What Québec Wants™

YUL-Lab – A view from YYZ

For those who haven't heard about it despite the media coverage it generated, YUL-Lab is the name given to a new concept meant to generate business for Montreal-based advertising agencies.

It's one more step in the quest to offer the services of Québec ad agencies to marketers outside the province. Doing so is not only critical to the future of the industry in Québec, it also lets national, North American and global marketers tap into an incredibly talented pool of creative and new media talent. And it further positions Montreal as a creative city. It’s a point I argued in an article on Montreal’s brand identity published in Infopresse in 2006 in which I quoted Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, who conducted a study on Montreal.

It's perhaps no surprise that one of the member agencies of the AAPQ (Quebec’s association of advertising agencies) most closely associated with the launch of the YUL-Lab is run by the former president of Montreal's Chamber of Commerce Isabelle Hudon. Her agency, Marketel, has long thought of itself as a national agency that just happens to be in Montreal. Ms. Hudon was recently interviewed in Les Affaires where she delivered a message about the urgent need to seek business on the international stage. I should add that it's also likely not a coincidence that the two advertisers who have most enthusiastically supported the YUL-Lab so far are Marketel clients; Mastercard and L'Oreal.

Montreal-based agencies such as Cossette, Sid Lee, Taxi and others have already done so. I have no doubt that Quebec agencies can be a tremendous resource by applying their know-how in markets outside Québec. Just as I once worked for a Toronto shop that handled Ikea Germany's advertising from Toronto, Québec agencies can develop marketing-communications solutions for the world. And the same can of course be said of agencies in Minneapolis or Portland that handle national or global accounts. 

What is the YUL-Lab?

The Montreal.ad website defines it this way:

The YUL-LAB fulfills new needs. It was created to reinvent advertising. A unique experimentation lab, it was designed for international brands to help them develop new predictive and reliable advertising models that will later be exported. The Lab allows global brands to test all possible advertising combinations because it converts ideas into reality while measuring results and predicting success. The lab optimizes Montreal as a cultural microcosm and provides advertisers with a realistic environment for experimenting new advertising models that can later be reproduced anywhere in the world.

Metropolitan Montreal is unique. It is home to an infinite range of media opportunities. It is founded on human and material capabilities, academic and intellectual resources as well as creative resources that allow experimentation with target groups that represent numerous cultures and languages. Montreal possesses all the essential assets of a perfect human laboratory to help brands build predictive advertising models. The goal is to discover and test new methods that reliably predict success or failure.

Montreal as a testing ground or a test market?

There is no doubt that Montreal can be a lab or a testing ground allowing marketers to experiment at a relatively low cost. And it’s an environment that is more controlled as it is somewhat more insulated from media messages from other markets spilling into the ‘lab’ – an element that was particularly important to Mastercard, according to an article published last week in the  Globe & Mail.

However, suggesting that it allows marketers to test ‘new advertising models that can later be reproduced anywhere in the world’ or ‘reliably predict success or failure’ is not only a stretch, it goes against everything Québec advertising agencies have been preaching to marketers outside Québec for half a century.

I am not denying the fact that Montreal is increasingly multicultural. My point is about the ‘predictive’ nature of a test conducted in Montreal and the claim that its results can then be ‘reproduced anywhere in the world’. It simply is not true. I concede that there might be specific cases where a successful campaign’s media mix and messaging will be equally successful in other markets but it’s the exception rather than the rule.

Throwing the baby with the bath water.

We can debate semantics about ‘testing ground’ and ‘test market’ and I don’t claim to be an expert research methodologist. However, it’s the message it sends to marketers outside Québec that I worry about.

In the same article in Les Affaires, Yanik Deschênes, the head of the Québec advertising agencies association, is quoted: (the translation is mine) “Until now, the Québec approach, with its cultural specificity, has helped the development of the creative sector. It’s time to move to the second phase; selling our know-how outside the borders of Québec.” That’s bang on. But by adding that Montreal can be a predictive test market, the promoters of the YUL-Lab are, perhaps unwittingly, also denying Québec’s difference. And it’s the very difference that helped build its advertising industry during the ‘first phase’ to borrow from Mr. Deschênes.

I’m a strong believer that Québec agencies can compete globally without rejecting Québec's uniqueness. While I recognize that there’s a new generation of advertising professionals that don’t care much about Bouchard’s thirty-six responsive chords and view the world as their oyster, they should perhaps weight the risks associated with watering down the distinctiveness in order to play in a bigger sandbox.

Valuable learning.

If the YUL-Lab is in fact about testing and learning, its promoters should perhaps adjust their message prior to heading to Chicago to pitch the idea to marketers south of the border. They should learn from the two comments below – one was posted on the Globe & Mail's site and the other on Ad Age’s site.

