Big Hug Charity Day is a global initiative among PHD offices in Toronto, Montreal, across Europe, Asia and South America. This year marks the 21^st anniversary of PHD Worldwide and as a thank you, the company is celebrating by giving back to the community in all the regions they serve.

PHD has partnered with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies to bring light to the fact that children and youth in care want to have lasting family connections. This event will take place on the Friday of the Family Day long weekend.

PHD Canada’s Toronto office staff and volunteers from local Children’s Aid Societies will be forming a human-ribbon at Yonge and Dundas Streets on February 18 at 8:00 a.m.

PHD staff will also be collecting spare change–“Change for a Change”–at Yonge and Dundas streets and Union Station from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Through these events, PHD will raise awareness of the need for permanent stable families for children and youth in care. PHD has been working in partnership with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies as their charitable partner since 2007. Over the years, PHD has supported the Association’s efforts to educate the public about the many ways they can get involved in protecting and caring for children and youth in need or at risk.

Since 1912, OACAS has represented Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario and provided service in the areas of government relations, communications, information management, education and training to advocate for the protection and well-being of children. OACAS is the voice of child welfare in Ontario.

Scotiabank streams RSP event live online

The broadcast was the final leg of a cross-country tour in January in which broadcast personality Valerie Pringle and a panel of guests hosted educational events on RSPs in five cities across Canada.

Yesterday at noon, the session was broadcast live on Facebook, Moneyville.ca, FinancialPost.com and the Say Media network. PHD Canada handled the media for the extended digital strategy and Mighty did the campaign creative.

Tuesday’s live discussion starred Pringle, Zoomer Media’s Moses Znaimer, academic Richard Florida and Scotia MacLeod’s Bev Moir. Viewers were able to interact via live chat or by posting on Scotiabank’s wall.

Although the target viewership was modestly pegged at around 500 people, due to the specificity of the video content, over 5,500 people tuned it at its peak, vastly exceeding the goal, Daryl Stansfield, digital account director, PHD Canada, tells MiC. The high number of viewers opens up a lot of opportunity for the FI’s digital strategy, he says.

“Going through the [viewer] comments was interesting,” he says. “People were excited about the content and wanted it to become a regular series. I think a lot of things are going to spiral out of this.”

The stream was also carried live in big-box ad units on Moneyville.ca (a site for which Scotiabank is a presenting sponsor), the Financial Post’s Personal Finance channel and via the Say Media network. Banner display ads augmented the execution and both units carried promotional creative for the event a week to five days ahead of it. Additional pre-promotion included a reach block on Facebook targeted at Canadians over 18 years old.

It was the first time many of the publishers carrying the feed had done such a thing, Stansfield says, and as such required a lot of coordination between all the parties involved. It also marked the first digital-only event for Scotiabank and its first live stream on Facebook.

The RSP edition of “Let the saving begin” will run throughout February and following that, a third leg will begin focusing on lending and mortgages.

The celebrations were just wrapping up on news of PHD having been named Strategy’s Media Agency of the Year for 2010, when lo and behold … we’re celebrating again.

At last night’s 11^th annual Media Innovation Awards, PHD offices in Toronto and Montreal spent much time, in between sips of bubbly, making a bee-line to the podium.

PHD/Touché!PHD combined to take away a total of 11 awards (more than any other agency) including 5 Gold, plus Best of Show for the “Natural Source of Comfort campaign” for the Quebec Milk Producers.

And in an interesting twist, our two offices each won Gold in the Integrated Campaign category.

The breakdown looks like this:

Best of Show – Quebec Milk Producers

Gold – Integrated Campaign (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Integrated Campaign (Unilever Becel)

Gold – Traditional Out of Home (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Quebec Milk Producers)

Gold – Social Media (Auto Trader)

Silver – Television (Unilever Becel)

Silver – Branded Content (Unilever Becel)

Bronze - Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Unilever Becel)

Bronze – Charity/Public Service (Quebec Health Ministry)

Bronze – Other Digital (Quebec Milk Producers)

These great achievements are not only a testament to the creative spirit and rigour that exists inside PHD, but also a further demonstration of the power of collaboration that exists between our great clients, creative agency stakeholders, and media outlet partners.

Given that speeches were outlawed last night, we wanted to send a special shout out today to our friends at Quebec Milk, BBDO , Astral, CBS, TVA, Rythme FM, Unilever, CTV, Radio Canada, Transcontinental Publishing, 7 Jours, Auto Trader, John Street, Mosaic, Quebec Health, LG2, Canoe, doyoulookgood.com, and BV Media.

All played a vital role in winning these awards, and so we send along our sincerest thanks.

