jeopardy snafu that brought an end to his winning streak, it will probably be well taken care of if he does manage to bring it all home.
