Toronto trounces brand Montreal

by Genevieve McCallum

As someone who grew up in Toronto and is now at university in Montreal, I often get asked which city I like better. I’m a Torontonian through and through, with no doubt as to which side of the Montreal/Toronto rivalry I fall on. But now as a student of branding, I started thinking which city has a stronger brand- Montreal or Toronto?

To do a quick comparison on the brand equity of Toronto versus Montreal, I did a couple Google searches. The idea here is that the more returns that come back, the higher the awareness of each city.   Google returns about 450,000,000 results from a search on “Toronto” vs. 33,000,0000 results for “Montreal.”  That’s a route for Toronto awareness.

So what might be driving Toronto’s big win?  Well, here are a few thoughts.  First, according to the organizations that track this kind of stuff, Toronto has more than double the number of head offices that Montreal has (175 vs 81).  In other words, the greater number of head offices provides Toronto with more high paying jobs, more business visits to the city, driving more hotel visits, more theaters, more restaurants etc.  Second, Toronto has 3 major professional sports teams (the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Jays, and the Toronto Rapters) compared to Montreal’s lonely Canadiens. Translation: Toronto still gets its scores reported more often in more seasons, on more media than Montreal.  Finally, Toronto wins on cityscape. The world famous CN tower (for the longest time the tallest free standing structure in the world) simply trumps the Olympic Stadium located away from the downtown core.

I remember my dad telling me that forty years ago, around the time that the ’67 Olympics were held, Montreal was Canada’s leading city. I’ve just argued that  this seems to no longer be the case.  Perhaps I’m biased because of where I’m from, so I’m curious: to all the born and bred Montrealers out there, how would you argue in Montreal’s defense? 

Rebecca Black: Who Dat Girl?

One of my readers sent me this one for "weirdest and worst of the web". It's Rebecca Black's viral "hit" Friday. I'm pretty sure you've all seen it and heard someone mock it. But if you haven't seen it (or if you want to watch it again ;-) )you can check it out here.

So far, the teeny-bopper's Friday video has 82 million (and counting) YouTube views and has been featured on a number of late night talk shows. Even Stephen Colbert sang it on Jimmy Falloon Late Night. But here is what my reader thought was weird. Rebecca's official vanity-made video has an 8:1 ratio of dislikes to likes on YouTube. Numerically, there are 1.6 million You Tube dislikes and 200,000 likes. My reader is right. It's an anomaly when entertainment is so wildly unliked but still gets popular.


Just for the heck of it, I thought I would run my own quick and dirty brand equity experiment. The traditional brand equity experiment is this. You take a branded product and compare it to a non-branded equivalent product. The non-branded product is considered "zero equity". The differential between the branded and the non branded is the brand equity. Pretty simple stuff. So I asked this question:

You have the choice to listen to only one of the following "pop" music artists all night.

Rebecca Black (Singer of the Friday song)
or
Rebeca Jackson (A singer you have never heard of)

Which musical artist will you select?

Here are the results from 60 responses.



According to my unscientific results of the survey, Rebecca Black has negative brand equity. In other words, her brand is a liability. Given the YouTube dislike ratings, this finding is hardly surprising. The comments on YouTube give some additional perspective on where this "negative equity" comes from. Some argue that her song is just plain bad. Some post that the lyrics suck. (But, I Got a Feelin', We R Who We R, and We're Not Gonna Take it aren't exactly Shakespearian.) Others criticize her voice. (Bob Dylan's voice is iconic but is a lot wierder) Others trash Black because they speculate that she is a spoiled kid whose parents purchased her song production and video for vanity purposes. (Music being made vanity purposes and an artist's desire for adulation! Wow, that's never happened before!) I'm going to argue that the traditional brand equity measure is missing something- the platform that Rebecca has created via her brand awareness.

I've spent quite a bit of time on this blog commenting on how difficult it is to capture consumers' attention. Developing brand awareness has never been so competitive - and keeping it more challenging. But Rebecca has got it- and now can leverage it. In a world of sexually explicit music (eg. Akon, Katy Perry, Enrique Iglesias), Rebecca has a refreshing angle to work: clean, catchy teenage pop. Through a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign and a little help from a polished producer, Rebecca can be on the highway stardom. Think of it this way, if only 1/9 of Black's YouTube visitors come back to check out her next single (in keeping with the ratio of her likes:dislikes), that's still around 10 million downloads- more than the number of downloads that veteran performers Flo-Rida/ Akon's hit Who Dat Girl has. That's not a bad platform for Rebecca to start from.

