Issue 10, vol. 2 - July 2006

On September 9th and 10th, over 40 music artists will descend on Toronto Island Park for a massive music festival featuring some of the biggest and hottest acts in music today. That’s right—Virgin Mobile announced this week that they will be putting on the Virgin Festival – or V-Fest in the UK – right here at home in Toronto.

The incredible lineup will see performances on two main stages by international heavyweights such as The Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, The Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley and Wolfmother. Add homegrown favourites, Sam Roberts and Alexisonfire, and you have an utterly fantastic lineup with widespread appeal. In addition to the main event, the Virgin Festival will also feature the Red Light Lounge (a dance party showcasing DJs from around the world), a food village, several beer gardens and V-Village (a vendor and interactive exhibitors area).

Virgin Mobile partnered with local Toronto concert promoter Jacob Smid and his company, Emerge Entertainment (emerge.ca), to produce the festival. Jacob is a young Toronto promoter who has staged more than 650 concerts in the GTA since 1997. Always on the cusp of up-and-coming talent, Jacob has brought some of the hottest acts to Toronto, often just before they break. Some of these acts have included the likes of James Blunt, The Killers, and Bloc Party (just to name a few). Jacob’s Island Festival for the last couple years – Sam Roberts and Sloan in 2004 and Broken Social Scene and Metric in 2005 – is certainly a great primer for what could potentially be a production nightmare …putting on a festival that could see up to 50,000 people shuttled on ferry boats to and from the Island.

This announcement is the culmination of a rumour that’s been rumbling ever since Virgin Mobile’s extravagant (and somewhat lackluster) launch in March 2005. But what impresses us here is the scope of this execution. Emerge Entertainment was the perfect partner promoter to bring on-board, and the lineup is simply stunning. The question remains whether Virgin Mobile can use this huge play in the GTA to move the brand needle and improve on their slower-than-projected sales in Canada to date.

Cell phone penetration is steady in Canada. Youthography’s most recent data shows cell phone penetration among 9 to 29-year-olds at only 60% with growth potential even in the 19 to 24 and 25 to 29 segments. With the huge investment in music from Rogers Wireless (NXNE, Canadian Music Week, Polaris Music Prize, etc.) and the recent communication focus on Spark for Telus, it would appear that music is the battlefield of choice for the wireless category.

Congratulations to us! Youthography was awarded with the Best in Class Award for our work with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care on the STUPID.CA campaign at the annual Market Research and Intelligence Association Conference in Calgary. Youthography partner and director of research and strategy, Mike Farrell, along with project manager Trish Van Veen accepted the Excellence in Research Award for their work on the project which included gleaning qualitative insights about cigarette smoking (such as perceptions from teen smokers and non-smokers of smoking as a "stupid choice" and a "dirty," often shameful, habit); along with the creation of an engaged body of youth who provided the insights required to develop an effective and bold non-smoking initiative. Youthography is still actively involved with the Ministry and the STUPID.CA initiative in its second phase and can be viewed here: www.stupid.ca