Also in this report:

– Top Client Overall: Bank of Montreal deepens customer relationships p.18

– Top Client, Consumer Electronics: Nintendo’s cool quotient rated high by kids p.18

– Top Client, Telecommunications: Fido wants to be man’s best friend p.20

– Top Client, Travel and Tourism: CTC message travels p.20

– Top Client, Computer and Office Equipment: Microsoft Canada leads the way p.23

– Top Client, Retail: Chapters: a good story p.23

– Top Client, Pharmaceutical: Wampole transforms itself p.23

– Top Client, Automotive: Toyota sales motor along p.24

– Top Client, Alcoholic Beverages: Labatt goal: top of the hops heap p.24

For the third year, Strategy presents its Top Clients report, an annual feature devoted to recognizing the accomplishments of leading clients in the Canadian marketing community.

This year, as before, Strategy’s editorial staff reviewed the year’s news and chose 10 clients, representing as many business categories, that stand out clearly as exemplary marketers.

These selections are based on what we consider the fundamental tenets of good marketing: sales results, attention to brand development, innovation and relationships with suppliers.

Measured against these criteria, Bank of Montreal has unquestionably earned the distinction of being named Strategy’s 1997 Client of the Year.

It still calls Canada home. But Toronto-based Livent is, increasingly, a player on the international stage.

Under chairman and ceo Garth Drabinsky, the company has grown into this country’s largest producer of live theatrical presentations. As well, Livent productions now account for 20% of the North American commercial box office, and touring companies are giving the organization a high profile overseas as well.

Under its current strategy, Livent plans to own and operate a circuit of six North American theatres by the end of 1999. It already has the Pantages Theatre and the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, and will soon start construction of Pantages Place. It also owns the Ford Centre in Vancouver, and is in the process of building the Ford Centre in New York and the Ford Centre Oriental Theatre in Chicago.

The primary market for Livent is still Toronto, where the company has the task of filling 8,500 theatre seats every night. Four productions are currently running there: The Phantom of the Opera (now in its eighth year), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Ragtime and (in a limited engagement) The King and I.

Next season, Showboat will return for the first time since winning five Tony Awards on Broadway. A new production is also scheduled to launch.

Norman Zagier, Livent’s senior vice-president, strategic planning for marketing communications, says that with four productions running simultaneously in Toronto, Livent competes not only against other attractions, but also against itself. The nature of the competition in the market, he adds, is always changing.

‘One of the things we’re proudest of is that we have built up an infrastructure, through our advertising team and in-house marketing team, that allows us to really respond quickly to changing conditions.’

Livent markets to an audience of more than 25 million, in an area within a 250-mile radius of Toronto, which includes southern Ontario, Detroit, Buffalo and Rochester. In the summer, it often aims at markets even further away, capitalizing on Toronto’s popularity as a tourist destination.

Janet Young, Livent’s vice-president of advertising, says that for more distant markets, a number of value-added incentives have been developed ­ among them the Phantom Bonus Coupon book, which gives ticket purchasers coupons good at restaurants, hotels and other Toronto attractions.

Key among the company’s objectives, adds Young, is getting people who have experienced one production to come back for others. Livent uses an extensive mailing list, built through past transactions, to promote repeat business via direct mail.

The company is also a heavy advertiser, with print being the primary medium, supplemented by television and radio.

Because the productions are long-running, Young says, it’s important to keep the advertising fresh. She asks for weekly presentations from Livent’s Toronto-based ad agencies, Echo Advertising and Scott Thornley & Company.

Every Tuesday morning, there’s a forum that brings together the agencies with the company’s advertising, sales, sponsorship and promotions, merchandise and group sales departments, to collaborate on the ongoing marketing efforts.