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The video features Drake’s emotional reflections on his love of the city.

It's all about mobile

Mobile advertising in Canada will have more than doubled by the end of this year, according to a new report from research firm eMarketer. The report estimates that advertising spending on mobile platforms – largely focused on on-screen banner ads and advertising in search engine results – will reach $326.5-million by the end of 2013. That's up from $143.8-million in 2012. That's still a small share of the $3.38-billion digital advertising market. But the research suggests that balance will shift in coming years. By 2017, the firm estimates that mobile advertising will account for one-third of all digital ad spending in Canada.

'It's tempting to use the intimacy of mobile to push promotions directly to the consumer, but not only does that risk becoming annoying, it trains customers to think of their relationship with your brand as consisting primarily of offers and discounts.'

– Jeff Berry, senior director of research and development at LoyaltyOne, in a statement on the firm's latest research showing that most branded mobile apps, even when people do download them, go unused. The company, which owns Air Miles, found that Canadian smartphone users have downloaded 25 apps on average but use only five of them every day.

For BMO, a slam dunk

Bank of Montreal is grabbing a bit of home-court advantage. The bank's logo will soon be placed on the Toronto Raptors' court at the Air Canada Centre as part of a multi-year sponsorship deal announced on Tuesday. BMO Financial is now the official bank and title sponsor of the Raptors. It's an extension of BMO's relationship with the team's owner, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.; BMO is already title sponsor of the Toronto FC. And BMO already sponsors NBA teams the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks in the U.S. In addition to the BMO brand appearing on the basketball court, it will have the right to place other advertising in the Air Canada Centre, and its name will appear on game broadcasts. (TSN and Sportsnet, which broadcast the games, are owned by Bell and Rogers, which jointly own a 75-per-cent stake in MLSE.) The team has been in the news lately for its attempts to revitalize a losing franchise. Just last month, it announced that Toronto-born rapper Drake will become a "global ambassador" for the Raptors. The team made the announcement in conjunction with the news that it had won the rights to host the first NBA all-star game outside of the U.S. MLSE says there has been a 19-per-cent rise in television viewership for basketball games in Canada in the past year.

But how's his jump shot?

Speaking of the Raptors, the team produced its first promotional video with Drake, released this week, to emphasize the rapper's new relationship as global ambassador for Toronto's struggling NBA franchise. The video features Drizzy's emotional reflections on his love of the city. He calls the team a staple of his childhood. The new president and CEO of MLSE, Tim Leiweke, has vowed "a cultural rebuilding across the board" for the team. Drake has been brought on to consult on that rebranding effort, and the video is part of a larger effort to inspire largely disappointed fans. "I want other teams to hate coming to play the Raptors," he says in the video.

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 27/03/24 4:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
AC-T
Air Canada
+0.87%19.64
BMO-N
Bank of Montreal
+0.43%96.38
BMO-T
Bank of Montreal
+0.32%130.77

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