It was a celebration of self-obsessed Hollywood neurotics, polygamists and the undead. With poutine and those ubiquitous mini-burgers.
The recent Toronto launch party for HBO Canada was filled with “Hey, where do I know that guy from?” moments, as supporting actors from TV shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love and True Blood, worked the room.
Also making the rounds-leading-man tall, snow white hair, navy suit-was Astral Media president and CEO Ian Greenberg. And unlike the Hollywood stars in attendance that night (with the exception of Big Love star Bill Paxton), Greenberg has secured the lead role in his company’s productions. A recent Astral Media TV ad, for example, opens with a man wandering alone through a post-apocalyptic world; an inner monologue informs us it’s been 742 days since he has seen another human being, when he suddenly encounters Greenberg. “Who are you?” asks the bewildered survivor, prompting Greenberg to launch into a lengthy spiel about Astral, its extensive media holdings and its long-standing support of the Canadian film industry.
“Call me, we’ll have lunch,” says Greenberg, producing a business card. “You like ribs?” As Greenberg chatters away in the background, we again hear the man’s inner thoughts: “Maybe solitude wasn’t so bad after all.”
“I retired for two years from making those ads, and there was an outcry,” jokes Greenberg, who also “survived” being bound to a chair and peppered with gunfire in a TMN ad that aired earlier this decade.
Greenberg’s on-screen ability to withstand everything from the apocalypse to a hail of bullets could be seen as a metaphor for Astral’s resilience in a shrinking media landscape that has seen several of Canada’s media companies-among them Standard Radio, Craig Media and CHUM Limited-fade away in recent years.
In fact, the Oct. 30 launch of HBO Canada (Corus Entertainment’s western Canada movie service Movie Central is also launching the service) was merely the capper on a remarkable year for the Montreal company.
In the past 12 months, Astral has integrated the Standard Radio assets into its portfolio, growing its radio operation to 83 stations in eight provinces; relaunched Toronto’s former Mix 99.9 FM as North America’s first Virgin Radio station; commissioned a daring ad campaign for its Toronto AM talk station CFRB; launched a new FM station, Big Dog 92.7, in Regina; obtained CRTC approval for a new English-language adult contemporary station for the Ottawa-Gatineau region; launched English and French versions of the specialty channel Teletoon Retro; brought the Disney Playhouse TV brand to Canada; made a high-profile addition to its senior management team in former OMD Canada managing director Sherry O’Neil; and rolled out the first wave of the massive 26,000-piece, 20-year Toronto street furniture contract it won last year.
Plus, while many traditional media companies have been broadsided by the economic downturn, Astral recently recorded its 12th successive year of growth. Its revenues of $865.4 million in fiscal 2008 represented a 35.1% increase over 2007, while ad revenues alone grew 82% to $476.5 million.
So it’s not just HBO; it’s a whole bunch of things. And that heady mix of innovation, new launches and business acuity make Astral Marketing‘s Media Player of the Year for 2008.
Praise for Astral-which didn’t adopt a pure-play media strategy until 1996, after starting life in the photo-finishing business-is nearly unanimous among the media buying community.
“It’s a very well-run, well-disciplined organization, there’s no doubt about that,” says Mark Sherman, founder of Montreal’s Media Experts, which is one of Astral’s agency partners.
“The word that comes to mind is bold,” says Alain Desormiers, president of Montreal media agency Touché PHD. “I see them as a very clever media group that is putting the right building blocks together to make sure there are synergies between their operations.”
“They try to keep very connected even at the most senior level,” adds Lauren Richards, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group in Toronto. “[They] make a real effort to clearly show that advertising partnerships are very valuable to them.”
Of course, given the change in Astral’s business model over the past 12 months, it makes good sense to keep advertisers happy. Advertising accounted for 42% of Astral’s revenues in fiscal 2007 (subscription revenues made up the rest); by early in fiscal 2008, it represented about 55%, and Greenberg predicts it will ultimately account for up to 60%.
