Tag Archives: Online

Niagara Falls vs. Toronto

23 Jul

From Marketing Magazine: CHATTER: Niagara Parks catches heat for anti-Toronto ads

A new ad campaign by the Niagara Parks Commission has Toronto media buzzing. As part of a reported $300,000 ad blitz, the commission created a collection of ads airing on CP24 and CTV, as well as on the commission website, that paint Canada’s largest city in traffic-infested, crowded, stress-filled light. The reaction so far today include pieces in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and a segment on CBC’s Metro Morning. Here’s a selection of how Toronto took to Niagara’s needling.

“The Niagara they show. The Niagara we know.” @ Toronto Star :

We can diss you too, Niagara. … Any place where a girl can come back from a bachelorette weekend having signed someone’s butt and enjoyed the cliché awesomeness of a heart-shaped Jacuzzi shouldn’t be taking jabs.

“I don’t even need to diss Niagara,” said Chris Slawson, 28. “Have you even been there?!” The Toronto-bred King West dweller couldn’t leave it there though.

“What’s tackier? Artistic graffiti and street murals or Boston Pizza across from Louis Tussaud’s wax museum mixed with Planet Hollywood and a haunted house?”

“Smearing Toronto: A bad case of Falls advertising” @ The Globe and Mail

Acting mayor Joe Pantalone, a board member of Tourism Toronto, wondered why the parks commission would resort to “an unnecessary cheap shot” when the city has traditionally been an ally in promoting Ontario to the world.

“Whenever we advertise Toronto internationally and nationally, we always say, ‘Come to Toronto and go to Niagara Falls,’” Mr. Pantalone said. “I would hope that they realize that a mistake has been made … and simply pull those ads and come up with something more constructive.”

“Niagara tourism beats up on Toronto” @ blogTO

I suppose all of these things do happen in Toronto (graffiti, stolen bikes, etc), but I’ve never been so stressed-out by life here that I just had to escape. And certainly not to one of the tackiest towns in North America.

It’s Time Toronto

14 Apr

From blogTO: What is Time Toronto? by Tim

Over the last few weeks I’ve seen them everywhere. In the Club District. On King East. Large posters plastered (illegally) to the side of hydro boxes, light poles, construction boarding and anything else that your friendly neighbourhood wheatpaster can locate. They’re black, they’re basic and they’re mysterious, boldly announcing “It’s time for something new” and teasing that timetoronto.com is coming soon.

But what is Time Toronto? A new nightclub? A magazine? A Toronto mayoral candidate website? A boutique selling funky watches? A little investigation reveals no answers. The web site leaves no clues, nor does the email I receive when I sign up to be notified of its impending launch.

A cursory review of the Who Is records reveals nothing as the registrant is the Domain Privacy Group c/o timetoronto.com.

Twitter comes up empty as does Facebook. So does anyone know? What is Time Toronto?

T.O Restaurants & Social Media

1 Mar

From BlogTO: Toronto Restaurants Have a Growing Appetite for Social Media by Erin Bury

When it comes to food, everyone’s a critic. Restaurants have always relied on word of mouth from satisfied diners to spread the word about their menu – especially in Toronto where there are new restaurants popping up all the time. With the explosion of social media tools, it’s easier than ever for foodies and food-lovers alike to share experiences – I always Tweet out my new favourite spots.

We recently compiled a list of the Top 10 Toronto foodies to follow on Twitter. But what about the restaurants themselves? How are they embracing social media tools – or are they? Some local restaurants are adopting new media tools, and some still have far to go.

One local restaurant recently gathered the tech foodie community for a Twitter-themed night out. A friend invited me to the Eats, Beats and Tweets event at Queen West’s Nyood restaurant, held on the opening weekend of Winterlicious. This special two-night event celebrated all things tasty and tech; diners feasted on a tasting menu while Tweets about the food were displayed on the walls, and Twitter-friendly DJs kept the crowd entertained.

Restaurants in Toronto are also jumping on the Twitter bandwagon – Pizzeria Libretto (@PizzaLibretto) Tweets photos of daily specials; the Gladstone (@GladstoneHotel) crowdsources new menu items, and my personal favourite, (@Poutinerie), shares news about upcoming locations around the city.

Another notable example is Mildred’s Temple Kitchen (@mildredstemple), who ‘pepper’ their stream with hashtags, photos, videos, and replies to future diners (food pun intended).

