Rouge gets more beautiful

Welcome to A Rouge Point of View. Ironically, while the purpose of this blog site is to help you get to know Rouge by fueling conversation about the relevant going-ons in the advertising, media, campus, resto-bar and high school worlds, we seldom use it as a platform to talk about us. Perhaps it’s part of our DNA, we really do focus our efforts on our clients’ businesses, our venue partners’ businesses and on the millions of consumers who actively engage with brands every day through the networks that we have created.

Over 8 years ago, I started a company to help other companies grow their businesses and in-turn grow my own, not to become a star of the show. As Rouge Media Group’s Founder and President, you’ll never see me in a corporate video talking about my achievements or success, but you will see me each an every day proudly present what we’ve done to help our clients and our venue partners win in the market place. That’s what we are all about, you the marketer, the agency, the venue partner, the end consumer… not us.

But… to break an unwritten rule to not talk about us, I’m proudly using this space to officially launch an exciting new network, a first ever in Canada, possibly the world. Today, we are officially launching Rouge Beauty, the newest network to join our three other incredibly successful and solution driven networks: High School, Campus and Resto-Bar.

Rouge Beauty is a brand new network, created to connect marketers and advertisers with Women 18-49 through the country’s top Hair Salons, Nail Bars and Spas. We’ve taken our proven and winning formula of our high impact Indoor Murals, on-line advertising and event/partnership opportunities, and tailored everything to meet with and stand out in these untouched and clutter free environments.

For most women, the trip to the salon is something they really look forward to, and it’s a place where they always look and feel better when they leave. What an opportune time to connect a brand with them – when they are taking a break from their busy days and feeling better about themselves and the world around them.

Traffic ‘wise, this new network delivers too. When you take the length of time a woman spends in a high-end salon (surprising for me, it can be up to 2-3 hours), and the volume of people who flow through a downtown nail-bar, combined with the impact of our Indoor Murals, you can make one massive impression for your brand with Rouge Beauty.

Unanimous feedback thus far has been, “why didn’t somebody think of this sooner”. At Rouge, we’ve been leaders in the marketplace, either by creating opportunities where none existed before such as High School and Beauty, or vastly improving upon the opportunities that were there like we did for Campus and Resto-Bar. We bring solutions to the market place that the market place wants, and this new network is in step with that.

I welcome you to reach out to Alison Jacobs, a member of my stellar executive team, to find out more about the opportunities within Rouge Beauty.

Martin Poitras

Guest Blog - Travis St. Denis - The Google Wallet

Last week was a notable one in the retail sector. The highly anticipated Google Wallet officially launched, marking a significant step in the shifting offline buying paradigm. To be sure, it is a small, yet important step in the grand scheme of things because it isn’t immediately delivering on the robust potential a mobile device embedded payment system could. However, it is now a realized and marketable alternative that can iterate toward the grand designs such a solution offers.

I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of it, there’s plenty of assessments and overviews of it already, this one from Mashable being a pretty comprehensive one. I can’t confirm the availability and usability in Canada (from both a NFC enabled handset to the backend money systems and financial institutions standpoint). It does use PayPass which is in-use here, but I don’t know if that means anything. All this isn’t to say we shouldn’t care right now, it will wash up on our shores soon enough.

The key piece for me in the whole emergence of digital wallets is the data it puts into play across a number of different properties. Payment systems have always been standalone or just with a single retailer and/or provider, isolating that data set from all the digital activity that comes before a sale. Google, as perhaps the chief player in pre-purchase digital behaviour (search on desktop and mobile, social, backend analytics, video, coupons, maps, other apps on mobile phones and much more), is poised to add actual data points that are the most valuable of all digital consumer behaviours, actual purchases. It’s a tremendous marriage, really.

The prospects are that with actual purchase history as factors into all the pre-purchase digital activities any consumer does, the experience, the offerings, the messages can become richer, more compelling, more relevant and more easily converted (eventually through Wallet, ideally – for them anyway).

To the Rouge business, the opportunities are fledging. As it ventures out into numerous digital territories for its agency clients and retail partners, the potential offerings are nascent but real. As technologies and platforms converge, it opens up connections that are of real value. NFC isn’t just for monetary transactions, but really any data transactions. Analog and digital signage can interact with phones, pushing coupons and other information that can then be linked with Google Wallet accounts and be redeemed or otherwise used automatically, possible social elements accompanying these actions and location based services employed are all viable and valuable to both consumers and the advertisers. Not to mention how any of these interaction points can be used at any stage within the process to inform or enhance or in future occasions. 

