The Indy is back in town this weekend and the title sponsor is Honda! Festivities kicked off today at Dundas Square with a Media Pit Stop Challenge. PHD and partners from Platform A (formerly AOL), Cottage Life, Sharp Magazine, Olive Media, Macleans, Rogers Digital, Canwest Digital, Microsoft Advertising, 24/7 Real Media and Sun Media came out in support of a great cause. Not only were our media partners enthusiastic about supporting this event some honorable mentions go out to….. Daria Lennon & Partner from Maclean’s magazine in top spot, tied for second place was Jeff Rockwell & Bernie Ward from Platform A (who would have had the #2 position if people kept their shirts on) and Jamie Forbes and his partner our very own Geoff Glen all came in under :24 sec.

Not only was this an exciting way to kick off what will be a whirlwind of events but there was a method to Honda and Budweiser’s madness. Paul Tracy’s car is being sponsored by Wounded Warriors www.woundedwarriors.ca To help assist Wounded Warriors sponsorship of the car media partners like the good people here at PHD pitched in to aid the sponsorship and will now have our logo seen by millions whipping around the track all weekend. The top place winners received a check in the amount of $1000 as a donation to Wounded Warriors.

Thanks to all that came out and remember to start your engines! 

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…

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

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

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/

    Every child should live free from violence and abuse.

Last year, more than 27,000 children received services from Ontario’s Children Aid Societies for protection from suspected child abuse and neglect. Child abuse remains a concern in Ontario because too many children suffer from physical, emotional and sexual abuse and lack of proper care. Too many families are coping with stressful life situations and challenges affecting their ability to provide a safe, secure home for their children.

That is why The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, are launching a public education campaign on
October 1st: Child Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario. 

During the October campaign, the public is reminded that kids shouldn’t have to live with abuse because everyone has a responsibility to act when they see or hear that a child is suffering from abuse or neglect.

To learn more about child abuse and neglect, how to spot the subtle signs, and about what happens when you call your local CAS, visit: www.useyourvoice.ca

Read more on how you can help…

Watch out for the Child Abuse Prevention Campaign across a variety of touch-points throughout the Province, including Transit, Digital Outdoor, Cinema, Online, Television CC and Radio.

‘Do Not Disturb’ checks out?

By Atreyee from tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca

2008-09-26 http"//

Looks like fall’s first casualty is ‘Do Not Disturb’ …

Although nothing official has been announced, critics are pretty sure that Do Not Disturb has been given the axe after a three-episode trial, thanks to an article in Entertainment Weekly.

The article claims Fox has canceled the not-so-funny Niecy Nash and Jerry O’Connell comedy after it failed to perform.

Just days ago producers were pleading with critics to give their show another chance, apologizing for the bad content.

Although the third episode was probably the strongest, there have been problems with the show from the beginning. The original pilot was saved for a later date and ratings have gone from bad to worse; not once did it hit the five million mark in the States, and it failed to even crack the Top 30 here in Canada.

Fox has replaced the show next week with an additional episode of the Brad Garrett sitcom ‘Til Death, which doesn’t fare much better, but is more established. The network is claiming Do Not Disturb is pre-empted next week, but won’t give a future beyond that.

The cast and crew shouldn’t feel bad. Fox only gave last season’s mid-season replacement Unhitched six episodes, and that was way funnier.

I don’t know if that’s saying much.

Until now, you thought there was nothing worse than arriving on a Monday to a myriad of emails and phone calls that start with “Our ad didn’t run…”, or “they ran the wrong ad…”, or “they ran our ad right beside the competitor…”.  So here is something worse, the email from the client telling you what they just saw on someone’s blog, an ad in the wrong environment: