After 15 years Care Bears come to life again
YTV and Nelvana are coming together to bring the Care Bear franchise to a whole new generation. Produced by Nelvana and Lions Gate, Journey to Joke-a-lot is the first new Care Bears feature in 15 years. The production’s target demographics are children aged three and up and their families with the hope of catching some retro audience as well. The world premiere airs Oct. 11 at 1 p.m. on YTV.
Global’s Train 48 begins second season
The second season of Train 48 kicks off on Sept. 20 (Global TV) and for that extra pull look out for a guest appearance by CFL football star and Argonaut coach Pinball Clemons. A rebroadcast of last season’s finale will air Friday, Sept. 17.
Fleming to head Carat Toronto
Media veteran Cynthia Fleming is heading up Carat Canada’s Toronto office as the new EVP. Fleming has over 20 years of media-focused management experience, most recently at Media Experts where she was responsible for the Toronto office start-up.
Fleming replaces Patrick Walshe who was COO and who moved to Starcom MediaVest as CEO of Canadian operations in the spring. Carat’s clients include P&G, Alberto Culver and Black & Decker.
Events
Outdoor Advertising Association of America presents its Outdoor Creative Seminar and Nontraditional Outdoor Media Forum Sept. 21 NYC 202-833-5566
http://www.oaaa.org/
The L.A. Office Roadshow Sept. 21 LA 310-275-2088
http://www.laoffice.com/rs04
Council of Media Directors of Quebec Annual Conference Sept. 22 Montreal (514) 842-5873 x259
http://www.infopresse.com/journeeinfopresse/2004_medias/
Night of the Media Heavyweights: Round 2 Oct. 4 NYC 212-844-3700
http://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/cmf/2004/
Broadband levels playing field for online and offline ad testing
Delvinia Interactive has brought Millward Brown’s traditional Link ad testing methodology and reliability from the offline to the online world with its AskingMedia broadband platform. The two Toronto-based companies recently conducted a study that tested ads for Nissan and Expedia.ca using offline and online ad methods and found the patterns of results between the two to be similar.
The overall finding was there is no reason to suspect that online and offline samples are not comparable since there is no longer a male skew to the online population, although it does skew younger. In Canada, almost 50% of Internet users have cable or DSL connections. Currently, 70% of all Canadian households and 95% of businesses have some form of online connection.
Free dailies help boost newspaper readership in Toronto and Montreal
The first half of the NADbank 2004 study shows newspaper readership to be strong in Toronto and Montreal with the two free dailies in each market bringing new readers to the medium. Metro Toronto and Métro were already distributed in the cities when 24 Hours and 24 heures-Montréal Métropolitain were launched in the summer of 2003.
WPP/Grey Global: and now there are five…
Britain’s WPP Group, the world’s second biggest ad holding company, whose combined revenue is outpaced only by New York’s Omnicom Group, has beaten the contenders to acquire the last big indie ad outfit, Grey Global Group, in a reported US$1.5 billion deal.
A new mag bows for education advertisers
A team of professional trainers is launching a free quarterly magazine to reach potential course takers. Inventively named, TakingCourses will initially focus on programs available in the Greater Toronto Area. The first issue, with a print run of 48,000, debuts Nov. 18 and will be distributed in the GTA at locations like The YMCA, Loblaws Markets, Mountain Equipment Co-op and public libraries. Street distribution is through Torstar Direct Services’ 1,435 ‘Dream’ boxes.
There are two types of advertisers: course givers – which include the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (cooking and ‘beverage appreciation courses’), Loblaws (also cooking), George Brown Community College and TVO’s Independent Learning Centre (remote learning) – and general advertisers such as Weight Watchers and Pizza Pizza. The one-time rate for a full-page tabloid ad is $4,000. Taking Courses Ltd., co-owned by Linda Partner and publisher Douglas Chaddock, is planning regional growth. An Ottawa issue will launch with a spring edition, as well as a Hamilton edition, followed by summer launches for Oshawa, Ont. and the Niagara region.
http://www.takingcourses.com/samples
Cosmetics gets makeover
Changes are afoot at Canada’s beauty trade magazine, Cosmetics. The September issue showcases a complete redesign.
As well, for the first time in its 33-year history, the Rogers pub will be available on newsstands across the country. It will debut Sept. 17 and retail for $7. Cost for a full-page, four-colour ad is $6,365.
http://www.bizlink.com/cosmetics.htm
Ontario hockey newspapers merge
Rinkside, a publication controlled by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, and Ontario Hockey Now, published by Hockey Now Communications, have merged, effective Sept. 1. The deal means OMHA communities will see an increase from eight issues a year to 11, while Hockey Now will add 175 new communities to its distribution network. Coverage is of grassroots hockey news.
