Rogers Communications, NHL reach $5.2 Billion broadcast agreement

Marshal McLuhan

Bet you didn’t see that coming!!

Marshall McLuhan, the great Canadian philosopher of communication said, ‘The medium is the message’. He envisioned a day when a ‘global village’ would exist, not because of connectivity (wire, fiber or radio waves) but because we all have an innate desire to communicate with those around us. He imagined this desire would drive an unparalleled shift in the communication paradigm.

Earlier today, Rogers Communications announced its $5.2 billion bid had won the exclusive rights to broadcast NHL content. It should be a wake up call for everyone. Storytelling has moved across an imaginary line that once separated media from the message. Just as McLuhan foresaw, the NHL agreement with Rogers and the subsidiary partnership with CBC is poised to bring about a huge change for Canada’s largest audience. It is the kind of change that has not been experienced since Canadians gathered round the radio to hear that first Saturday evening broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) with Foster Hewitt in 1923.

Why is today's announcement important to those of us in the Urban Animal Industry? Because it is a bellwether. This announcement clearly shows the paradigm shift toward central, contiguous portals for specific storytelling is already here. It isn't a big leap to see the importance of a utility like PetLynx that can facilitate storytelling across a specific industry or audience.

McLuhan died in 1980 before seeing the emergence of the Internet but he saw the future with uncanny accuracy. Perhaps some of our friends at Bell may be wishing today they had paid more attention. Owning the HNIC Theme Song does not the leader make. #RogersNHL

- InfoStream Editorial by Larry R. Evans

PetLynx Tops 1.7 Million Entities in Canadian Registry

PetLynx Corporation, a Calgary based utility in the companion animal industry announced today it has registered over 1.7 million entities in the Canadian market.

At 30 June 2011, the registry held 901,359 animals and 800,497 of the pet families, organizations and service providers associated with them for a total of 1,701,856 registered entities.

During the first six months of 2011, these registrants and the general public generated 16,518,628 hits and accessed 126,777,763 Kbytes of data on the PetLynx production site.  The PetLynx Automated National Recovery Service now supports over 200 Canadian communities and has been involved in 204,223 recovery episodes since being brought into service.

About PetLynx:

PetLynx Corporation is an innovative, cutting edge facility provider automating the Companion Animal Industry in Canada. Hundreds of time a day, the PetLynx Automated National Recovery Service recovers lost pets. PetLynx is the only internet system in the world that can recover animals using a physical description, with or without any of the common forms of pet identification. PetLynx is also the only system that can recover pets not enrolled prior to becoming lost.
PetLynx .... lifelong protection for pets and peace of mind for people.

PetLynx registers 6,876 new entities in first 59 days of 2010

During the first 59 days of 2010, PetLynx registered 6,876 new entities of which 3,193 were pets and 3,683 were associates. At the end of February, the PetLynx Automated Recovery System stood at 319,868 registered entities of which 147,695 were pets and 172,173 were associates.

The business plan anticipated a 'many-to-one' ratio of 'associates' to 'animals' when designing the PetLynx model. At the end of February there were 16.5% more associates than animals registered in the PetLynx utility. Since associates are directly related to transactions either as pet families paying for services or as industry stakeholders providing services, management sees the ability to grow future revenues as being directly related to the number of associates registered in the PetLynx utility.

In July of 2009 the PetLynx V1 rate rose to 94% for the first time. At the end of February, PetLynx had automatically assisted 147,696 recovery episodes and for the first time in history achieved a V1 recovery rate of 100%. The V1 recovery rate is calculated as the cumulative number of recovery episodes divided by the cumulative number of animals registered on the system at the same moment in time.

With the highest V1 rate in the world PetLynx demonstrates the unique advantage its registration model has. PetLynx animals are registered for their entire lifetime with no additional cost unlike other services where the information chain breaks when fees to change records are refused.

These encouraging metrics provide evidence that PetLynx is the most effective and successful recovery service in the world today.

Mobile payments - EnStream Launches ZOOMPASS

Imagine using your mobile device to pay for your next Tim Horton's. Zoompass has made it a reality in this market test.

EnStream, a joint venture company owned by Bell, Rogers and TELUS, has launched a trial of mobile payments using contactless technology. The Zoompass Tag, a wireless payment device designed in the form of a sticker that can be attached to a mobile phone, allows consumers to tap their phones at checkout to make purchases at retail stores.

In 2009, EnStream launched the Zoompass mobile application that offered Canadians the first version of a mobile wallet. Available at http://www.zoompass.com and accessible on most mobile phones in Canada, Zoompass already allows users to send money quickly and securely to other users. With the new Zoompass Tag, payment is automatically drawn from the user’s Zoompass stored value account. Customer’s financial information is stored on secure servers, not on the mobile phone, so even if the phone is lost or stolen, the customer’s Zoompass account remains secure.

