Now in beta testing for major US marketers, these RFID-powered babies do everything but sign shoppers' credit cards. Read More

In what's probably the most unusual Valentine's Day promo ever, Dentsu Canada is literally resorting to bathroom humour, plus a few other deliberately outrageous buzz-generating activities, to spark attention for a private equity firm's "I Hate My Partner" initiative. Read More

Gone are the days of quiet elevator Phil Collins muzak. CTV Montreal and Montreal-based Power Medias recently announced a partnership that will bring more news programming and advertising to seven office tower elevators in the city.

Power Medias, which will handle ad sales for the network, is installing 15-inch HD screens in the elevators of Montreal's major skyscrapers. The installations are expected to be complete by April. CTV Montreal will provide anglophone news and programming to the Power High Definition Office Tower Elevator Network. Francophone content will be provided by another network. Power Medias marketing and sales director Sammy Atsaidis says the network should provide advertisers with an estimated 70,000 weekly impressions (for all seven buildings).

In 2005, Power Medias led the way for innovative new advertising venues in Quebec, installing LCD ad screens in paper dispensers, hand dryers and stand-alone units installed in public bathrooms.

The Best New Product Awards wrapped up on Feb. 8 in Toronto, but the buzz is only beginning for the online home of the massive national survey. Major OOH agencies are rolling out a poster campaign to push grocery shoppers to get involved at BestNewProducts.ca. Expect to hear about dogs ending their hunger strikes... Read More

Millionaires buy cars that often cost about the same amount as a house does for the rest of us. And that's the kind of life Planet Luxury explores in exotic locations around the world. Premiering on CTV's Travel + Escape on Feb. 19 in the 8:30 pm ET time slot, the five-ep run will examine some of the finest luxury items the world has to offer, aimed at the richest of the rich.

Extravagant cars, lavish perfumes - Planet Luxury will explore why these products cost so much, who's snapping them up, and how things like a $1.2 million Blancpain 1735 wristwatch is made.

Matt Holland is CTV's new manager of development and production in Quebec, and has been posted to Montreal, where he will field pitches for the network and its many specialty channels.

Holland - a screenwriter (Moose TV, Gone Dark) and former analyst at Telefilm Canada - will also oversee the net's development slate in the province.

A version of this story first appeared in Playback Daily.