Roger Dubois

director of strategy, Palm Publicité Marketing’s interactive service, based in Montreal:

‘When you talk to the market in Quebec, you can’t have the same approach or tone as you do in the rest of Canada. For one thing, French Canadians don’t read [long copy formats]. So you have to be visual – in the rest of Canada, they read everything, including details and instructions. French Canadians like to have an overview and to be able to understand without reading. And they want to play and to click, when it comes to interactive campaigns.’

Bianca Barbucci

president of Association du marketing direct et de la relation clientele (AMDRC), and VP, client services at Montreal-based FCB Direct Canada:

‘There are language issues obviously. But also, when you’re talking to the French market, the mindset is different – culturally different. Creative has to address that: advertisers in Quebec are probably more casual, and we definitely use more humour, and it’s less formal. You want to make people feel at ease here as opposed to sounding really serious, and conservative.’

Nathalie Lachance

VP strategic planning, Blitz Direct, Montreal:

‘There is really a twist creatively – quite a big difference. On national accounts, the Quebec direct mail seems to be more ‘spectacular’ – colourful and funny – whereas in Ontario, for example, they seem to be much more sober in direct mail. That also translates over to e-mail – you can distinguish yourself through humorous or witty copy.’