Together, the Zoompass Tag and Zoompass application allow consumers to monitor their purchase transactions in real-time. The sticker measures 43 mm by 33 mm and can be easily affixed to any mobile phone. The Zoompass Tag can be used at retail merchants such as Tim Hortons, McDonalds, Petro Canada and Loblaws. The trial is offered to select Zoompass clients and is expected to last up to three months.

Keep an eye on this technology - carrying a wallet may not be necessary!

IBM Survey shows consumers demanding different approach

How do customers leverage technology in the market today?

A new IBM global survey, which included 4,000 Canadians, reveals that technology is giving Canadian shoppers a new source of power, driving an increasing need for retailers to engage them with more personalized promotions and offerings, and reaching them via social media rather than relying strictly on traditional marketing.

The survey, which included an additional 28,000 consumers from five other countries, demonstrates the changing economy is giving rise to the smarter consumer – one who uses technology to make more informed buying decisions, exchange information with peers, make purchases on-the-go and shop across multiple channels.

Highlights of the survey include: 84% want to use Web sites to access and print coupons; 75% want to use mobile phones to find out where the nearest store is located; and 72% want to see what goods are in stock before going into the store. The survey also found that for those willing to shop by mobile phones, 43% were willing to use texting to make a purchase.

Sixteen per cent of respondents said they were likely to “follow” a retailer on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter.

2009 Production Stats Released

Production activities on the PetLynx utility recorded moderate increases despite the economic downturn of 2009.

In 2009 PetLynx registered 61,055 new entities up 21% from the 50,068 entities registered in 2008.

At the end of 2009 the PetLynx database supported 144,470 animals and 168,440 records of those associated with them.

In 2009 PetLynx automatically supported 42,229 recovery episodes up 24% from the 34,055 episodes supported in 2008.

Since coming into production the PetLynx automated recovery system AnimalTRACS has supported 143,178 recovery episodes which is more than all other recovery systems in Canada combined.

In 2009 the PetLynx production portals supported 301,802 logins, presented 9,170,063 pages and recorded 30,622,254 hits.

The 2009 production activities were up over 2008 as follows:

• Logins up 32%


• Pageviews up 33%


• Hits up 17%

2010 - Entering the next Decade

Earlier this morning we received a note from one of our colleagues Tom Trifaux, who is the Director - Canada West, of the Canadian Management Centre. In conveying best wishes for 2010 he published this guiding thought:

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy...

But it is always right!

We wanted to share this with you because we think it is instructive and encouraging for each of us as we look to move PetLynx forward along the path into this next decade. Our business plan for 2010 expresses some of the new strategies we will bring into being for PetLynx during this new decade:

• It hasn't been easy to stay one degree removed from the 'pet family' in favour of working with those who already own this relationship, but it has been right.


• It hasn't been easy to identify the value chain of the companion animal industry nor to rally the industry around the PetLynx vision of a more collaborative approach to deliver a compliant pet family, but it has been the right investment.


• It hasn't been easy to bear the investment of 'thought leadership', or Urban Animal Surveys or the Summits for Urban Animal Strategies, but it has been the right thing to do.


• Finally, it hasn't been easy to ask our shareholders to be patient as these things came together to deliver the market for our automation and services, but it was the right thing in the right time.

Our clients are working with us in more collaborative ways than ever to accelerate our business and deliver a win for the industry and for each of them as well as PetLynx. Today as we contemplate the coming year, we are confident, even though the past hasn't been easy, the future will be right!


We invite you to join with us on this journey.


Onward and upward!

July Registrations & Recoveries at new levels

PetLynx has recorded an annual peak in recovery activities each July which is consistent with anecdotal information from industry sources. Since moving into commercial production in May of 2006, registration activities have also recorded higher levels during the four months from June to September.

Automated recoveries in July came in at 4,683 which is up 22% from 3,832 in 2008 and up 131% from 2,021 in January 2009. Registrations in July came in at 6,606 which is up 27% from 5,197 in 2008 and up 84%from 3,588 in January 2009.

Another interesting metric is the relationship between recovery episodes and registrations, the V2 recovery rate. In 2008 there were 0.737 recoveries for each registration in July. In 2009 there were 0.709 recoveries for each registration during July. One interpretation of this trend is that there are more registrations coming from marketing programs than there are from the recovery services. As new point of market entry [POME] programs come into production one might expect this gap to widen. Essentially, we believe this means more animals are being registered based on the value proposition and reputation of the PetLynx Automated Recovery Service than are being registered because of an active recovery episode.

The PetLynx system automatically handled 124,093 recovery episodes to the end of July 2009, which provides a V1 recovery rate of 94%. PetLynx continues to lead the industry by a substantial margin in both the V1 and V2 metric and for this reason maintains a significant competitive advantage.