There are still a lot of questions with this technology in general. Just look at the comments in any of the article online about it. That’s a good thing. I’m certain many of those questions have already been thought about, but the interest is promising in the efforts to iterate the platform into something wholly amenable to the party within this new architecture. It’ll take some time, but no one said this had to be ready tomorrow. It’s your money they’re dealing with here and it won’t be solved over night. I’d be wary if they did. It holds a lot of promise and I for one am eager to simplify how all these technologies and points of consumer action can happen.

Travis St. Denis

Manager, Marketing Strategy & Analysis at SapientNitro

Rouge POV from Montreal (French): LE DÉFI DES MÉDIAS TANGIBLE

Comme plusieurs autres de mes collègues en publicité, j’ai assisté jeudi dernier aux 3^e RDV Média Infopresse à Montréal. C’est effectivement un rendez-vous à ne pas manquer chaque année; une belle opportunité de passer du temps parmi des centaines de passionnés de communication et de créativité venant d’ici ou d’ailleurs. C’est aussi le moment de s’assurer que nos esprits les plus avant-gardistes rivalisent bel et bien avec ce qui se fait à l’étranger.
 

La journée a débuté avec Jeffrey Graham de l’agence Initiative de New York, un spécialiste et analyste de la performance, venu nous parler de la nécessité de repenser l’utilisation des médias afin que ceux-ci répondent aux besoins changeant des consommateurs. Selon lui, il faut créer une expérience et une synergie entre les consommateurs et la marque, et augmenter l’implication du consommateur. En d’autres mots, les compagnies doivent faire en sorte que leurs marques passent plus de temps avec le public cible. Il pose donc la question suivante : comment les marques peuvent-elles s’activer auprès de leur cible? Sa réponse, franchement, n’est pas du tout une surprise et sent un peu le réchauffé : Facebook, Twitter, Youtube et la mobilité.
 

Ces jours-ci, il me semble que tous les marketeurs dépendent des réseaux sociaux, d’applications iPhone, ou du web pour leurs campagnes publicitaires. Cependant, que la page corporative Facebook ait des milliers de fidèles, ou qu’une vidéo Youtube ait été vue des millions de fois, ou qu’une application nous permette de trouver les chiottes les plus propres à proximité (vrai application de Charmin), n’assure pas nécessairement une croissance des revenus. Ma question est donc la suivante : la réponse aux médias sociaux est-elle indicatrice d’une augmentation des ventes? 
 

Les médias numériques sont définitivement efficaces quand vient le temps de créer une notoriété de marque, mais je ne suis pas convaincu qu’ils changent la perception du consommateur par rapport à la marque. Ils peuvent même faire vivre au consommateur une expérience, quoique virtuelle, et créer engagement. Mais comment mesurer l’efficacité réelle des médias sociaux? Et malgré une multitude d’amis virtuels qui ont une opinion sur tout, comment pouvons-nous définir l’éternel « retour-sur-investissement »?
 

Comment mesurer l’efficacité et le retour-sur-investissement d’une campagne d’affichage me direz-vous? Et bien, avec l’émergence des opportunités en ligne, les fournisseurs de médias plus « traditionnels » sont maintenant forcés d’innover et de se diversifier afin de survivre. Chez Rouge Media Group, ça s’est traduit en une opportunité d’intégrer le produit dans la vie quotidienne de la cible, ou si vous voulez, de créer cette synergie tant convoitée entre le consommateur et la marque. Grâce aux accès tangibles et partenariats que nous avons avec les environnements dans lesquels nous évoluons, nous comptons maintenant de l’affichage digital, des accès promotionnels et du web. 
 

Bien que la portion affichage demeure le produit vedette, les additions faites à notre portfolio de services nous donnent l’occasion de mettre le produit directement entre les mains du consommateur. Innover et s’améliorer ont été des éléments importants de notre succès depuis le début, et devenir un ‘one-stop shop’ de solutions publicitaires est nécessaire, voir crucial pour tout fournisseur qui veut demeurer compétitif. La place qu’ont pris les médias sociaux dans le paysage publicitaires nous a poussé, d’une certaine façon, à relever le défi et se transformer de sorte que nous ne tombions pas dans l’oubli comme tant d’autres médias qui ne sont malheureusement pour eux, plus pertinent. 
 