So last night we were feted with Media Agency of the Year honours by Strategy magazine. I must say I am still recovering from both the shock and the drink of which there was plenty of both. For the record, I was not planning to attend, but some last minute prodding by an anonymous tipster that “it might be a good idea if someone showed” led me to believe we might have a podium finish of some kind. To receive gold was not contemplated, obvious perhaps by my inappropriate attire (jeans and a sweater). “Are you on vacation?” I was asked more than once.

As I penned in a missive to clients today, I am so proud of our team that has worked so hard to produce great work that delivers results. The final campaign that goes live is like a tip of an iceberg - so much goes on beneath the surface ( ok a bad metaphor but anyone in a media agency can appreciate) - it takes a real team effort, almost always beyond “scope of work” to make it happen and get it right. The work we submitted came from both our offices, Montreal and Toronto, a testament to the combined strength and synergies between our teams that I think is unique in this industry.

We are fortunate to have clients that have confidence in us to navigate them through the media ice flows. And more so than ever great media work is not possible without truly collaborative relationships with our agency partners and the media as well. Thank you all!

Fred Forster

For those who have no idea what X10 is, it is a preview event showcasing what is going to be available this holiday season for the Xbox 360.

As you walk into the building, there are flat screens everywhere and the tell tale sign of green lights casting there glow throughout the space. That lovely shade of green tells me there are Xbox’s here and they want me to play them. But I had to be careful and keep my other hat on, that being my media hat. As much as I love video games, I was there in a working capacity. As I tried to envision how we can take advantage of the amazing spaces these gaming companies are making and integrate it with our clients and their future campaigns.

Currently, there are several different ways to be in the gaming space, from simple ads within the game world, to branded destinations within the Xbox dashboard to play and win contests. But we can also do video in games as well, another way to extend what we do in the TV studio.

As I start to walk through the floor, I am instantly looking for 1 game in particular: Halo Reach. Being one of the first to play the updated firefight mode is awesome. I’ve been a fan of the series since it came out, way back when on the original Xbox. I could have sat there all day. But there were so many other spectacular games on display. Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, Call of Duty: Black Ops and of course, the game changing Kinect.

Kinect is a brand new peripheral device for the Xbox 360; it looks like a small web cab that will sit on top of your TV. It is directly aimed at taking the Xbox beyond just a console for people like me. Kinect is a controller free way to interact and play games with Xbox. Yes that’s right, controller free. All you need to do is stand in front of the device, let it scan you and away you go. The games coming out at launch all focus on getting you out of your seat and using your whole body to play. Not only that, it can recognize multiple people and their voices. So not only will this change the way games are played, it also changes how we interact with the Xbox.

Kinect is where I see plenty of opportunity for our clients to become more involved within the gaming environment. With the launch in November, the good people at X10 were tight lipped about if any advertisers were signed on. But I’d imagine some very family oriented brands will be very interested in this new space. In the future, I can see fully branded mini games aimed in bringing the whole family together to play. Another concept might be to create a play to win situation with an existing game, perhaps a trip for the whole family where each member needs to do something specific to qualify them to win and since the Kinect can recognize all the people in the family, they will all need to play the game to enter.

But for now, Microsoft is focusing on launching the device and I’m confident that ideas will spring out of it once adoption reaches that critical mass.

As I grabbed my note book to make the walk back to the office, I was just glad that I had the chance to be there and bring two of my passions together.

Welcome to the first official day of Summer! Dove Go Fresh launched their Get Fresh – Summer programming at is Best! Channel today in partnership with PHD. The idea started in an internal focus group where we determined what W25-34 could not live without was their broadband sites, most popular being CTV.

From here we built a 95% digital strategy supporting Dove Go Fresh in summer 2010. The other 5% was used for eTalk Mentions (watch tomorrow night) and street team (executed by Cap C). The partnership features top programming including Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice as well as never seen online shows such as Degrassi Season 10, Castle and Scoundrels.

On top of this, CTV incorporate some great web series including Pushed, The Lake, Blood Cell, and a custom program designed to keep women fresh all summer with fashion trends, fitness and more.

Go to getfresh.ctv.ca to see it in action. And text GETFRESH to 24680 to keep on top of latest episodes as they are loaded.

In conjunction to this partnership there is a strong presence across Video Egg network using the Doc 360 which has never been executed in Canada before as well as their Ad Frames. A Dynamic Logic study will be capturing the effectiveness of the engagement ads.

Video Egg creative is also running across top women sites including: Cocoperez.com, Perezhilton.com, Glam.com, Canalvie.com, Aufeminin.ca, Chatelaine, and more.

To mark the week-long celebration, a series of events have been organized to celebrate creativity, and this year PHD has chosen to pilot the idea of Recess. 

Why Recess?  To refresh and renew!  Looking back to more carefree days, all of us can reflect fondly on our favourite time of the school day when we were given the chance to break from the convention of curriculum and truly express ourselves … playing games, engaging with friends and letting go.

