Station identity crisis rules supreme with the Roger’s owned Toronto radio station. 

As of 3 p.m. on Friday June 5th, 2009, 92.5 JACK FM became KISS 92.5

First it was CISS and some bad country music (that’s my opinion).  Then KISS with some bad hip hop top 40 stuff that no one listened to according to them, so they became JACK, and even then started playing music to try and compete with Q 107.  If I have the order mixed up, I apologize.

Now its back to KISS and competing with about 5 other stations for this genre.  But, fortunately they claim to be the #1 new hit station in the city, what a relief (note sarcasm).  And commercial free, which has buyers scrambling to get the ratings they planned in the market that have now disappeared.  This is what they told their large following of JACKnation members - http://www.925jackfm.com/ - basically “too bad”.

Brilliantly planned.  Its good to see someone has money to burn in this new economy…

Almost a year in the making, and a proud moment for the sponsor, Becel, the concert came to fruition on April 23, 2009 to further spread the important message.  The show was simulcast in 109 theatres across the country for free.

The evening started with wine and hor doeuvres compliments of Canwest.  The PHD group, honored to be a part of such a wonderful cause represented well, with all the ladies looking smashing in red!!  That color may not have been visible on some of my male colleagues, but I was assured that it was somewhere on them.  My collaborateur who shall remain nameless (I still need my job) thought that was T.M.I, but my guess was they meant red socks (keeping it  g-rated)

The program ran smoothly and on time.  The first performance was by Chantal Kreviazuk, elegant behind the piano, sang her heart out (no pun intended).  I could sing along to most of the songs.  Even though I am not a country fan, I am definitely a Chantal buff.  What stuck in my head was the big guitar (it must have a proper name but having grown up in Zimbabwe with little exposure to such instrument, I can get away with calling it a big guitar) It produced such an amazing sound and the guy who was playing it made it look like it was a piece of cake.

Deborah Cox, accompanied by a massive band was next.  For a woman who had just delivered baby #3 two months earlier, she looked unbelievable and soon had the house on its feet.  She livened the show as she gyrated tirelessly throughout her rendition.  Her last song was the inspirational "Beautiful U R" and had the crowd singing along.

Intermittently, short films documenting the changes in lifestyle made by women struggling with weight and health were shown (some of whom were in the audience).  Their stories touched a lot of hearts and hopefully a lot of people were encouraged to use stairs and of course switch to Becel.

Last but not least was Diana Krall, who left the audience still wanting more.  not having an appreciation for jazz, I am now a beginner fan - her performance was that spectacular.  Just looking at her so drowned into the piano and how she stroke every key with finesse made me feel like taking piano lessons.  She covered some of the songs by Nat King Cole and the one that got the audience giddy was called "Frim Fram Sauce" part of it goes like……

                                       I don’t want French fried potatoes,
                                                  Red ripe tomatoes,
                                                  I’m never satisfied.
                              I want the frim-fram sauce with the ausen fay
                                             With chafafah on the side.

Instead of "I want Frim Fram Sauce" she crooned I want Becel.  Talk about great PR, Unilever couldn’t have asked for more.  I was also a proud moment for the "amazing" PHD team.  She was a perfect ending to a perfect evening.

I am hoping that you will also be inspired to do One Small Thing - my pledge is to use the stairs - what’s yours?

PHD added to its charitable events repertoire on Friday January 30^th with the company’s first annual PHD Ski Day. The 1980’s ski theme event, held at Georgian Peaks Ski Club in Collingwood, brought out a total of 55 skiers and boarders from PHD and media suppliers for a day of fun on the slopes, raising $2500 for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies. The conditions were fantastic making the experience all the more enjoyable.

PHD would like thank all of its sponsors – Onestop, AOL, CTV, NewAd, Stockhouse, Fan 590, Canwest, Rouge Media, Adcentricity, Rogers, MLSE, Heavy.com, Transcontinental, Canoe, Facebook, and Clear Channel – we couldn’t have done it without you!  

A special thank-you as well to the Georgian Peaks Ski Club for being terrific hosts for the day and for putting up with our antics during the après-ski!

See all of you next year for the 2^nd Annual PHD Ski Day.

Thanks,

Geoff Glen, Sean Cunningham, and Paul Paterson

About a month ago the PHD Interactive team was lucky enough to be invited to a breakfast with Microsoft Advertising. At that breakfast we saw a fantastic speaker Kenneth Wong. He was entertaining and informative which made the throbbing pain of your backside in those uncomfortable chairs we always get to sit in at conferences seem numbed. Please follow the link below for video of the presentation on Marketing in a Downturn Economy so that you can also be enlighten on how we can penetrate those closed wallets and make these financial times seem easier for us as a company to service our clients.

