Profectio – latin for “the source” brings together Canada’s Connected Community

Headlines From Across Profectio & PR In Canada

THQ Opens Development Studio In Montreal, 400 New Jobs Over Five Years
Deloitte Launches “My Prediction Is….” Contest
John R. Barnett and Michael Moskowitz Join DAVE Wireless Board Of Directors
2009 CNMA Winners
Social Economics: For All Brands, You Have No CHOICE But To Do This!
Free Media Is Dead!
www.www / / Cheryl McKinnon, Chief Marketing Officer, Nuxeo
Cherry Picking The Best People No Longer An Easy Feat For Employers

Campaign Corner – Your Work, Your Results

Tourism Kelowna Names DDB Canada As Agency Of Record

On The Move – New Hires & Promotions

marblemedia Hires Johnny Kalangis As Creative Director
APEX Public Relations Hired Stephanie Engel To Vice President of Consumer Practice

New Websites & Updates

Dose.ca Gets A Facelift And New Social Tools

Deal Flow – Mergers & Acquisitions

BV! Media Says No To NetWorldMedia Acquisition

Apple

Apple went shopping and picked up Lala, a music service that lets users listen to any song on its site once for free. Customers can then opt to buy the track for 10 cents and listen to it on the Web. Unlike Apple iTunes, Lala’s music is stored on servers, instead of being downloaded to the user’s computer. If customers decide to download a track, the cost is 79 cents — compared with iTunes’ price of 69 cents to $1.29.

Google

In an effort to provider users with real-time updates on financial news Google Finance has added steaming news to their service an update last week.  Real-time web has been a growing trend on the web in he last few months, we can expect to see similar updates from other portals including Microsoft and Yahoo to follow soon.

Google quietly rolls out Google Dictionary, a few cool features but overall no big surprise to see this service being launched.  Is it time to say goodbye to www.dictionary.com?

One of the key differentiators to Google’s search engine compared to others is its simple look and feel, and it looks like they’ve made the front page even cleaner.

Considering the vested interest that Google has on the internet being better and as fast as possible they have launched their own DNS service, is there no stopping to the number of web-based services Google will offer the world?

Google’s Year In Review  (Year End Zeigest) went list live, and the top rising searches of 2009 included Michael Jackson, Facebook, tuenti, Twitter, sanalika, new moon, lady gaga, windows 7, dantri.com.vn and torpedo gratis.

Microsoft

After months of success at increasing their market share Microsoft’s Bing had a slight slip as internal testing resulted in the search engine going down for 30 minutes on December 3rd.

Microsoft also released their top search words for 2009, included in the list were Michael Jackson, Twitter, Swine Flu, Stock Marketing, Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Cash for Clunckers, Jon and Kate Gosselin, Billy Mays and Jaycee Dugard.

Yahoo

Yahoo announced they are integrating Facebook Connect on their sites; it makes sense with 350+ million people around the world using Facebook why not make it as easy as possible for them to use and share information on Yahoo properties.

Yahoo Year In Review was released last week, lots of surprises. Top searches included “Michael Jackson, Twilight, WWE, Megan Fox, Britney Spears, Naruto, American Idol, Kim Kardashian, Nascar and Runescape.

Upcoming Events

Are you part of the community?

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marblemedia is continues to ramp up their staff and offering, their newest addition is Johnny Kalangis as the newly appointed Creative Director for marblemedia’s Interactive Division.  In his role he will be responsible for creatively spearheading all aspects of marblemedia’s online projects, focusing on storytelling across all platforms and collaborating with the sales team to integrate new business opportunities. Johnny brings a wealth of experience to marblemedia’s creative team, where he will lead the interactive design process.

Prior to joining marblemedia, Johnny worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as Executive in Charge of Online Original Programming, and producer for high-profile projects including Barney’s Version, The Mercer Report, Opening Night, Doctor Who and Being Erica.

Related Stories:

• marblemedia Expands With New Brand Integration Division
• Week That Was – 2009-12-04
• Week That Was – 2009-11-20
• Canadian Government Steps Up To Support Local Talent, Opens Doors To Virtual Town Hall
• Week That Was – 2008-05-29
• marblemedia Hires Ted Brunt As Vice President Interactive Production
• Week That Was – 2008-01-30
• marblemedia Serves Up A Second Season Of TasteBudsTV.com For TVO
• marblemedia And Corus Entertainment Award Ryerson University Student With Innovative Storytellers Award

Profectio – latin for “the source” brings together Canada’s Connected Community

marblemedia Expands With New Brand Integration Division
Who Will Be The First To Launch A Canadian Mobile Advertising Network?
Nstein Technologies Adds Semantic Site Search Capabilities To Its Enterprise CMS
Will Google Set A Trend For Free Public Wifi In North America?
Should Rogers Buy Wind Mobile?
What Is Next For Wind Mobile?
Google, Your Site Speed Will Impact Your Search Ranking
Media In Canada Moves To Paid Subscription, Will It Lose Readers?
CRTC Takes To The Internet, Hearing Being Streamed Live

Account Wins
The Salvation Army Taps Grey Canada As Advertising Agency Of Record
Crabby Joe’s Picks theadlibgroup As Agency Of Record
USCI Education Savings Plans Selects GCI Canada As Agency Of Record

Gadgets & Gear
Virgin Mobile Canada Getting Ready To Launch Apple iPhone In Canada
The Kindle Is Here, The Kindle Is Here, Wait We Need A Canadian Carrier Too!

