Media-Corps, a New York-based sales firm that sells Canadian media properties to U.S. advertisers, has added Toronto’s Star Media Group to a growing client roster that includes TC Media, La Presse/Gesca, Bell Media Video and Bell’s online lifestyle site The Loop.
The deal gives Media-Corps permission to sell the print and digital inventory of Star Media Group properties including the Toronto Star and the free commuter publication Metro into the U.S. market.
Canadian Robert Laplante originally launched Media Corps in 2007 to help boost the sales performance of The Globe and Mail south of the border. A Quebec native whose first exposure to the print industry came via a Montreal Gazette paper route in Beaconsfield, Quebec, Laplante joined the Globe after graduating from Simon Fraser University, spending 12 years with the national daily in increasingly senior roles.
Media-Corps has grown steadily since its inception, adding Power Corp.’s La Presse/Gesca media division in 2008 and TC Media in 2010, followed by Bell Media’s Sympatico and its video division.
The company recently began working with Pollin8, a Toronto-based consultancy headed by former Cossette Media and Starcom MediaVest Group executive Lauren Richards, in an attempt to raise its profile in a sales area pegged at between $75 and $100 million and growing.
“Sales organizations are attempting to become more strategic and creative and innovative, and [Laplante] wanted to do that himself to engage media buyers in the U.S. on a different level,” said Richards.
“If he can be the first call with those buyers, he can help influence how much share his clients get in this marketplace.”
Media-Corps’ advertising clients tend to be smaller U.S. companies, with retail and travel two of its major categories.
Working with Pollin8 and the design firm Battle for Kettle, Media-Corps has also created an infographic that underscores some of the key differences between Canada and the U.S. in terms of language and geographic makeup, and as well as our media habits. The company has also launched a social media-based contest inviting the industry to share a distinguishing difference between the two nations using the hashtag #MediaCorps for a chance to win daily prizes.