And if the tech crowd won’t go to the restaurant, the restaurant will go to where iPhones congregate. Local social media darling Freshii is starting to pop up as choice caterer at events around the city – from ING Direct’s recent Meet and Tweet mixer to the popular Third Tuesday social media event.

One place restaurants are lacking? Their websites. There must be an unwritten rule in the food industry that says that Flash is king. Every site has catchy music playing while images whiz across the screen – any web developer’s nightmare (just ask Bretton MacLean).

So what’s the next step for restaurants? As an iPhone addict I hope restaurants leverage mobile applications. Right now third-party applications like Urbanspoon are the go-to resource for diners looking to get on-the-go advice on where to eat. Restaurants need to take advantage of new sites like Foursquare (Magic Oven is currently looking at Foursquare promotions) and mobile coupon platforms like Clip Mobile to offer specials to consumers and bring in local traffic.

So while you can probably find your favourite restaurant on Twitter, tech foodies around the city like @SpotlightCity and @KarmaCakeDotCa agree that restaurants are just scratching the surface of capitalizing on social media tools to build their following and attract new customers. But one thing’s for sure – the tech community is looking forward to seeing what they cook up next.

Find more mouth-watering Tweets on blogTO’s Twitter list of Toronto restaurants.

T.O. Agency Spotlight: John St. – Republic of Bacon

24 Jan

Toronto agency, John St. has come out with a new campaign for Maple Leaf that will bring joy to bacon lovers everywhere. There are currently three TV spots that show the love that people, especially men, have for bacon. The commercials are supported by a complimentary website, featuring videos and articles devoted to a declaration of love for bacon.

From the press release:
“In researching bacon, the creatives at john st. discovered a cult-like following behind it. “We found all sorts of bacon related goodies – from bacon band-aids to bacon scarves to bacon ice cream recipes,” says Paul Constantakis, copywriter, john st. “We decided to harness this love for bacon into a place bacon lovers can call home and the Republic of Bacon was born.”

Three broadcast spots, “Proposal”, “Spa” and “Sorry”, all direct traffic to the microsite republicofbacon.com. Like any country, Republic of Bacon, has many attractions: A casino where you can win bacon for a decade. A Red Light District where you can watch edgier videos. Restaurants where you can find select bacon recipes, a Public Service Announcements section where a Bacon Safety Sergeant provides bacon safety tips and where you can find the national anthem of the Republic of Bacon. There’s a community that features bacon bloggers from around the net and so much more.

“Originally, the brief was ‘experience the joy of bacon with Maple Leaf bacon’,” says Angus Tucker, co-creative director, john st. “When brainstorming, we had come up with all sorts of ideas revolving around the joys of bacon. The ‘Republic of Bacon’ was our way of housing all these ideas under one roof.”



TD Domination

15 Jan

From Marketing Magazine: TD Goes Big on Toronto Star Homepage By Kristin Laird

TD Bank helped answer questions about retirement yesterday through a one-day page domination on the Toronto Star’s homepage.

On the right-hand side of TheStar.com, visitors saw what the paper calls an “XXL,” a 300 x 900 box ad with a photo of Patricia Lovett-Reid, senior vice-president, TD Waterhouse Canada. A banner ad also ran across the top of the page.

Visitors had the option of expanding the ad to take up the width of the page, and revealing three 20-second videos, all of which featured Lovett-Reid discussing retirement options.

At one point, a small ambient version of Lovett-Reid walked into the middle of the screen, inviting visitors to watch the videos.

One of the videos started playing as soon as the ad has been expanded, driving viewers to TDRetirement.com or inviting them to take a survey that provided a summary of their retirement needs.

The user could print a summary of the survey to take with them for a personal assessment with a TD representative.

“It’s a great way to get our message out,” said Jeff Smith, associate vice-president, digital marketing, TD Bank Financial Group. “It’s a unique page takeover, it’s not intrusive on the user.”

Innovations Response designed the ads, with Starcom handling the media buy

According to Smith, the Toronto Star is currently the only Canadian publisher offering this kind of online inventory. “It’s important for us to be at the forefront of digital innovation,” he said.

The effort is aimed at 45- to 64-year olds in the pre-retirement phase, he said.

The domination is part of a larger retirement-focused effort that includes TV, print, online banner ads and in-branch merchandising.

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