Upcoming Events:

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Branded entertainment will only continue to grow as brands realize realize the need to stop “talking at consumers” and create campaigns online and offline experience where consumers can engage. Realizing this need, Toronto-based marblemedia has launched a new division to provide this opportunity and hired industry veteran Lisa Reis to head it up as the Director of Brand Integration. Lisa brings with her 18 years of agency and client side experience in advertising and media, and strong skills with helping to build relationship and integrated brand programming.

“We saw a real opportunity to work more closely with broadcasters and advertisers to integrate brands into both television and online entertainment where there is a natural fit” says Mark Bishop, Executive Producer and Co-founder of marblemedia. “This does not mean we will compromise the integrity of our programming in any way. We think the true value of this approach is only realized where the brand association actually makes the content stronger and creates value for our audiences”.

The company has also said they are already in talks with number of broadcasters such as ‘The Dating Guy’; a hilarious animated, adult-comedy about dating, sex and friendship airing on Teletoon Fall 2010. ‘Just Like Mom…and Dad’; currently in development, a remake of the classic Canadian family game show that teams-up parents and their kids in two rounds of family-related trivia plus a frenetic bake-off challenge. An online game allows ‘Just Like Mom…and Dad’ home audience to play along online.

Related Stories:

• marblemedia Hires Johnny Kalangis As Creative Director
• Week That Was – 2009-12-04
• Week That Was – 2009-11-20
• Canadian Government Steps Up To Support Local Talent, Opens Doors To Virtual Town Hall
• Week That Was – 2008-05-29
• marblemedia Hires Ted Brunt As Vice President Interactive Production
• Week That Was – 2008-01-30
• marblemedia Serves Up A Second Season Of TasteBudsTV.com For TVO
• marblemedia And Corus Entertainment Award Ryerson University Student With Innovative Storytellers Award

Anyone looking to buy a General Motors car, I know where you can get a good deal!  News hit the streets today that the auto maker has filed for bankruptcy.  Of course we’ve already seen the trickle effect this has had on the advertising industry as agencies were forced to lay off employees earlier in the year, but what will be next with the government taking as much as a 60% stake in the company?

Venture Capital – According to the National Venture Capital Association there has been a total of $5.1 billion invested into 828 web start-ups since 2004

Facebook – Closes another $200 million from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies and now valued at $10 billion.

Toronto’s 2009 IABC Ovation Awards: Word Gets Around

Google – The Internet “Gorilla” goes surfing and catches Google Wave, by combining email and instant message, Google is going to attempt how we communicate on the web

Microsoft – Looks to play catch up in the search game with the launch of Bing

If you are looking to network this week be sure to check out Liv@SOHO which takes place on Thursday in Toronto (discount for Profectio readers)

Be sure to check out our upcoming events at the end of this post.

Here are some of the other industry stories and news that we talked about on Profectio & PR In Canada in this edition of The Week That Was.

Headlines:
Sherway Gardens Website Adds A Touch Of Personal Shopping
“Must Drink More Milk” Wins Top Honors At 2009 Bessies Awards
Kaboose Gets Government Nod, Will Sell to Disney For $23.3 Million
Is It Me Or Is The Social Media Monitoring Industry Heating Up?

Account Wins:
Olive Media Signs NYTimes.com To Growing Client Roster
Atkins Gets Sexy, Selects Palette PR As Agency Of Record

On The Move:

marblemedia Hires Ted Brunt As Vice President Interactive Production
MediaMiser Beefs Ups Team, Gets A Little More Social

Event Calender:

• Live@SOHO – June 4 – After work networking event
• Step It Up - June 16 – Our first event for the Connected One, patio, drinks, great conversations and guest speakers talking about Personal Branding
• TorontoTechTalk 7 – June 23 – Networking in downtown Toronto with special guest speaker Mark Fox, Chairman & CEO of Novator
  Shop Online ‘09 – October 6, 2009

Are you part of the community?

• Become a Member of Profectio
• Join the Profectio group on Facebook
• Follow On Twitter

How Profectio’s Network Can Help You

• PR In Canada
• Social Media’s Most Influential
• Profectio Events
• Speakers Bureau

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marblemedia is on the grow again, this time they have hired Ted Brunt as their  Vice President Interactive Production.  Prior to joining Ted was with CBC as Senior Director, Digital Entertainment Content.  He also brings over 15 years of experience in roles involving content creation, combining technology, audiences and storytellers in award-winning and cost-effective productions.

Before CBC Ted was with TVOntario in various roles including traditional television production; producing online content; creating and managing tvokids.com; handling all technical aspects of production and delivering content for TVO.org and TVOntario.org.

