Carat wins Canadian contract for Freudenberg Household Products
Freudenberg Household Products has awarded a $2 million account to Carat, the world’s largest independent media agency network. FHP is the manufacturer of the Vileda line of household products, including brooms, mops and kitchen accessories. PHD and Mediaedge also bid, but failed to secure the contract for exclusive media planning and buying rights in Canada last week, says Carat’s Pierre Tremblay.
New Slim-Fast campaign hits Cineplex theatres across Canada
Cineplex Galaxy and Unilever Canada have come together to create a marketing buzz around the launch of the new Slim-Fast Carb Zone Bars. Dubbed Carb Zone Girls’ Night out, a series of six special screenings occurred simultaneously across Canada with contest winners treated to a VIP reception and screening party of a major motion picture. The event took place on Thursday November 11 for the launch of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason movie with other special screenings taking place in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The Slim-Fast campaign, developed by Toronto’s GMR, was supported by Cineplex staff handing out 350,000 Carb Xone Bar samples to women in 23 locations across Canada throughout September and October – along with extensive media in print, radio, in-theatre displays and on-line promotion. Contest winners were taken from winning submissions to an online contest posted at www.carbzone.ca.
Let the Performance begin
The curtain has risen on arts and culture publication Performance Magazine. Produced by Mississauga, Ont.-based Entis Communications, the inaugural edition will be home delivered to 90,000 Globe and Mail readers on December 7. Geared to lovers of the arts, Performance is designed to inspire, encourage and supplement the live theatre community in Canada. For several years an in-theatre edition of the magazine has been available at live venues such as the Hummingbird Centre and publisher Joe Marino says the success of this venture ‘has encouraged us to extend the brand.’
Consumer spending on the arts is nearly double that of live sporting events. Other Entis properties include Canadian Hockey Magazine and World of Women’s Golf.
Global to offer 100% closed captioning
The Global Television Network will increase closed captioning levels for the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities to all its programming 24/7 effective January 1, 2005. The policy, which will also apply to all Global-owned television stations, exceeds the captioning levels required by the CRTC.
The policy results from a mediation process between Global; Henry Vlug, a lawyer and advocate for deaf; and the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). Closed captioning sponsorship is popular with advertisers looking to expand the frequency of their campaign.
Survivor: Vanuatu keeps trucking along
The ninth episode of Survivor: Vanuatu drew a total 2+ audience of 2.788 million on Nov. 11. Lea Masters, a 40-year-old drill sergeant was kicked off the island. According to the BBM people meter, the show earned a 10.3 rating among 18-49 year-olds in the Toronto area, while achieving an 18.2 rating in Vancouver. Survivor: Vanuatu airs Thursday nights on Global Television as follows: Manitoba/Saskatchewan at 7 p.m., Ontario/Quebec/British Columbia at 8 p.m., p.m. and Alberta/Maritimes at 9 p.m.
Survivor’s runner-up in the Thursday prime time slot is the hit teen drama The OC, which airs on CTV and captured a total 2+ audience of 1.351 million.
New point-of-sale tool uses holograms to advertise
Prestige Visual International (PVI), a French producer of holographic point-of-sale materials, is launching a unique digitalized technology. Known as ‘Holographing,’ it’s a three-dimensional hologram file, which to the naked eye reveals visual changes and in-depth effects due to being lit with a laser beam.
Images can be printed on large surfaces with costs running $2,336.97 for one square metre. PVI’s production site will be operational in December with a limited production capacity of roughly 50 copies per client.
CBC to air Kurt Browning’s Gotta Skate IV special
CBC Television and four-time World and Canadian champion Kurt Browning present Kurt Browning’s Gotta Skate IV, featuring Grammy award-winner Michael Bolton and Juno recipient Jann Arden, on December 8 at 9 p.m. Browning will be joined by internationally renowned figure skaters Katarina Witt, Elvis Stojko, two-time Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser, and some of the best up-and-comers on the Canadian skating circuit. Bolton will start the show as the full cast of performers skate to the opening number.
CBC airs the world premiere of A Bear Named Winnie
The true story of Winnie the Pooh comes to the small screen when the CBC airs the world premiere of A Bear Named Winnie on December 12 at 8 p.m. The film depicts a Canadian soldier and his friendship with a bear cub he names after his hometown of Winnipeg. Set during the First World War, the film shows how Winnie eventually became the inspiration for A.A. Milne children’s stories.
