ABOUT MEDIA CORPS

WE PROVIDE PREEMINENT ADVERTISING ENVIRONMENTS THAT ENGAGE YOUR PRIME CONSUMERS WHEREVER THEY RESIDE, WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING.

We exclusively represent many of the Canada’s highly regarded digital, mobile, newspaper & magazine properties. We can also facilitate other complementary channel solutions in paid or non-paid environments in the public relations space, search, promotional marketing, events, or in-store campaign.

As we like to say, ‘We know Canada -cold.’ We have knowledgeable Canadian-born sales experts on staff, including the owner/founder – Robert Laplante.

Just ask us, we will find you the right solution.

We exclusively represent many major digital sites in the US and xyz.

At Media Corps we can also help you plan and/or buy media activations anywhere around the world. Or simply do it for you completely.

We’re here to find solutions to your marketing challenges. To help build businesses and create opportunities. We are ready to help grow sales & revenue for you and your clients, whatever it takes, wherever the opportunity lies.

OUR COMMITMENT, OUR PEOPLE

THE COMMITMENT TO ENSURING YOU HAVE FABULOUS TALENT IS THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF A MEDIA SALES ORGANIZATION AND FOUNDER ROBERT LAPLANTE HAS GONE OUT OF HIS WAY TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN THE BEST, AND MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE ASSETS MEDIA-CORPS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR.

Robert founded Media-Corps in 2007, as a U.S. solution to improve the advertising sales performance of The Globe and Mail south of the border.

And that he did, so much so, that Media-Corps turned into a dual-client sales organization only a year later with the addition of La Presse/Geisca, the highly respected media division of Power Corp, in 2010 Canada’s largest magazine publisher and major digital aggregator Transcontinental Media was added, now known as TC Media. From there, the web portal Sympatico, of Canada’s media power-house Bell Media, came on board, and then their video division. The fast paced growth of Media-Corps showed that the US advertising market needed a new alternative to service American ad buyers and marketers.

Media and entrepreneurship have been in Robert’s blood since he was a child and got his first taste of both with his Montreal Gazette newspaper route, in Beaconsfield, Montreal. After graduating from Western Canada’s Simon Fraser University, Robert joined the Globe and spent the first 12 years of his career learning the ropes of the media industry through various progressive sales positions, expanding his responsibilities from Toronto, to Montreal, Europe and then the States with the opening of Media-Corps.

Robert is a student of the media world and is a huge believer in orchestrating successful media campaigns by using as many channel touch points as affordable to break through the to the time stretched consumer. He’s also a huge believer in keeping people happy – his clients in the media agencies and marketing companies, the media content providers themselves and his staff. He’s a guy that makes things happen. If you have a problem or an opportunity, he’ll find a great solution and that’s the kind of spirit he’s infiltrated throughout the organization, across five offices in the U.S. Although the office location is almost irrelevant, as they connect virtually and travel frequently to effectively service their clients.

Robert can be reached at xyz and shares much of his time servicing clients across North America, most often between offices in New York and California.

ROBERT LAPLANTE

President

Abby Vaughan is Robert’s right arm and now leads the sales teams from Chicago, after many years doing so in NY. Abby was the first employee hired at Media-Corps and has sales experience from a M-C competitor and client side marketing experience.

ABBY VAUGHAN

Sales Director, Chicago
Luxury Category Expert

Sheryll Jacobs is also based in Chicago, even comes from Chicago, and, like Abby worked client-side – providing solutions to US based clients looking to grow business in the Canadian market. Rather appropo, no?

SHERYLL JACOBS

Account Manager, Chicago
Systems and Operations Specialist

Ryan Kelly is one of three New York staff members and has worked both media sales side at The New York Times and for one of the media buying multi-nationals, so he completely understands what today’s media buyer needs. Ryan is a keynew business driver for Media-Corps and the digital expert.

RYAN KELLY

Business Development Director, NY
Digital Expert

Saoirse McGuire is a fashionable Irish lass, transported to NY ten years ago who loves to travel and keep abreast of trends. She shares her passions of travel, fashion, luxury and lifestyle with her lucky clients.