Malgré que bien des professionnels du monde de la pub croient en leur disparition imminente, les médias imprimés de toutes sortes seront toujours présents dans nos vies, du moins en tant qu’élément incitatif des campagnes mobiles ou numériques. Arianna Huffington (dernière présentation de la journée du RDV Média), figure importante du Online News Media, a soulevé un bon point. Elle admet que nous vivons tous une dualité entre le monde physique et un monde branché et superficiel. Elle-même s’efforce d’avoir autant d’interactions humaines que virtuelles, pour éviter d’être définie par le personnage qu’elle incarne en ligne. Il est impossible de ne vivre que dans l’artificielle des ondes téléphoniques. C’est pourquoi la pub se doit de faire partie du meilleur des deux mondes.
 

Sans y être allé trop en profondeur, j’espère avoir au moins soulevé un questionnement sur l’efficacité des campagnes publicitaires qui ne s’affichent que sur les réseaux sociaux, mobiles ou interactifs. Et qu’au lieu de suivre la vague et se lancer aveuglément dans une campagne « Facebookienne » en espérant révolutionner leur façon de marketer, les compagnies reconnaitront la nécessité et l’importance des médias tangibles/traditionnels, ne serait-ce que comme conducteur et catalyseur.
 

Jonathan Laflamme

Rouge POV from Montreal (French): Pointage final au RDV Media : RDS gagne 1 à 0 face aux autres fournisseurs médias.

Alors que Rouge Media vient tout juste de livrer une multitude de campagnes promotionnelles où les divers clients ont rivalisé d’adresse pour rejoindre la cible étudiante sur les campus universitaires du Québec et du Canada, il est intéressant de constater que plusieurs compagnies média se sont livrées au même jeu aujourd’hui lors des RDV Média, cette fois pour attirer l’œil des différents stratèges et dirigeants des agences du Québec.

Et oui, bien que le thème officiel de la journée était « L’avenir des médias », il ne s’agissait pas là du seul enjeu. À en juger par le nombre de dirigeants qui se sont déplacés pour l’événement, il est clair que l’événement est pour les fournisseurs médias et agences une vitrine exceptionnelle pour promouvoir leur savoir, leurs produits, leurs services et leur expertise aux gens de l’industrie.

Peut-être est-ce un reflet d’un paysage médiatique québécois et canadien de plus en plus contraignant et distillé, mais il est intéressant de constater qu’un simple kiosque de type « trade show » est mis à la disposition des médias pour promouvoir leurs services durant cette journée. Alors que les agences sont constamment défiées par leurs clients afin qu’elles soumettent des plans média qui favorisent l’innovation et l’engagement avec le consommateur, les attentes envers les fournisseurs médias pour que ceux-ci fournissent des solutions qui répondent à ces critères sont de plus en plus élevées, C’est le cas de le dire, les médias devaient vraiment innover afin de se démarquer dans un environnement aussi restreint, souvent placé à un jet de pierre du kiosque de leurs concurrents.

À ce chapitre, RDS et sa nouvelle station, RDS2, sortent grand gagnant de la journée ou, si vous préférez, ont su tirer leur épingle du jeu. Alors que plusieurs autres stations tentaient tant bien que mal de se faire remarquer, RDS a su créer un concept simple et efficace : quelques jeunes hommes habillés en joueurs de rugby qui performent le Haka, danse intimidante effectuée par l’équipe nationale de rugby de la Nouvelle-Zélande. En compétition face aux vedettes des autres réseaux, RDS a osé être différent, être « loud ». J’aime bien Ricardo et Francis Reddy mais le dynamisme des joueurs de rugby a aisément volé la vedette aux autres vedettes. Bien joué, RDS ! Vous avez donné votre 110% à un point tel qu’on aurait dit un match de 4 points ou, mieux encore, un match sans lendemain où on a séparé les hommes des enfants.

Ce que RDS a fait aujourd’hui m’a fait penser aux raisons majeures pour lesquelles les annonceurs choisissent Rouge depuis maintenant 7 ans comme partenaire dans les Resto-Bars et Campus. C’est une chose de communiquer, mais s’en est une autre de se démarquer.