The merged pub will be called Ontario Hockey Now. It’s 50,000 circulation is free, with distribution mainly in hockey arenas. The cost of a full-page, four-colour ad is $3,350.
http://ontariohockey.com/ohn/index.asp
Osprey expands purvue
Markham, Ont.-based Osprey Media Group has purchased three weekly newspapers and a specialty wine magazine. The weeklies include The Times and The Echo, both serving Haliburton County in Ontario and The Mid North Monitor, serving Espanola, Ont. Also in the harvest is Vines, a wine-culture magazine based in St. Catharines, Ont.
Osprey parent company, Osprey Media Income Fund, publishes 21 daily newspapers and 35 weeklies as well as shopping guides, magazines, telephone directories and other publications.
http://ospreymediagroup.com/corporate/Default.asp?section=home
New system slices consumers into 66 segments
Environics Analytics has linked geodemographics to psychographics with PrizmCE, a new consumer segmentation system that divides Canadians into 66 lifestyle types. The system draws from StatsCan census data, PMB and BBM Canada (RTS) for media behaviour and product preferences, Ipsos-Reid for financial behaviour and Environics Research for vehicle ownership. The system also enables users to put together direct marketing programs by selecting names from InfoCanada’s list of 12 million households according to PrizmCE segments.
Lifestyle groupings, for example, put the wealthiest Canadians under Cosmopolitan Elite, and tech-savvy, highly-educated, urban adults under the Young Digerati banner. In addition, there are 11 ethnic lifestyle types, with three segments dominated by Asian immigrants, one filled with Italians and others consisting of large concentrations of South Asian and European immigrants. There are also 15 Francophone clusters mostly concentrated in Quebec — segments with names like Les Chics, Mini Van & Vin Rouge and Quebec Rustics.
http://www.environicsanalytics.ca/
Joey not so dumb after all
Critics might question the show-supporting potential of Joey‘s dumb-joke shtick, but audiences were loyal to this old Friend. Global Television won the 8 p.m. time-slot on Thursday with the series premiere of Joey, the Friends spin-off starring Matt Leblanc. It was the highest-rated show of the night, earning a 9.1 rating among adults 18 to 49 in the Toronto market, according to BBM people meter data. The episode drew 1.521 million (18 to 49) nationally, with a 2+ audience of 2.284 million. In Vancouver, Joey nabbed a 13.7 rating among 18-to-49s.
The 90-minute premiere of The Apprentice also won its slot for Global, beating the second half of Canadian Idol and CSI with an 8.5 rating among adults 18 to 49 in Toronto. The episode drew 1.305 million (18 to 49) nationally, with a 2+ audience of 1.890 million. In Vancouver, The Apprentice earned a 15.2 rating among adults 18 to 49.
Aboriginal TV Network joins BBM Canada
BBM Canada announced today that the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) has joined BBM as a Meter and Diary Broadcast member.
Now running for five years, APTN airs programming by, for and about Aboriginal peoples – through documentaries, news magazines, dramas and educational programs. APTN broadcasts 60% in English, 15% in French and 25% in a variety of Aboriginal languages. APTN program skeds will now be available in MicroBBM and Infosys.
http://www.aptn.ca/
Keatley Films adds a reality appetizer to Godiva’s menu
Vancouver’s Keatley Films is cooking up a little promotional innovation as a side dish to a new six-episode CHUM restaurant drama, Godiva’s, set in Vancouver. Check, Please is planned as a six-episode talent search that will run concurrently with Godiva’s in January across the CHUM group of stations. Check, Please is a cross-Canada, open-audition contest to find a full, regular cast member for season two of Godiva’s, assuming that season two is a go. The twist in this Canadian Idol-like’ competition is that only fulltime restaurant employees can audition – which shouldn’t be a stretch since, as the stereotype goes, most restaurant workers are unemployed actors, anyway. Check, Please details were still being worked out at press time, but the schedule calls for audition stops in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
The drama, meanwhile, turns up the heat when production gets rolling in Vancouver Sept. 30 to Nov. 22. Godiva’s started life as a 13-episode pitch, shrunk to an MOW in last year’s funding crunch at the Canadian Television Fund, and grew again to six episodes when new money was found. In the series, Godiva‘s is an upscale fine-dining restaurant that is trying to find its way through its eclectic buffet of multi-ethnic characters. As the prodco is currently ‘building a restaurant from scratch’ there are still product placement opps.
