MuchMusic has turned its country-wide VJ search into a reality show - and Procter & Gamble is along for the ride as promo partner. MuchMusic VJ Search: the Series is slated to air in January 2006. CHUM director of marketing Susan Arthur says: "All aspects of the production will create unique opportunities for us to work together - from event marketing and product integration, right through to special features during the series finale."

Arthur adds that there will be opps for other marketers to get involved on a smaller scale. The net decided to offer up an exclusive sponsorship in response to the common request Arthur hears from advertisers to really "own" a CHUM property. The VJ Search is unique, so Arthur and her team brainstormed ways to make it bigger and thus more appealing to sponsors. "The logical next step was creating a reality show," she says. "This is the biggest thing I've done in my 15 years at CHUM." Read More

Ad-ID has been adopted by 300 major advertisers south of the border since launching this spring and is getting a second look in Canada.

"We've reactivated our interest in examining this closer," says Bob Reaume, VP of media and research for the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). Read More

The media world is changing rapidly but media measurement is not keeping pace. That's the consensus of users of syndicated audience research data in the U.S. who were surveyed earlier this year by the New York-based Advertising Research Foundation (ARF, arfsite.org.) The organization issued the results in a report called Accountability of Audience Measurement: A Survey of Industry Concerns Regarding Media Measurement Services.
The survey looked at online, print, radio and television and posed as its key question: "What are the top three issues or concerns that you have about your current measurement service(s) which reflect things they are not doing - or doing inadequately?"
For each of the four media, the top three issues were:
ß The lack of adaptability of the current measurement tools to meet changing media and planning needs.
ß Sample quality.
ß Sample size and sample representativeness.
Respondents also commented about difficulties in integrating data from the various measurement data.
Other online measurement issues included the opinion that online metrics fall short of a currency because they lack demographically defined audiences and the ability to reliably accumulate those over standard time periods.
Print measurement drew comments about the limitation of the current survey methods, that not enough magazines are measured and the number of measures for each magazine is inadequate. In addition, agency researchers and planners want to reduce the time required to get product and brand definitions updated in the syndicated surveys.
Radio diaries were said to be relics of the past and a flawed, outdated methodology. Respondents believe that the PPM would offer greater consistency and comparability across time and media.
Television measurement received the most comments, primarily that the ratings provider (Nielsen Media Research in the U.S.) needs to resolve problems more promptly and be much faster to address the pace of change in TV technology. Respondents felt that out-of-home TV viewing was not measured adequately and that there was a need for commercial ratings instead of program segment ratings.
The ARF will be exploring the audience measurement further with a forum Sept. 29 during Advertising Week in New York. Read More

Please open the attached link to view BBM's Commercial Television Tracking Service GRPS by week and month for Vancouver covering the broadcast months of July 04 to July 2005 inclusive. GRPS are based on commercial minute ratings for Adults 25-54.

Vancouver

Brand integration's most ardent converts seem to be the automakers, who are on a mission to place product everywhere, from magazines to IM. Chrysler's doing it theatrically. The upcoming feature Cry Wolf, to be released later this month by Rogue Pictures, is a film by this year's Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival winner Jeff Wadlow. According to the Chrysler film Web site (http://www.chrysler.com/film/home_flash.html), small bit parts in the film are owned by auto brands PT 'Crazy' Cruiser and 'Killah' Crossfire. To promo the film, the automaker, along with partner AOL, have created a mobile trivia game to be played on Instant Messenger (IM) called "IM on the Hunt."

Seems AOL's been test-driving other auto brands. Chevy has signed on as a major sponsor in AOL's new online reality show The Biz. The Web-based reality show pits contestants against each other for a chance to run a record label. So far, more than 9,000 entries have been received. The site, at http://www.thebiz.com/, goes live next week.

All this makes good business sense according to findings from NYC-based research firm Simmons. The company just announced the release of its Spring 2005 National Consumer Studies and the hot topic is product placement. Findings show that 51% don't mind brand name products in TV shows, while 46% say they don't mind brand names in movies. The study also shows that 20% remember brand names used by characters in films. http://www.smrb.com/products.html Read More

TELETOON has announced new series development deals, spanning the gamut of their audience from kids to young adults.

Foolish Girl, from Toronto-based CCI Entertainment, follows the misadventures of a neurotic, guy-needing, and angst-ridden 17-year-old girl. The darkly humoured content skews female. Road Hogs, from Montreal-based producers Cité-Amérique, is designed for the older "Detour" crowd and brings the time-honoured road movie format to animated TV when two teens set out for the summer hoping to meet as many girls as possible. However the net wants to attract both males and females with this series.

Jimmy Two-Shoes, from Toronto-based Breakthrough Entertainment, is aimed at kids 10-12 and features an ever-optimistic Jimmy who, even if sent to hell instead of heaven upon his death, retains his cheery demeanour. The net is thinking after-school line-up. Iggy Arbuckle Nature Freak, from Toronto-based Blueprint Entertainment, targets six- to nine-year-olds with the adventures of a "nature freak" pig and his sidekick Jiggers, a daredevil beaver.

The former Toronto1 has rebranded as Sun TV and has unveiled its slate of shows for fall. They're a combination of local shows and U.S. pick-ups.

Original programming includes Inside Jam (weekdays at 7 p.m.), an hour of entertainment news coverage focused on Toronto. The Grill Room (weekdays at 10:30 p.m.) offers roundtable sports talk with stars, writers and critics. Street Eats looks at the ethnic food specialties Toronto and the GTA have to offer Saturdays at 1 p.m. Intimate Yoga (weekdays at 6 a.m.) combines yoga with life coaching while Echo (Saturdays at 1:30 p.m.) profiles the achievements of successful South Asian, Asian and black Torontonians.

U.S. pick-ups include 24 (Sundays and 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.); Charmed (Fridays at 9 p.m.); George Lopez (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.); Freddie (Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.); Girlfriends (weekdays at 6 p.m. with new episodes airing Fridays at 10 p.m.); The Jerry Springer Show (weekdays at midnight); Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.) and a new reality series Cold Turkey (Sundays at 10 p.m.), which tricks 10 unsuspecting chain smokers into giving up the cigs for 24 days. Read More

The erstwhile CBC reality/comedy series, Kenny vs. Spenny will be coming to Showcase this fall. The action revolves around the relationship and rivalry between two men who really just need to get a life. Fifteen new eps will air Sundays at 9:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 16. Target aud is males 18-34.