Cottage Life brand extensions to range from furniture and bedding to candles and dips

Taking advantage of a magazine brand built over the past 26 years, Cottage Life Media is rolling out a whole menu of consumer products to retailers at the upcoming Toronto Gift Fair. Consumers themselves will see the new products at the annual Spring Cottage Life Show March 27 - 29 at the International Centre in Toronto. 

The Cottage Life brand has been licensed on the company's behalf by brand management agency The Licensing Shop Inc. and among the products to be produced and marketed by Canadian-based manufacturers and designers will be 

• Hand-crafted bedroom and dining room furniture by RuffSawn 
• Bedding and kitchen linens from Brunelli 
• Outdoor furniture Collection in western red cedar and pine from Dundalk LeisureCraft
• Scented candles from Country Home Candle
• Grilling seasonings and sauces, hot and cold dips, salsas, and salad dressings from Premier Gifts and Orange Crate Foods

The new products will be promoted on the branded TV channel, through the magazine, website and three annual consumer shows.  Cottage Life Media is a division of Blue Ant Media Partnership and publishes Cottage Life & Cottage Life West and produces the annual Cottage Life consumer shows in Toronto and Edmonton. Cottage Life, a national television channel launched this past fall. Cottage Life Media brands reach more than 4.5 million Canadians every month.

Cottage Life rebrands Cottage as Cottage Life West, launches Edmonton consumer show

Cottage to go West

Cottage Life Media is rebranding its recently acquired Cottage magazine as Cottage Life West, starting in March 2014. And concurrently, it is launching the Edmonton Cottage Life & Cabin Show, much like its successful eastern counterparts.

In July 2012, Cottage Life Media and OP Publishing of Vancouver negotiated a swap by which OP's Cottage magazine moved over the Cottage Life Media (and Explore magazine to OP). It was clearly a means to a somewhat more national buy and readership than the heavily Ontario-based Cottage Life could offer advertisers. Cottage Life has a paid circulation of 70,000; Cottage's circulation is 20,000.

The rebranding of Cottage and the creation of a complementary consumer show is part of a national strategy being pursued aggressively by Cottage Life Media after it was purchased by Blue Ant Media in the fall of 2013. This includes the launch of a digital specialty TV channel with the Cottage Life brand.

“While Cottage is already western Canada’s leading recreational living publication, as Cottage Life West, readers can expect the same strong western Canadian focus, but even more great content thanks to the added expertise and resources Cottage Life Media brings to the table” said Peter Robson, editor, Cottage Life West [in a release.]

The first Edmonton Cottage Life & Cabin Show (a nod to the western habit of referring to their second homes as cabins) will be April 25-27 at the Edmonton Expo Centre and is expected to feature more than 100 exhibitors. Consumer shows with cottage lifestyle products and services have been a major strength of the Toronto-based Cottage Life Media for 21 years, including its Spring Cottage Life Show attracts more than 30,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors and the Fall Cottage Life Show with more than 10,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors. The new Edmonton show will tap into a strengthening western Canadian market of recreational property owners. A report compiled in 2012 by Westcoast CED Consulting Ltd. says the resource-based economy in Alberta and Saskatchewan is creating strong markets for recreational properties and fuelling demand for log and timber frame home builders.

“More than 365,000 people in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan own a vacation property in Canada,” said Al Zikovitz, president, Cottage Life Media. “Our objective is to be the leading media brand offering the best in local content for readers and show attendees, along with fully-integrated media solutions for advertisers and exhibitors.”

Totem named brand agent for Right to Play

Totem, the branded content arm of TC Media, which publishes many of Canada's best known consumer magazines, has been named the brand agency of record for the Toronto-based international organization called Right to Play. Right To Play promotes the involvement of all children and youth, often working in the most disadvantaged areas engaging girls, persons with disabilities, children affected by HIV/AIDS, street children, former child combatants and refugees.

Totem says in a release that it has "already begun some initial brand work, sharpening Right To Play’s positioning in the marketplace and will continue by developing new engagement initiatives, bringing the organization’s positive work and message to a bigger audience."

