Gays and lesbians are most likely to buy products from marketers addressing the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) community in their advertising according to Out On The Street, the latest syndicated study from Toronto-based Solutions Research Group (srgnet.com).

Ken LeClair, SRG's director research development, says the findings confirm a very attractive target for marketers: "The LGBT population is in the higher income bracket. About 20% of our sample had household income of $100,000 or more compared with about 13% of the population overall. About 23% had a $40,000 or less income, versus a 30% average nationally. There is also definitely an education skew. Over 50% are university educated versus 34% nationally."

SRG hit the pavement during Toronto's Pride festivities in late June to question attendees about their attitudes towards marketing, sponsorship, media preferences, and use of selected products and services. The study examines the characteristics and spending of attendees from both within and outside the GTA and looks at lesbians separately and as part of the larger gay market.
Out On The Street survey respondents showed a tendency to be early adopters of new products and services with a higher penetration of cellphone ownership, texting and Internet use at home. Read More

Media pundits have been adamant that to succeed in the new mediaverse, agencies require new ways of thinking. Curious as to who these new thinkers were, and what they were thinking, strategy and Media in Canada canvassed the industry, asking media shops to single out their top innovative and strategic recruits - one of which Media in Canada will profile in each issue over the coming weeks.

Caroline Moul,
Digital media strategist PHD IQ, Toronto

Age: 24

Background: Moul took the advertising program at Sheridan College and started at PHD four years ago, where one of her first duties was online optimization for the Intel campaign. Last year, about 90% of her time was devoted to working on online campaigns for about half of PHD's clients. In January, the agency officially formed a specific unit for online and interactive strategies.

Claim to fame: Designed with the strategy "How does the Fit fit you?," the Honda Canada campaign featured Honda's Fit model and showed how all the different things that happen in life fit into the Fit - with the car moving across the Yahoo homepage, its trunk opening and all the various channels that sit on the page's menu bar popping out and going to their usual spots on the page. Read More

According to the first comprehensive national survey of podcasting in Canada, the baby boom generation is taking to podcasting at almost double the rate of users under 24. Prepared by Sequentia Communications and Caprica Interactive Marketing and released yesterday, the survey found that the term "podcast" was familiar to fully 77% of those surveyed, and 67% said they were interested in downloading one.

"Podcasting is moving away from early adopters and into the mainstream, and is no longer synonymous with young, tech-savvy men," says Sequentia president Jen Evans. Adds Caprica president Leesa Barnes: "Although Canadians rely on other sources of information, podcasts are quickly becoming integrated into their daily consumption of news and entertainment. This survey also shows that Canadians will become impatient with podcasts that fall below their standards. Content is indeed king and this old adage holds true to podcasts as well."

The top 5 podcasts among those surveyed include TWIT/This Week in Technology (Canada), The Ricky Gervais Show (U.K.), Quirks and Quarks (Canada), Lost (U.S.) and CommandN (Canada). The report is downloadable from www.canadianpodcastlistenerssurvey.ca. Read More

News too grim, entertainment captures most top spots - BBM TV Top 30 for July 24-30, 2006

Maybe it's because the news is too grim, maybe it's just the prevailing summer mood, but entertainment shows nabbed five of the six top spots last week. For a list of the top 30 TV shows for the week of July 24-30, 2006, according to BBM, please click the links below:

National
Ontario
Vancouver
Toronto
Quebec

Four of CHUM's music and entertainment channels have been added to the MobiTV Canada line-up. Aimed at mobile television viewers who are interested in compelling, bite-sized content such as music videos and entertainment news, the channels whose programming is going mobile are: MuchMusic, Star!: Canada, MuchVibe and MuchMoreRetro.

The addition of the CHUM properties for MobiTV Canada follows the launch of other key programming content earlier this summer: The Learning Channel, Toonworld TV Classics, FOX Sports, Comedy Time, MAXX Sports, MAXX LOOK and SPEED Channel were made available to viewers in May and June of this year. This now brings the total number of channels to 22, ranging from news, sports and weather to premier music and entertainment content, available on 16 handsets on the three major carriers in Canada.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has filed an intervention to Bell Canada's application to the CRTC to carry satellite subscription radio. CAB stated that, while it "does not oppose the application by Bell in principle, the application raises a number of matters that need to be addressed by the Commission before authorizing the distribution of subscription radio services by Bell or by broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) in general."