Getting Value out of Values at $100,000 per second.

This weekend I heard a comedian quip, "the Superbowl ads are as big as the game". Was she right? A search of "Superbowl commercials 2011" gives "515,000,000 results" while plugging "Superbowl 2011" into the search site gives "46,600,000 results." That's more than a 10 to 1 margin for the ads...

The thing about ads is that everybody has got an armchair expert opinion. It makes sense too, because everyone is a consumer. Some in the media even have a formula. So who are the "winners"?

Christian Science Monitor says that the Chrysler video is a big winner. They cited a metric created by bunch of experts (Mullen, Radian6, and Boston.com). "The two-minute Chrysler spot featuring rapper Eminem received both the highest volume and the most positive content in a stream of 250,000 tweets on Twitter."

CBS News gives their nod to VW's Darth Vader commercial. Hey, 15 million YouTube downloads can't be wrong. If it goes viral, it must be good.

Yet, something is off here. The best ads are not necessarily the ads that have the most Tweets or YouTube downloads. They aren't usually the ads with the funniest storyline. The best ads are ones that drive sales and build brand in accordance with company goals. Sales are the short term metric. Brand power is the most powerful long term meter. To look at the best ads of Superbowl 2011, we don't have sales data to analyze - but we can draw some conclusions on brand.

At its brand-building core, ads are designed to created awareness and link relevant, favorable, unique associations (values) to the brand. With an audience of about 100,000,000 Americans, a Super bowl is nice vehicle to develop awareness. But what is a lot tougher to do is to create an ad with a message that sticks. One of my old advertising mentors used to say "Bobby, the target has got to sum up the message in one word." That may be pushing the limit, but linking the brand to one central idea (or a couple of values) is where its at.



Chrysler’s comeback 2 minute ad has a $12 million air time price tag. The ad's images are gritty. The tone rebellious. The script: "What does this city know about luxury? huh? What does a town that has been to hell and back know about the finer things in life?... We're from America... We're certainly no one's Emerald City..." It concludes with Eminem defiantly stating, "This is the Motor City and this is what we do."

There is a lot of brand value communication in this ad- and these relate to grassroots American values: Honesty. Hard-work. Tradition. (note the flag at 20 seconds and the American monuments). A lot of these values were presumed absent only 2 years ago when Big 3 CEOs flew their private jets to Washington for taxpayer bailouts. Chrysler clearly wants them back. By the way, Eminem was an excellent celebrity endorser for this – given his Detroit roots and gritty, honest, hard-core persona. But there is still something about this ad that doesn't work. The ad emphasizes luxury and I am bewildered how anyone can link luxury to the Chrysler brand given this gritty gritty execution.


The VW Darth Vader ad has an adorable storyline. It's got a lot of the ingredients to make it go viral (click here for previous blog). But what is the key point of this ad? Is it to communicate the remote car start? If it is, the execution is great BUT that is a poor feature advertise on. Why? The best brand building conveys something unique about the brand - especially intangible associations. Almost every car in that class has an optional remote starter.

One of the best ads for communicating a brand value is one that is not getting as much online chatter. That's the Bridgestone Beaver. The message here is extremely clear. Bridgestone gives you control. It gives you traction. It increases your driving performance. The tag line at the end reinforces the message too: "For drivers who want to get the most out of their cars, its Bridgestone or nothing." This ad is not the most Tweeted or downloaded on YouTube - but it conveys the proposition (performance) of Bridgestone extremely clearly. That getting the value out of the values!

Top 40 Generic Brands - in Alphabetical order

Advertising builds brand awareness and image. This in turn drives brand sales, loyalty, margins etc. But, what happens when advertising and marketing get “so successful” that consumers associate the brand name to the product so precisely that the TM name starts to lose its meaning? How common is this issue? I’ll start this topic off by chronicling my Top 40 “genericized” brand names with a few comments. Any surprises?


