GENESIS MEDIA TRACKS BRANDS
Toronto-based Genesis Media has launched a national media tracking service through The Media Consulting Group, its research division. The service is free to Genesis clients. Based on a sample size of 5,000 adults, the service tracks brand performance and media effectiveness scores. Initial results are expected next month and will be updated on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
THURSBY, LANYON SET UP SHOP
Agency veterans Stephen Thursby and Mary-Ann Lanyon have set up their own agency in Toronto. Thursby, the creative side of the partnership, left Palmer Jarvis DDB, last July, where he had been group creative director. Lanyon, who has had experience on both the agency and client side of the business, was most recently a strategic planner at Harrod & Mirlin/FCB.
HEK BEER ADS FLASH PATRONS
A 3-D interactive ad for Hek, Provigo’s house-brand beer, is attracting a lot of attention in bars and restaurants in Montreal and Quebec City. The ads, by Montreal-based Gagon Designer, feature an animated beer bottle wearing a trench coat that lights up when patrons push a red button and look into an eye-viewer. The interactive posters were placed in 118 NewAd Media locations in bars, restaurants and nightclubs in the two Quebec cities. An earlier campaign for Hek Beer featured point-of-purchase floor advertising that generated many requests for the beverage at the bar. However, the beer is only available in Quebec supermarkets.
OMNICOM BUYS BENCHMARK
Omnicom, the New York-based advertising giant, has acquired Benchmark Communications, one of Canada’s leading technology public relations firms. Benchmark will become an independent unit of Copithorne & Bellows Public Relations, an international high-tech public relations firm. Stan Didzbalis, Benchmark’s founder and ceo, will assume additional responsibilities as ceo of Canada Porter Novelli (formerly HR&A Porter Novelli), the Canadian operations of Porter Novelli International, another Omnicom company.
