Albertans are 63% more likely to drink cream liqueurs.

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.

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 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/

Comparing retail sales in Canada and the U.S. provides insight on what the leading developments are in the U.S. and which might be expected to arrive next in Canada. The northward migration of retail practices also acts as a test, because only the best U.S. retail ideas are likely to make the journey here. So says a new report from Toronto-based Kubas Consultants, ‘Comparing Retail in the United States and Canada.’
Despite the many differences between the two countries, including culture, climate and population, the report found that retail differences have more to do with who the retailers are, rather than who their customers are what choices people have of where to shop. For example, while both U.S. and Canadian consumers spend practically the same 29% of their respective gross domestic product in retail outlets, combination stores (superstores and warehouse clubs selling both general merchandise and food) are more developed in the U.S. This affects comparisons in almost every other retail sector, especially grocery. For a PDF of the full report, visit http://www.kubas.com.