Today, Sympatico and MSN announced their split.

Both will begin operating independently as of tonight at midnight!

For Sympatico.ca, the change is part of a three-year agreement in which Sympatico.ca and Microsoft will continue to exchange traffic while allowing Sympatico.ca to benefit from greater editorial independence and advertising flexibility.  Sympatico.ca will continue to leverage Bing as a search engine and offer Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger inventory to Canadian advertisers.

As well, Canada’s popular default homepage address www.sympatico.msn.ca, will now be redirected to www.sympatico.ca.

All of our popular content channels that 6.8 million Canadians have come to know and love such as Celebedge.ca, Fashionism.ca, InMusic.ca, Sync.ca, Push.ca and others, will remain available exclusively via the Sympatico.ca portal.  In addition, we announced the launch of four new portal channels today: Autos, InMovies.ca, YourMoney.ca and Best Health, a Reader’s Digest publication.

For MSN.ca,the change will be a simpler and more connected online experience for consumers and advertisers.  Publically available on September 1^st, 2009, MSN.ca will deliver the latest information relevant to Canadians including breaking news, sports scores, gossip, entertainment, and much more—all within a Canadian context and from the experts who know the topics best. As well, MSN.ca will introduce the unique ‘signed-in’ experience of using Windows Live™ Hotmail®, and Bing.ca embedded into the homepage.

Microsoft Advertising now provides a multiplatform digital solutions helping connect with consumers across popular digital touch points including Windows Live™ Hotmail, Windows Live™ Messenger, Windows® Mobile, Xbox®, Microsoft® Media Network, Bing.ca and now, the all-new MSN.ca portal.

The PHD digital folk await patient to see the traffic numbers adjust to the changes. The separation ends the #1 placement and nobody is quite sure who will take the podium.

Don’t forget to check out www.sympatico.ca and msn.ca to see if you can spot the difference!

Who do you think will become #1?

With the pilot episode shot in Toronto and approximately $10 million dollars invested on the pilot alone, Fox’s ‘Fringe’ has the financial backing for it to be television’s next big hit.  Fox and JJ Abrams look to take advantage of what most critics are calling a soft Fall season for new shows premiering this Fall.

The pilot was never released by Fox/JJ Abrams with fear that it would leak onto the web.  However, we got the opportunity to view the pilot here at PHD.  The pilot was suspenseful and kept you entertained, if I could explain it to those whom have not seen the pilot, I would describe ‘Fringe’ as “X-Files meets Lost”.  I think J.J Abrams and the folks at Fox only hope Fringe can become half the cult hit that X-Files was…

Only time will tell.

Here are 2 articles/perspectives from today’s Toronto Sun and Toronto Star…. 

From left, John Noble, Anna Torv, Jasika Nicole and Vancouver expat Joshua Jackson are on the trail of a biological terrorist threat in Fox drama Fringe.

Leaked on the Internet and popular with critics, Fox drama could be next cult phenomenon

See the entire Toronto Star  article at http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Television/article/460219

See the Toronto Sun article at:

http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Television/2008/07/15/6160466-sun.html

Gino Di Giulio

Phd

In the spirit of sharing some stunning creative for one of our clients (and to give myself a kick-start into our blogging world here!), please have a look at this British television ad for Honda/Acura. For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, prepare to be dazzled! The description accompanying this video reads as follows:

If you thought that the people who set up a room full of dominoes to have them knocked over later was amazing, you haven’t seen anything yet. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in these images. Everything that you see happened in real time exactly as you see it. The recording required 606 takes and in the first 605 takes there always was something, usually of minor importance, that didn’t work.

It was necessary for the recording team to install the set-up time after time and it took several weeks working day and night to achieve this effect. The recording cost 6 million dollars and it took 3 months to finish, including the engineering design of the sequence. The duration of the video is only 2 minutes, but every time that Honda shows the commercial on British television, they make enough money to support any of us for the rest of our lives.