Marc-Andre Demers

Selling papers over selling cars?

Lately, I feel like I’ve been like many consumers, good or bad, like burying my head in the sand and waiting until the latest economic turmoil to pass, so we can all go on with our lives.

If you notice the gap between blog posts, we’ve been busy, busy focusing on OUR growing business, which is the ONE economic thing I believe we CAN control, so getting wrapped up in the latest financial doom and gloom and blogging about marketing has rightfully taken a back seat.

Last Thursday and Friday, we were at a company offsite, a retreat where the whole company came together and connected over a fun and educational 2 days in Kingston, Ontario.

Friday morning, as I stepped out of my hotel room, I was greeted by a free copy of The Globe and Mail, lying dutifully on the floor in front of my door. My initial thought, thinking like a long-time media person, “What a waste!” A sea of newspapers that will soon be heading (many unread) into Kingston’s recycling program, serving one purpose, to pad the Globe’s circulation numbers.

Just then, the cover story caught my eye. “Worst one-day fall in global equities in two years as economic fears grow”, complimented with a dramatic downward line that traveled almost the entire height the unfolded paper.

Forgive me, I’m no economist, as my “head in the sand” lead-in should testify to, but looking closer I notice the line that so dramatically paints a picture of the world on the brink of financial destruction represents a mere -4.3% change. Sure -4.3% on the markets is a lot of money, but it’s still just -4.3%.

Being that long-time media person, I thought about all those poor advertisers who shelled out the tens of thousands of dollars to be in this issue of the Globe, and likely every other newspaper that day, and in recent days.

I thumbed through the paper, it was a decent day ad wise for the Globe, a mix of ads for things like Rolex watches, to Lincolns and Land Rovers and for several new condo developments in Toronto (which in their own right were a waste as I stood reading the paper in Kingston). I wondered just how many cars, watches and condos are going to be sold today, as a result of their ad in this issue. If you believe in the old phrase coined by Marshal McLuhan “the medium is the message”, then the answer may very likely be… not many.

With the exception of a few shady rags, many newspapers like the Globe have a clear divide between editorial and advertising, which gives them credibility amongst their readers and within the journalism community. Earlier in the week I heard that on-line just passed the newspaper industry in terms of total ad revenue. If true (sorry, it was such a given I don’t feel the need to fact check), shouldn’t newspapers perhaps be exercising a little caution with respect to further making their product less effective for advertisers?

I’ve always believed that all good media outlets should continue to maintain credibility with their reader/listener/viewership and not forge themselves to fit with an advertisers needs, but in a case like this, perhaps they should be a little more mindful of the companies that keep them in business.

From a Rouge Media Group perspective, we don’t provide any editorial value through our main advertising products like newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations do, so this blog topic is an easy (but not intended) shot at those that do, nor is it a pitch for putting a brand in a more positive and social environment like ours (though that kinda was, and I will be encouraging my Account Managers to spend more time combing newspapers for dejected advertisers).

As a consumer who has seen my own investments fade from media hype and stock market speculation, and as a media person of many years who has cared passionately about where I invested my clients’ budget, I believe clients and agencies should start to pay more attention to the “environments” media outlets are creating as opposed to who they may or may not be reaching.

Perhaps if more advertisers pulled out of media channels who over report or exaggerate fears and negativity like this, the media outlets would start to temper how they message their readers. This type of sensationalism may sell a few more copies of the paper, but it certainly doesn’t help those that pay to keep the lights on.

Seriously, should a 4.3% drop call for such real estate on a page?

Jef

Digital Media – The New Old Boys Club?

Last week during the iab.mixx conference in Toronto, I was inspired to comment on a couple of points:

a. Alex Bogusky as America’s new voice of sustainable capitalism and b. Why can’t we just all admit that print is dead (no amount of makeup can make it appear alive) and the looming fact that the city dump reaper is eagerly waiting to take desktop and notebook PC’s along with it.

But then the final topic of the day was announced - a panel discussion on the future of mobile and tablets - and up walked 5 men onto the stage. It did not seem that unusual but rather a fitting conclusion to the day, 5 young digital leaders discussing and debating the exciting future for us all in the room. Yet the unusual thing was that they were all men.

