® WINTER 2015/2016 Bold strategies for a new market reality BREAKING GROUND BEST OF THE YEAR | 2016 TRENDS | DISCOVERY@20 A publication of Brunico Communications Ltd. CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40050265 PRINTED IN CANADA USPS AFSM 100 Approved Polywrap CANADA POST AGREEMENT NUMBER 40050265 PRINTED IN USPS AFSM 100 Approved PB.27139.ScottBrothers.FP.indd 1 2015-11-05 3:25 PM CONTENTS WINTERWINTER 2015/20162015/2016 20 The executive team of Temple Street Productions, 2015’s Best of the Year Playback’s Company of Drumroll, please: The best in Canadian the Year (pg. 22) media, production and people 5 2 Watch Power Lunch A look at Playback’s networking event for our 2015 5 to Watch nominees 46 36 Discovery @20: A view from the top (execs) 12 Programmer Profi le: Shaw Media’s Lisa Godfrey on ON THE COVER the company’s new strategy Screened 8 The Marketing Summit Top 5 15 People moves, Property Brothers @ 100 and News you can use from Playback’s inaugural Serendipity makes a “point” with its new feature marketing-focused event Crazy/Brilliant 11 Full speed ahead 16 Creating hockey FOMO, and other big ideas Five key trends driving the Canadian screen from the media business industry now and in 2016 Barb Williams vs. Heather Conway 14 Whistler Film Festival @15 42 Why do industry conferences matter? How the West Coast fi lm festival is looking to Our Winter 2015/16 cover Two veteran execs weigh in join the Oscar race, one premiere at a time features Much Digital Studios creator Dan Talevski, a singer with almost 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. (Photo: Mark Myers) 3 EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Mary Maddever [email protected] ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Lisa Faktor [email protected] CONTENT DIRECTOR & EDITOR Katie Bailey [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR Julianna Cummins [email protected] STAFF WRITER Jordan Pinto [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Mark Dillon, Matt Forsythe, Marc Glassman, Sonya Fatah, Megan Haynes, Fiona Morrow, Val Maloney ADVERTISING SALES The paradox of choice (416) 408-2300 FAX (416) 408-0870 1-888-278-6426 I’M GOING TO COP TO SOMETHING: I’VE the world to think that Canadian content (as a SALES SUPERVISOR BEEN WATCHING A LOT OF LOW-FI RERUNS whole) is cool and desirable, like that PR/branding Neil Ewen OF SEX AND THE CITY LATELY. On CosmoTV machine Vice does so eff ectively. (It’s Vice? It must [email protected] – not even the “cool” way via OTT. (Sorry Corus, no be edgy! It’s Canadian! It must be ____.) ACCOUNT MANAGER Jane Tesar disrespect.) But Playback is a demanding mistress It’s harder for the big broadcasters to achieve [email protected] and I’m usually tired at the end of the day. And or contribute to this, outside of the CBC, due to the BRUNICO CREATIVE visiting Carrie and Samantha feels like going out nature of acquisition programming. But I think we’re ART DIRECTOR Andrew Glowala with girlfriends, without actually having to talk to starting to see, a little bit, the eff ects of good work [email protected] people and with the benefi t of sweatpants. begetting good branding in the prodco space. PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION SUPERVISOR So when the paradox of too much choice Our Company of the Year Temple Street Robert Lines was brought up multiple times at our Playback Productions is well on the path: if it keeps cranking [email protected] Marketing Summit – a problem faced by out high-quality drama, sci-fi and tween/teen BRUNICO AUDIENCE SERVICES MANAGER advertisers, broadcasters and producers alike shows, the logo might even start to really resonate Christine McNalley – and the CRTC fi nally released some details with consumers, not just Fairfax. And eOne – wow. [email protected] on its Discoverability Summit, my sweatpants Have you seen that big logo on their new downtown ADMINISTRATION PRESIDENT AND CEO and I were like: yes, let’s do this thing. Because Toronto digs? Hollywood and investors are paying Russell Goldstein turning on the TV has become a little, well, hard. attention and the public may not be far behind. [email protected] (#FirstWorldProblems) That’s not even taking into account marblemedia, VP AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Mary Maddever This is new for me. I’ve only just become totally which is perhaps making the boldest play in the [email protected] overwhelmed by the idea of turning on the TV and brand space with its waterpark. These are the seeds VP ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE navigating my options. It’s making me do weird things. of brands being planted and growing. Linda Lovegrove Like read Good Housekeeping on my iPad (who reads This isn’t crazy, or out of reach. It just takes [email protected] VP AND PUBLISHER, REALSCREEN Good Housekeeping?) or watch Luc Besson movies and