Internet ads and Bessies fun

Andy Crosbie of Sparks Productions and Avion Films’ Michael Schwartz were among the smattering of commercial production people who turned up for ‘Full Speed AheadÉAdvertising on the Internet,’ part of the Canadian Advertising Research Foundation Breakfast Speaker Series held May 10.

Michele Madansky, new technology research manager for BBDO New York, and Leslie Laredo, director of advertising development for AT&T Interchange, took center stage at the Glenn Gould Theatre in Toronto to talk about how advertisers and agencies can use the Internet to their advantage.

To a degree, the technology isn’t really there yet, although how much that matters when two million to four million users – mostly male with college degrees and average household incomes of us$40,000 – are already online, is up for debate.

It’s a mistake to wait until technology allows instant access to 3D graphics and full-motion audio/ video before even thinking about advertising on the I-net, said Madansky. Getting on now helps the developer learn the quirks of the audience, ‘the early adopters,’ make connections with this market, and maybe more importantly right now, it’s good pr, said Madansky. Pizza Hut, one of the first to put up a screen to let people order pizzas, got 10 orders in the first month, and about 100 articles written about the site. ‘Obviously, they didn’t do it for the sales,’ said Madansky.

Where all this leaves the commercial production industry is still fuzzy, ‘but eventually it’s going to come to us and we’d better know what we’re talking about,’ says Crosbie.

‘Like Laredo said, God knows what they’re going to be speaking about a year from now. It’s moving incredibly fast, and what it’s all about is creating and producing entertainment pieces. How it’s going to be pumped to the audience is up to the propeller heads, but it will be a communications business. We already do that, but there’s things we need to know about creating for the new media.’

Apres Bessies

For all those who didn’t know where the word originated, the Television Bureau gives us this definition: Bessies, a word derived from the acronym for the Broadcast Executives Society, came into being after the original title for the awards, The Canadian Television Commercial Festival, was axed because it was too wordy. No one remembers exactly when it changed, but tvb books dating back 11 years call the awards the Bessies.

The food was better but I missed the Long Bar, seemed to be the popular sentiment as this year’s annual awards and schmoozefest wound up for another year.

The usual mix of agency and production folk, 980 to be exact, flocked to the Sheraton Hotel May 4, witnessing the usual mix of sparkles and gaffs that popped up through the awards show.

Director Steve Chase, who found out Wednesday afternoonhe was to be the Thursday lunch guest speaker, delivered an ode to his fax in an emotional speech about the quality of Canadian creative that comes through to his office in the u.s., and nimbly closed with his fax number.

Casualties of the phonetically-challenged included editor Richard Unruh, dop Peter Smillie, and the deacon of commercial photography, Fritz Spiess, who graciously overlooked the mispronunciation of his name.

Actor Richard Waugh made a particularly sweet acceptance speech in winning the Kari Award for best actor in a commercial, gently reminding the community that the talent is actually important to the creative execution.

Much rumbling after the ceremony about the subjective nature of awards, with Vickers and Benson’s ‘Anything is Possible’ campaign for Bank of Montreal and Chiat/Day’s ‘Checked It’ for Toshiba Canada cleaning up at the Bessies, while Molson Breweries’ ‘I Am Canadian’ campaign out of MacLaren Lintas and Nescafe’s specialty coffees push out of McCann-Erickson Advertising, both of which took home a pile of Marketing Awards, took a back seat.

This year’s loss of the Long Bar, albeit sorely missed, didn’t dim the spirits of the masses who seemed to have no trouble making due with the champagne reception in the outdoor courtyard, blissfully bright after four hours in the dark. The casually sculpted circled through the crowd, some with Ray Bans to hide cases of chronic swivel-eye that infects everyone at these gatherings.

Stomachs grumbling, people began moving inside towards the Kodak reception room about 7:30 p.m., a migration made slower when group after group found the one entry door locked and had to double back through the crowd again, another half-hour schmooze required.

Later the celebrants crammed into the Reunion bar, surprising the bartender and a half-dozen regulars who weren’t exactly sure why the dressed-to-the-nines crowd was pinning them in at the bar. Night caps for the never-say-die partiers were served at The Left Bank.

Awards again

Avion Films has won its first Gold Clio, for a spot directed by Dallas-based John Zurik. The spot, for A-Copy, an office machine supply and repair company in the u.s., was filmed in Canada. Agency was Greenberg Scronik in Boston.

People on the move

Award-winning director Steve Chase is no longer with Figaro Films in Montreal and is now being represented Canada-wide by Jolly Roger, Toronto.

Brad Dieno has replaced Debbie Fox as executive producer at Here’s How Productions.