Right to Play was founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medalist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss. Its sports programs are facilitated by 590 international staff and nearly 12,000 volunteer coaches.

MagNet magazine conference gets a new look

MagNet, the annual industry conference has been given a new look. A release from Magazines Canada says that the new logo, designed by K9 Design, is "bold, cool and vibrant". The 6th annual conference will be held June 5 to 8, 2012 in Toronto. It's a collaborative effort by Magazines Canada, Circulation Management Association of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada.

The logo reflects the future-focused evolution of Canada's magazines. With its spinning circular motif, the image suggests the change that is a part of growth, while the strong vibrant colour accents embody the excitement MagNet generates annually among delegates and in the industry in general.

Transcontinental rebrands itself

Transcontinental, the publisher of many of Canada's largest consumer magazines, has rebranded and its magazine publishing arm will be known as TC.Media and the parent company will be TC.Transcontinental (the printing division will be TC.Transcontinental Printing).

"Our new brand launch is a logical milestone in the disciplined roll-out of the development plan we began implementing in 2008 to strengthen our core operations and build new marketing communications services," said François Olivier, President and CEO of TC. Transcontinental.

Here's how the company's press release positioned the new brand, which was created by Cohesion Strategies, a Montreal-based consultancy specialized in brand strategy, and Bleublancrouge, a Montreal-based advertising and design agency:

Beyond the truncation of the word Transcontinental, the ‘t’ in the new ‘tc’ stands for technology, while the ‘c’ represents community. In the chosen typography, the bold, upright ‘t’ embodies confidence and solidity. The ‘c’, with its generous opening, signifies willingness to communicate. The red dot from the former logo is transformed into a black one, which represents the digital economy as well as the point of contact between the company and its customers. The logo is black or white, depending on context and usage. Keeping the main typographic element devoid of color will allow the use of various colors to illustrate sub-brands.

The power of magazine brands applied to restaurants and clubs by Condé Nast

Vogue Cafe, Moscow

A while ago we reported on the rollout of the eponymous restaurant and general store in Truro, Nova Scotia by Saltscapes magazine. 
The idea is similar, only the scale is different as this restaurant thing is catching on worldwide. Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and GQ, opened a branded cafe, bar and gentlemen's club in Moscow last year and is planning to put  Vogue Cafés in Kiev and Istanbul soon. According to a recent story in Media Week,

Stuart Nielsen, director of restaurants for Condé Nast International, said: "Turkey and the Ukraine are both exciting emerging markets with a strong appetite for luxury brands in retail and hospitality. Vogue Café and GQ Bar address this powerful consumer desire."

Condé Nast is working in partnership with the Otrada Luxury Group in the Ukraine, and the Dogus Group in Turkey, to launch the outlets.

Nielsen said more openings would be announced in the coming months, including in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Condé Nast is also planning to launch a line of Vogue-branded fashion courses in London.

Our company, Impresa, is the word of the day

Well, what do you know? The word of the day is impresa, which is the longstanding name of our consulting company (Impresa Communications Limited). 

Most clients a) think we made it up and b) misspell it (adding an extra 's' in the mistaken belief it is based on the word impress). Here's what the website A.Word.A.Day gives as the definition:

PRONUNCIATION:

(im-PRAY-zuh)

MEANING:

noun: An emblem or device, usually with a motto.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Italian impresa (undertaking), past participle of imprendere (to undertake), from Latin in- + prehendere (to grasp). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, and get. Earliest documented use: before 1586.

[H/T to Joyce Byrne]

Reader's Digest comes out on top in brand status and strength

Reader's Digest magazine has announced that it achieved the highest score of any magazine brand measured in Canada's largest independent brand equity survey. The BrandAsset Valuator® is a proprietary study conducted by Young & Rubicam Canada Ltd. and among the magazines included, RD came out with the highest score in terms of brand strength and brand status.  [The graphic above has been adapted, with permission.] The 2010 results are based upon a survey of 6,694 respondents nationwide in English and French, looking at 661 individual brands based on 72 different brand metrics. An equivalent is conducted in the U.S. with 16,000 respondents and the BAV is also conducted in 49 other countries.