SAOIRSE MCGUIRE

Senior Account Manager, NY
Fashion and Travel Expert

Cole Razzano is a seasoned print seller that has transitioned his digital interest into diligently building out the US digital network – TC Reach & Response. He extensive B2B and BtoC experience complements the team.

COLE RAZZANO

Account Manager, NY
TC Reach & Response

Lesley Hayes is an Arizona-based, transplanted Canadian, who was Media-Corps second employee. She has a rather ideal background in that she’s previously worked within the Canadian media industry as well as with a M-C competitor. Lesley is the M-C travel expert and also has a niche looking after the sunshine states.

 

CREATIVITY IS THE POWER
TO CONNECT THE SEEMINGLY
UNCONNECTED

William Plomer

IDEATION / INNOVATION

WE REPRESENT CHANNEL SOLUTIONS THAT FUEL BUSINESS GROWTH AND THE POSSIBILITIES FOR STRATEGICALLY RELEVANT SOLUTIONS ARE ENDLESS.

We are fortunate enough to represent some of the most cutting edge media brands in the world. Canada’s largest French language daily, La Presse, is leading the newspapers of the world with it’s investment of a fully interactive IPAD edition that has had the benefit of a forty million dollar, three year investment. Their research and development commitment to effectively integrate layers of engaging content seamlessly with advertising has truly been astounding.

We understand the challenge of breaking through to the oversaturated consumer and would be pleased to find solutions beyond the page, beyond the :30s. Ideas that build upon multiple touch points. Give us your brief, provide us with your challenges, and we will come back with innovative solutions to achieve those goals.

IDEATION / INNOVATION

WE REPRESENT CHANNEL SOLUTIONS THAT FUEL BUSINESS GROWTH AND THE POSSIBILITIES FOR STRATEGICALLY RELEVANT SOLUTIONS ARE ENDLESS.

We are fortunate enough to represent some of the most cutting edge media brands in the world. Canada’s largest French language daily, La Presse, is leading the newspapers of the world with it’s investment of a fully interactive IPAD edition that has had the benefit of a forty million dollar, three year investment. Their research and development commitment to effectively integrate layers of engaging content seamlessly with advertising has truly been astounding.

We will work directly with the offline and online publishers & broadcasters’ innovation specialists to create these solutions. Through this process we also tap into their research experts and our own to uncover the required strategic insight to ensure the ideas are strongly linked to the communication objectives.

We understand the challenge of breaking through to the oversaturated consumer and would be pleased to find solutions beyond the page, beyond the :30s. Ideas that build upon multiple touch points. Give us your brief, provide us with your challenges, and we will come back with innovative solutions to achieve those goals.

Some examples of the kind of thinking that comes from this process are:

  • – advertising units that have never been used before
  • – leveraging your campaign into a unique promotional event
  • – extending your message beyond a standard unit
  • – creating dynamic interactivity in digital environments from a static message
  • – creating mobile content from existing creative

CONSUMER INSIGHTS

In addition to the research specialists available to you at the source of the media partner, we have our own expert researcher who can get you the information you need or the information that you didn’t know you needed. As part of our research accountability we provide in-depth, consumer focused category overviews to help us both better understand where opportunities may exist.

In our section you will find current, valuable research documents and articles that will help keep you up to speed on anything from the media habits of America’s most affluent to why Mom’s trust magazines.

We can also provide product usage and target information form The Print Measurement Bureau (PMB), qualitative digital and video usage & measurement through Comscore and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), targeted readership information from PMB and Nadbank. You name it and we can provide you the accountability you deserve for your advertising/communication dollars.

Our Markets

Canada image

CANADA

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

CANADIAN MARKET OVERVIEW VERSUS THE U.S.

CHANNELS REPRESENTED

BRANDS REPRESENTED

US image

U.S.

DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES

World image

WORLD

MEDIA PLANNING AND BUYING

download pdf

CANADIAN MARKET OVERVIEW VERSUS THE U.S.

United States Versus Canada

Not as in war. That wouldn’t be much of a contest. As in, what are the differences between these two vast countries? Media habits would certainly be one of them. What are the important comparisons? And lastly, what do we just find downright amusing about the people, the land or the psyche?

POPULATION

CANADA

34

MILLION
PEOPLE

U.S.