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:28be9103-bff2-4d7d-92c4-1d2f7de58293&showPlaylist=true

The Advertising Challenge Blood Drive was a success and PHD played a big part! The winners of the Advertising Challenge are:

Highest Number of Donations (17) = Bensimon Byrne

Highest Percentage of Employees Donating (26%) = Panic and Bob

In all, 107 donations were collected which means the lives of 321 people were saved! People like Lily Palmer, at left, who depends on the generosity of blood donors. Canadian Blood Services sent a big "Thank You!" to all the companies who came out in support of the Advertising Challenge. They were thrilled by the number of companies that took part, the youthfulness of the donors and the number of 1^st time donors!

The Agencies that took part are: Bensimon Byrne, OMD, Due North, Stealing Time, Steam Films, Soft Citizen, Vapor Music, Grip, Edelman Public Relations, Y & R, Creative Niche, Daggerwing, Centennial College, Rogers Media, New Marketing, Panic and Bob, Extreme Group, BBDO, Creative Niche, Doug Agency & PHD

Canadian Blood Services hopes that many of us will continue to donate blood this year, either individually or as a group. Because the need for blood never takes a holiday when the majority of people do, blood is particularly in need during July, August and December.

For more information, visit Canadian Blood Services website: Canadian Blood Services. They have the screening quiz on the website so you can see if you qualify as a donor. (There are several restrictions on travel - basically, if you ever thought about going to England, have family from the UK or like Kate Winslet movies, you cannot give blood. In all seriousness, most people can give, but check the restrictions.)

Couldn’t give blood? Feel free to register for the PARTNERS FOR LIFE program, which puts you in a database in case you ever are a match for bone marrow transplants. All it takes is swabbing your mouth and sending it away. You may never get called, but you could save a life!

Partners For Life

From our friends at springwise.com, this is truly low carbon footprint media…

Realising that green concerns are here to stay, British media agency Curb offers nothing but low-impact advertising. Its clean advertising service (similar to Street Advertising Services and GreenGraffiti, which we featured earlier) uses rainwater to clean logos into grubby pavements, and has been joined by four other services that are both novel and easy on the environment.

Curb creates sand sculptures of all sizes; burns patterns and logos into wood using magnifying glasses; and offers a ‘logrow’ service to cut logos as big as 30m wide into turf. Although each service is handcrafted, the agency is adamant that images are produced exactly as created digitally. Last but not least, graphics can be projected on falling sheets of water to create a memorable display. Household names have already used Curb’s services: Adidas was immortalised in grass, Volkswagen commissioned a sand sculpture and Barack Obama’s face was etched into wood.

Curb claim to be the world’s first and only media agency to be doing this exclusively. Which indicates that there’s space for others in different regions. Start blasting, sculpting, cutting and burning!

Website: www.mindthecurb.com

On the eve of the US presidential Inauguration we are encouraged to think of how we are going to be affected by the New US President. If you were thinking of watching history unfold here is a cool way to do it.  CNN.com Live and Facebook have hooked up to bring all of it to life INSTANTLY. Together they are going to  enable users to connect and engage with each other while watching a live broadcast of Inauguration Day events on CNN.com Live.  CNN.com Live is the Internet’s only multi-stream live video news service. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, CNN.com Live visitors will be able to update their Facebook status directly from the CNN.com Live video player.  They’ll also see status updates from their friends and other Facebook users on CNN.com Live.  The status updates for those using CNN.com Live will then be published in people’s Facebook News Feed with hyperlinked tags that read “via CNN.com Live,” so their friends can click the tag and join the CNN.com Live/Facebook experience.

Tomorrow is an exciting and historic day. Sign up for the event and join the two-way dialogue that will demonstrate the power of the social graph LIVE:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56799103571&ref=nf

Here is where you can watch history taking place:

http://www.cnn.com/live/

.

I made up that second word, sorry.

Its not a big surprise to see YouTube and other video sites carrying political messages for the US election.

Here is the best so far, combining very well known advertising figures to support a candidate.  Very clever…

Google will begin to use it’s ad placement program Adsense in a new territory; In game Ads. The technology has been in development since 2007 and could launch at anytime.  It will work with console games (Xbox 360, PS3), web based and CD-ROM PC games and even mobile phone games.

The real question is, how will gamers take this new advertising from Google?  Personally, I think this is a great way to keep flash based games free for users and should also allow for video ads instead of the static text ads that are a staple of Google’s advertising repertoire. 

http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/30/google-testing-adsense-for-games-in-bid-to-shake-up-in-game-advertising/

Unfortunately, it’s out with the old and in with the new… Almost. CBC has revealed the top five songs contending to be the next “Hockey Night In Canada ” Theme. Viewers will vote for their favorite this Saturday.

I’m sure there is SOME people out there who might consider this vote to be more important than the general election ! (which is on October 14th btw)

It’s a tough act to follow!! What new HNIC song would you vote for??

Have a listen!:

http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/

While your there, you can read up on the creator of the song and more importantly - VOTE!