unrelenting dedication and a laser-focused strategy Claire Macdonald sports because that’s what was on. Who is this person? that starts with the prodcos and the talent with [email protected] Don’t worry, Playback readers: I still watch which they align. VP AND PUBLISHER, KIDSCREEN Jocelyn Christie your stuff . But I also have the fantastic benefi t of When I think of our Channel of the Year, W [email protected] being surrounded by it daily: my colleague Julianna Network, honestly, the Property Brothers spring to Playback is published by and I are little repositories of in-production lists, mind fi rst. (Those guys are killer marketers.) For Brunico Communications Ltd., 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, coproduction ventures, casting wins and territory my boss, it’s Love It or List It. For my husband, Blue Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 sales, all of which are multiple daily reminders of Ant’s HIFI means Anthony Bourdain. For all the (416) 408-2300; FAX: (416) 408-0870 Web address: www.playbackonline.ca what titles are available and so we easily seek them Netfl ixers, well, I’m curious. Do you think of the Editorial e-mail: [email protected], show that hooked you fi rst? Or is the series that [email protected] out. Other Canadians aren’t so lucky. Sales e-mail: [email protected] So what do we do? kept you binging for the longest, like The X-Files Sales FAX: (416) 408-0870 or Murdoch? Or do you like the reduction of choice © 2015 Brunico Communications Ltd. I was quite captivated by Mark Tomblin of ad All rights reserved. agency TAXI at our Summit (hopefully you’re supplied by suggestions? Printed in Canada. not tired of hearing about this from us yet.) He Shows are driving brand conditioning Canadian Postmaster, send undeliverables and address changes to: talked about how brands can create a shortcut and channel-brand awareness. And the indie Playback PO BOX 369 in a consumer’s mind: if they’re staring at a wall production sector is perfectly poised to be a part of Beeton ON, L0G 1A0 U.S. Postmaster, send undeliverables of deodorant in the drug store, a little brand- this process. and address changes to: conditioned part of their brain tells them to choose Playback PO BOX 1103, Niagara Falls NY, 14304 Degree and makes their choice easier. [email protected] We often talk in our industry, and in Playback, Katie Bailey Canada Post Agreement No. 40050265. ISSN: 0836-2114 about the idea of a “Can brand” or somehow getting Content director & editor, Playback Printed in Canada. 4 WINTER 2015/2016 C M F + Y O U We fund. You engage. = CANADIAN The Canada Media Fund is dedicated to funding exceptional content, providing STORIES, industry research and promoting what is REALIZED uniquely ours, here and abroad. Discover more at CMF-FMC.CA Brought to you by the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors. PB.26475.CanadaMediaFund.FP.indd 1 2015-11-05 3:23 PM PUBLISHER’S NOTE Connecting storytellers HOWDY! I’VE BEEN WITH THE BRUNICO TEAM FOR which is one second less than a goldfi sh (A GOLDFISH!). Comedy Central SEVERAL YEARS NOW AND KNOW MANY OF YOU FROM MY CMO Walter Levitt, drove this home too as saying “if viewers (millennials REALSCREEN DAYS. This issue marks a full year since moving across especially) can’t fi nd you in the vast digital world, they are on to the next brands to the worlds of strategy and Playback as associate publisher and piece of content that they can fi nd, which means you need to be there.” what a year it has been! An infl ux of insights come to mind looking back It’s by no means a new notion that Canadians produce great on the year as the advertising, marketing and Canadian fi lm landscapes content. However, as professor Alan Middleton schooled the audience have continued to reinvent themselves amidst digital disruption. at the Marketing Summit “we are terrible at promoting ourselves. With the CRTC pick and pay ruling of 2015, TV needs to evolve We’re too polite, we’re too Canadian!” With everything available to us quickly. And on the feature front, Telefi lm’s recent Audience Viewing and every channel of distribution at our fi ngertips, why is that? And trends report shows that fi lm viewing has been rising signifi cantly since why not take advantage of the opportunity to work with brands to 2013 – yet 81% of this viewing is done at home through digital channels. amplify your audience reach? I don’t remember the last time I went to a movie theatre in my Mark Childs, Samsung Canada CMO, wrapped up the Marketing personal time, the truth is I’d rather Summit by concluding that we enjoy that content in the comfort of my (advertisers and content creators alike) own home, in my own time, whether Telefi lm Canada’s are all now storytellers, it’s just that Francesca Accinelli takes through a streamed subscription service the mic at Playback marketers are telling the brands’ story.