Perhaps the fact that it had been the celebration of the 100^th year of International Women’s Day just two days before which made the smack of the all male panel that much more jolting for the women in the room. Or perhaps it was the fact that approximately 60% of the conference attendees appeared to be women. Or maybe it was simply that when those 5 men walked up on stage, many woman in the room audibly gasped in shock and realized only at that moment – that every other speaker at the conference - had been a man.

Now I am not suggesting that speakers be invited to a conference if they are not sufficiently well versed on the topic at hand. That would be insulting and painfully boring for everyone who paid a few hundred bucks to sit in the audience. And I certainly don’t believe in fulfilling gender or ethnic quotas just to appear representative of a population. Those who are the most qualified should be given the job. But this all male and all swagger panel which was supposed to represent the future of digital media, had quite a stale air about it.

I am sure the lack of a single female speaker and panelist at the conference could not have escaped Paula Gignac, the President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada and host of the event. Paula has been at the forefront of the digital media community in Canada for quite some time now and I want to believe this glaring omission of female industry leaders could not have been overlooked. The Canadian advertising industry in general is well balanced in terms of gender representation. Sure, it could be argued that on the glamorous, creative side (the face of the industry) men seem to dominate, whilst in media (the definitively not sexy side of the business), women outnumber the guys (Mad Men theories could be explored here). But women seem to be taking the management lead at ad agencies across the country in full force and at a rather fast pace.

So Paula, I ask you this – where are the women in digital media?

And to my 7 year old daughter: I know I’ve been concerned lately about your obsession with mobile and portable devices, computers and gaming systems. Well, I ‘m not worried anymore. Go ahead and explore all you want. Here’s hoping one day you’ll end up in the industry.

Alison

Toronto 3rd Party Sign Tax – City’s Revenue Pipedream Slowed to a Trickle

A court ruling was just released that the new 3^rd Party Sign Tax that was passed by the Toronto City Council in 2009 cannot be applied to any billboard that was erected prior to April 2010.

Westbound View from the Gardiner - Toronto

This ruling, which may likely be appealed by the city, comes as great news to the country’s Out-Of-Home (OOH) Advertising Industry and marketers alike, as it is a big step forward in ensuring the medium has a viable future, reaching consumers while they are on the go.

Had the court’s ruling decided otherwise, the OOH Advertising Industry in Canada would have suffered a major financial blow, which could have crippled it completely, especially as other cities would have likely followed suit.

In previous blog posts I’ve discussed this tax at length, about how unrealistically the tax was calculated and poorly approached by the city, who had grand designs of making easy money. Rob Ford was one of twelve city councilors who opposed the tax back in 2009, so it will be interesting to see how the city proceeds on whether or not they appeal the court ruling.

For advertisers:

This is great news, as it will ensure there will be a healthy OOH Industry, without having to eat the cost of the city’s crazy new tax. Also, the tax will prevent/reduce any future explosion of new signage, which would act as added clutter to detract from advertisers’ messages, making the medium less effective.

The biggest and likely only “con” for this ruling for advertisers, with fewer new builds caused by the new tax, it will only excel the rate at which the OOH Industry is converting static billboards into tri-visions and some of the more expensive video/LED type signs.

Tri-visions are the OOH Industry’s answer to ensuring profitable growth for their future, as unsuspecting media buyers who buy based on GRPs reported by COMB (The Canadian Out-of-Home Measurement Bureau), pay full price for 1/3 of a billboard’s time, while receiving a far lower quality of impression. Side-note: This had been a burr in my saddle for many years as an OOH buyer, because the OOH Industry and COMB arbitrarily and silently raised the valuation of Tri-visions from 60% to 80% to 100% of the value of a regular poster.

For residents:

A huge win, there will be fewer new signs cluttering up the landscape, as any new sign will be subject to the new tax.

The biggest and most significant “con”, look out for possible increased property taxes or major service cuts. Apparently, the City of Toronto practiced the same poor judgment and lack of foresight with their 2012 budgeting process as they had in cooking up this crazy new tax; they actually counted on their $10 Million pipedream coming in. This ruling leaves the City with a $10 Million budgetary sinkhole to fill.

While throughout this whole process, there has not been much media coverage, I’m sure over the next few days, the residents of Toronto will be hearing a lot of it. As a resident and a member of the Marketing/Advertising community, I’m very interested to see how Rob Ford will approach this one.

Jef