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Marketing Daily wasn’t scheduled to publish today, but due to technical difficulties, we were unable to send you our Thursday Daily.

We have our glitches straightened out and are able to send you this slightly updated and refreshed version of Thursday’s Daily. We apologize for the inconvenience. Marketing Daily will return Aug. 2.

GM Canada extends discount program

After two months of brisk sales, General Motors of Canada Ltd. will extend its popular employee-discount program through the end of August.

“We are extending the employee discount offer until the end of (August).”said Pam McLaughlin, manager of public relations for GMCanada. The employee-discount plan, which allows customers to buy GM vehicles at the price employees pay, has been in place in Canada since July 11 and in the United States since June 1. The program in the U.S. was originally scheduled to end July 5 but it was so successful the company extended it until the end of July and introduced it in Canada. GM confirmed Wednesday that the deal will be ending in the U.S.

“It is simple to understand and it really resonates with consumers,” said McLaughlin. On Wednesday, GMCanada had planned to wrap up the program as well, but GMCanada’s marketing group was pleased with the program and decided late Thursday night to extend the offer. Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG matched GM’s incentive program in July–and introduced the offer in Canada before GM–but neither have confirmed if their programs will be extended.

In Detroit Wednesday, GM spokesperson Deborah Silverman said the company wants to shift the focus from deals on its 2005 vehicles to its 2006 lineup. Starting with the 2006 model year, GM plans to set lower prices for many models instead of relying so heavily on incentives to bring prices down, Silverman said.

According to Autodata Corp., GM spent an average of US$4,458 per vehicle on incentives in June, higher than any other automaker. Toyota Motor Corp. spent US$1,090, but still saw vehicle sales rise 11.6%. GMsales have been up roughly 41% since launching the program in June.

Some industry analysts say it could be difficult for GM to convince customers they’re getting a good deal without incentives, or to attract new customers to vehicles that have been heavily discounted in the past.

“The employee price deals will likely hurt Ford and GM efforts to build a brand image signifying quality,” Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry said in a note to investors.

–David Brown with files from Associated Press

Ski Sutton picks LXB Communication-Marketing

Ski Sutton, one of Quebec’s largest skiing resorts, has picked Montreal’s LXB Communication-Marketing as its new advertising agency.

LXB was chosen after a formal review that included several other agencies, according to Pier Lalonde, LXB creative director.

Ski Sutton’s advertising was previously handled by BBDO Montreal.

Lalonde says news ads for the resort, located south of Montreal in the Eastern Townships, will include outdoor, print, radio, TV and cinema. Direct marketing is also being planned.

The campaign will debut in late fall.

–Marketing Staff

Supreme Court refusal halts MP3 player levy

The fight over a levy on iPods and other digital music players ended Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear any further arguments on the matter.

That means there will be no levy applied to digital audio recorders such as Apple’s popular iPod and iPod Shuffle as well as other MP3 players like iRiver.

“Obviously we’re disappointed. We felt it was self-evident that those products are sold for the purpose of copying music,” said David Basskin, of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit agency which collects tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies.

The group had wanted the high court to overturn last year’s Federal Court of Appeal decision which quashed the levy on the popular gadgets.

The non-profit agency had been collecting the tariff–$2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one GB, $15 for one to 10 GBs, $25 for more than 10 GB–since December 2003 through a tax built into the price of the devices.

It stopped in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, a group which represents retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada, and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada.

The CPCC, which collects levies on blank media such as CDs, argued that since the new technology opened yet another avenue to make illegal copies of songs, a levy should be collected on behalf of music creators.

But the Digital Access group argues otherwise. It calls Canada’s levy system unfair and “a longstanding problem.”

Spokesperson Fraser Smith added with the growing popularity of legal downloading websites such as iTunes and Puretracks, consumers are paying twice–once for the song and a second time when they burn it to CD to listen to it.

Approximately $4 million was collected from sales of digital audio recorders between December 2003 and December 2004. The money is sitting in an account and will be returned to the importers and manufacturers of the products. There’s no word yet on whether consumers who paid the hidden tariff will be reimbursed, said Smith.

–Canadian Press

Coke goes Full Throttle after Red Bull

Watch out Red Bull, Coca-Cola is charging Full Throttle into Canada. The soft-drink giant is stepping into the increasingly competitive Canadian energy drink market.

Coke’s Full Throttle is a carbonated, citrus flavoured energy drink that promises no after-taste and features ingredients similar to competitor Red Bull’s. It’s been a hit in the U.S. since it launched in January and has since been named by the irreverent men’s magazine Maxim as the “best energy drink on the market to help you get your freak on.” U.S. marketing includes out-of-home, radio and print advertising, sampling programs, PR programs and in-store displays.

Both Red Bull and Full Throttle are classified as “natural health products” by the Canadian government and are therefore subject to stringent advertising guidelines. Red Bull has recently received approval to advertise more prominently in Canada, although Full Throttle is currently awaiting authorization to do so.

In the meantime, marketing for the product includes public relations by Toronto’s Maverick Public Relations. Further initiatives, including out-of-home advertising, are planned.