Saltscapes magazine is opening a downhome family restaurant

Some 5 years after first floating the idea, Saltscapes magazine of Halifax is opening a branded restaurant with down home cooking. The shakedown cruise, so to speak, of the Saltscapes Restaurant and General Store is on now in the large space at the Truro Power Centre.

The restaurant features a grand fieldstone fireplace in the main dining room and, according to the magazine's co-publisher and co-owner of the restaurant, Jim Gourlay, the restaurant will be new, but it won't feel "shiny." He says the ambiance will be "comfortable, inviting and old-fashioned." Reportedly, the menu is "huge".

Customers will have a hand in shaping that menu for the first year.

"Patrons will be asked what they'd like to see on the menu," he says. "That's in keeping with the general Saltscapes business philosophy: ask people what they want, then give it to them at a higher quality than they expect."

When isn't it plagiarism? When it's "promotion" for Men's Health, apparently

Dave Zinczenko, the editor of Men's Health, was accused of plagiarizing his own writers by the blog Gawker for cutting and pasting old Men's Health content, removing the bylines and putting the material in his Yahoo column "Eat This, Not That".  Zincezenko told Gawker 

We use this material to grow traffic and awareness for the Men's Health and Women's Health brands and a variety of Rodale products. Nowadays promoting the company's products on a blog is no different than going on TV and promoting the latest issue.

Gawker replied, acidly

Yes, it's normal for websites to republish articles from other sites—but it's certainly not normal for an editor to take articles written by other people and pass them off as if he wrote them himself.

What is more interesting were the following observations from an online article by the New York Observer media columnist Kat Stoeffel, headlined You can't plagiarize a brand

Multi-platform media brands are slowly chipping away at the monument of authorship through syndication and cross-promotion. It would be really crushing for egomaniacal writer-types—if anyone of them gave a damn about that kind of  high-fructose, servicey, SEO-bait content.

The reason why so many of the pieces "plagiarized" were unbylined is that no one wants to take credit for them .... We bet whoever wrote those slideshows was happy to get paid to do them, but is also more than happy to let Dave Zinczenko be the face for them. And when the syndication is simply promotional, in hopes of moving eye balls, not dollar bills, than what is there even worth fighting for?

FIPP becomes...FIPP, officially

The International Federation of the Periodical Press, which everyone has taken to calling FIPP has changed its name officially to FIPP Limited, with the revised tagline "The worldwide media magazine association".  The change was approved by members at a general meeting December 2.

"FIPP is not only changing its name, but also its mission, its organisation structure, and its approach to its products and services so that it represents more appropriately what our members are doing and the journey they are on in developing multimedia brands that come from a magazine heritage starting point,*” said president and CEO Chris Llewellyn in a post on its website

The new name and mission is being reflected in new articles of association which will have the added benefit for FIPP's far-flung members (of whom Magazines Canada is one) that future communications can be sent electronically; until now, everything was mandated to be delivered in hard copy.

[*How do you like the concept of print being a "magazine heritage starting point"?]

Bruce Mau and his team will rebrand OCAD

Bruce Mau Design has been given the assignment to re-brand OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art & Design and even before that was simply the Ontario College of Art). OCAD and its design side is the seedbed for much of the art direction and design talent that drives and has driven Canadian magazines.

According to a post on Design Edge Canada's website, Mau's firm was chosen to create a new image for the institution because it demonstrated an understanding of OCADU's values and teaching philosophies.

“Bruce Mau Design are expert collaborators. They demonstrated a strong commitment to work with our community to design the process that will drive the outcome of our partnership, and this is of utmost importance to our stakeholders,” said marketing and communications director Steve Virtue, in the press release. “They implicitly understand OCADU’s rich history, and how our community’s many stories inform the creation of innovating new ideas.”

He'll be charged with coming up with a new image and wordmark which will replace one designed by the well-regarded Toronto design firm Hambly & Woolley in 2005.  (He'll also have his work cut out for him, since the OCAD University handle is an awkward construct.)

Interestingly, Mau once attended OCAD, but left before graduating to join the Fifty Fingers design group, later working at Pentagram in the UK and founding his own firm in 2004. According to a bio on Wikipedia, he served as creative director of I.D. magazine from 1991-93.

