CBC/Radio-Canada’s national sales arm has partnered with Groupe Média TFO to represent the French-language educational broadcaster’s array of TV and digital properties.
The agreement means CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions will now oversee sales for the Toronto-based media company’s broadcast and digital assets including TFO.org, Idéllo.org, Edululu.org and BRBRTFO.com. Groupe Média TFO president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell said the deal would make its properties accessible to “creative” advertising solutions.
The partnership was developed by Groupe Média TFO’s chief development and innovation officer Julie Gauvin, who was tasked with identifying new revenue opportunities and monetizing the organization’s best performing assets when she joined about two-and-half years ago.
Groupe Média TFO had previously employed two internal sales people, but realized it needed more scale to achieve its revenue targets, said Gauvin. “We came to realize that [it] was not going to be sustainable to develop our sales objectives, and we needed to join a bigger sales force,” she said.
Gauvin said a previous sales partnership with Jones Media that focused on Groupe Média TFO’s digital assets was beneficial, but CBC/Radio-Canada provided both additional scale and a complementary media offering
“[Jones Media] were amazing partners, but we needed to increase our capacity to include TV,” said Gauvin. “We saw there was an appetite for our media environment in the marketplace, and when we started to look for partners to represent both our TV and digital assets, it seemed quite natural to partner with CBC/Radio-Canada given their public mandate. It just reinforces the offering for the advertisers.”
Gauvin said the creative formats and advertising packages currently offered by CBC/Radio-Canada would now be available across TFO properties. Its inventory includes sponsorships and lower thirds, as well as some custom integration opportunities (between 15-18% of the content shown on the traditional TFO TV channel is produced in-house).
The TFO TV channel currently offers about three minutes of commercial inventory per hour, said Gauvin. Advertisers include OLG, which ran an integrated image campaign informing viewers how its proceeds are invested in local communities.
Gauvin said the new deal would provide TFO with access to a considerably larger sales territory in Montreal and Toronto (“two people could not cover all the agencies” said Gauvin) while being part of a larger pool of advertising inventory will also be beneficial.
In a release, Jean Mongeau, general manager and chief revenue officer for CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions, called Groupe Média TFO a “valuable addition” to the public broadcaster’s media portfolio.
“The media landscape is constantly evolving and this partnership is part of our commitment to be a player and a leading strategic resource for our advertising partners,” he said.
