Also in this report:

– Top Client Overall: Bank of Montreal deepens customer relationships p.18

– Top Client, Consumer Electronics: Nintendo’s cool quotient rated high by kids p.18

– Top Client, Telecommunications: Fido wants to be man’s best friend p.20

– Top Client, Travel and Tourism: CTC message travels p.20

– Top Client, Computer and Office Equipment: Microsoft Canada leads the way p.23

– Top Client, Retail: Chapters: a good story p.23

– Top Client, Automotive: Toyota sales motor along p.24

– Top Client, Sports and Entertainment: Livent a player on the international stage p.24

– Top Client, Alcoholic Beverages: Labatt goal: top of the hops heap p.24

For the third year, Strategy presents its Top Clients report, an annual feature devoted to recognizing the accomplishments of leading clients in the Canadian marketing community.

This year, as before, Strategy’s editorial staff reviewed the year’s news and chose 10 clients, representing as many business categories, that stand out clearly as exemplary marketers.

These selections are based on what we consider the fundamental tenets of good marketing: sales results, attention to brand development, innovation and relationships with suppliers.

Measured against these criteria, Bank of Montreal has unquestionably earned the distinction of being named Strategy’s 1997 Client of the Year.

After 105 years, wouldn’t you be ready for a change?

When Wampole Canada, a leader in the manufacture of vitamins and analgesics for more than a century, was purchased by generic prescription drug maker Novopharm two years ago, it began a process of dramatic transformation.

The refurbishing and relaunch of its venerable brand has been accompanied by an aggressive move into one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical categories: herbal remedies. The company has also expanded its line of vitamin and mineral supplements.

Wampole president Aubrey Dan says Canada’s $150-million-and-growing herbal market has become furiously competitive. But he considers the need for greater education about natural products to be the real marketing challenge that confronts his company.

Educating both consumers and pharmacists has been a top priority for Wampole. Among its initiatives: bringing naturopathic doctors into drug stores for clinic days, to answer consumer questions about herbal remedies.

Print and television advertising from Toronto agency Holmes Donin Alloul was launched last year. The award-winning campaign underlined the trustworthiness of the Wampole brand name, comically juxtaposing an assortment of bizarre folk remedies with the company’s reliable natural products.

Point-of-purchase material was also created, along with a publication called The Wampole Family Guide to Nutritional Supplements.

Reaching pharmacists is another key to Wampole’s strategy. In addition to advertising in the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal on an ongoing basis, the company has worked with the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine to start an accredited natural supplements training program for pharmacists.

The herbal products area isn’t the only focus of Wampole’s efforts. Later this month, the company will launch into one of the hottest otc categories: stomach-upset remedies.

Wampole’s new product, AcidHalt, contains the same acid-blocking drug marketed since last June as Pepcid AC by Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals of Canada.

A print and direct mail campaign for AcidHalt will target the biggest users of such products ­ those over age 50.