However, this commercial has turned out to be the most displayed in the history of the Internet. Honda execs think that it will pay for itself simply because of the free showings (as Honda is not paying one cent for you to see it). When Honda senior execs viewed it, they immediately approved it without hesitation-including costs.

There are only six Honda Accords built by hand in the whole world, and to the horror of Honda engineers, the recording team disassembled two of them for the recording. Everything you see in the sequence (besides the walls, floor, ramp and untouched Honda Accord) is part of those two automobiles.

The voice is that of Garrison Keiller.

The commercial was so well received by Honda execs when they saw it, that their first comment was how amazing the computer graphics were. They almost fell out of their chairs when told that the recording was real without any graphics manipulation.

By the way, about the wind shield wipers in the new Honda Accords, they are sensitive to water and designed to start working as soon as they get wet.

Enjoy!!

The second annual Global Media Festival just wrapped up Tuesday night. It was 2 days of focus on the future of media. The organizers are C Squared the group behind Cream Magazine , which is dedicated to regularly celebrating the best of global media achievement. And although the organizers opted not to name this conference, for me the resounding theme was one of juxtaposition.

From the outset I was struck by the juxtaposition of a conference dedicated to the digital future of communications being held in the ancient city of Venice. There was plenty of juxtaposition of old and new. From featured speakers like advertising legend Sir John Hegarty to dot come millionaire and MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer… Venice was often a study in contradictions.

There was the juxtaposition of the shortage of natural and human resources and a healthy discussion about the industry need to address both. On Day 2, Peter Seligmann, the CEO of Conservation International addressed the conference on the issue of sustainability. He implored all of us in the communications business to use our considerable influence to make a difference. It was certainly a proud moment for PHD when the efforts behind PHD Sustain were recognized. I also learned that PHD has just recently entered into a pro bono relationship to work with Conservation International, which is great and inspiring news.

Other interesting juxtapositions that became apparent in Venice:

With the juxtaposition of the old mass communication model of one-to-many migrating quickly to become one-to-one (with the rise of social media and peer-to-peer communication) there was a very interesting observation that suggests … in the heyday of mass communication, brands used to tell stories to consumers. In the new digital age of communications, consumers will tell stories about brands.

There was the juxtaposition that Sir John Hegarty alluded to that revolves around experience. His thought for the new age is that we all come from a world where we learn and then do. He believes that we need to alter our behaviour for the new reality to “do and then learn”… and hey … who wants to argue with a man who has achieved knighthood?

There was also the juxtaposition of content and context. For years we have heard the mantra that “content is king”, but in an age where technology is enabling smart messaging to receptive audiences, we are quickly moving to an era where context is king. This is a major leadership challenge for us as media practitioners and there was certainly a resounding spirit of readiness from the media throng in attendance.

One final note on Venice … it was truly great to see PHD so dominant on the world media stage. Beyond the aforementioned sustainability initiatives, our ETNA planning interface was featured in one of the breakout sessions on Media Creativity, and our Global CEO, Mike Cooper, addressed the conference most eloquently on the future of the media business.

Like Venice once proved, it is quite possible for a culturally significant (albeit small) body to make a big and lasting impression on the world… we should all be very proud.

Magazines Canada’s third annual Best on Page event, an exhibition of award-winning magazine ad creative from around the world.

Best on Page featured 170 award winning concepts from the Cannes Lions Festival, Epica Awards, Canada ’s own Marketing Awards, Créa Awards and Anvil Awards.

Attendees had the opportunity to vote on the creative execution most deserving of Best of Show honours. The competition was fierce as 143 of the 170 ads captured votes.

And the winner is: Sony PlayStation from TBWA\Madrid in Spain.

Second place honours go to Bazooka Bubble Gum from Duval Guillaume Brussels in Belgium and third place is an ad for the Breast Cancer Welfare Association from Saatchi and Saatchi, Petaling Jaya in Malaysia .

Best of Show winners are a testament to the creative potential of the magazine medium. These ads stop, engage and influence readers in powerful ways.

For your own personal exhibition of each of the winning 170 creative concepts from Best on Page, click here. Enjoy the show!

