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March 10, 2003 - Strategy Magazine
Marketing in Quebec

Is Quebec getting its share?
Media time costs less and there is more of it. So why aren't advertisers biting?

by Peter Diekmeyer
page 15

MONTREAL: Former Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis had a saying: "Rendez nous notre butin," that crystallizes a key element of the province's attitude towards Canada.

The slogan, which translates roughly into "give us our loot," reflects a long-held belief among Quebecers that they rarely get a fair shake in the distribution of the country's wealth. Lately, its advertising community is also starting to think that way. But the ad industry might have a better case than the politicians.

"It's true," says Lyse George, general manager of the Publicité Club de Montréal. "Ask almost anyone here and they will tell you that companies are not spending enough of their ad budgets in Quebec. As an industry, we have to figure out the best way to deal with it."

Patricia Heckmann, EVP, at Carat-Stratégem, which buys media time for some of Canada's biggest advertisers, agrees. "Quebec is a very good market to invest in," says Heckmann. "Rates are cheaper than in the rest of Canada, and there is more inventory. But many advertisers spend less in Quebec on a per capita basis than in other provinces."

The figures tell the story. According to Carat compilations, advertisers bought $1.64 billion of television, radio, print and other advertising in Quebec during 2001, compared to $7.62 billion for Canada as a whole. That puts Quebec's share of the country's advertising budget at about 21.5%, while its share of the population stands at closer to 24.3%.

Quebec also does well in terms of overall market size. Two of its municipalities, Montreal and Quebec City are among Canada's six largest. With 3.6 million people, the Montreal region compares well with the 5.04 million that live in the Greater Toronto Area.

But according to Heckmann, population statistics don't explain everything. Marketers don't spend ad dollars based on how many people live in a given area. What they care about is how much money those consumers spend and what products they buy.

The good news is that Quebecers like to throw their money around. According to Canadian Demographics magazine, despite the fact that per capita GDP in Quebec is lower than in Ontario, per capita consumer spending is roughly equivalent.

For example, average family disposable income (excluding food and housing) in the Greater Toronto Area during 2002 was $41,857, compared to just $22,502 in Montreal. Yet per capita retail sales were almost identical ($9,400 in Toronto compared to $9,600 in Montreal).

With these statistics in hand, Quebec's advertising community is turning up the heat to encourage businesses to spend more ad money here. The Publicité Club, one of the industry's most important lobby groups, recently held a conference in which some of Montreal's key players debated the issue.

According to Markus Sandmayr, VP of marketing at Danone Canada, a French company whose dairy products are highly popular in Quebec, determining whether spending ad dollars in a particular market is a good investment is best done on a case-by-case basis.

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