289

MILLION
PEOPLE

THE 10% RULE STILL WORKS
(although technically now closer to 12%)

LAND OF
FUNNY PEOPLE
MIKE

MYERS

CATHERINE

O’HARA

SET

ROGEN

JOHN

CANDY

LAND OF
POWERFUL PEOPLE
BILL

GATES

WARREN

BUFFETT

THE

CLINTONS

LARRY

PAGE

ETHNICITY

CANADA

Canada Icecream Image
BLACK   1%
FIRST NATIONS   4%
ASIAN    11%
WHITE   84%

U.S.

US Icecream Image
NATIVE-AMERICAN   1%
ASIAN   5%
BLACK   13%
WHITE   81%


LANGUAGE

(Spoken at home)

CANADA

ENGLISH   67%
FRENCH   22%
MANDARIN   1%
SPANISH   1%

U.S.

ENGLISH   80%
SPANISH   12%
MANDARIN   1%
FRENCH   1%

EH?

And these people sit on…
CHESTERFIELD
 

AS IN, ‘Nice chesterfield, eh?’

HUH?

 
SOFA
 

‘Huh? Chesterfield? You’ve got to be kidding.’


Population Density

CANADA IS CONCENTRATED

70% of the population is concentrated along the U.S. border (huddled for warmth)

Canada’s population is 3 times as concentrated in the top markets

  • TORONTO
  • MONTREAL
  • VANCOUVER
  • TOTAL
  • 22
  • 11
  • 10
  • 53
  • NEW YORK
  • LA
  • CHICAGO
  • TOTAL
  • 7
  • 6
  • 3
  • 16

Density Map

Media Habits

Canadians watch less TV than their American cousins

(but they still watch a lot)

26.4

Hours weekly, age 2+

33.6

18%

tvman
tvman
tvman

And watch a lot less video on demand Last week

28%

tvman
tvman
tvman
tvman

24.8

But do watch more online video Average monthly hours

21.8

31%

And are less likely to have a PVR

43%

20%

pirate
pirate

(Polite and honest) Canadians are much more likely to download from (illegal) torrent sites

10%

pirate

tv19

And Americans watch more on Netflix

tv31

Canadians visit FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE a bit more often

facebook

78%

you
tube

77%

facebook

77%

you
tube

72%

41.3

ave mthly hours

hand

Canadians spend a lot of time on-line, second only to the U.S.

43

ave mthly hours

3,731

mthly pgs viewed

And lead world stats regarding amount of content consumed the US being a close 2nd

3,709

mthly pgs viewed

72%

mobile_penetration

The U.S. has greater mobile penetration

83%

43%

Although Canadian smartphone usage is catching up

50%

Although, like the U.S., Canada possesses one of the highest levels of digital engagement in the world

CANADIANS ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY
TO BE NEWS AND NEWSPAPERS READERS

73%

newspaper

weekly print reach

53%

arrow_f

tablet_news
newspaper

print and digital news reach

arrow_d

Economy

Canadian unemployment is lower

8%

job_waiting2

10%

job_waiting

And Canada was not affected by the housing crisis due to strength of 5 national banks…

house_positive

Rather than regional players

house_negative

WHILE THE GDP IS GROWING AT ABOUT THE SAME RATE

Retail

STRONG CANADIAN COMMERCE GROWTH HAS BEEN EVIDENT ON A LESS DEVELOPED BASE

retail

+10%  SPEND
+ 17%  TRANSACTIONS
+9%  TRAFFIC
TO RETAIL SITES

And American Retailers continue to expand north of the border

POTTERY BARN (2005*)
CRATE & BARREL (2008)
VICTORIA’S SECRET (2010)
BED, BATH & BEYOND (2010)
MARSHALLS (2011)

retail1

J CREW (2011)
BATH & BODYWORKS (2012)
TARGET (2013)
NORDSTROM (2016)
BLOOMINGDALES (PENDING)

AND REAP THE BENEFIT

’Whenever we open a new store in the U.S., there is a rush of traffic and sales as curious guests shop it for the first time,’ Target’s chief financial officer John Mulligan told investors during a conference call Wednesday.

“But the rush in Canada exceeded our expectations.