That’s what we’re hoping to recapture during the 5 working days that comprise Creativity Week… a Recess from the Recession if you will. Each day, we will take a short break from our daily routines to embark on a creative venture to express ourselves in a variety of creative ways.

To kick off the celebrations, PHD celebrated with a party!  Afterall, April 15^th is Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, significant in that he is a model for combining science and arts, emotion and logic to create world class standards.

Friday April 16^th was mural day, where creativity was expressed on Transit Shelter Paper, giving rise to what is now posted in none other than a media vehicle: two bus shelter locations in Toronto – Spadina/Queen and Bathurst/King St.  PHD engaged supplier Astral Outdoor, who furnished the paper and locations for posting.  

What’s up this week?

Monday April 19^th is Poetry in the Park

Tuesday April 20^th is Show and Tell

Wednesday April 21^st is Self Portrait  

Both campaigns were also recently announced as finalists at the Festival of Media Awards in Valencia, Spain.

source: http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20100310/internationalistwinners.html

PHD takes Internationalist Grand Prix

by Nick Krewen

PHD was one of two media agencies awarded a Grand Prix from the 2009 Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media for “Fin abrupte” (”Abrupt Endings”), created out of the Montreal-based office, Touché!PHD.

The Suicide Action Montreal (SAM) campaign, about the sudden shock of suicide, shared the podium with Starcom Australia, which also won a Grand Prix for its Mars Pedigree “Dog Adoption” campaign.

Both campaigns were praised by the Internationalist for their “fresh insights” and for “breaking through the defensive barriers that people automatically erect to avoid difficult emotional subjects.”

The SAM campaign was hailed for conveying the message that suicide strikes when people least expect it. With a 35% increase in calls to the suicide prevention hotline, the campaign literally helped save lives.

The Pedigree spot - using thousands of bright yellow, life-sized cut-outs of dogs placed in parks, stations and main streets - was so popular that some shelters ran out of dogs during the Pedigree Adoption Drive and were forced to put people on waiting lists.

Canadians also came up shining in the Gold and Silver categories. Gold winners include OMD Canada for “Doritos Guru”, and Starcom MediaVest Group Canada for Nintendo’s Are You Smarter than a Canadian 5th Grader integration and the Tassimo trompe d’oeil in Canadian magazines.

Silver Canadian campaign winners include PHD Canada for Becel’s “Love Your Heart” campaign and SMG Canada for Cheez Whiz’s Corner Gas integration and Swiffer’s condo-dweller-targeted campaign.

In recognizing the win, PHD president and CEO Fred Forster credited VP media director Karine Courtemanche and media strategist Maxime Corriveau for their work on “Fin abrupte” and the Toronto Unilever team - particularly group media manager Janine Maillet - for their efforts on “Love Your Heart.”

A total of 36 awards were given out this year. The winners competed against entries from over 30 countries.

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Tomorrow promises to be a spell binding, interactive day covering many great digital topics including:

• Gaming
• State of the Nation with our very own Rob Young
• Mobile - Emerging Platform or Mass Market?
• Can Social Media Drive In-Store Retail Sales?
• Do It Digital: How The Latest Advances In Digital Out-Of-Home Bring Internet, Mobile and Social Media To Life

Make sure you follow up with your digital expert to find out the new juicy details for any of the above topics. And if you are interested in more information on one of the above just ask.

We had some excellent golfers out there but we also had beginners but we all had fun. We saw the group of Scott Dane, Scott Mitchell, Bill Hicks and Boyd Mickle win the tournament with a group score of 69.

We had a lot of support from our suppliers with many participating and donating prizing for the golfers. We want to thank everyone including: Pattison Outdoor, Astral Outdoor, Tribute.ca, Canoe.ca, Rogers, Chill Magazine, Adconian, IT World, Uptrend, TSN, Abacus, Adcentrictiy, Glass Box, Score Golf, Newad, Scott Thornley & Company & the Toronto Blue Jays.  Chill Magazine also created some awesome pics for each foursome.  See our Facebook album to see them all and get a copy of you on the cover of Chill magazine.

We also want to thank the course, the staff there were excellent and helped us put on a top notch event. They even donated a foursome that a lucky raffle ticket holder ended up with.

But this day wasn’t all about fun and golf. We were there to raise money for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (www.oacas.org/). With PHD corporately kicking in $2,200, we were able to raise $10,034!! A great accomplishment to break the $10K barrier.

Lastly, I want to thank Geoff Glen, Scott Dane, Ryan Gilroy & Brian Wylie. We couldn’t have put this tournament together without their help. Special thanks to Angie Genovese for volunteering for the day of and selling raffle tickets and taking some great pics. So once again, thank you all for your support and we hope you enjoyed the day.

See you all next year at the 3rd Annual.

More pictures will be up on Facebook