Ad agency Leo Burnett, of Toronto, has set up an Interactive Marketing Group and is working on projects for client Bell Canada and others.

The img is headed by: Darin Brown, account supervisor for the Bell Canada Resident Long-Distance business, along with Jeff Marchand from the media side; Joyce Seto, technical support, and creative input from Martin Shewchuk, Leo Burnett creative director.

The Toronto agency is also getting some support from its Chicago office, which has had its interactive group operating for about a year.

It has already completed several projects, including an Oldsmobile ad for a magazine on cd-rom and a test for McDonald’s on America Online.

Brown says new media is being viewed by Leo Burnett simply as a media channel and it will play a role in the marketing mix as does any traditional media.

‘Interactive specialists will actually execute the project much like a producer executes a tv campaign,’ he says.

‘We will also have creative experts who will help the other creatives in leveraging the campaign into that new media form.’

Brown says the group is looking at interactive kiosks, cd-rom and the Internet, in addition to interactive telephone, interactive television and CD-i (interactive cd-rom) for its clients.

He says for service companies such as Bell Canada, advertising on the Internet is a good fit, and the more the group has looked into the potential for its packaged goods clients, the more opportunity it sees.

‘It makes sense if you look at the medium as a transaction tool in addition to a communications tool,’ Brown says.

Bell already has a Web site, http//www.bell ca, and Leo Burnett, Toronto is constructing one of its own.