Global Television Specialty Networks has named Susan Wood to the post of promotion manager. Wood will focus on branding initiatives. She has a background in television and radio marketing, publicity, PR and promotions, working most recently at CanWest’s 99.1 COOL FM in Winnipeg.

Corus Entertainment of Toronto has made some moves within its TV division. Peter Moss, EVP of programming now becomes creative consultant. In his new post, he will help guide Corus original productions and advise the senior programming team on scheduling and buying strategies. He will also direct and produce.
Joanna Webb is appointed to VP, programming, W Network. She was most recently VP, programming for children’s television, and acting director of programming and is now responsible for developing strategic approaches to program development, acquisitions and scheduling. Phil Piazza joins Corus as VP, programming, children’s television. He spent time at TSN and most recently was director, ESPN Classic Canada.

60% of French Canadians drink wine.
38% of BC residents drink red wine.

MIC wrote that The Apprentice III topped last Thursday night. This was an error. While the show nabbed 1.6 million viewers, CTV’s ER, CSI and CTV Evening News remained Thursday night trumpers, with 2.238 million, 2.103 million and 1.701 million viewers, respectively, per BBM 2+ measurement.

The Canadian Newspaper Association handed out almost 60 Extra awards today in Toronto as part of the ‘Newspaper Day’ gathering, put on by the Ad Club. The awards honour excellence in daily newspaper advertising. DDB Canada Vancouver snapped up Best of Show for its United Way ad ‘Bridge.’ The shop garnered 16 Extras in total including four gold, seven silver, one bronze and three certificates of excellence. In second place was Rethink with eight awards, followed by Bensimon*Byrne and Taxi, both with seven.
This year marks the Extras’ 15th anniversary. For a complete list of winners, see our Web site.

The ‘Q4 ICA Survey Of Marketing Budgets,’ conducted by NTC Research and based on quarterly information provided by a panel of 270 senior marketing executives drawn from Canada’s top 1,000 corporations, has concluded that total marketing expenditures showed continued growth to the end of 2004. According to the analysis, the main reasons for the increasing numbers were improved business confidence and strong sales numbers to end the year. NTC also notes that the latest rise in budgets was the smallest recorded increase in the survey’s one-and-a-half year history.
The survey continues to point out that of the companies that have set their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, which amounts to approximately two-thirds of the survey panel, over a third are planning to increase their actual spend in 2005. NTC predicts that these numbers will lead to ‘robust growth’ of expenditures in the industry in the coming year.
In NTS’ breakdown of the numbers, media advertising accounted for the largest share of total marketing spend (approx. 39%), though Q4 did not see budget growth for media budgets. This was the only category not to record upward revision, leading to speculation that there was some loss of share. Another possibility for the limited growth, according to NTS, is the diversion of spends from main media towards sales promotion (around 17% of total spend) and direct marketing (about 19% of total spend) which are popular due to lower costs and greater accountability. The Internet category touted the strongest growth in Q4 coming in at 3.5% of total spend. Media ad spend is expected to rise in 2005, outstripping other marketing areas.

Carat Canada, of Toronto, has won the Midas account. While Midas named the media agency earlier this month, the official transition will be today. The business was previously held by MindShare.

Canadians and full-service investment brokers
Upscale Canadians 45+ invest in RRSPs, use convenience banking and full-service brokers.
-4.98 million Canadians (18%) use a full-service investment broker
-They tend to be older – 60% are age 45 or older
-Men (49%) and women (51%) are equally represented among Canadians using full-service investment brokers
-They are upscale – 7% of those using a full-service broker have a personal yearly income of $100,000 or more (2.6 times the national average with this income)
-86% have an RRSP, 33% have stocks, 21% have GICs, 19% have CSBs, and 15% have other bonds. Eight percent have investment real estate.
-73% did not contribute the maximum to their RRSP in the past year
-13% have changed the institution they use for investments in the past year
-36% have a total investment portfolio worth $100,000 or more, which is more than twice the national average having this level of investment
-38% have a telephone banking plan, 47% use an Internet banking plan, and 9% use Internet stock trading
-39% also use a bank/trust company for investments, 8% also use an insurance company for investments, and 4% also use a discount broker
-Radio (89%), TV (87%), daily newspaper (62%) and Internet (60%) are the top four media by yesterday exposure for reaching Canadians who use a full-service investment broker.

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.