Publicite Martin has purchased RTA Publicite and plans to absorb the agency into its operations. Both shops are Montreal-based.

Raymonde Lavoie, co-founder of 10-year-old rta, will stay on with Martin as vice-president, strategic planning. She will be joined by two of eight rta staffers, one from creative and the other from the account side.

Prior to founding rta with Tina Schiefelbein, who later moved to the u.s., Lavoie worked at bcp, J. Walter Thompson, Cockfield Brown, Cossette Communication-Marketing and Ogilvy & Mather.

rta clients include Air France, Canderel, Concordia University and Pratt & Whitney. The agency also does some work in Quebec for clients of Ammirati Puris Lintas of Toronto.

There are no conflicts with the Martin roster that includes Bank of Montreal, Canada Post and Via Rail.

Publicite Martin became part of Sprint Communication Marketing through acquisition last year and although they share some resources, the two agencies continue to operate separately.

One human resource the agencies share is Hugo Galland, vice-president, creative director, who recently joined Sprint and Martin from Groupaction/JWT where he had been senior art director for six years.