Famous movie magazine to be expanded and rebranded as Cineplex Magazine

The in-house movie magazine Famous and its French equivalent Famous Quebec will be rebranding and expanding circulation with the name change to Cineplex Magazine and Le magazine Cineplex, effective with its October issue. The change reflects the ownership, according to a release:

Famous magazine launched in November 1999 as the in-theatre magazine for the Famous Players chain of cinemas, with Famous Quebec following three years later. In 2005 Cineplex Entertainment purchased Famous Players along with Famous magazines. Famous is currently available in Cineplex theatres across the country and has one of the largest circulations among Canadian magazines, while Famous Quebec is available in theatres across Quebec.

At one time, Cineplex theatres distributed the independent movie mag Tribute; it was replaced by Famous when Cineplex acquired Famous Players from Viacom. 

The rebranded magazines will be adding newspaper distribution via the Globe and Mail and Le Journal de Montreal, increasing circulation to a total of 900,000.  

BCAMP to be refreshed and rebranded as Magazines BC

The British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers, popularly known to date as BCAMP will very likely be changing its name to Magazines BC after approval from its annual general meeting on Saturday, June 12. In the annual report for 2009, executive director Rhona MacInnes explains:

In the process of strategic planning made possible with a Flying Squad grant, BCAMP has reaffirmed its vision and mission and has embraced a brand refresh, emerging with a new look and a new marketing name. Doing business as Magazines BC, your organization hopes that it will appear more inclusive to industry partners, more memorable to the general public and more appealing to corporate sponsors.

In addition, planning is well underway for the development of a charitable arm, which we hope will allow us to draw from a larger pool of funders, and provide stability and sustainability to those key programs that provide education and advance research for our industry.

All of the arts and culture groups in BC are still reeling from drastic funding cuts from the B.C. government and the intention to develop charitable status, announced in April,would result in creation of WSPER, The Western Society for Periodical Education and Research. This depends, of course on the granting of the privileged charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency. If granted, the separate arm of Magazines BC would seek new sources of private and public funding to raise capital and operational support for BC magazines.

Related posts: 

• BCAMP seeking charitable status ( April 7, 2010)
• Magazines urged to review new charitable fundraising rules (October 6, 2008)
• Not necessarily charitable (February 17, 2006) 
• Will cultural mags be able to meet the CRA fundraising benchmarks? (July 09, 2008)
• Comment about charity status (October 31, 2005)
• Good news, maybe, we'll see (September 28, 2005)

"Magazine is change": Canadian Living rebranded

Canadian Living magazine has been rebranded in ways large and small  for its 35th anniversary, all with the intention of changing the perception of it as a print magazine with affiliated online properties to a cross-platform media brand, according to a story in Marketing. The agency GWP Brand Engineering was selected by Transcontinental Media and the magazine's management to carry out the changes (GWP was the company that helped the CBC present itself as a cross-platform rather than a television brand).  

“We felt that Canadian Living in the media industry is probably undervalued for its strength as a brand,” said Lynn Chambers, group publisher. “Everybody thinks of us as just the [print] magazine. We’ve had great successes with our core magazine audience, a history of loyal readers. We’ve been successful in expanding onto new platforms, but we don’t tell our full brand story enough.”

Content is now grouped under one of five “pillars,” including beauty, health, lifestyle, home and food. However, in keeping with its more “optimistic” brand personality, these sections bear the headings “Beauty is everywhere,” “Health is happiness,” “Life is for living,” “Home is pride,” and “Food is love.”

“It’s not really a change for us, but we’re being more personable about how we express [ourselves],” Chambers said.

Among the changes in the current (April) issue is the tag line, previously "Smart solutions for everday living" to "Inspiring ideas for everyday living". And the price, marking the 35th anniversary of the magazine, is $1.99.

Redwood morphs into Totem

Redwood Custom Communications, that was, is now officially Totem and has marked the occasion with the launch of a new website  and affixing its new name above the door of its Front Street offices in Toronto.The company will continue to produce custom publications like Aeroplan Arrival, and CAA magazine, but its three-month rebranding and new online communications now emphasize its increasing role in digital and web applications for its clients' brands.

