More and more Quebec advertisers are beginning to bring their advertising placements back to the news media to the detriment of the Web giants, which have intensified their offensive against Ottawa.
The Association of Creative Communication Agencies, or A2C, which brings together Quebec advertising agencies, announces that it has received more than 75 commitments from businesses, organizations and agencies to devote at least 25% of their digital advertising placements in local media.
“This is a movement with which we want to create a snowball effect and encourage other advertisers to follow the movement by publishing this list. Already this morning, in the press release, we were talking about more than 70, but we are already at 77 and it could well be that at the end of the day, we will be at more than 80, “said the president and general manager of A2C. , Dominique Villeneuve, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Some big names are on this list, including A. Lassonde, Desjardins, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, VIA Rail Canada and Metro and its subsidiaries, which include Super C and Jean Coutu, among others.
A2C launched the Local Media Movement three years ago, calling on companies to support the media through this commitment to invest at least a quarter of their advertising purchases in the media. Two weeks ago, A2C returned to the charge, launching a new appeal with this time the promise to make public the names of those who would join the movement.
The influence of agencies
Also, in addition to large companies and organizations such as those mentioned above, there are also large advertising agencies such as Cossette, LG2 or Sid Lee, which have between 350 and 465 employees each.
Nearly half of the signatories, in fact, are advertising agencies, which is not insignificant: the commitment of these agencies – which represent hundreds of advertisers – is to propose “responsible media plans or marketing initiatives with the objective of meeting or exceeding the target of 25% in digital media investments in Canadian media”.
Although this commitment does not involve any obligation, Dominique Villeneuve affirms that the opening is indeed there. “Obviously, the final decision is still up to their clients. But if they do, it’s because there’s ultimately a return on investment. »
“There is a part of social responsibility all the same behind the will to do it, but ultimately, it still comes with the performance,” she says.
And then, she adds, there’s the ripple effect at play. “I think having created a public movement makes customers think differently about their digital investments. There is an openness to listen and then take the bet because there are outcomes stuck to it. »
Arm wrestling around C-18
A2C’s call came in the wake of actions taken first by certain media and then by the governments of Canada and Quebec, which then announced that they were ceasing all advertising on Meta’s platforms, in particular Facebook and Instagram. , in response to Meta’s decision to block Canadian news there.
Meta and Google, in particular, are engaged in a tug of war with the federal government, whose recent online news law – known as C-18 – requires them to share a portion of their revenues with media from here.
In the list of 74 registered companies, we find, unsurprisingly, most of the major media, including Cogeco and Quebecor, which had been the initiators of the boycott. Several other companies had already announced their intention to boycott the giants of the Web, including large state corporations such as the SAQ, Loto-Québec and Hydro-Québec.
Google and Meta step up their offensive
Meanwhile, the tech giants have escalated their battle with the federal government, with Google deciding not to allow its new artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot to be used in Canada and Meta running s Opposing the Online News Act.
A Google spokesperson said the company is addressing regulatory uncertainty in Canada related to Bard, an online chat tool believed to be a competitor to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
Bard is currently showing links to news, which goes against Google’s stated goal of removing links to news media sites in Canada in response to the new online news law.
The chatbot is now available in more than 200 countries, but Canada is excluded, along with countries like Russia, North Korea, China, Belarus, Afghanistan and Syria.
Meanwhile, Meta has launched an ad campaign on Facebook, which it owns, to criticize the law and explain why the company is removing information from the platform.