Astral Media Inc. is launching a new brand identity. Astral made a strategic decision to refresh its visual identity in 2009 to reflect its new corporate profile, evolving culture and expansion across Canada. The company will now operate publicly under the Astral name while the legal corporate name remains Astral Media Inc.
“Astral has grown significantly over the past two years adding diversification to our media product offering, and extending our reach across Canada,” said Ian Greenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer at Astral. “Our new identity reflects the attributes of our unique culture, focused on providing innovative and tailored advertising solutions to clients, and on delivering rich and exciting content to consumers through a variety of platforms all across the country. Most importantly, it recognizes our exceptional people without whom none of this would be possible.”
Astral’s new brand image represents the company’s diverse assets, decentralized yet disciplined business model and the knowledge, passion and imagination its employees bring to the marketplace. The vibrant colour palette and creative shape of the new logo are designed to convey human warmth and emotion, within a defined and responsive structure that is grounded and resilient.
“A new brand image is a powerful tool to communicate a company’s story and key differentiators in a way that encourages employee, partner and consumer engagement,” said Alain Bergeron, Vice-President, Corporate Communications and Chief Marketing Officer. “We wanted to showcase the personalization and flexibility in our market solutions, and convey a much better understanding of Astral – our people, media properties and the dynamic services and products we provide.”
Astral commissioned Toronto-based Juniper Park, a creative agency specialized in branding strategy, design and advertising, to collaborate with Astral in a 12 month, research-based brand assessment and redesign process.
The new Astral brand identity will be rolled out across the company’s family of properties, including specialty and pay television, radio, out-of-home advertising, and digital
Art Linkletter was a Canadian-American radio and television personality and the former host of two long-running United States television shows: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children. Read more here
See some of the best moments of his Television Career here
How can we forget Art Linkletter and the kids 5 minute feature that ran on so many Canadian Radio stations, lifted from his TV House Party in the 60’s.
Thanks to an old radio guy in Canada South
Some positive news out of the US today as advertising expenditures in the first quarter of 2010 rose 5.1% from a year ago and finished the period at $31.3 billion, according to Kantar Media. This marks the first increase in quarterly ad spending since Q1 2008 and the largest gain since Q1 2006, as the ad market finally experienced a long-awaited rebound.
After a three year slump, radio ad expenditures finally had a turnaround. National Spot Radio advanced 19% and was paced by higher spending from the telecom, financial service and auto categories. Local Radio (+4.6%) and Network Radio (+3%) were also up.
“With the economy turning from recession towards growth, marketers appear to be more confident about a pickup in consumer activity and have increased ad budgets to support their brands,” said SVP/Research Jon Swallen. “While the rising tide has thus far benefitted some media sectors more than others, Q1 spending hikes were broadly distributed across advertisers and categories and that’s an encouraging signal for the market going forward.”
Of the nineteen media types tracked by KANTAR, thirteen experienced a spending increase in the first quarter. At the forefront, Spot TV surged 22% on additional money from the automotive, retail, financial service and political categories. Despite this growth, current spending volume in Spot TV has only recovered to a level last seen in 1997.
Print media, on the whole, continued to lag the overall ad market. Consumer Magazine spending fell 3.9% from a year ago while Local Newspapers dropped 5.6%.
Thanks to All Access for this story
An email to subscribers from Mediabase today (May 25) explains that the Mediabase servers are being moved to Texas, resulting in the site being down for a time tomorrow (May 26).
“We will be moving our computer operations from LOS ANGELES to TEXAS on WEDNESDAY, MAY 26th. The move will begin at 10a (PT), 11a (MT), Noon (CT), 1p (ET).
“We anticipate the move will take between twelve to twenty-four hours, barring any unforeseen issues. The MEDIABASE site will be unavailable during this time. WEDNESDAY daily monitors may be delayed, but will be reconciled prior to the end of the chart week.
“We understand and appreciate how important MEDIABASE information is to you, and we have spent several months carefully planning this move to minimize downtime. Rest assured that MEDIABASE will do everything in its power to keep this move as abbreviated as possible.”
At 6pm Thursday (27 May) Ottawa will have a new station at 99.7 FM. Listeners can tune in to 99.7 FM right now and online to hear a sample of the the station.
UC Berkeley researchers are perfecting microscopic fibers that can make electricity from simple body motions. The nanofibers may soon be woven into clothing, creating the ultimate portable generator.
Need juice for a dying iPod? You may soon be able to plug the gadget into a shirt, dance the electric slide and be good to go.
The complete article can be viewed here.
For those of you that didn’t see the show, Celine Dion appeared to walk out and stand next to Elvis as the two sang a duet of the classic, “If I can Dream.”
It was like he was raised from the dead. A hologram. Totally amazing what they can do now.. The Estimated production cost was said to have been between $50,000 and $100,000 and it is said that it took a long time to create..
Celine Dion is in front of a LIVE Studio Audience. It is absolutely unbelievable how they have done this. It really – really does look for all the world that Elvis is actually standing there live on stage singing along side Celine Dion in front of the live American Idol audience.
Watch and listen to the audience going berserk, as they, themselves, think they are actually seeing Elvis right there in front of them…. A truly amazing use of modern-day technology brings Elvis Presley back to life in front of you.
Even though I’ve heard these songs zillions of times and can immediately recognize each one a second in, they never seem to grow tiresome when heard on the radio. These are songs I would never put on at home, or want to hear in a bar or on an iPod; they only seem to sound good on a tinny AM receiver, especially the one in my car.
Click here to read more from the National Post.
Many of us in media forget to fight for what is right. Erin Brockovich never forgot about raising causes and issues that mattered to real people. Now Erin is taking on the monster BP to task over the recent oil well diaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Radio must when appropriate champion causes that matters in the community it serves. You can make a difference. Thanks to Warren’s List for bring this to our attention.
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It is 19 years since Erin Brockovich first went into battle against corporate America. She was a small-town single mum who stood up to an industrial Goliath and won. Now, as she champions a new case with a depressingly similar plot, it is clear that she has lost none of her fighting spirit or trademark candour.
“Stand up to BP and say, ‘You know what, I’m not taking your shit any more’ ,” she tells an audience of more than 300 anxious individuals in Pensacola, Florida, who have gathered to hear how they can seek legal redress for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“If you stand down and you say nothing and you get complacent and let them run over you, they will do that. They are already doing that. I’m telling you: Don’t let them,” she continues, and is greeted with applause.
But backstage, the 49-year-old former beauty queen whose grit helped to win hundreds of millions of dollars for wronged communities and made her a symbol of environmental activism seems momentarily beaten.
CRTC Commisioner Steve Simpson sent a clear mesage to broadcasters at the BCAB recently when he said “If radio does not have a voice in Ottawa then Ottawa cannot hear you.” Now the RBM is closing it’s doors as of 31 August 2010.
This move, coupled with the recent closure of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), paves the way for the radio industry to re-establish its presence in the new media environment with one association dedicated to its particular legislative, regulatory, sales and marketing needs.
Lesley Conway-Kelley, Chair of the RMB, stated, “Radio’s future is bright and the best way to move forward and continue to be relevant in the current competitive environment is to focus our resources into one association with a broader yet focused mandate.” Additionally she said, “The only way this action is possible is that we are able to build on the superior work of the RMB and its team under the leadership of its President, Gary Belgrave, to transition into a new association that will combine the strengths of both the CAB and the RMB.”
Industry executives are currently working together to develop the framework for this new association and further announcements will be forthcoming in the near future.