PMB Factoid
Albertans are 63% more likely to drink cream liqueurs.
People — Passages, Moves & News
CH Television announced that Annette Hamm will be the new co-host of CH Morning Live and Nick Dixon will be joining the CH News team as a reporter and anchor of the News at Eleven. Hamm has been a member of the CH News team since 1986 with her most recent reporting role as the CH crime reporter, while Dixon has been a part of Global News since 2001 with regular reporting contributions on CH Morning Live.
The Advertising Club of Toronto has announced its 2004-2005 board of directors. Rachael MacKenzie of Rogers Publishing continues in her role as president; Michelle Bailey of Eye Return takes on the role of vice-chair, while continuing to act as Golf Day chair; Brian Makse of Axis Database Marketing Group continues in his role as membership director; Paul Alsop of Score Golf joins as business development director; Tamara Bonar of Riddoch Communications returns as finance director; Krysten Cooper of Grip joins as communications director; Theresa Smith of MSN Canada returns as Internet Day chair; Norman Laing of Torstar Media Group returns as Newspaper Day chair; Darren Spratt of Red Cat Media returns as Ski Day and Holiday Party chair; Kelly McGillivray of Transearch Group joins as Out-of-Home Day chair; Jane Bradley of 50 Plus Magazine joins as Magazine Day chair; and Tori Hockin of Echo Advertising joins as Agency Day chair.
Interest in in-game advertising expected to grow as new systems make it more targetable
Canadian advertisers have been rather limited in how involved they could get with in-game advertising since most games have been designed for North American or global consumption. New technologies now have the potential to bring games into the world of traditional media and enable targeting by region and various demographics.
New measurement service gauges ad effectiveness in a DVR world
The very thought of digital video recorders (DVRs) has kept advertisers walking the floors at night and shaking their fists at a device with the potential to take commercial avoidance to a whole level. Will they or won’t they see my ad? If they do, will it have the desired effect?
Kontent launches event marketing subsidiary
Toronto-based Kontent Publishing, the folks behind Inside Entertainment and FQ Magazine, are forming a new, as yet unnamed, event marketing company. ‘This new company’s mission,’ says CEO and group CD Michael King, ‘is to develop, sell and manage Kontent’s event properties and to develop new properties within the fashion, entertainment and pop culture categories. The company will be officially launched January 10. Event and sponsorship marketing vet Deborah Lewis has been hired as VP to lead the new division.
At the same time, Shelagh Tarleton, publisher of FQ Magazine, and Christopher Loudon, editor-in-chief of Inside Entertainment have both been promoted to VP of Kontent Publishing, as has corporate sales director Nathalie Niddam, who has also been named publisher of Inside Entertainment.
New marketing tools extol the virtues of personalized direct mail
Beginning November 12, Xerox’s 1:1 Lab will demonstrate the power and effectiveness of personalized marketing. Developed by Xerox Canada and Terminal van Gogh, a Toronto-based marketing consulting firm, the 1:1 Lab is a team of researchers that allows 10 corporations to pit personalized mail campaigns against traditional direct mail, providing valuable data on response rates, the impact on sales, and cost-effectiveness.
The 1:1 Lab’s main goal is to demonstrate the usefulness of the new medium. Headed by Terminal van Gogh, Trilogy Alliance is a collection of the software, hardware, and people that provide the infrastructure and expertise companies require when developing their own successful personalized marketing campaigns. The Xerox Research Centre of Canada in Mississauga hosts the launch party at 10:30 a.m. and the event will include representatives of the key players and marketing participants.
New system measures influence
New York-based BuzzMetrics, a leader in word-of-mouth research and planning and cofounder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, has announced a new research methodology for opinion research and trend spotting. The company created the world’s first syndicated ‘Influencer Panel’ to continuously track the thousands of individuals who most effectively spread buzz and start trends online. Through its proprietary ‘Discussion Miner’ technology, BuzzMetrics identifies the most influential consumers and then measures the impact of their public commentary across a range of topics. The technology retrieves millions of verbatim discussions from blogs, chat rooms, listserves and product feedback sites, among other channels.
The first practical application of the Influencer Panel methodology is NutritionBuzz, which delivers insights for the health, food and nutrition industries. BuzzMetrics’ clients span virtually every industry, and include GM, Comcast and Hewlett-Packard.
http://www.buzzmetrics.com/
