When it comes to buying media in Quebec, national advertisers are often at a loss. In many cases, they ignore the market, or try to get by with a minimal investment, rather than capitalizing on what is undoubtedly a potentially lucrative opportunity.

We asked Patricia Heckmann, media director at Strategem, one of the province’s best-known media buying operations, to provide our readers with a quick run-down of what national advertisers should know about this sometimes mystifying market.

At first glance, Quebec would seem to be a dream market for any media buyer: a limited number of media monopolizing the attention of more than 5.5 million Canadian adults.

But while most national advertisers have come to view Quebec as a distinct and lucrative market segment, many of them are still not investing within potential market share ratios.

Most Quebec experts would add that Quebec advertisers themselves often ignore the buying power of the 700,000 English-speaking adults in Montreal when it comes to media investment within the market.

Advertisers and agencies alike usually rationalize this ‘dodge’ strategy with arguments about high advertising costs.

From a media perspective, however, if you explore the intricacies of the Quebec market, cost should not be a factor. In fact, on a cost-per-thousand basis, most Montreal French media costs are at par with Toronto, and often slightly lower than Vancouver.

As for the Montreal English market, it is true that television costs are relatively more expensive than anywhere else in Canada. Radio and print costs, however, are comparable to those of other similar Canadian markets.

Moreover, with only six English radio stations, one daily newspaper and two tv stations, audience fragmentation is low and optimal reach of a given target group can be obtained quite rapidly.

Beyond cost: The Quebec media environment is flourishing. A growing local celebrity and entertainment scene has influenced the viewing habits of French Quebecers.

More than ever, they are watching locally-produced shows.

In turn, tv sponsorship is powerful and can be highly efficient. Advertisers have direct access to the producers.

Humor on radio, during the morning and drive-home periods, has struck a successful note and now, by and large, drives high ratings.

In outdoor, we have seen development of exciting and intrusive new products ranging from postcard distribution in cafes and restaurants to metro station makeovers.

Special events such as Le Festival de Jazz de Montreal and Le Festival d’ete de Quebec have become a new and successful option for many advertisers.

Finally, new television services are being offered through cable specialty channels. To existing advertising opportunities such as rds, the French-language equivalent of The Sports Network, and MusiquePlus, we will soon add as many as four new networks, depending on the crtc’s decision.

Media consumption: Francophone adults are similar to their counterparts in the rest of Canada in their media habits.

While French Quebecers spend an average of 24 hours a week in front of the tv, the rest of Canada’s population spends an average of 23 hours.

In Quebec, 50% of francophones answered ‘yes’ when asked if they had read yesterday’s daily newspaper, versus 55% of English Canadians.

Radio and magazine quintiles performances in both markets are also comparable.

But there are differences too, particularly in the ways the two target groups consume media vehicles.

For example, on average, Quebecers spend more time tuned to daytime (6 a.m.-5 p.m.) and early fringe (5 p.m.-7 p.m.) tv shows than the rest of Canadians. The opposite is true for late fringe (post-11 p.m. viewing).

Quebec’s adult population is more exposed to outdoor advertising, since more than 24% travel 150-plus in-town miles per week, compared to 18% in the rest of Canada.

In general, Quebecers also prefer different types of television shows.

Soaps/dramas, miniseries and variety shows tend to be more popular in this province, while the rest of the country enjoys comedies and suspense/dramas more.

And this list of differences goes on.

On a planning level: reach levels are high in Quebec – even more so outside the Montreal market.

While a single insertion in a French daily newspaper in Montreal will reach approximately one-third of adults 25-54, the same insertion in, say, Le Nouvelliste in Trois-Rivieres will reach 58% of the same target in that market.

Another example can be found in radio.

ckmf-fm in Montreal has a quarter-hour breakfast rating point of 4.9 against adults 18-49; cjab-fm in Chicoutimi rates almost twice as high, at 9.1.

Everyone, of course, has heard about local television productions such as La Petite Vie, where more than two million French-speaking Quebecers can be reached at once.

Although this may seem a plus for many advertisers, a plan based on maximizing frequency can, at times, become an expensive venture in Quebec’s regional markets.

Another reality in the Quebec media market is ownership concentration.

Quebecor, a publisher of dailies, weeklies and magazines, also offers door-to-door distribution and printing facilities.

Videotron, pending confirmation, will own tqs and tva, two of the four existing conventional tv networks in Quebec.

Telemedia is both a magazine publisher and radio broadcaster, and RadioMutuel, owns MusiquePlus and Omni outdoor advertising, as well as a radio network across the province.

This monopolistic trend favors cross-media opportunities, and when exploited, can drive overall media costs down.

Quebec offers a dynamic media market and is a perfect kingdom for non-traditional media.

Because of the market’s size, advertisers, agencies and media alike must be creative, innovative and open-minded in order to survive.