Astroturf __ Do you know who said this: "I owned an El Camino pickup in the '70s. It was a real sort of Southern deal. I had Astroturf in the back. You don't want to know why, but I did." By the way, is he sure it was Astroturf brand and not another competitor making artificial turf?" (Answer: Bill Clinton)

Band Aid __ "Mommy I got a booboo. I need a sterile strip."

Chapstick __ Wyeth brand of 'lip balm'.


Coke __ How would the cliche teen movie pick-up line sound if it became "Hamburger, fries, a cola and your phone number please."

Crock Pot __ The original slow-cooker.

Dumpster __ An American brand of trash receptacle that was founded by the Dempster brothers.

Fiberglass __ A brand of glass-based insulation. The company did an interesting job of differentiating its brand with its pink campaign in the 1980s.

Frisbee __ It`s a lot more fun for Skippy to catch a Frisbee than a `flying disk`.

Google __ "While most of the generic brands were the first to successfully commercial in their industry, what is so interesting about Google is that was about the 20th entrant into this space. If you don't believe me, Google it."

Hula-hoop __ Technically, it's just another brand of "toy hoops".

Jacuzzi __ "Generic product is ""water-jet bath."" The Italian sounding name gives it some geography of origin sex appeal."

Jeep __ Chrysler's brand that is the original SUV.

Jell-o __ Kraft's "geletin dessert" that is soon to be celebrating 100 years.

Jet Ski __ Zooming around on a Jet Ski sounds a lot cooler than 'personal recreational watercraft.'

Jumbotron __ Sony's brand of stadium display screens. Sony JumboTrons ceased being sold in 2001, when the company decided to exit the business.

Kleenex __ "Could you please pass me the 'paper tissues' please?"

Lego __ Construction toy' brand based in Denmark.

Nylon __ From toothbrush tips to women's stockings, Dupont's brand keeps you looking your best. Maybe not when you consider 70s fashion.

Pingpong __ The Olympic event is "table tennis"- and this is dominated by the Chinese. I wonder if they practice on the Ping Pong brand

Play-doh __ How strong is this brand name in the consumer's mind? The brand recall from the smell alone is close to 100%.

Plexiglas __ There are lots of competing brands of transparent thermoplastic. Eg. Policril, Plexiglas, Gavrieli, Vitroflex, Limacryl, R-Cast, Per-Clax, Perspex, Plazcryl, Acrylex, Acrylite, Acrylplast, Altuglas, Polycast, Oroglass, and Optix. But, Plexiglas is the only one we've ever heard of.

Polaroid __ Shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Popsicle __ Unilever TM of "iced pop". That's the real ice ice, baby.

Q-tips __ There is nothing better than safety cotton swabs.

Rollerblade __ "It’s a beautiful day today. Let's go 'in-line skating.'"

SaranWrap __ Good old 'plastic wrap' keeps my food fresh.

Ski Doo __ Bombardier Recreational Products brand of snowmobiles.

Slinky __ Also had one of the coolest jingles of all times. It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy. It's Slinky, its slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.

Spandex __ You have to love the stretch of the polyurethane-polyurea copolymer synthetic fiber.

Speedo __ It may be small and tight, but did Bob really get a ticket for wearing a bathing suit that was a Speedo brand?

Styrofoam __ Dow brand of extruded polystryene foam.

Swiss Army Knife__ MacGyver was that much cooler because he had a Swiss Army Knife and not just a multi-function pocket knife.

Taser __ Electro-shock weapon

Trampoline __ The generic term for the trademarked Trampoline was a "rebound tumble" but only recently did the brand lose its TM designation.

Vaseline __ Unilever brand of "petroleum jelly".

Velcro __ Brand name of a fabric hoop and loop fastener. An ingredient brand is Nylon.

Xerox __ The classic example of a generic brand.

Yoyo __ A Greek vase from 500BC shows a boy playing with a string-based retractable double disc toy. But in 1928 the toy was marketed as YoYo.

Zamboni __ The inventor's name "Frank Zamboni" suits the ""ice resurfacing machine" so perfectly.

ZIP code __ An expired trademark of the US Postal service. Who knew?