“There’s no question that advertising is becoming a more important part of our revenue stream,” he says. “So we have to make sure we have the programming that will attract advertisers.
“We’ve already been number one in Quebec radio, [and] we’re hoping that with the moves we’re making in English language radio, we’ll become a major player in most of the major English language markets. We think we have the right management team, we do the proper amount of research, and we’ll be able to deliver the end product consumers want.”
Part of that “right” management team is O’Neil, who joined Astral in October in the dual role of general manager of its Toronto stations-the new Virgin Radio, CFRB and EZ Rock-and chief planning officer for its national radio division. O’Neil had extensive dealings with Astral during her 11 years at OMD, much of it spent overseeing broadcast buying.
“I always thought [Astral] had the highest standard of service and empathetic understanding of our clients’ needs,” she says. “I just thought they were a fabulous company.”
Astral has shown remarkable foresight by appointing women to several key positions within its organization, notes Starcom’s Richards. In addition to O’Neil, its radio sales division also boasts executive vice-president/general manager Lesley Conway-Kelley, while Val Meyer is Ontario vice-president of sales for Astral Media Outdoor. “That’s quite progressive on the sales side, in industries and sectors that have been fairly male-dominated,” says Richards.
But even the best sales people are powerless without a great product, and Astral has worked hard this year to ensure that its properties remain enticing for advertisers. The most high-profile change was the transformation of Toronto’s under-performing Mix FM into Virgin Radio 999. The launch was supported by an extensive out-of-home campaign, with billboards bearing humorous messages such as “Get down with my bad self” above an “on” switch.
“While [Mix FM] was a very well-known brand, it still was not number one or number two,” says Greenberg of the August switch to Virgin, the result of extensive research into worldwide radio brands. “[Virgin] was head and shoulders above everything else we came across. When I speak to consumers or advertisers… they think it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in Toronto radio in the last 20 years.”
Also in the Toronto market, Astral commissioned Zig to oversee its “We need to talk” campaign for the AM talk station CFRB. The campaign featured multiple out-of-home executions focusing on issues endemic to big city life (“1000 sq. feet for $1.5 million?”) and in one instance employed real panhandlers to hold a sign reading “Should panhandling be illegal?” The company was chided in local blogs, but Greenberg defends the campaign as intrinsic to what CFRB is about. “CFRB is a talk radio station, and what we want to do is take our consumer communications beyond just showcasing the shows and personalities and delve deeper into our raison d’tre,” he says.
“There are some people who are going to tell you they don’t think we should have done that, but the client isn’t one of them,” adds Andy Macaulay, Zig’s president and CEO. “[Astral] asked us to execute it with care and professionalism, but they weren’t shy about it. “This is a talk radio station, and a talk radio station doesn’t shy away from controversy. A talk radio station is a place where, in this case, the people of Toronto get a chance to talk about what’s on their mind.”
Zig has also been tapped to oversee other work for Astral outside of Ontario, although Macaulay remains tight-lipped about it. However, Greenberg hinted in an interview with Marketing, that depending on Virgin’s performance in the upcoming BBM ratings, Astral would take a hard look at rolling out the format in other markets across the country.
In fact, while Toronto is obviously a key market for Astral, it’s only part of a vast radio empire-the country’s largest-that now stretches from Prince Rupert, B.C. to Truro, N.S. The scope of Astral’s transformation from a large regional player to one with a national footprint was underscored at a recent investor presentation. In the third quarter of 2007, 60% of Astral’s revenues were derived from the Quebec market, 38% from Ontario, and 2% from the Atlantic region. One year later, those numbers were 52%, 37% and 1%, respectively, with the Western provinces accounting for 10% of its revenues.
“We felt that it would be healthier if the company had its revenues on a broader geographic platform,” says Greenberg. “Right now, we’re delighted to see the kind of breakdown we have; we’re covering most of the major areas in the country, including the West, and we’re also glad to have such a strong presence in the Ontario market.”
This was the year that Astral Media became a truly national player. And with the seemingly unstoppable Greenberg at the helm, the future appears bright.