Full Throttle comes in a 473 mL slim black can and features a red and yellow logo that resembles a tattoo. It retails for $2.89 to $3.29, primarily in convenience stores and other retailers. Ingredients include taurine, caffeine, niacin/Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6 and riboflavin/Vitamin B2. Coke says the drink is “designed to temporarily restore mental alertness and wakefulness during periods of mental and physical exertion.”

–Marketing staff

Torstar to launch celebrity weekly

Come October, Canadians looking for insight into the latest ‘Bennifer’ incarnation will have a new, distinctly Canadian source for guidance.

Torstar is getting into the celebrity magazine business, launching a weekly magazine called Weekly Scoop, Oct. 3.

The 8.5” X 11” glossy magazine will be published by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

Celebrity, style and entertainment news is one of the fastest growing magazine categories in the market, said Kathryn Swan, publisher of Weekly Scoop. And while there is no shortage of celebrity magazines on the newsstands already, Swan is sure Weekly Scoop has a niche to fill.

“We have done our research and we know what resonates with consumers,” she said. “We know what they want and don’t want, and we will be publishing with a Canadian twist and that will differentiate us.”

The “Canadian twist” doesn’t mean extensive Canadian coverage, she said. The magazine’s mandate is to cover A-list celebrities, Canadian and otherwise.

No specifics about costs to either consumers or advertisers were being divulged Wednesday. “We just moved into the office and are still plugging in the phones,”said Swan, promising more details were coming, likely by mid-August.

Swan takes the publisher job after 18 years at Rogers Media where she was most recently publisher of MoneySense magazine. Vivian Vassos, who was most recently managing editor of Flare, has been named editor-in-chief.

–David Brown

Astral brings InfoToGo to TO

Toronto now has an InfoToGo network, joining those already up and running in Montreal and other Quebec cities.

Astral Media Outdoor and Kramer Design Associates launched the network of information/advertising kiosks July 26.

Toronto is slated for 25 InfoToGo pillars, with some already in Dundas Square, Yorkville and at the University and Richmond intersection in the nightclub district.

Astral says Toronto’s pillars are inspired by the architecture of City Hall. They incorporate practical elements such as a coin-operated city map dispenser, as well as an automated hands-free system that offers useful municipal, cultural and commercial information to users such as what to do and see in Toronto.

There’s also a programmable LED event notification system on some pillars. Each InfoToGo pillar features an area-specific, 3 x 4 ft. map with a “you-are-here” location marker and key sites of interest in the area.

Luc Beaulieu, vice-president of operations at Astral Outdoor, says his company has signed a five year deal with the City of Toronto for the pillars, and already the municipality and Neutragena are advertising on the InfoToGo network. A “couple” more advertisers in the beverage and clothing categories are slated to use the pillars in the next little while, says Beaulieu. A percentage of the network’s ad revenue will be used to maintain city parks.

He says the media response to the pillars has been positive and details of the numbers of impressions they generate from drivers have already been calculated. Similar numbers for pedestrians are in the works, says Beaulieu, and both sets of figures will soon be available from Astral Outdoor’s sales staff.

–David Chilton

Summer sales surge for cigarette makers

Seasonality has become a factor in the once-stable tobacco industry, according to Rothmans Inc.

“The hypothesis is that with so many indoor smoking bans right across the country, smokers have more chance to smoke in the warm-weather months,” John Barnett, CEO, said in an interview after announcing a 25% increase in spring-quarter profits for the cigarette maker. Rothmans said its April-June earnings were $29.7 million, up from a year-ago profit of $23.8 million.

“It’s not that people are taking up smoking in the summer, but consumption goes up,” he said, adding that Rothmans is still assessing the scale of this effect.

He said Rothmans is thriving by dominating the so-called price category–lower-priced cigarettes and rolling tobacco–where high taxation, accounting for 80% or more of retail prices, has provoked an “almost meteoric rise” in the past three years.

Barnett told the meeting that high taxes and the resulting tobacco smuggling continue to hurt the legitimate market, while product liability litigation “remains a serious threat” and the industry suffers from “tighter and tighter restraints” on smoking and tobacco advertising.

Although tobacco companies are increasingly hamstrung on how they market and promote their products, advertising spending is not being reduced, Barnett told the conference call.

“We’re not planning on a reduction in permitted marketing expenditures,” he said. “The makeup of the spend is different than it would have been a couple of years ago, but in absolute dollars we’re not forecasting a reduction.”

In answer to a question after the meeting, he said five of the company’s nine board members smoke cigarettes and a sixth director indulges in cigars.

Asked by a stockholder what she should tell friends who attack the ethics of owning tobacco shares, chairman and former CEO Joe Heffernan noted that the company is a legal business serving a legal market, and “our society has evolved around market principles.”

–Canadian Press

Ricky’s restaurants sponsor B.C. Lions

The B.C. Lions football team has named Ricky’s All Day Grill as its family restaurant partner. As part of the sponsorship, Ricky’s restaurant staff will support the Lions on home game day by wearing B.C. Lions colours and clothes. Restaurants will run in-store contests with game tickets as prizes.

