Virgin Mobile Canada has put the planning of its new brand in the hands of Wills & Co. and the media agency has already scored big with Global's Rock Star: Supernova. Virgin Mobile Canada will have virtual brand insertion in each episode of Rock Star this season and will sponsor ET Canada's Rock Star updates which air throughout Global's weekly primetime schedule.

Each week, Global reviews the upcoming episode the day before it airs and presents the potential options for placement to Wills & Co. While the show participants don't actually interact with the product, the brand does have high visibility within the show. Last week's episode, for example, featured the Virgin Mobile Canada logo at the bottom of the pool at the "rock star" mansion. The ET Canada updates, which feature Virgin Mobile Canada branded opening and closing billboards, will also show the clip from the previous week featuring the virtual insertion.

Jeff Wills, President of Wills & Co., felt that Rock Star was the perfect match for the new Virgin position and chose to go with the program over Canadian Idol because of Virgin's historical association with rock and roll. The official new brand position for Virgin Mobile Canada doesn't roll out until next month but you can catch sneak peeks and the new company verbiage within the Rock Star placements. Read More

Starbucks is pushing two new drinks, Iced Starbucks Coffee and Iced Tazo Tea, through a multi-tiered cross-Canada campaign dubbed Summer's here...It's time to chill!, orchestrated with the help of Consumer Impact Marketing (CIM). The campaign includes an out-of-home sampling promotion at grocery stores in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto as well as a print element in the Globe & Mail that includes a recipe insert. The insert features summer drink and BBQ recipes developed by The Food Network's License to Grill host Rob Rainford. Starbucks will air spots on The Food Network to complement the insert and will run an on-line contest in conjunction with the other promo elements. The campaign, which is already under way, will wrap in August.

While we Canadians may have trouble with penalty shootouts in our beloved hockey games, we apparently don't have the same issues with soccer games. According to the numbers, four million people watched as Fabio Grosso scored the game winning penalty kick to give Italy its fourth World Cup title - the largest Canadian audience ever for a World Cup match. CTV, which aired the game, reported a national average of 2.84 million viewers which was also a record high for the event and a 98% increase in viewership of the World Cup since 2002 when CBC carried the event.

TSN and Sportsnet also benefited from high audience numbers helped in part because all 64 finals matches were broadcast live and in HD. TSN raked in over a million and a half viewers for England's quarter-final loss to Portugal while Sportsnet scored a slightly smaller audience high during the Germany-Italy semi-final match of 1.180 million viewers.

For a list of the top 30 TV shows for the week of July 3-9, 2006, according to BBM, please click the links below:

National
Ontario
Toronto
Quebec
Vancouver

Canadian Geographic will be increasing its frequency to eight issues per year. The new pub sked includes two themed issues of Canadian Geographic Travel which will come out later this year in November (the street date is actually Oct. 19) and again in May 2007. Canadian Geographic will also roll out a companion website for the travel issues featuring their highly touted "Canadian Atlas Online" through www.canadiangeographic.ca. Canadian Geographic has a paid circ of roughly 220,000 with 40% of its readers living in Ontario.

After a week at the top, Unilever slipped to number five while Procter & Gamble took back the top spot. This info was gathered through Montreal-based ELODA's online TV ad tracking, auditing and viewing services. All data supplied is based on the ELODA recording grid. Read More

The 25 to 54 demo is now attracting 63% of all national radio ad dollars according to the Q3 report from Canadian Broadcast Sales (CBS). Fifty percent of the spending during that period was directed towards the general demo with the remaining dollars targeting women 25 to 54 (8.7%) and men 25 to 54 (4.7%).

Year to date, radio ad spending is up 2.6% over last year and CBS reports that bookings for Q4 and Q1 2007 are also tracking ahead of previous years.

The top five categories, accounting for over 50% of national spending on CBS-represented stations, were retail $5.3 million (13.7%); automotive $4.9 million (12.7% share); financial $3 million (7.7%); government/federal/provincial $2.9 million (7.5%); and telecommunications $2.5 million (6.5%).

The computer/software category increased ad spending by 229% on CBS stations during Q3, followed by insurance (104%); auto aftermarket (73%); Internet/technology (37%); and movies/media.

GM and its "Canada Wide Clearance" kept the number one position while Canadian Tire moved up almost 200 spots to crack the top ten. Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market for the week of July 3-9, 2006.

www.mediamonitors.com

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Country music star Billy Ray Cyrus returns to TV as the widowed father and professional manager of a Malibu, California, teen who's leading a double life on Hannah Montana. The 26-episode series debuts on Family Aug. 4 at 5:35 p.m. ET/PT after a successful season-one run on the Disney Channel in the U.S.

The actor's real-life daughter, Miley Cyrus, plays a seemingly average 14-year-old who's actually an international pop star when she's not in school in this live-action comedy series from It's a Laugh Productions. Executive-produced by Steven Peterman and Michael Poryes, it was created by Poryes with Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien.

Nov. 5-7

CAB 80th Anniversary Convention

Vancouver

www.cab-acr.ca

Dubbed "New Realities, New Rules," the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' big 8-0 will be celebrated with a two-day conference tackling the challenges presented to broadcasters by the explosion of new digital technologies, plus the intense regulatory review that is prompting. The convention will also celebrate excellence in Canadian broadcasting with various awards presentations, culminating in the prestigious Gold Ribbon Awards Gala.

Media In Canada is pleased to introduce Terry Poulton as our new writer. Terry has worked in the industry for years, including a stint at the Toronto Star as television columnist and has been a regular contributor to our sister publication strategy since 2000. While she gets into the swing of things on our end, feel free to give her a call or drop her an email to let her know what new and exciting projects you're working on or just to touch base to welcome her to the biz. Terry can be reached at 416-408-2300 ext. 252 or by email at tpoulton@brunico.com