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For three decades, Québec ad agencies quoted Jacques Bouchard, the late, great founder of BCP advertising and author of a seminal book entitled "Les 36 cordes sensibles des Québécois" detailing 36 “responsive chords” that are different for consumers in Francophone Québec than in the rest of Canada. The book promoted ads being created in Québec for the Québec market vs. being translated from the English in Toronto or New York. Marketers and English-language ad agencies bowed to their superior market knowledge and acknowledged that a lot of ad campaigns that had succeeded in English Canada had bombed in Quebec. Now the same agencies are telling the world that Québec is a perfect test market for world campaigns and that anything that flies in Québec will pool out successfully worldwide. My question is: Are they lying now or have they been lying for the last 30 years? If the latter, a lot of marketers are going to want their money back for ad campaigns unnecessarily created in Québec for the Québec market. If the former, a lot of marketers are going to want their money back when they end up with ad campaigns that bomb in every world market but Québec. Chances are, the truth lies somewhere in between but I doubt if that’s going to be part of these agencies’ pitch. 
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I know the world has changed, but for 20 something years Québec agencies have presented to every English speaking client who would listen, that to succeed in Québec the market is so unique and different that you must create original French work to succeed. If just adapting English ads into French won't work, how then does creating original French campaigns now translate worldwide? Cirque du Soleil has a well-deserved reputation for leaving audiences in disbelief, but perhaps this is one for even its most gifted performers to juggle well.

The AAPQ may claim that these folks don’t understand what the YUL-Lab is truly about. Or perhaps they’re getting hung-up on that one sentence in the concept being ‘tested’: the part about ‘reliably predicting success or failure’.

I’m willing to predict YUL-Lab’s success if that claim is removed from the YUL-Lab’s promise.

Quebeckers’ daily bread

Many in Quebec swear by white bread and have an aversion to whole wheat bread (called ‘pain brun’ by most) and whole grain bread because of the ‘bits’.

When PMB 2009 asked Canadians about the type of bread they consumed in the past week, it revealed that Quebeckers are far more likely to have consumed white bread than Canadians in the ROC. The reverse is true for whole grain bread.

Yet Quebeckers also recognize the importance of fibre in a healthy diet and look for it in the food products they consume. A 1999 report from Santé Québec entitled Nutrition in Québec – From theory to practice put the fibre issue this way:

Since the 1971 survey, the consumption of dietary fiber has increased slightly, from 13 to 16 grams a day. However, in its most recent recommendations, Health Canada advocates a gradual increase in the quantity of fiber in our diet and a number of experts go so far as to say that a balanced diet should provide about 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day.

Obviously, we are still not eating enough fiber. Women between the ages of 18 and 34, in particular, do not have nearly enough fiber in their diet. On average, 77% of women eat fewer than 15 grams of fiber a day. Moreover, 41% of men between the ages of 65 and 74 have too little fiber in their diet.

For the past few years, a new generation of white bread with whole grains has been offering the best of both worlds. The latest entry is from Boulangeries Gadoua and it’s packed with fourteen types of grains such as flax, barley and oats.

I don’t usually promote products on this blog but this time I can’t resist since Gadoua is our client and we assisted in the development of the strategy and created the campaign supporting its launch this week.

Here are the TV ads.

Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives

Here's a most interesting segmentation according to people's degree of participation in social technology.

Forrester's Social Technographics classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation.

It's refreshing to read this from Forrester:

Companies often approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — a blog here, a community there — to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for.

Here's the tool to build various profiles by country. I was hoping for data from Quebec... Too bad Canada isn't even listed. Click on the pulsing 'build profile now'.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Ask Canadians to rate how attractive they are and Quebeckers are more likely to rate themselves an 8, 9 or 10 than Canadians in the ROC. (35% compared to a 30% national average, 32% in BC, 30% in Ontario and below 25% in Alberta, Man/Sask and the Maritimes.)

Then ask Canadians to rate how attractive their significant other is and 52% of Quebeckers rate them an 8, 9 or 10, in line with the national average.

What does that tell us?

Canadians overall are more likely to rate their significant other as attractive than themselves.

Quebeckers look pretty good - as far as they're concerned and/or aren't shy about saying so.

By the way, this 2007 survey from Harris/Decima also shows that men are more likely to rate themselves above an 8.

Deeply engaged vs just being there

I wrote in a previous post that I did not wish to be ‘engaged’ with my hamburger. My point was that not all marketed goods and services are on an equal footing when it comes to leveraging social media to engage in conversations with customers.

Now a study by Wetpaint / Altimeter Group suggests that engagement differs by industry. From the study report:

Not only are some industries on average more present in more channels, they also engage with them more deeply. For example, media and technology companies tend to be in more channels and engage deeply within them. In contrast, apparel, consumer products, food & beverage, and financial brands in general don’t engage as much — which is to be expected given that companies in these industries are just beginning to experiment with social media. But even within industries, there is a wide spectrum of engagement. In the auto sector, some brands like Toyota are highly engaged in many channels, especially around the Prius. In contrast, luxury brands Mercedes Benz and Porsche are in just two channels each. In other words, distinct target audiences can influence the appropriate level of social media engagement even within specified industries.