Brenda Williams, director of marketing and vice-president of the Vancouver-based Ricky’s says: “(The Lions) wholesome community approach to doing business in Vancouver was just very appealing. I thought our values and their values seemed very much in sync.”

Williams says Ricky’s is seeking out non-traditional ways to increase sales. “I thought sports was a really good angle and we thought it would give us ways to extend our reach besides the standard 30-second commercial,” she says.

Lindsay Carswell, director of marketing for the B.C. Lions, says that while the team’s core target market is males 25 to 40, Ricky’s customers are a potential source of new fans. “We have a growing fan base and it’s in our best interest to make sure that we give attention to other markets, and one of them certainly has to be families and their young children as we develop the future of the franchise.”

Williams says overall sales are on the rise and she attributes this to the change in the media mix to include sponsorships.

“It’s a huge shift for (us)to move from the idea that 30-second sales spots were the only way to go and to look more at spending about a third of our total budget on sponsorships and community promotions,” she says.

Ricky’s has an annual marketing budget of around $1 million and operates 50 locations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon, with four more planned to open before the end of the year. Ricky’s recently brought the Fat Burger brand to Western Canada from the U.S. The first restaurant opened in downtown Vancouver earlier this year. The agency of record is Brandspank Creative Marketing of Vancouver.

–Eve Lazarus

McDonald’s signs promo deal with DreamWorks

Ronald McDonald is ditching Mickey Mouse for Shrek.

McDonald’s Corp. has signed a two-year, non-exclusive deal to promote DreamWorks Animation SKG films beginning with the release of Shrek 3 in 2007.

McDonald’s previously said it wanted to try a new approach to marketing partnerships when its exclusive 10-year deal with The Walt Disney Co. expires next year.

“Ten years is a very long time,” said Larry Light, global chief marketing officer at McDonald’s. “The world changes more than once in 10 years. I don’t anticipate that we’ll be making 10-year deals in the future with anybody.”

The agreement will include promoting DreamWorks films with toys in Happy Meals. But it will go beyond typical marketing efforts to include pairing pitchman Ronald McDonald with Shrek and other DreamWorks characters in ads.

It will be the first time McDonald’s iconic “chief happiness officer” has shared the spotlight with non-McDonald’s characters.

McDonald’s said it was talking to Disney and other firms about other possible marketing relationships but did not say if it expects to promote Disney films after next year.

The relationship between McDonald’s and Disney has been marked by several notable successes, including 101 Dalmatians and Finding Nemo. But there were also disappointments tied to Disney flops such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet.

The results were inconsistent in part because promotions must be planned at least a year in advance–long before it’s known whether a film will succeed or fail. “You never know what market forces may be at work on either the restaurant side or the film production side,” said David Miller, an analyst with Houston-based investment advisors Sander Morris Harris.

Miller said promotional deals with fast food companies can help build advance awareness of movies, but no amount of promotion can save a flop.

“The best publicity for movies is word of mouth,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of little figurines you get in a Happy Meal. Ultimately the film has to work.”

–Associated Press

Vodafone punts Beckham as pitchman

David Beckham’s marketability star may be fading.

The England captain and Real Madrid star–soccer’s most recognizable player–has been dropped as the advertising face of the mobile-phone giant Vodafone.

Vodafone said Tuesday it had ended its three-year deal with the 30-year-old Beckham. The initial two-year contract was renewed 12 months ago, but expired July 1.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank David for his contribution and involvement with all of our marketing initiatives over the last three years,” Peter Bamford, Vodafone’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

He said the contract was ended by “mutual agreement.”

Beckham’s annual income is the highest of any soccer player in the world, estimated at 27 million Euros (C$39.7 million) by Forbes magazine. The magazine reported $29.4 million of that came from endorsements.

Beckham’s Vodafone contract was reportedly worth about $2.12 million a year. His also has major deals with Pepsi, Adidas and Gillette. The Gillette deal is the largest, worth about $9.13 million.

Vodafone spokeswoman Maria Bellanca said it was unclear if the company would seek a replacement for Beckham.

“We don’t have anybody ready at the minute,” Bellanca said. “We will look at that and if it’s appropriate bring a new person on board.”

–Associated Press

Marketing Power List nomination deadline extended

The deadline to nominate someone for inclusion in the “Marketing Power List 2005: The 100 most influential people in Canadian communications” has been extended to Friday, Aug. 5.

Marketing’s writers and editors will be identifying and profiling 100 people of influence in the media business, agencies of all varieties and the top people at marketing organizations in our Oct. 10/17 edition. The selections will be made by weighing three broad criteria: marketing innovation; financial clout, and influence/leadership.

To nominate someone for consideration, please go to marketingmag.ca and download the “Marketing Power List 2005” nomination form.

Classified Advertisements: The following are paid classified advertisements. For booking information please call Jonathan Dunn at 416-764-1575, or by email at classifieds@marketingmag.ca

News Editor: David Brown (416) 764-1595 davidj.brown@marketingmag.rogers.com Published by: The Marketing Group

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