In particular, CAB noted that "this new method of distribution will change the underlying business plans of the satellite radio undertakings, and that if a BDU is to distribute these sorts of services, they must provide a majority of Canadian audio programming channels." CAB also expressed concern about the challenge to traditional radio programming.

www.cab-acr.ca

Toronto-based Wild on Media has become the Canadian sales agent for E.B. Games, a leading worldwide gaming retailer. The deal covers 261 retail stores across Canada and includes video gaming on in-store screens and other promotional opportunities such as sampling, couponing and bag printing. E.B. Games cites 66 million customer visits annually, 62% males 18-34.

Well known for its giant skymurals, Wild on Media recently concluded an ambitious project to promote the release of Superman Returns, for which helicopters towed 8,500 sq-ft banners over Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary during major festivals including Canada Day, the Toronto Grand Prix and the Calgary Stampede.

wildonmedia.com

Aimed at providing advertisers, agencies and publishers with up-to-date information on the readership of major Canadian medical publications, the Print Measurement Bureau's annual Medical Media Study (MMS 2006) was released this week. PMB used a national random sample of 3,000 physicians and examined more than 30 medical publications directed to GP's and physicians in several medical specialties. For the first time, the publications include National Review of Medicine and Magazine Santé inc.

The complete study, which achieves an exceptionally high level response rate of over 45% among Canadian physicians, is available to PMB members.

www.pmb.ca

P&G dominated once again, but Effem Foods soared from 12th spot last week to number 2, while Bell Globemedia tumbled from 5th place to 12th and GM went from number 3 to number 13. 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. Check out others topping the charts and which brands had the most new spots.
Read More

GM and Rogers Home Phone took the top two spots again, but the Canadian National Exhibition bumped the Ontario Lottery off the list and Toronto Hydro zoomed from number 33 to number 9. Check out others topping the radio charts for the week of July 24-30, 2006.

Spot Ten Categories
Spot Ten Canada Rank

After last week's widespread coverage of its naming of John St as its new creative AOR, Heinz Canada has been fielding a lot of queries about whether it also switched media AORs. The answer is no. Genesis Media is still on board.

As the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) released its fall schedule this week, it also boasted a couple of coups: being named host broadcaster of the 2007 Canada Winter Games, and adding "coast to coast to coast" streaming of its three daily newscasts. Total visits to the net's website had already topped 500,000 before live streaming news was added in June.

One-third more high-profile movies will air in the coming season than last year, delivering on average 43,000 adults 18+ and 21,000 adults 25-54. "By the way," points out Mike Peterkin, APTN's DR sales and business development, "the average age of Aboriginal Peoples is 25 compared to 38 for other Canadians." Read More

Talk about alternative viewing choices. Throughout August, CBC Newsworld is airing 14 Passionate Eye documentaries that are all billed as potentially shocking. Included are tonight's The Big V, a look at men and women who choose celibacy, new looks at the world's first atomic attack on Hiroshima and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as a doc about Prince Harry's work with orphans in Lesotho (both timed to coincide with the International AIDS Conference that kicks off in Toronto Aug. 13). Also in the series are Frankensteer, an examination of the factors that are producing bovine diseases, Runaway Grooms and New Orleans: Anatomy of a Disaster.

Aug. 7-10
Search Engine Strategies
San Jose, CA
www.searchenginestrategies.com

Touted as the largest international gathering of search engine marketers and companies working in this sector.

Sept. 20-22
INMA 35th Annual Europe Conference
Barcelona
www.inma.org

The International Newspaper Marketing Association's 35th Annual Europe Conference in Barcelona, Spain, will look at such topics as restructuring newsrooms to work across multiple platforms. There will also be a trade show featuring vendors ranging from promo companies to research organizations.

After customizing promotional strategies at Teletoon since 1997, Emma Fachini has become director of sales promotion, overseeing both the Toronto and Montreal sales promotions teams, working with the Astral and Corus sales arms, and responsible for the continued growth of interactive sales. To assist Fachini, Teletoon has hired Christine MacLaurin - formerly an online marketing specialist freelancing for C3 Online Marketing, Darius Films and Warner Bros. Previously, she was a senior account manager at Toronto.com and interactive media manager at ChumCity.

To enhance its ability to offer media buyers a one-stop solution to reach Canadian online consumers across such premium content channels as CNET, Maxim and Toronto.com, Toronto's Olive Canada Network has made two new appointments.

Kristie Painting is now director of sales after being strategic account executive at Yahoo! Canada and selling online media at DoubleClick Canada. Darren Hardeman is now Olive's director of operations and audience. He was formerly group account director at Media Buying Services and manager of digital media at Mindshare Canada.