After announcing a long-term strategic alliance with AT&T Canada last November, Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications is now embarking on an aggressive advertising campaign to introduce the partnership to Canadians.

Cantel is Canada’s only nationally-licensed cellular company while AT&T Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York-based at&t. This is the first time a telecommunications firm has entered into a co-branding agreement with a cellular company in Canada.

The agreement gives Toronto-based Cantel the right to use the well-known at&t brand name. In addition, Cantel will be able to use AT&T Wireless’ technology in the u.s., which means the company will be able to offer seamless wireless service across the border.

‘Currently, roaming fees and blackout regions in the United States has made cross-border cellular communication challenging on occasion,’ says Jim Meenan, president and ceo of AT&T Canada from the company’s headquarters in Toronto.

Young & Rubicam of Toronto, AT&T Canada’s agency of record, developed the television and print advertising, which includes one 60-sec. spot and two 30-sec. spots, that break Feb. 16. All spots are in English and French, with customized English creative for the Quebec market.

(Cantel’s aor, Gee Jeffery & Partners Advertising, did not work on this campaign but will work on future Cantel AT&T campaigns, according to Kent Thexton, vice-president of marketing for Rogers Cantel.)

Both the television and print components use the tag line, ‘The freedom to be all that you are,’ to demonstrate how the Cantel AT&T service can complement the busy lifestyle of everyday consumers.

According to Thexton, one of the spots features a man playing football and wearing a beeper while, in another scene, he’s using a cell phone on a business trip to Hong Kong.

Another spot shows a woman using wireless technology to assist her in her many roles – as mother, wife and career woman, says Thexton.

‘We’re not targeting these ads specifically to business people,’ he says. ‘We are trying to show how, through Cantel and at&t, the technology plays a role in people’s everyday lives.’

Unlike the tv spots, the print campaign, which will run in newspapers and magazines across the country, will be an image-building effort, focusing more on the alliance between Cantel and at&t and what that means for the consumer, according to Thexton.

‘We will be rolling out a campaign that will give the new brand and name plenty of exposure’ he says. ‘We want to give consumers a chance to be comfortable with the name.’

Wireless communications was a billion-dollar business for Cantel in 1996. The company currently serves 1.37 million customers across the country. Thexton says he expects this alliance to bring telecommunications services to a new level in North America.

AT&T Canada is equally excited about the alliance. Meenan says the partnership will be beneficial for both.

‘It’s the first time we’ve ever licensed our brand,’ he says. ‘We’ve been very careful about who we partner ourselves with, but we believe an alliance with Cantel will be a positive one.’