Maclean's magazine reports on how The Beaver changed its name

Maclean's magazine has published a story on how The Beaver magazine managed its name change to Canada's History. The story, by Martin Patriquin, quotes editor Mark Reid (who, with publisher Deborah Morrison, must be shell-shocked by the worldwide, salacious attention paid to what is, after all, simply a rebranding).

“Yes, I like beavers, the animals, just as much as anybody else,” Reid said recently. “It’s a historic creature, it’s on our nickel, it’s a proud part of the fur trade. But in the 21st century, if you are going to rebrand your entire organization, including all that you do, ‘beaver’ is probably not going to be the word that best speaks to what you do, if you know what I mean.”

Redwood custom publisher to rebrand as Totem

We note that Redwood Custom Communications, Canada'a largest provider of contract-published or custom magazines and media (now a subsidiary of Transcontinental Media) has announced its new name: Totem. The associated tag line  is "Brand Stories".

Redwood is now 10 years old and its president and CEO Eric Schneider said:

“The new brand will be more meaningful to what the business is now, its positioning and where it’s going....the new name resonates on several levels. A totem, literally, is an object seen to have significance by a particular group. It has tremendous weight and power, commanding attention.We love this name because it articulates the essence of what we do. We create media brands for our clients that act as totems, bringing to life the qualities that consumers cherish most in our clients’ brands.”

Schneider said the rather enigmatic tagline "Brand Stories" reflects what the company's staff does.

“This captures our strength in crafting the kind of messaging that engages customers on a narrative journey. Be it the subject line of an email, a feature article or a multi-page photo essay, the imperative of great storytelling is the core of our customer-focused approach. We’ve even created a new term to describe the craft employed by the talented staff who create brand stories: Marketing Journalists.”

Canada's History to replace venerable (but misunderstood) name of The Beaver magazine

After 90 years, many of them as an unfair butt of vulgar jokes, The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, will be changing its name, effective with its April issue. Henceforth it will be called Canada's History magazine and there has been a redesign of the logo both in print and online.

The change has been some time in gestation and effectively moves the tagline into pride of place.

The Beaver began as a house organ for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1920 as a 250th anniversary project and evolved into a regular magazine about Canada's north country. In 1994, the company gave its archives and artifacts to the province of Manitoba and gave a large endowment for the future management of the magazine by the newly formed Canada's National History Society for the promotion of contemporary interest in the nation's history.

The parent organization's mandate extends well beyond the current 50,000 circulation flagship magazine and into various outreach programs aimed at schools and such recognitions as the Pierre Berton prize.

In a note to readers, publisher Deborah Morrison says:

Over the past several years the case for making the name change has grown progressively more persuasive. Increasing numbers of readers have written in support of it, vigilant spam filters have impeded our ability to use the old name in new media applications, and market research has born out unequivocally that the old name has deterred sales of new subscription and single copies particularly among women and readers under 45.

(For those of you who are interested in the data: in a study conducted last Spring it was determined that with The Beaver name, Canadians were twice as likely NOT to subscribe simply because of the title. We didn’t rely solely on surveys, we then tested these results further by sampling all our promotions with a name test – those results reinforced the survey, generating an average lift in response rates of between 25-33%.)

Our continued success depends on having a clear identity, as we aim to realign ourselves as multi-media content producers, and as we reach out to new audiences both online and with expanded newsstand distribution both in Canada and the US.

[The cover shown is an overlay of the new logo on the cover image of the February-March issue, which some subscribers will be receiving soon.]

New logo for former Quebcor World magazine printer

Well, it beats the heck out of "Novink", which was a contender for the renaming of the former Quebecor World magazine printer. World Colour Press of Montreal has introduced its new name and logo, effective immediately. It will be all over the company's website worldcolor.com (note the American spelling).

What good is a new logo without a complicated rationale for it? Here is Worldcolor's cour:

“World is a testimony to our determination to lead and expand our business across all borders. Color is the essence of our business; reaching and touching people with printed and digital images and related services. We have merged the two words into one to bring new energy, a new-economy feel and a modern edge to the name.”