In a first for its popular Smarties candies, yesterday Nestlé Canada announced a nationwide online package-redesign contest.

Until December 12, consumers are being invited to enter the Gimme Colour contest and - using specially created online design tools - revamp the 50-gram Smarties box. Ten winners will be named in February and actually have their creations featured on Smarties boxes in Canada.

And here's the kicker: for a limited time, all 50-gram Smarties boxes sold in Canada will be virtually colourless. Inside each one will be a unique PIN code for entering the contest. And just to, uh, sweeten the offer, one iPod Shuffle will be awarded randomly each day of the contest's 150-day run.

"We want to give Canadians the opportunity to express their true selves, so we're inviting them to think outside the Smarties box (and possibly) see their design on thousands of Smarties boxes nationwide," says Nestlé Canada marketing manager Paul Hodges.

www.smarties.ca

RBC announced yesterday that it has begun putting its brand logos, and the locations of all its branches and ATMs in Canada and the US, on online maps and GPS navigation systems.

Canada's largest bank by assets and ATM proliferation, RBC also has more than 340 branches and 390 ATMs south of the border. So Canadian consumers will see an RBC icon for RBC Royal Bank, and American users will see the logo for RBC Centura. "This opportunity will allow us to get our logo into the hands of the millions of people who regularly consult online maps," explains Ann Bowman, RBC's VP channel strategy.

Media Contacts, the interactive arm of Havas Media (a unit of global communications group Havas), won the KLM account worldwide after months of pitches by 14 other agencies. Using Artemis - Media Contacts' proprietary data platform - the two companies have already started a project of implementing one ad-serving system across countries to produce optimized media buying.

Media Contacts will manage the cross-media planning and buying, execution of online advertising, affiliate marketing and meta-search. It will have a strategic role in the cross-media effects of these channels towards search engine marketing and e-mail marketing communication strategy. Display buying and coordination will be managed centrally from France.

CanWest has picked up The Two Coreys - a new reality series starring ex-teen heart-throbs Corey Haim (pictured on left) and Corey Feldman - for TVtropolis. Two decades after they first starred together in The Lost Boys, Haim will move in with Feldman and his wife, Susie, as he tries to revive his acting career. It's being dubbed as a marital mix-up and a battle of the buddies.

The half-hour show, coming from A&E in the US, will debut on TVtropolis on Wednesday, August 1, in the 7 pm time slot. The premiere will be followed by back-to-back episodes on Saturday, August 4, at 6 pm ET/PT time slot, with new eps airing each week in that time slot.

CTV has followed ABC's lead and added the Jimmy Kimmel game show Set for Life to its Friday night schedule through August. The show - produced by Endemol USA (Deal or No Deal, 1 vs. 100) - will run for seven weeks in the 8 pm ET slot with Kimmel as host.

Set for Life, which "does not require skill," notes CTV, offers contestants a chance to win a regular paycheque for one month, one year, 20 years or 40 years, depending on a player's ability to choose a white light among 15 random light sticks. Pick a white, win more time on the payroll. Pick a red light, lose time. Contestants are paired with a friend who, as "guardian angel," is meant to steer the other towards a win.

The series will air in simulcast with ABC, which was set to air it last season before it fell off the schedule. ABC also carries Kimmel's late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This story first appeared in Playback Daily.

Thanks to a deal reached last Friday, TSN and Sportsnet will share games and combine resources to cover the eight-game hockey tournament in English Canada, which gets underway Aug. 27. TSN will air games one, four, five and six, while Sportsnet will broadcast games two, three, seven and eight. RDS will cover the entire series in Quebec.

It's the second time TSN, a CTVglobemedia channel, and its rival Sportsnet have teamed up to cover a major sports event, following last year's FIFA World Cup. "We are able to best serve Canadian viewers by teaming up and combining our resources to provide live coverage of all the games from this event," TSN president Phil King explained.

Sportsnet personality Peter Loubardias will provide play-by-play alongside TSN game analyst Pierre McGuire, while TSN's Ryan Rishaug will handle rink-side reporting.

The Canada/Russia Super Series takes place Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, with the first four games played in Russia, while the final four move to Canada.

This story first appeared in Playback Daily.