Related Stories:

• Week That Was – 2009-12-04
• marblemedia Hires Johnny Kalangis As Creative Director
• Week That Was – 2009-11-20
• marblemedia Expands With New Brand Integration Division
• Week That Was – 2008-05-29
• Week That Was – 2008-01-30
• marblemedia Serves Up A Second Season Of TasteBudsTV.com For TVO
• marblemedia And Corus Entertainment Award Ryerson University Student With Innovative Storytellers Award

Last week seems to have come and gone in a blur, but it was a good for one the Canadian advertising industry full of events and award shows as the first Advertising Week took place in 4 major cities across the country.  For as much as there has been talk of a slow down, there are still a lot of companies having a pretty good 2009 so far…

The early bird registration was also turned on for our upcoming The Bold and The Blogging event and Shop Online ‘09 which takes place on April 21.

Twitter – If wonder there the idea for Twitter came from?  Here’s a link to the team behind it and how it was born out of a simple internal communication challenge and now its changed the world of communications and even go as far as to say journalism

Facebook – Interested in working for them, they’re hiring – Account Executive (Toronto), Account Manager (Toronto), Account Planner (Toronto)

Google – I shared last week of their latest quarter earning reaching $5.7 Billion, and according to comScore they have 90% of the Internet’s search market share.  Looks like they are also starting to put a little pressure on all those businesses that have been using their Google Apps as they start to limit the number of free applications associated to any one account (hey, they need to make some more money some how right….)

Blogging can be a thank-less business, Michael Arrington, Founder of TechCrunch  has enough as he takes a vacation from business and is spat in the face at a conference in Europe

Here are some of the other industry stories and news that we talked about in this edition of The Week That Was.

Headlines:
The Monster Is Out, Job Board Gets Hacked, Is Personal Information Safe On The Web?
Advertising Week – Are We Leading Positive Social Change? Part 2
Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association – Call For Nominations Annual Excellence In Interactive Media
InterCom Search And NABS, We Are Here To Support Canada’s MarCom Industry
marblemedia Serves Up A Second Season Of TasteBudsTV.com For TVO
Grand & Toy Launches B2B Campaign
Advertising Week: Are We Leading Positive Social Change? Part 1
LG Issues Massive National Wide Recall, We’ll Replace On Our Dime
Research In Motion Out, Verisign In With New Bid For Certicom

Account Wins
Carlsberg Canada Names GJP Advertising Agency Of Record

Event Calender:

The Bold & The Blogging – March 24, 2009 – Early Bird Registration Now Open

Shop Online ‘09 – April 21, 2009 – Early Bird Registration Now Open

Are you part of the community?

• Become a Member of Profectio
• Join the Profectio group on Facebook
• Follow On Twitter

How Profectio’s Network Can Help You

Pr In Canada
Social Media’s Most Influential
Profectio Events
Speakers Bureau

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• Mplayit Expands Into Canada, Mobile App Catalog Available To Millions Through Facebook
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• What Is More Important Google Juice or Facebook Juice?
• How Are Global Fortune 100 Corporations Using Social Media?
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• Two Questions To Ask Before You Select A Social Media Agency?
• Will Toronto Mayoral Candidate Turn To Social Media For Votes?

After a successful season of educating 6 to 11 year olds about adventures in food, Avery, Lily and Matt are back for a second season.  Toronto-based marblemedia has been given the green light to start production on season 2 of TastebudsTV.com

“We have received a great deal of positive response from parents and kids alike with a hunger for more educational adventures in food, as well as new and exciting meal ideas,” said marblemedia Executive Producer and Partner Mark Bishop. “Our outstanding feedback emphasizes the fact that children are eager to try new foods and help out in the kitchen. Taste Buds encourages kids and their parents to explore food in entertaining ways and promote healthy eating together.”

TasteBudsTV.com was recently nominated for CFTPA Indie Awards in Best Convergent New Media.

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• Online Video Compression Player Seawell Networks Secures $7 Million In Series A Funding
• CTV Takes To The Web To Help With Debut Of HICCUPS and DAN FOR MAYOR, Premiers With 1.9 Million Viewers
• Look Out Jetsons, Rogers Is Getting Ready For Video Calling
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• marblemedia Hires Johnny Kalangis As Creative Director

marblemedia and Corus Entertainment have joined forces to pay recognition to up and coming talent at Ryerson University in Toronto as they present graduate student Afzal Huda with the Innovative Storytellers Award.

“Afzal has a great vision of Canadian culture and the impact new media will have on it,” said Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg, marblemedia partners and Ryerson alumni. “We are proud to honour him with this grant and to help mentor him in his career.”

Winners are chosen through an application process and receive a grant which includes a series of one-on-one sessions with industry executives from Corus Entertainment and marblemedia to gain insights into the business as well as guidance for their thesis. Mentors are selected from the areas of creative production, broadcasting, technology, legal, sales and marketing.

Related Stories:

• 2010 Genie Awards To Be Broadcast Online
• Ontario Universities Getting Ready To Create An Online University
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• marblemedia Hires Johnny Kalangis As Creative Director
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• marblemedia Hires Ted Brunt As Vice President Interactive Production
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