 

At a time when social media is on every marketer’s agenda, this study offers what the authors claim is the first ever measure of the true financial value of social media.

The conclusion:

The most valuable brands in the world (based on Interbrand’s ranking) are experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement. The relationship is apparent and significant: socially engaged companies are in fact more financially successful.

Being ‘social’ is more than being there.

The study’s author add an important caveat to their findings:

So now we know it pays to be social, but it is important to note that by “social,” we’re talking about deep engagement, not merely having a presence. And what exactly do we mean by deep social engagement? Resembling any in-person exchange, socializing requires more than just being there — you have to interact with others, instigate discussions, and respond during conversations. Our study implies value in social engagement on top of social presence — it pays to actively and continually participate and invest in your networks.

The full report can be downloaded here. The four engagement profiles (Mavens, Butterflies, Selectives, and Wallflowers) are particularly interesting.

Drives you nuts (Part 2)

A follow-up to a previous post about Quebeckers' driving habits. In it, I quoted Université Laval professor Jean Marie De Knoninck who heads a government committee on road safety . While he believes 'shock ads' are effective at changing attitudes and behaviours on the road, he added that 'some people don't identify with the violence - it's too over-the-top or surreal for them, like they're watching a movie."

This public service advertisement about texting and driving might be over-the-top or surreal for some but I'm never going to reach for my Blackberry again while driving. If you haven't already seen it, I'm warning you it's disturbing.

Student drivers in Québec

Ten years ago the Yankelovich Monitor asked Canadians if they agreed or disagreed with the statement: ‘everybody should be free to do their own thing’. 80% of French-speaking Canadians agreed compared to 68% of English-speaking Canadians.

This sense of freedom to do your own thing may have led a Québec father to let his seven year old son drive the family car at 70km per hour while capturing the moment on video.

You can see the clip in this CBC news report.

The story was followed closely by two thirds of the Québec population according to a recent survey conducted by Angus Reid Strategies.

What is most interesting about the survey however is the response to the question:

Do you agree or disagree with each of the following statement? - Relying on an online video to file charges against an individual is justified.

A majority of Quebeckers (63%) agree but significantly less than in the ROC.

Driving lessons in Québec

According to PMB 2009 data, Quebeckers are significantly less likely than Canadians in the ROC to have taken or be planning to take a driver education course in the past/next year. 2.5% in Québec (67 index) compared to 4.1% in the ROC (108 index).

Why bother when dad offers the courses and the booster seat for free?

 

9 in 10 Quebeckers participate in loyalty programs

93.6% of Canadians belong to at least one loyalty program – a 9% participation growth by the general population since 2007.

Participation among French-speaking Quebeckers, measured for the first time by COLLOQUY, is 92.4%

More on the survey results here.

Crocs’ Québec roots.

Interesting article in The Christian Science Monitor on Crocs’ troubles. Here’s an excerpt:

While analysts say that a market for its shoes will persist – probably among the nurses, cooks,

 and other people who spend a lot of time on their feet – the boom times are over.

Part of the reason is on display at Sports Experts, a busy shoe store in a Montreal shopping mall. A few racks of Crocs – the clunky hole-filled shoes adopted by boaters that went mainstream when the likes of Jack Nicholson and Brad Pitt started wearing them – had no takers.

"We don't sell a lot of these anymore. There's not a big demand," says Olivier Brunet, a store employee.

In their heyday nowhere were Crocs more popular than in Quebec, where they were born. This year, some Montreal stores canceled their orders.

The shoe and its patented "croslite" material (a resin that doesn't absorb waters or retain odors) were originally owned by Foam Creations, a Quebec company. Though that company was bought out by Crocs in 2004, Quebeckers were proud of Crocs as a provincial innovation that went global, like the Ski-Doo snowmobile. More than 100 million foam clogs have been sold.

Quebeckers more likely to sleep in the nude.

In Madmen, Don Draper spends a lot of time (daytime) naked in bed with his mistress. Yet when he crawls into bed at home at night next to his wife Betty, he wears his top and bottom pajamas (sometimes over an undershirt) and she’s equally covered. And when there is sex involved, the lights  are off. That was 1961.

If you’re wondering what happened over the past half-century, here’s the answer according to a Harris/Decima poll conducted in 2007.

33% of Canadians regularly sleep in the nude.

Men overwhelmingly prefer sleeping in the buff compared to women (40 versus 23 per cent)

Regionally, Quebeckers come out ahead on two fronts.

Quebeckers prefer sleeping in the nude more than other Canadians (37 per cent versus 34 per cent of Ontarians, 31 per cent of Western Canadians and 25 per cent of Eastern Canadians).

Quebeckers also take the prize for intimacy, with 68 per cent indicating they are intimate on a regular basis, compared to 60 per cent of Ontarians, 58 per cent of Westerners, and 57 per cent of Maritimers.

For more on what Canadians do in bed, read the report’s release.

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P.S. This post is a shameless attempt at driving visits to this blog with the hugely popular keywords ‘Madmen’, ‘sex’ and ‘nude’.