THE END OF
THE ‘CENTURY OF MASS MEDIA’

CHANNELS

We are coming to the end of a 100-year-old economic model for the media industry.

In fact, what is happening now is nothing less than a fundamental restructuring of business models for the media. It is systemic. It is structural. And it is not going to go back to the way it was before.

But the fundamental reality about media in the 21st Century is that technology now threatens to challenge traditional media’s role as the intermediary – because media from other places, content producers, other consumers and advertisers are all able to send media-like content directly to consumers.

 

The multi-platform paradigm will drive ad and content integration strategies.

With the platform shift in full swing, businesses will be challenged in the coming year to stay ahead of consumers’ usage curve and deliver them with the content they want, when and where they want it. It will also be imperative to maintain revenue in core channels while capturing market share and monetizing emerging channels.

As the bridge between traditional and digital platforms, online video will play an important leading role in how these integration strategies materialize.

Media fragmentation is occurring at light speed in today’s multi-platform environment, which features not only computers, but smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a seemingly ever-increasing number of emerging devices.

The strong swelling of mobile audiences, devices and consumption habits have shown us that consumers have become more platform agnostic in their digital media consumption and happily switch devices throughout the day and into the night to stay up to date on email, news, social media etc.

 

We are close to a tipping point where most people will consume content on the go

(current U.S. data shows 37% of online hours are consumed through phones or tablets; 63% pc) versus through their desktop or laptop.

One in four smartphone owners now own a tablet. A marked shift is being seen in the usage patterns by device. While most mobile content usage remains incremental to existing web behavior, certain content categories particularly well-oriented to mobile usage have witnessed material softness in top-line usage from desk-top computers. Over the past two years, categories such as newspapers (-5%), maps (-2%), weather (-15%), directories (-23%) have seen declines, despite a 5 percent increase in the total US internet population during that time. Perhaps the most interesting category shift is that of newspapers, which has already witnessed a watershed platform shift from print to digital. Now we are seeing mobile begin to eat into the web. The good news for newspapers is that people are consuming more news than ever before and that this timely content continues to be very popular among people on their mobile devices. The speed of this data platform shift will be worth watching carefully in 2013.

And according to the Association of Magazine Media, 2012 audience figures for US print titles and their digital replicas have grown 1.6%, adding 135 million new readers whose interest and passions are served when, where and how they choose. And according to the Robert Fulford, renown Canadian author and xyz we are entering a golden age for magazines due to the changes of digital adoption.

‘Instead of killing magazines, as many predicted, the internet has poured new life into them. It has changed their style, their content and the way they connect with readers, usually to good effect. Under the influence of the new age, their pace has quickened – without, in most cases, any loss in quality.’

It all comes down to how the arsenal of media channels are deployed to maximum effect. According to Tony Roger’s, Walmart’s Senior Vice-President of Marketing – ‘Digital should be key to any marketing plan, but traditional media can’t be ignored. You can’t be all-digital. Not everyone is able to, or wants to be wired 24/7, so traditional media is still a vital marketing component. At Walmart, for instance, TV and print still do very well’.

Sources: Comscore US & Canadian Editions of Digital Future in Focus 2013; Supermarket News 2013

 
 

NEWS(PAPERS)

How people are consuming news has been changing at a pretty rapid pace, for many years now. And it varies quite significantly by country. Canadians are huge news junkies – in any form. Print and web newspaper readership is growing in Canada, while the U.S. declines. Weekly print reach for Canadian daily newspapers is 73%, vs 53% for the U.S. And the competition is fierce with most significantly sized Canadian markets having 2-3 dailies fighting it out.

The good news for readership in both countries is that the emergence of mobile and the accelerated pace of smartphone adaption is also making a huge difference (and increase) in news consumption.

The La Presse newspaper group in Quebec has made a bold, intelligent, accelerated move into the table format. They have invested over 40 million dollars and three years of development to recently launch a fully interactive content and advertising experience with layers of information available depending on consumer need.The visionary leadership of Guy Crevier, editor and president of La Presse saw where the consumer was headed and created a plan to be ready to capitalize on the seismic readership shifts as the market penetration of the tablet devices became significant.

Click here to see one of the many articles written about the recent launch (Hamilton spec?).

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